Quindallup Continued

Hi everyone,
We've now been at Quindallup for three days.  Despite the mooring infestation it is still a very nice place.  We're borrowing a mooring but it is still possible to anchor between some of them.

Between socialising and relaxing we've done a few jobs around the boat.  Zen Again now has her side dodgers mounted.  We did a massive reorganisation of our video and e-book libraries.  We replaced a blown fuse between our solar regulator and house battery bank.  The latter was deliberately undersized at 15Amps so we would knew if the system ever tried to exceed that amount.  We're now getting 15-20 Amps from the panels with the correct fuse installed.

Another system we played with was the AIS transceiver.  It has been connected to an antenna on the goalpost, so not very high.  We tried temporarily connecting it to the masthead antenna and the image below shows the receive range achieved - over 130nm!  All the way from off Fremantle to off Albany.  That's got to be partly due to atmospheric ducting but is far further than on the lower antenna.  As a result we have decided to install an antenna splitter, primarily to increase our transmit range.

AIS range of over 130nm!

We have also been playing with our best new electronic kit - the Iridium Go!  The unit is performing very well and we have our laptops and iPhones configured and communicating with the unit.  We will need to move the antenna outside the cabin but with it inside SMSs are being sent and received very reliably.  Emails are proving more difficult with the antenna mounted under the side deck - no big surprise there!

Beautiful yawl Swanhaven under a big sky and over lovely clear water

Revision II

Yesterday many of the FSC cruisers here met ashore at the DBYC clubhouse.  Twas a very pleasant sundown with a spectacular outlook.

 View from DBYC balcony 1

View from DBYC 2

We hosted the crews of Koniara and Alegria on Zen Again this afternoon.  Always fun to compare sailing plans, ideas and attitudes with other sailors.

We plan to depart Quindallup tomorrow evening and sail direct towards Mandurah.  It's a 70nm passage so ideal for an overnighter and there will be a nearly full moon.

Quindallup soon after dawn today