Port Louis Upgrades and Maintenance

Hi everyone,

!!! This post is brought to you by Starlink !!!

We've now been in Port Louis Marina at St George's, Grenada for three months.  It's been great but it's nearly time to move on.

For every new power producer there's a consumer!

Over recent weeks we've had a series of maintenance and upgrade tasks to do.  These followed the arrival of two consignments from the US, assisted by Portage Import, Export & Brokerage.  The shipping service isn't fast but it was reliable and affordable.

Our first shipment included a Mac Mini M1 and peripherals.  The Mini travelled from Apple US to MikeGyver.com to be adapted for 12Vdc power.  Mike and his team did a nice neat job and the Mini is running directly off 12Vdc ship's power.  It uses so little power we retired our BeagleBone Black which had been running our SignalK server 24/7 very reliably for two years.  SignalK is now running on the Mini.

Migrating our data from our laptop to the Mini was simple.  However the Mini uses Apple's M1 processor where our Macbooks used Intel processors.  Most of our apps worked fine, some needed a little effort and a few were problematic.  A little effort was needed for the SignalK-related apps - the server itself, the InfluxDB database app and the Grafana graphing app.  It was certainly worth the effort for the Mini's low power.

The most work related to the Parallels app which allows us to run Windows and other Operating Systems.  The only version of Windows which Parallels can run on M1 is Windows 11 for ARM64.  So we upgraded from Windows 10.  The main software we use on Windows is Winlink Express which runs but there's no driver for our Icom IC-7300's Silicon Labs USB-Serial Bridge chip.  So the software can't control the radio.  Bugger!  Hopefully one will appear soon.

Talking of our Icom IC-7300 SSB, it has moved from the saloon onto the nav table.  A great improvement made possible by mounting the Mini on the instrument panel and its display above...

New Navigatorium!

Although we currently have an Amateur SSB we've had Marine SSBs in the past.  At that time we experimented with HF DSC, including running skeds partially via DSC.  Without a DSC-equipped transceiver we can't transmit DSC messages but we can receive them.

We're using BlackCat System's GMDSS software.  It listens to the audio output from our SSB and decodes messages.  Here's its main window with two decoded messages (to us!) shown, then the database search window, and finally its statistics window.

BlackCat GMDSS main window

BlackCat GMDSS database search window

BlackCat GMDSS statistics window

The software works very well but sadly does NOT support decoding of DSC Group Calls.  I've asked BlackCat to add this functionality.  What it can do is sound an alarm when a distress message or a message with user-defined text (eg your MMSI) is decoded.  I reckon it's pretty useful for bluewater cruisers even if its target market is Amateur Radio folk.

Our second shipment finally arrived this week.  Turned out it was held up in customs due to my two forenames being used and them thinking I was two people.  In the end it all got through and was in good shape.

Better than Christmas!

One of the packages in the shipment was a Starlink system.  We purchased the 'RV' plan which allows use throughout a 'continent'.  Use while in motion is not supported (although many find it works) and it stops working outside 'territorial waters'.  We want it primarily to improve our bandwidth at anchor and in marinas.  We do hope to use it when crossing oceans but that's several years away for us.  The system cost roughly US$700 to buy plus US$130/month to run.

Setting up Starlink is famously simple.  Worked out that way for us too...

Step 1 - admire the box

Step 2 - empty the box

Step 3 - admire the router, antenna and two cables

Step 4 - mount the antenna (temporary mount shown)

The next steps were to connect the cables, for us replace the US plug with an Aussie plug, plug everything in, connect to the STARLINK WiFi access point and open the Starlink app.  It immediately required a new access point name and password.

  

With the new name and password we were done - Setup Complete!  And we were online.  Nice!

  

The next step was to run the Speed Test.  The pictures say it all...

  

We left the system on for the evening and overnight in case it wanted to download any updates.  In the evening we watched some TV.  The bandwidth used is shown below.  While watching YouTube we get US ads instead of the French ads due to our French Digicel SIMs.

We are seeing occasional Starlink drop-outs, some of which last several minutes.  This was expected since we're surrounded by masts.

Usage while watching TV

The next package was from TekTanks in the UK (via the US which saved us over £100).  At last we have a holding tank.  Capacity 64 litres and it fits in the forepeak immediately forward of the head compartment...

Last look before mounting

Mounted

Now to connect her up!

The next set of packages contained two Renogy 100W solar panels plus cables and fittings.  The panels are now mounted on our fixed lifelines outboard of the cockpit.  They'll swing up while in use.  Not yet wired-in but a perfect fit and looking good.

One of two new 100W solar panels

Renogy Energy

Other boat jobs over the last few weeks have included:

• woodwork on new marine-ply saloon table for both dressmaking and dining;
• electrical circuit breaker re-arranging;
• tidy-up of SSB antenna feed;
• service our manual anchor windlass;
• continued close monitoring of our new Lifeline LiFePo4 batteries;
• bent on, hoisted and furled staysail and yankee; and
• dived to clean the very dirty propellor and rudder

Last weekend we did our final Grenada Hash House Harriers walk.  It was inland from St George's in very nice country-side, albeit very steep in places!  Twas good to almost keep up with the Ceruleans.

The Ceruleans lead the way

On On!

Trust all's well where you are!