The Autopilot saga continues
Heading south entering our first overnight sail
We left Ft Meyers, sans the Autopilot, and headed for Stock Island in Key West. This involved our first night passage. We decided on shifts and started around 8am. David was the helm as the sun sets.
En route, more issues with the starboard engine - an overheating alarm. Throttled the engine back, took some additional time getting to Stock Island. Thoughts are that this is similar to the post engine, where the belt needed tightening.
The night passage was particularly hard on Carlos. Because David and I are both newbies at the helm, he stayed up most of the night, trying to catch naps. It didn't really work - he was grouchy and tired the next day.
Planning for AP repair
While travelling to Stock Island, more call-aheads were made for Raymarine and autopilot service at ports we could handle. No authorized repair shop could even talk to us before 2 weeks. So the plan changed to calling Raymarine directly and considering a software update on the Axiom MFD (Multi Function Display). Made a list of questions for Raymarine and pushed on into the night - Kim on at 3 am, David at the helm at 7:30am. Entered Stock Island, around noontime, with not even any pretense of mask wearing.
Founder of Stock Island is a Rhode Island native!
Stock Island, Florida was “founded” by Commodore Perry, born in Kingston Rhode Island, who was in a family of naval commanders for the US Navy. The Keys were a part of the spoils of the Spanish War. Of course, there was no “founding” anything in Florida, since the Indigenous population (including the Ais, Apalachee, Calusa, Timucua and Tocobago tribes.) were there since before 1500’s. The Peryy is a hotel, with some lovely rooms, a few pools with bars, a captains quarters, a few restaurants with bars and some other retail spaces. There was a large marina attached to the hotel property. Big time Florida money in this place - Expedia shows rooms starting at $721 night!! Luckily, we brought our own bedrooms.
From Wikipedia: In 1815, the Spanish governor in Havana deeded the island of Key West to Juan Pablo Salas of St. Augustine in Spanish Florida. After Florida was transferred to the United States, Salas sold Key West to American businessman John W. Simonton for $2,000 in 1821. Simonton lobbied Washington to establish a naval base on Key West both to take advantage of its strategic location and to bring law and order to the area. On March 25, 1822, Perry sailed the S/V Shark to Key West and planted the U.S. flag, physically claiming the Florida Keys as United States territory. That was an interesting story, but that he was from Kingston RI was intriguing to me. Anyway, as far as help with Autopilot, nothing was available. There was a local West Marine about 3/4 mile away, which we traversed a few times to purchase additional parts to test.
Have to try the nearby local restaurant!
There was also a great Cuban restaurant walking distance up the street. Much more friendly, satisfying and reasonably priced than the Perry Hotel faire. Interesting story of Native tries in Cuba. The food was very good and the portions were generous! Had plenty for leftovers the next day!
Mmmmmm!
Not a good experience at the Perry Hotel
Despite the quick service with docking at the beginning, there was nothing really outstanding about the Perry Hotel Marina Internet was poor, they didn't offer 30Amp power, information regarding bathrooms and other amenities were sketchy, the mariners could not use the facilities in the hotel and the pools were not swimmable. With no Autopilot direction, and limited "fun", we went for dinner and pulled out at 7:30 the next morning, 5/1.
Back to Raymarine - please help!!
On our call to Raymarine, the gentleman on our call referred us to an "expert" which made us nervous, but also proud that we had a problem that was not "run-of-the-mill". After all our conversations, it still came back to something in the Seatalk network that was not allowing the pilot instrument to see/communicate with the heading instrument. In addition, after reading manuals, the Axiom was not seeing the heading instrument (EV-1), either. We had a spare 5 way connector, and the spare cables were inserted to try isolating the defective part. One important clue: The EV-1 worked properly when disconnected from the 5 way connector (Hmmm...). We can't leave it that way, because the EV-1 is part of a bigger system, so direct connection to the P-70 doesn't address full control. David started to make schematic drawings and we connected with Dane for a potential Ft. Lauderdale anchorage. A quick call to Captain Karl, he made some recommendations for help in Key Largo, and these will be pursued.
Raymarine hardware
Things to help us be better prepared
It is obvious that more education in Raymarine and its communication protocols is critically important. There appear to be lots of videos and even Raymarine webinars on-line. Also, adding a hotspot to the mobile phone, so necessary to keep up with the blogging while out on the water and our crews’ potential work requirements.
So for now, we continue forward (north), still looking for the talented technician that can troubleshoot our problem.
