In early March, we did a night crossing of the Gulf Stream with the wind
from the west at 20-25 kts, West End Bahamas to Palm Beach. The stream was
busy with lot's of commercial ship traffic, a naval exercise and a USCG
search and operation of a fishing boat going on that night. Our
old Raytheon 2KW radar's performance was less than stellar. So that got me
motivated.

After recovering from sticker shock on the Furuno and Raymarine radars, I
settled on AIS instead.

We just got Coastal Explorer loaded on the laptop. Will be using it with the
Smart Radio 161 AIS receiver for our trip north from Fort Lauderdale to
Connecticut. Both sold by Milltech Marine -
http://www.milltechmarine.com/products.htm Promotional package went for
$500.

I think we may try the Konen radar if they work out an agreement with
Rosepoint. It would be very cool to have the radar display in the cockpit
via our wireless touch display.

We use a Panasonic Toughbook Wireless Touchscreen Display
(http://www.panbo.com/yae/archives/000962.html). It is set up so it can be
quickly mounted and plugged into the 12 volt power in the cockpit. When we
are in unfamiliar waters, we pretty much keep it up there all the time.
However, I like the option of not having it up there, so some electronic
clutter can be eliminated when sailing in familiar locals.

Peter Nucci
S/V Valerie Arden
Baba/Panda 40



-----------------------------------------------------------
Baba Panda and Tashiba Owners Mailing List --
For more info, please check out the FAQ...
http://www.ballreich.net/hypermail/baba-l/faq.html

Received on Mon Mar 27 08:45:26 2006