Cool Info about the Ship and Stats on the First Leg

Posted by Keith on April 25, 2007 at 5:11 pm  

Not long ago, Bob wrote requesting various technical information about the performance and equipment aboard
The Global Adventure. I asked our intrepid First Mate, Rip Knot, to respond. In his thank you to Rip’s response, Bob disclosed that he is the proud owner of the first Nordhavn 86! Here is the exchange between Bob and Rip:


Dear Bob,

Thanks for your interest in our trip to Hawaii and the detailed questions on some of our systems. I’ll just try to go down the list in the order you asked them.

Do you have two Fleet 77’s ?

No, just one. The other dome is housing a Sea-Tel Sat TV dish antenna. I believe it was decided to have two “matching” domes, since the Sea-Tel dome was a different size, so another KVH dome was purchased and the Sea-Tel was retrofitted into it.

Do you have Track-Vision ?

No, TRAC-VISON is KVH’s Sat.-TV set up.

Are you watching TV?

At present, no – we are only watching some Videos we brought with us. We did enjoy TV for the first 150- 200 miles, but after that …no signal.
We had been a Direct -TV (DTV) subscriber. Here in Hawaii, I think it is covered by Dish Network, so we could not get TV unless we replaced the satellite receiver boxes

Do you have plans to have Sat-TV around the world?

No, we do not have plans for this at this time. Our plans are to make our own movies of things we find may be of interest.

What charting software programs are you using?

Currently we are using The Global Navigation Software Company’s “NAV-PAC PRO.”

Also we employ Furuno’s Nav-Net 2 Plotter function and are in the process of getting Max-Sea ‘Commander’ Navigation Program. We used various charts both Raster and Vector in our crossing to Hawaii.

On Autopilot, do you alternate between the two to equalize wear?

No we do not at present. (Keith’s note: This is a great idea!) One control station is on the Fly Bridge, which controls the # 2 Autopilot. We could, however, use the remote control handset in the pilot house to run either. Or, install a wafer switch to enable us to change from one pump set to another. This would be an important safety back-up-feature should there be a failure in one system (Keith’s note: Actually I think we already have this. We need to root around underneath the pilot house panel to find where we had it installed!)

Has anything broken down since you left?

We have had two engine gauges fail. We had plenty of backup.

How much time each day are you on the phone?

I can’t precisely answer that until the bills come in with the total number of minutes. We use two phone systems, Iridium and KVH’s Trac-Phone. Sok far there is no comparison in quality. KVH is far superior (and far more expensive).

Do you use MPDS or F77 for internet?

We use the Fleet 77 in the MPDS mode for Internet. We have this connected through a wireless router so we have our own WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) for the 4 Laptops aboard. We also have two ‘wired’ computers and are now looking into wireless ISDN (the other mode of the F77).

Keith’s Note: Actually, we have spent a good portion of our stay in Hawaii familiarizing ourselves with the use of ISDN to send photos and videos. This works best for larger items, while the MPDS works fine for text, email, etc. Accessing the internet is really a wash depending on the complexity of the sites visited.

Regarding the fuel consumption, some Stats:

S.D > Honolulu 4-1 > 4-13
1916 gal. fuel used.
2288 miles – trip log
.84 gal./mi.
6.58 GPH
2556 gls on departure
640 gls on arrival

I hope this info answers your questions. Again, thank you for your interest.

Regards,

Rip Knot (First Mate)


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. David on April 26, 2007 12:34 pm

    Great info Rip!! Perfect for us info junkies.


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