The winch is now fitted to the 4WD.
The end of the winch rope has been cable tied to the left recovery point. I didn't fit the hook to the end of the rope as I was concerned someone would steal it. Well this is a country founded by convicts!
Lock
The household CFC (Chief Financial Controller) pointed out the lock on the front security grill door wasn't working. The door must be more than 30 years old so it's probably unsurprising that something has failed.
After fiddling with it for 30 minutes I concluded the problem was beyond my expertise and went looking for a local company competent to undertake the necessary repairs. Each of the approached companies advised me they no longer undertook door repairs as they were unable to recruit staff. However, they could sell me a new door. All the quotes were around $800. This resulted in me rethinking my ability to rectify the door lock fault.
After removing the door and taking it to the 'man cave' I stripped down the lock to its individual components before endeavoured to complete some fault finding. Eventually I established how all the components were supposed to work together and reassembled the lock.
It was then fitted back into the door which was then re-installed.
The door now locks and we have saved $800
Marine Charts
Our eldest grandson has informed us next year he plans to sail his yacht from New Zealand into the South Pacific.
Destinations include:
- Cook Islands
- Tonga
- Fiji
- Tahiti
- Vanuatu
I decided to make him some digital charts which will be imported into his navigation application (another project). You will know I like 'free' and read how to create free marine charts. It's a somewhat complicated method involving several applications and it takes several hours of processing to generate most of the maps. For example; it took 16 hours to generate the chart of Tahiti. The laptop was left running overnight. However I am gradually generating detailed marine charts.
This following screen dumps shows the basemap that came with the navigation application and my first basemap update
As he will be leaving from Whangarei on the North Island I created detailed charts of Whangarei Harbour and it's approaches.
Over the next few weeks I'll create more charts.
Meanwhile, after waiting more than a year the Raspberry Pi SBC's are back in stock. The delay was caused by COVID creating a severe world-wide chip shortage.
The delayed project to build the yacht navigation system can recommence.
2 comments :
What will also be really useful for your grandson in the Pacific is seeing the Google Earth image of the coast lines where he goes. Google Earth only shows a limited distance from shore, but usually far enough for anchoring purposes. Another very worthwhile project for you is to study how to use OpenCPN and download images for him. Have a look on the website svsoggypaws.com under computers for lots of info. We used OpenCPN in SE Asia extensively and almost exclusively.
Catherine I've already experimented with one Google Earth chart (Minerva Reef) and will be making more. I've found Paul Higgins website (https://www.gdayii.ca/Home.php) and have been reading that the nautical data (depth, markers, etc) can be overlayed onto Google Earth. I'm using SAS Planet and Sat2Chart along with some of Paul's programs that simplify the task. The Raspberry Pi will be using OpenPlotter which incorporates OpenCPN. Great learning curve :-)
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