We are going to sail her home via a different route than last year.
BHPian Jeroen recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Another day fiddling on Sirion! I spent another day on Sirion doing a bunch of odd jobs. The first thing when I got to the marina is to hook her up to shore power.
I had noticed the batteries were about down to 25% charge. Not a problem after not being used for almost three months and this cold weather. You better start charging them up.
Fixed the missing Bimi-hook-thingy- attachment. I checked all the other ones and tightened them up.
The main job for today, though, was to install my new iPad converter. See my previous post on the purpose of this little electronic box.
It means opening up the dashboard and various lockers to get access. I was a bit apprehensive about routing the cable inside the various cable ducts. As you might recall I had huge trouble getting the radar cable through. Luckily this particular cable had a smaller diameter. I had come prepared with all my “cable-pulling tools”. Luckily I managed to get it through in literally a few minutes. Last time it took several hours. So again, practice makes perfect I guess.
Using my trusted bit of plastic flexible cable puller here.
Out it comes!
The Installation instruction calls for this box to be mounted at least 0,5m away from other electronic boxes.
Pretty straightforward installation job, but it still requires a lot of tooling, and removing panels. All of sudden, the Sirion cabin is full of stuff.
The new electronic box powered up without any problems. Going by the LEDs it is also handling the data. On my Raymarine Display, I can see it is on the Network as well. However, I could not log onto the WiFi signal with my iPad.I had quite a long cable so I could move the box around a bit see if that made any difference, but no!
I called Smart Marine, the supplier and spoke to Hans who had also advised me on which box to get. Hans is well-known in yachting circles. He has helped many people and I see excellent reviews on social media all the time.
We checked a few things. Hans thought there might be interference from other WiFi sources. Look at the image of the available networks. The first one is the new box I am trying to connect to. The one below, Quantum etc, is a network from a Raymarine navigation system (in this case the radar). It is not my Raymarine and or radar. I don’t use WiFi, I keep it switched off unless I am updating the Raymarine Software. I double-checked by powering down all my equipment and my iPad still saw this one. So somebody has left their radar on!
I am not sure if this is really the cause of my not being able to log onto my new box. Hans suggested waiting until Sirion was out in the open again and seeing what that brings. For now, I’m ok with that. Let’s see what happens.
I had a long chat with Anton, the yacht painter. He has been talking to Andre and his guys (harbourmaster). Sirion is going to be moved outside by the end of this week. Anton will fix the paint scratch on the bow. With Sirion outside, but still ashore, I will be able to hose down her decks and superstructure and polish/wax the deck and superstructure.
And test my electronic convertor box of course.
The last job I did, was to polish the propellor blades! Left before, right after.
The provisional planning is for us to board Sirion on the 1st of April. We are going to sail her home via a different route than last year. For several reasons, the most important one we want to explore a different route. Also, the very first lock we would encounter of the normal route south is out of commission from 1st to 16th of April. So we have to choose a different route. We will sail up to Kampen, sail up the river IJssel, join the Nederrijn, Lek and finally make our way into the Merwedekanaal. We will have 3-4 overnights on Sirion.
Our original plan was to sail all the way north to Friesland and do a bit of exploration. But that will take a lot more time and we have some other things and events to attend to.
Fingers crossed all final preparations and jobs go well in the next week!
Jeroen
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