Showing posts with label Outer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Outer. Show all posts
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Cable TV Outer Limits
There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are not controlling transmission. We can't make it louder by bringing up the volume. We can't make it softer, we can't tune it to a whisper. We can't reduce the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. We will not control the horizontal. We will not control the vertical. For the next thousand words, sit quietly while we don't control all that you see and hear. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The digital cable less Outer Limits. Because you can't easily hook up an interface box on most boats!
It's a problem for boaters now, and it is only going to get worse quickly. Back in the good old days, just a few years ago, getting cable TV in a marina was easy.
Get out your yellow Marinco coax cable, screw one end into the pedestal, and the other into the boat, and you had cable. Analog cable that is. Today, not so much depending on where you live. The days of analog cable are nearing the end, and digital cable now rules.
Not that digital cable is bad, it's that most boats are poorly equipped to use it, if at all.
The yacht club trip ends up in a marina that looks like every other marina, but.... The cable company has switched to digital.
You plug into the pedestal, ready to watch your favorite TV shows, and nothing appears. Huh what's going on? Down to the dock masters office you go, and ask, "What's up with the cable?" The dock master says, "You now need a converter box for cable here. I will loan you one." The dock master reaches into a cabinet and pulls out a small box, a 110VAC power adapter, some cables, and a remote control. "Here you go, just plug this into your TV and you will have 300 zillion channels.
The dazed boater takes the gear back to the boat and stares at his TV, and the converter stuff. Okay let's see, I have to get to the back of the TV, how do I do that? Where do I plug this adapter thing in? In just a moment or two, he gives up.
Marinas and yacht clubs are caught in a conundrum. Where in years past, it was easy to provide their users with standard analog cable, in the digital world, this is no longer easy, for the boater at any rate.
In a quick survey of local marina basins, two still have analog cable service available providing about 50+ channels. One has very limited analog service (7 local channels). Anything else requires a cable box. Another no longer has analog service available, and doesn't provide any cable service. The last has digital cable only, with loaner boxes available.
This is just a tiny slice of of the 8,000 to 9,000 marinas in the US. So what can be done about this, and what options do marinas have? The answer is not many. As time quickly goes by there will be less analog, and more digital cable availability. Digital cable requires a converter box, which takes us right back to where we started in the beginning.
There is only one option I can think of, and that is to have marinas provide on air digital TV, and feed it out to the docks. You could place several on air antennas on the roof pointing in several directions. You feed this to an antenna signal combiner, and then use amplifiers to feed the docks.
This equipment is surprisingly inexpensive. For just a few thousand dollars, you can say goodbye to digital cable TV your boater's effectively can't use, and give them something they can use. In the case of the Sarasota area you could receive 40-50 crystalline on air digital channels. Granted there are some duplicates in there such as ABC Sarasota, Ft. Myers, and Tampa, but you also get multiple feeds from many channels to make up for it. Boaters with newer TV's would have no problems, and those with older TV's could just add a digital tuner to their boat.
The boater has other options. Almost all can get good on air digital TV in most urban areas. Another approach is to do a one shot rewiring of the boats TV wiring system that would make it easier to plug a cable box in. A set of outlets could be installed that could accommodate external installation of a variety of cable system boxes.
The only current option a boater now has to consistently watch TV while you cruise is a satellite TV system. You will have to bite the bullet, and shell out the capital cost to buy and install it, but when done, you will have TV almost anywhere in north america.
Don't despair boaters, I predict that in very short amount of time, when you pull into a marina your TV's and chartplotters will automatically sync and connect to the marinas WiFi system, and will start to stream the TV shows of your choice on demand along with original content. Oops, you can do this now!
You could as an alternative always load up your Kindle and read some good books, or borrow the real paper versions from your grandparents. Shoot, did I say that out loud? Sorry.
The photo of the antenna is a Winegard HD7084 antenna. I spec'ed this and a small amp for a local sports bar chain. They use it to pick up Ft Myers channels about sixty miles away. Ft Myers is out of the Buc's blackout zone, and since they don't sell out often, it's often blacked out. It works a treat.
Marinas and yacht clubs are caught in a conundrum. Where in years past, it was easy to provide their users with standard analog cable, in the digital world, this is no longer easy, for the boater at any rate.
In a quick survey of local marina basins, two still have analog cable service available providing about 50+ channels. One has very limited analog service (7 local channels). Anything else requires a cable box. Another no longer has analog service available, and doesn't provide any cable service. The last has digital cable only, with loaner boxes available.
This is just a tiny slice of of the 8,000 to 9,000 marinas in the US. So what can be done about this, and what options do marinas have? The answer is not many. As time quickly goes by there will be less analog, and more digital cable availability. Digital cable requires a converter box, which takes us right back to where we started in the beginning.
There is only one option I can think of, and that is to have marinas provide on air digital TV, and feed it out to the docks. You could place several on air antennas on the roof pointing in several directions. You feed this to an antenna signal combiner, and then use amplifiers to feed the docks.
The only current option a boater now has to consistently watch TV while you cruise is a satellite TV system. You will have to bite the bullet, and shell out the capital cost to buy and install it, but when done, you will have TV almost anywhere in north america.
Don't despair boaters, I predict that in very short amount of time, when you pull into a marina your TV's and chartplotters will automatically sync and connect to the marinas WiFi system, and will start to stream the TV shows of your choice on demand along with original content. Oops, you can do this now!
You could as an alternative always load up your Kindle and read some good books, or borrow the real paper versions from your grandparents. Shoot, did I say that out loud? Sorry.
The photo of the antenna is a Winegard HD7084 antenna. I spec'ed this and a small amp for a local sports bar chain. They use it to pick up Ft Myers channels about sixty miles away. Ft Myers is out of the Buc's blackout zone, and since they don't sell out often, it's often blacked out. It works a treat.
Friday, October 14, 2016
Batt Reef Were all alone on the outer Great Barrier Reef
26-27 September 2016
As we had to wait until after three in the afternoon for the tide to come in and give us enough depth of water to get out of our berth at the Reef Marina in Port Douglas it was fairly late by the time we reached our overnight stop at Low Isles. All three public moorings were occupied so we went a fair way into the anchorage and dropped the hook in 4.5 metres over good sand. We then kicked back and enjoyed the sunset.
We planned a reasonably early start the following morning as we intended to overnight somewhere in the passage between Tongue and Batt Reefs. The forecast sub five knot winds were perfect for spending some time at the outer Great Barrier Reef. Rob had downloaded a lot of Google Earth imagery of the area and overlaid it on our Open CPN chart program. It was then a case of looking along the reef edges for likely looking spots which may be suitable to anchor. We identified three or four possible areas along the edge of Batt Reef that we would have a look at when we got out there.
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| Being anchored at the outer Great Barrier Reef surrounded by ocean and not another soul in sight is a magical experience. |
Batt Reef gained worldwide notoriety on 4 September 2006. The Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin was on location on the reef taking part in the production of the documentary series Ocean's Deadliest.During a lull in filming caused by inclement weather, Irwin decided to snorkel in shallow waters while being filmed in an effort to provide footage for his daughter's television programme. While swimming in chest-deep water, he approached a stingray with an approximate span of two metres (6.5 ft) from the rear, in order to film it swimming away. According to the other cameraman in the water with him, “All of a sudden [the stingray] propped on its front and started stabbing wildly with its tail. Hundreds of strikes in a few seconds”.
The barb pierced Irwin’s heart. The stingray's behaviour appeared to have been a defensive response to being boxed in. Crew members aboard Irwin's boat administered CPR and rushed him to Low Isles where medical staff unfortunately pronounced him dead at the scene.
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| Batt Reef was the location of Steve Irwin's tragic encounter with a large stingray. |
Steve Irwin’s death shocked people both here and abroad. Having firsthand experience when Karen was struck in the ankle by just a small stingray we believe the venom injected by multiple strikes to the torso by a two metre specimen may not have been survivable regardless of the injury to his heart. We absolutely love seeing stingrays gracefully gliding through the water but we definitely give them a very wide berth these days.
Wind and sea were both dead calm when we weighed anchor. The moment we were out of the Low Isles conservation green zone the trawling lines went in the water as we were very hopeful of picking up some nice fish around the reefs. A little over an hour later we entered the wide passage and began running along the edge of Batt Reef in search of a fish and an anchorage. The first potential spot we had identified in the satellite images looked like a good sized lagoon with a reasonably wide entrance through the coral from the deeper water of the passage.
We have fast become big fans of the Google Earth – Open CPN combination as we would have never found our intended anchorage without it. Despite motoring slowly reasonably close to the reef edge there was no way we could pick the entrance by eye. Instead we relied on using the Open CPN to navigate to a position directly off the entrance then turned 90 degrees and carefully made our approach with Rob on lookout duty up front relaying info by radio back to Karen on the helm. Sure enough, from his position as high as possible on the bow he could then identify the coral heads to port and starboard exactly where they should be.
We edged inside the lagoon which was easily the size of a couple of football fields and found a sandy spot to drop the anchor in seven metres of water. After making sure we were well hooked in the first order of business was to drop the dinghy and do a quick check in all directions around the boat to make sure there were no hidden surprises for us close by. There was a ring of four coral bombies about 30 metres around our stern which only looked about a metre below the surface as the water was so clear. It wasn’t until Rob put on a face mask and had a proper look that he could see they were at least three metres down and not a concern. We now had our own private, well sheltered anchorage on the outer reef with not another boat in sight. It was perfect.
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| Our track in and out of the anchorage we found using Google Earth. |
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| Low Isles to Batt Reef - 13.7 Nautical Miles - 2 Hours 38 Minutes Average Speed 5.2 Knots - Max Speed 6.6 Knots |
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| A satellite view of the Tongue and Batt Reef area with the anchorage marked by our Spot tracker. |
Even better, Batt Reef is a yellow zone so recreational fishing is permitted. We were disappointed we’d struck out with our lures on the way over so quickly had the rods out chasing whatever may be around the coral outcrops by the boat. We landed three nice plate sized sweetlip and a parrot fish but our biggest catch had to go back. Rob was very excited to also land a good sized fish that we weren’t immediately able to identify. A check of our fish chart showed it was most likely a ‘Paddle Tail’ which are totally protected so after a quick photo opportunity back in the water it went.
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| This 'Paddle Tail' is a protected species so went back in the water after a quick photo. |
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| Karen at work cleaning our catch of reef fish with nothing but water in sight. |
The rest of the afternoon was spent snorkelling around enjoying the amazing underwater delights of the reef. Once more we did see the extensive coral bleaching that the northern reefs have suffered due to the extreme weather events of the last couple of years but there was more than enough healthy growth areas interspersed to keep Rob busy with the underwater camera. We can only hope the reefs are able to regenerate and we see the ratio of bleached to unbleached coral reverse over time. We were also constantly surrounded by an abundance of brightly coloured fish of all shapes and sizes and saw a number of giant clams. We did spot a shy turtle in the distance which unfortunately sped off pretty quickly without posing for the camera.
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| We can't get enough of snorkelling the reef's warm clear waters full of marine life |
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| Nice examples of healthy coral stand out against their more bleak surrounds. |
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| We saw a few of these colourful starfish but thankfully no Crown of Thorns. |
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| A giant clam on Batt Reef. |
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| These blue Damselfish were plentiful at Batt Reef. |
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| Perfect outer reef weather. |
Later while sitting on the stern with a glass of cold bubbles experiencing an amazing sunset, we agreed this was the sort of place we could happily stay as long as the weather let us but, with light northerlies predicted for the next few days, the time had come for us to begin making our way south. We have a lot of the Queensland coast to cover before the start of the cyclone season so Batt Reef was to be a one night stand – this time.
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| Good night from Batt Reef - a wonderful piece Australia's Great Barrier Reef. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ We love to receive comments on our blog from readers. If you do leave a comment and you also have a blog, please leave a link as well. We'd like to click over for a visit and leave you a comment too. To stay right up to date with what we’re up to and see lots more photos check out and 'like' our Dreamtime Sail Facebook page at DreamtimeSail  If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway. |
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