It's been a while since we've been out on Wild Blue. The last few days have been gray and windy... not cold; other projects keeping us from playing on the boat, though.
We bought an iPad Mini a couple weeks ago, and I wanted to give it a good try out on the boat. Yes, we are able to find our way around our home waters, but I plan to order some mounts for the Mini and wanted to see where it would work best.
In years past, I have been using a small Garmin color chartplotter to the right of the main chartplotter. Joan and I also have been swapping back and forth with the original iPad that we've been using in the boat since the iPad came out. The Mini fits perfect where the small Garmin used to be...
From that perspective, the iPad Mini looks a lot smaller than the 8" Raymarine... the iPad is just leaning back there and is still further back than the main chartplotter. Here's a view that puts them side-by-side...
Pretty close in size. I have the Garmin Bluechart Marine Mobile app on the Mini - I am liking that app! I think a Ram-mount on the front panel will put the Mini in just the right location.
It was a gusty day, with the wind coming from the southwest... an unusual direction here. It made for 2' rollers in the ICW outside our canal. Once in the ship channel, we were running with the wind and waves. We saw some dolphins, but didn't stop to take in the show. Joan had packed us a lunch, and we enjoyed that with the smooth ride. Further down the ship channel, 5 shrimpboats were heading in - home for the holidays, I suppose...
We had headed out on a pretty low tide, and as we approached the jetties, the tide was coming in... putting the wind against the current. Lumpy. We didn't see another boat out there. Back into the Laguna, we decided to have the wind on the beam for a short time instead of on the nose for a long time - made it an "around the island" outing. Going north, we did see a parasail boat out, flying some tourists. The discussion turned to captain jobs, and the fact that the people running those boats are often just building hours so they can get a better paying jobs. Then, I said, "Or maybe it is young guys who are more interested in hauling girls in bikinis than they are making decent bucks? Now me, I would rather haul girls in bikinis AND make decent bucks." ;-) Perspective. Girls in bikinis don't have a place to $$ for a tip.
The parasail boat wasn't out there that long. We did see two Coast Guard small boats doing an exercise...
Coming around our island, I planned to go through the swing bridge and avoid slogging into the chop. Just as we got to the ICW, we saw "fins to the right." This time, we stopped to watch the dolphins for a bit...
That one was close to the boat; swam up alongside, then under us. We watch them play, but the chop was on the beam, making it a little difficult to drive the boat with one hand and handhold a little point & shoot with the other...
There are plenty more of those splash photos, showing where dolphins were just a second or two prior. ;-)
Temp was in the upper 70s to go along with the warm wind. The C-Dory did a fine job of keeping us comfortable and dry. We did see two small flat-bottom fishing boats the whole time we were out... dry wasn't on the menu for them. I do like my cabin boat. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment