A word on GPS/Chartplotter

When we bought our trawler, she was minimally equipped with electronics. All she really had was a 2 station VHF radio (upper and lower helm), fish finder (one at each helm station which also acts as a depth finder) and well, that is about it. That was no problem when we were on Lake Lanier in Atlanta- it was a very large lake but we knew it well from years of spending our weekends on the water there and had no need for GPS or anything to safely travel the lake.

However, moving to the Tennessee River would be essentially new cruising grounds for us (granted, we had done 450 miles of the river 2 previous boats ago in our 33' express but that was just passing through) and we wanted to make sure our family was safe. Thus the search was on for the must cost effective solution to implement a reliable GPS navigation system. There were several options:
A) Purchase a standard marine GPS chartplotter from a company such as Garmin or the like. Their a multitude of functions and features available with them and they have screen sizes from about 4" to 12". Obviously the larger the screen, the easier it is to see what is on the chart. A small 4" screen unit easily costs $600 and a larger screen unit can go up to about $7,000. YES- $7k for a GPS:
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=130272&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=10103&subdeptNum=10268&classNum=10269

Crazy. Obviously we needed to come up with a solution that would result in the largest screen possible for the lowest cost. We sure weren't about to spend multiple thousands of dollars on a GPS.

Enter my Macbook laptop!

Many cruisers have utilized laptops for GPS navigation for a while. Most are using PC/Windows platforms. When doing so, the general advice is to use the machine that acts as the chartplotter strictly for navigation and never, ever use it to surf the net, etc. The reason for this clearly is the threat of catching a virus and shutting down your only ability to safely plot a course. Thankfully, I switched to a mac about a year and a half or more ago so I don't have to worry about viruses. Using my macbook would allow me to have a very large screen (compared to regular marine GPS units) and a very stable platform to run a GPS program. There are several programs available for PC units (such as OpenCPN at www.opencpn.org) but not as many available for macs. Thankfully, the folks at MacENC have created a great navigation platform exclusively for the Mac so that is the program we went with.

MacENC gives us the charting program but with that we need an actual GPS unit and the right charts. A simple USB GPS Puck is all it takes to get GPS tracking. They cost less than $35. Here are some on Amazon. If you are coastal cruising you can just download the free NOAA official coastal charts. However, charts for the TN River are from the Corps of Engineers. In looking around, the Navionics Charts have more detailed info so we spent the extra money to get their charts (about $150). At this point we're up to a few hundred dollars. But like the infomercials on TV, order now and we will double your order!

As great as having my macbook act as the GPS program, reality is that I don't want to exactly have my laptop up on the bridge in the rain and bad weather. Thankfully, our lower helm is fully enclosed with heating and air conditioning so we are left with just the bridge. Thanks to some discussions with a few other boating friends, we landed on a win-win solution and that is...dual screen monitors!

There is a wiring run right next to the lower helm that goes up to the bridge. I bought a long VGA extension chord that was 15' long. One end sits at the lower helm station, the other end was run up to the upper helm. I brought my 15" flatscreen computer monitor from the office (perfect excuse to upgrade to a larger screen at the office). The screen up on the bridge can then be plugged into my macbook and everything viewed from the bridge. Along with this, I bought a small wireless mouse. Amazingly, it transmits through the flybridge floor down into the cabin below and I can control the laptop in the cabin from the bridge. Due to the cold weather this winter I have not permanently installed the mounting base for the flybridge flatscreen but I have dry fit it all and confirmed it all works. Once spring is here and it's actually nice enough to cruise from there I will finish installing the fixed base.

Not only do we now have dual, large screen GPS chartplotting capacity on our trawler, but I can check my email on it too!

Hello friends! I wish I had started this blog when we first bought our trawler but alas, we did not. But, never too late to start a good thing, eh? We have owned several boats over the years, most of them nearly new. But, I have always enjoyed classic boats and I have always enjoyed restoring old things (such as the 110+ year old storefront my office is located in that I renovated from the ground up). So, our newer boats never really felt like "us" if you know what I mean. After selling our 2005 Silverton 38 Sport Bridge in the winter of 2009, the search was on for a classic trawler. We were looking for a boat that offered several things: A) diesel power for safety and longevity, B) classic lines that make you find her beautiful despite her possible age, C) a boat designed for longer range cruising, D) lots of storage and space for our young family, and E) given the market conditions, we were looking for a "good deal" as is every other buyer out there these days. We searched long and hard for such a boat...mostly looking in the 43' to 48' range, assuming we'd need a bigger boat to meet our space needs.

It was great surprise that after months and months of searching, we spoke with a friend on our old dock that owned a trawler. He informed us he was ready to sell. I had been inside his Monk trawler once before and fell in love with the classic teak interior! So long story short, we worked out a deal and bought "Poco A Poco," as she has been named for most all her years, in early August 2010.

Poco A Poco is spanish for "Little by Little." We originally were going to keep her name as we thought we'd fix her up "little by little." However, after a family discussion over dinner one night we decided to change her name to Livinglight. For us, this has two meanings:

1) We are all called to the living light of Christ and God's love and we hope to treat people we meet on the water with a joy and happiness and warmth in a non-religious way.

2) We want to keep things light and happy and stress free- thus the desire to be living "light." We like the double meaning.

Her interior was in great shape but did need a little bit of work here and there. I have a long thread on the boating forum, www.boatered.com detailing the initial steps of our refit process that you can view here.

In that thread I detailed our recoring of our foredeck and aft bridge deck, blister repair, new bottom paint, as well as our trawler's "road trip" on the back of an 18 wheeler from Lake Lanier, GA (Atlanta) to Chattanooga, TN on the Tennessee River which is her new home port. Additionally, you'll find pictures of our new granite countertops and the new configuration of the forward (kid's) stateroom that I built.

Some of the basic specs regarding our trawler:

-1983 Monk 36 Trawler

- Designer: Ed Monk

- Beam: 13'

- Power Plant: Single screw Perkins 135hp 6.354 diesel inboard engine and an 8.0 KW Northern Lights generator.

- Freshwater (drinking water) tank: 185 gallons.

- Blackwater (toilet) holding tank: 45 gallons.

- Fuel tanks: 320 gallons.

- Displacement (as measured in travel lift slings): 24,000 lbs.

The Monk 36 trawler has had a production run spanning approximately 27-28 years. Our 1983 Monk is hull #30 of the Monk 36 line and as such, she is one of the first ones ever built (or most accurately stated, she is the 30th Monk 36 that was ever built!). They are known to be very reliable coastal cruisers suitable for trips to the islands or up and down the ICW, the gulf, etc. They have a very solid ride and she handles well. She is also extremely fuel efficient. At hull speed we only burn about 1.5 to 2 gallons of diesel per hour (compared to our silverton 38 sedan previous to this burning around 8-9 gallons per hour at the same speed or up to 55 gallons per hour if we went fast!!). This results in a very economical and spacious boat perfect for long range cruising and essentially freeing us from the worry of current fuel price swings.

One of the unexpected pleasures of buying our Monk trawler has been the one on one time my son and I have spent this winter together working on her! He has been a great help and at 8 years old, is at that age of wanting to learn how to use tools and help "dad." So we have really enjoyed working together. In fact, there have been some jobs I literally could not have done without him as he can fit in places I simply cannot! Case in point:

We will be taking our first "big" trip on our trawler this coming weekend. We will be cruising her approximately 125 miles down the TN River to Guntersville, AL in order to drop her off at a repair yard to get her topsides painted. This will be a huge step forward in our refit process (not to mention the last BIG item to be done this winter), as well as our first opportunity to really stretch our legs a little bit on board and see how she handles cruising a little bit. I am looking forward to testing several items more that we have or are installing before the trip:

A) Using my macbook for our GPS chartplotter. This has worked great since we set it up but I have only cruised around Harrison Bay with it and I am looking forward to exploring it's various features through the MacENC chartplotting program we use.

B) I ran cabling for an engine room camera this past weekend. I tested it in the slip with an old webcam I had but I want to get a better quality cam and then see how it does on the trip. Basically- this camera will essentially be a dedicated webcam set up to show me the engine, transmission, and fuel filter gauge while underway so that I can see what is going on while cruising.

C) Utilizing the Rogue Wave Wi-fi booster antenna and the router a friend gave us (thanks again Bill!!). I've played with it extensively in the slip and it seems to work great but I look forward to trying it out on this longer trip. The wifi booster reportedly will pick up a hotspot from 7 miles out!

Most importantly, this trip should be a blast as my dad and my 8 year old son will be joining me as crew on the trip (my wife and 7 year old daughter decided to stay home due to colder weather). I am looking forward to spending time with my dad and son on this little trip and sharing our first cruise aboard the trawler together.

So stay tuned....fun and adventure and more of working on the boat lies ahead!

Just for fun, here is a link to a video we shot today on our short little cruise around Harrison Bay. It was 65+ degrees, sunny, and after all the cold and snow it almost felt like summer!! :)

Here's the video:

Also, we hit a bit of a milestone today. Our little Perkins 135hp diesel engine officially reached 1,800.0 hours:

And last but not least, while it may not be a tropical paradise per say, I at least got some time out on the kayak as we anchored out for a few hours of fun:

Stay tuned...I should be posting more as we get ready for our trip later this week!