I had an unusually disturbed night and gave up trying to sleep altogether before dawn. Whilst the distaff side of the crew slumbered on through the morning I drank copious quantities of coffee, nibbled a Hob Nob or two and amused myself trying to work out why the AIS signal isn't making it to the PC Plotter display on the laptop.
For the non-nautical readership (hello Mum!), AIS (Automatic Identification System) had to be fitted to all larger vessels and transmits their position, course and speed along with other interesting and sometimes useful information.
Whilst we don't have a transmitter ourselves (although we could fit one voluntarily and may do so at some point in the future) we do have a receiver. This is connected to the Raymarine chart plotter above the nav table and displays AIS targets as an overlay on the charts
The boat laptop has a program, PC Plotter, which uses the same Navionics charts as the plotter upon which I do our passage planning. With a backup GPS source (we've both a GPS dongle and an app on my phone which turns it into a GPS source for the laptop via USB) the laptop doubles as a backup chart plotter.
So it would be useful if the AIS info could be displayed on the laptop. The software can do it, the hardware can do it, it was all connected up, but it just wasn't working.
And ... it still isn't! I've checked the output from the AIS, I've checked the wiring between the NMEA connection block and the NMEA multiplexer and I've firtled around in the boondocks of the software configuration all to no avail. It ought to be working and it isn't.
To add to my annoyance, the not particularly cheap serial to USB adaptor that should allow me to disconnect the AIS receiver from the boat electrics and connect it directly to the laptop turned out to be a male plug (good) with a female casing (bad) thus ensuring it's complete and utter uselessness
Frustration reigned supreme aboard the good ship Erbas until the Purser emerged tousled and refreshed by more than twelve hours sleep to perk up her skipper with a bacon butty and a cheery wave as he departed towards the pub to watch the Italy v England rugby match.
Left to her own devices, Jane spent the afternoon sorting out the galley stores and tidying things up to her satisfaction and even remained cheerful in the face of the broken promise to be back after the first match! Eventually the wayward skipper was reunited with the crew at the bar as the Irish celebrated a deserved victory in the third match of the day
A meal and a couple of drinks then another early night. Nine hours in the pub was quite enough and neither of us felt like staying up late.
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