I did take all the comments to heart and replaced my VHF radio on the weekend. Tim and Thunder Bay radio reported an excellent signal and good audio deviation. Now the install of the radio was easy, the wiring for the older Standard Horizon radio worked with the new on just fine. I did have to rewire the Remote Mic, that required some fishing and taking most of the back end of the boat apart to run the cable. Oh and the supplied cable was too short so I had to by the extension available from Standard Horizon for the cost of $50. I lucked out and found one at Bay Port in Midland so that completed the radio install.

The frustration started when I tried to get the GPS and the radio to talk, this allows the radio to automatically  report location data when the emergency DSC button is pushed. So I hooked everything up according to the supplied manuals and nothing happened. WONDERFUL....... but I kinda expected it.

So three days of testing and various configuration changes and it still isn't working. There is suppose to be a little satellite icon in the top right corner of the radio display and even that is not there...hummm wonder if it's a problem with the brand new radio????????????????????  just another possible cause in the list.

I am now in the middle of a conversation with Garmin about NMEA protocols. the Question is....are their NMEA sentences  propitiatory or they do actually meet NMEA specs. One manual (the radio) says the the sentences should be "RNC" and that is their preferred one. Garmin sentences are named "GPRNC" ,  I am not sure what to think, but I have asked that question to Garmin....lets see what the come back with.

Oh and I figured while I was spending the money and the time at the dock I installed Satellite radio....Not much of an install used Velcro and plugged it in to the power point on the DC distribution panel.
Photos to be uploaded when I get them

Well had a few more complaints about the VHF radio on the boat. The complaints are about the Deviation level  (modulation on FM transmission) when I am at the remote mic in the cockpit. So a little experiment and found that the mic at the radio works OK but the one at the helm audio is very low. Standard Horizon does not carry a replacement for it. so I will be picking up my new radio and RAM Mic this week and will have yet another project this weekend.

standard horizon

A little wing on wing sailing in really light air today check out the video

Well good afternoon.. sitting in Methodist bay in the sunshine air temp is about 75 water temp is 14.4'c let me tell you that wakes you up in a hurry  :) I have attached a short video of some of the sailing on the way out here not much wind so it didn't last long but we arrived with the help of the engine. 

Well the long weekend has finally arrived. This is the first major sailing weekend of the summer. The weekend that the rig will get a good test sail and tuning. I will also be catching up on all the remaining jobs on the list.
Solar power, cleaning and waxing. Andrew will be arriving tomorrow nite late in Barrie. This will be his first weekend on-board since I purchased the boat.  So saturday morning heading north out of Penetanguishene bay and the depending on the wind, out to Methodist Bay, or maybe over to Chimney Bay. It depends on the wind. Windfinder says there will not be much of it (wind) this weekend because of the large high that will transit the area on Sunday.
Standby for videos and pictures next week  :)

Well so much for working on  the boat tonight, although I did get the sails on-board. Checked the running steaming and deck lights and they all work well. The fridge is freezing anything that was close to it so its working well.  :)  Check out the squall line that chased me off the dock and home.