Garmin Chartplotter Updates

Garmin and Navionics have joined forces in an ever-expanding ecosystem

My Garmin ECHOmap UHD 74cv is a wifi router but does not actually connect to the internet. You will still need your iPhone for the internet/download connection.

Active Captain (mobile app) and Garmin Express (desktop app) will work but require more steps. AT this point I prefer to be old school and use my laptop and MicroSD cards for updates to my chartplotter software and charts to my chartplotter.

This allows you to back up charts to your hard drive by downloading directly from the Garman website, then write to a SD card in your laptop, then install the card into your chartplotter.

OS UPDATES: Updating the operating system only requires 2-3MB of space. Use a smaller 16 MB disk instead of your chart disk if you want to save space on ypoor chart cards.

First download the latest operating system to your hard drive.

Then, update the the chartplotter software using a micro SD card:

• Turn on the chartplotter.
• After the home screen appears, insert the memory card into the card slot.
• NOTE: In order for the software update instructions to appear, the device must be fully booted before the card is inserted.
• Select Update Software > Yes.
• Wait several minutes while the software update process completes.
• When prompted, leave the memory card in place, and restart the chartplotter.
• Remove the memory card.

NOTE: If the memory card is removed before the chartplotter restarts fully, the software update is not complete.

CHART UPDATES: Charts are far more memory/disk space intensive that simple software updates. They are more costly too.

I only have one extra chart beyond the pre-installed US+Great Lakes Detail Map (version: 2020.0) and Quickdraw Contours Starter Map (version: 2021.0). I use VCA501L-Puget Sound-Dixon Entrance (version: 2021.0) for all Western Canadian waters. Vancouver-Island-Dixon-Entrance-Canada-Bluechart-G3-Vision, Part # 010-D0394-00. It currently costs $380 on clearance! These one time purchse charts seem to be on the way out, soon to be replaced by a subscription model.

Garmin is moving to a subscription-based model but I prefer to buy the crarts outright. You will need to use a 32GB card or larger. Be aware that also it may already have Canadian maps, in a folder simply named “garmin” and consume 11.45GB.

My 32GB micro disc also has a copy of the latest 2023.02.080 software (2.09 GB)

Active Captain gives you incremental over the air updates (if you have cell data service) but requires a dedicated SIM card, downloading the update to your phone or iPad, reconnecting to your chartplotter, and installing over the air wirelessly.

Garmin Express is a downloadable desktop app for downloading software and full charts.

Garmin Support

• support.garmin.com
• 913.397.0872 or 800.800.1020, M-F 7am-7pm CST
• Product.Support@garmin.com

2023 Maintenance

22 amazing years with the Peregrine.

Yanmar 3GM30F - 2156.6 hours - 01/01/2023

January

• Oil change with electric oil extractor/filter (TRICKS)
  • Use clear hose
  • Position drill and pump low and through the removed staircase opening
  • Blow on clear hose until you locate oil in sump
  • Attach clear hose to pump
  • Green hose to disposal container
  • Run drill at full speed clockwise
  • Measure extracted oil to ensure it's close to 2.7L DElo 400 SAE Viscosity 30W
  • Replace oil filter
  • Refill oil but don't overfill!
• Racor filter (TRICKS)
  • Shut off inlet valve feeding deisel to Racor
  • Remove T-handle and filter
  • Replace 2 O-rings and install new filter
  • Top off Racor by opening inlet valve slightly to allow deisel to fill to top
  • Reinstall T-handle
• Installed new Gusher manual bilge pump
• Raw water strainer flushed
• Corroseal on motor mounts
• All hose clamps tightened

February

• Wired black water tank sensor

March

• New starting batteries (house batteries new 5/20)
• Corroplex hatchway

April

• New Alpicool 23 Quart refridgerator
• New mirror on head door

May

• Hardwired forward battery charger
• Installed lighter plug receptical
• Installed red LED lights at nav station

June

• Haul out
• Remove dodger, hardware, etc.
• Deck paint
• Finish gelcoat on non-skid, deck, toe rails
• Bottom paint
• Boot stripe
• Marinetex chips on hull rail/topsides
• Inspect thru-hulls
• Kill rust/Corroseal under mast

August

• BlueSea AC Main 30A 120v circuit breaker
• Rule Bilge Pump Switch
• Sand Marinetex on topsides
• Repair paint chips in cockpit

To do list:

• Pull mast
• Mast paint
• Replace shrouds
• Replace spreader boots
• Remove vibration dampner
• Mast conduit
• LED Steamer light
• Gearbox seal
• Motor mounts (currently at 6mm)
• Anchor light/run wiring up pole
• Replace pumpout sanitation hose - 9' of 1" ID
• Replace vent sanitation hose - x' of 5/8" ID with new 90deg elbow
• Head inspection port
• Engine compartment drain
• Seal forward toe rail drain holes
• Add 1/4" aluminum backing plates to toe rails
• Diesel Heater
• Shrouds
• Mast wiring conduit
• Optimize solar panels

2022 maintenance »

2021 maintenance »

2020 maintenance »

2019 maintenance »

2018 (and earlier) maintenance »

Spot Shrimp Attack!

Area 10 West One Day Opening Delivers!

Area 10 regulations only allow for a 4 hour window (8am - noon) one day per year. We rarely limit at 80 spot shrimp but this year we did well. We 'soaked' 4 pots around 300 feet between 2.5 and 3.5 hours, only pulling them once. We must have been in the right place as we set our traps all in a line, roughly 50 yards apart. It was blowing 15 knots, switching from ebb to flood, with a max current of 3/4 knots. It was a pleasure to be able to handle the wheel (avoiding the dreaded line in the prop debacle) while the 3 man crew handled lines and traps.

Over the years we've refined our technique to use a block at the end of the boom and rig a preventer to hold the boom 3-4 feet out from the boat. Since we pull these traps by hand, we can use our stonger triceps (vs biceps), and keeps the traps away from the boat and the line away from the propeller.

Bait: This changes every year depending what I can find cheap. You are trying to create a soft mash that sends out a scent stream to attract your quarry. You want it thick, like mashed potatoes. Here's my basic recipe:

• Potatoe flakes (base for mash)
• Minimum two cans 12oz fish (mackeral or salmon)
• Dry cat food (fish flavor, preferally)
• 1-2 cups fish fertilizer (or Shrimp/crab fuel)
• Or just use cat food soaked in vegetable oil (frozen the night before)
• Adding fish heads/guts is always a good idea.

Cleaning your shrimp: Lots of videos out there but this way works best to remove the 'vein'.

• Remove their heads by twisting the tails from their heads
• Peal the shells off leaving the last two segments
• Pinch the tail and pull it upwards
• Slowly remove the tail from the meat
• This captures and removes the digestive track (vein) that runs down the middle of the tail

National Park Pass Access

Getting older can have its perks!

U.S. citizens and permanent residents age 62 or over can purchase a discounted senior National Park Pass. This pass allows access to pass owner and accompanying passengers in a single, private, non-commercial vehicle at Federal operated recreation sites across the country.

San Juan Islands Refuge consists of 83 rocks, reefs, grassy islands, and forested islands scattered throughout the San Juan Islands of northern Puget Sound. These islands, totaling almost 450 acres, were set aside to protect colonies of nesting seabirds, including pigeon guillemots, double-crested cormorants, and pelagic cormorants. They also attract a variety of other wildlife, including bald eagles and harbor seals. In order to help maintain the natural character of these islands, all the refuge islands except Matia and Turn are closed to the public.

The National Park Pass is good at these areas:

• Blind Bay
• Patos Island
• Turn Island
• Matia island
• English Camp Visitor Center - Westcott Bay

The passes are valid at more than 2,000 Federal recreation sites where Entrance or Standard Amenity Fee(s) (Day use fees) are charged by the following agencies:

• Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
• Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation)
• Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)
• USDA Forest Service (USDA FS)
• National Park Service (NPS)
• US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)l

Separate (and overlapping) from the National Park System is the Washington State Parks system which has the largest state-managed mooring system in the nation, with more than 40 marine parks and more than 8,500 feet of public moorage space. Northern moorage sites in the San Juan Islands and Southern moorage sites in Puget Sound.

Fees are charged year round for mooring at docks, floats, and buoys from 1 p.m. to 8 a.m. An annual pass is also available.

• Mooring bouys are non-reservable and first-come, first-served.
• The daily fee is 70 cents per foot, with a minimum of $15
• Moorage buoys is $15 a night
• Annual moorage permit is $5 per foot, with a minimum of $60

More info:

• List of all federal recreation sites
• Washington State National Parks

Harbor Porpoises

After nearly disappearing from local waters for decades, harbor porpoises are once again a common sight in Puget Sound.

Harbor porpoises have been detected as deep as 770 feet in the waters of the San Juan Islands. But they usually stay near the surface, coming up regularly to breathe. Some say their puffing sounds like a sneeze.

Common in our inland waters through the 1940s and ’50s, harbor porpoises virtually disappeared in Puget Sound south of Admiralty Inlet and Hood Canal by the early 1970s.

Entanglement in gill nets, which drowns the air-breathing mammals, vessel noise, and contamination from industrial pollution are all possible culprits, pushing the animals farther north in their range.

But beginning in about 2007, the sight of the quick slipslide of porpoises through the waters of Puget Sound has become common once again. In calm conditions, the animals can be seen everywhere from the Mukilteo ferry dock, to Burrows Pass near Anacortes, to the waters of West Seattle.

More info:

• Cascadia Research - Puget Sound Dolphins and Porpoises
• NOAA - Dall's Porpoises
• Wikipedia - Dall's Porpoises

Gray Whales in Puget Sound

Spotting whales is one of those things that grounds you in how beautiful life is and gives you a profound sense of gratitude.

Gray whales make one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, traveling about 10,000 miles round-trip and in some cases upwards of 14,000 miles between Mexico and Alaska. They are listed as endangered in the Pacific Ocean.

Grays can be almost 50 feet long as adults (15 feet at birth) and eat some of the smallest creatures in the sea. They use their baleen to sift massive amounts of shrimp from along the sea floor.

Between March and May we see some of these whales detour into the Stait of Juan de Fuca, into Puget Sound and into Saratoga Passage, off Everett and into Port Susan. This group of about 14 Grays started coming into the Sound around 1991. They are here to feast on the ghost shrimp and fatten up on their way to their prime feeding grounds up north in Alaska.

These Grays are known locally as the Sounders. They are a special group that has somehow discovered a secret stash of tasty treats in the shallow sandy waters around Whidbey Island. While many of their buddies starve to death before making it to Alaska this group found an all-you-can-eat buffet. It's not without some risk. These big guys wait for high tide so they can manuever their massive bodies into the shallows and scoop up hundreds of pounds a day of these treats. When the Sounders show up, they are hungrey and emaciated. Many of them might not have eaten for seven months. Some wanna-be Sounders follow the veteran Sounders but don't have the risk tollerance to muck around in the shallows and risk getting stranded.

More info:

• Cascadia Research Collective
• Gray Whale Identification Guide
• Seattle Times - Gray whales learn daring feeding strategy in Puget Sound: Digging for ghost shrimp at high tide
• NOAA - Gray Whales
• Wikipedia - Gray Whales
• Ghost Shrimp - Washington State Department of Natural Resources Report

Teak Oil Blues

Use Penofin for Beautiful Teak

After peeling off what seemed like miles of potato chipped varnish with a heat gun I promised myself I would never varnish again. After trying many different types of teak oil, I found Penofin Marine to be the best teak oil on the market. It actually has a rose wood oil base with a bit of wax which creates a long lasting, wet sandable finish.

Yes, there's no doubt it takes a lot of work. Between the annual cleaning, light sanding, emulsifying and oiling it might not save you time over varnishing, but to me the look of hand rubbed teak is worth it over the long term.

Here's my yearly maintenence scheme:

Winter: Around December the boat is looking a bit green so I usually try to wash the boat once every winter. I've discovered that a couple ounces of bleach mixed in with the boat soap kills the algae on the deck and when applied to the teak, can also slow the growth there as well.

Spring: I start with a good soap and water cleaning. I then apply oxcalic acid on a 3M pad to spread the granuals out over the teak. Use plenty of heavy duty rubber gloves. Let the oxcalic acid sit for 5-10 minutes, and re-wet with a fine spray if it starts to dry out too quickly. Then work the emulsified acid with the 3M pad rinsing often. The 3M pads do a great job of working the acid or a medium bronze wool works just as well. Rub and rinse, rinse and rub. Cleaning all the teak can take about 3 hours.

Oxalic acid is also great for removing rust and stains on the deck and hull.

Once clean and dry and warmer than 45 degrees, simply apply the Penofin with a nap-free cloth for a flat matte finish. Multiple coats may be wet-sanded with 400 to 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. Sand with the grain and keep the area wet to build a self-filling, hand-rubbed finish. Due to its unique penetrating abilities, any area that is scratched or stained may be repaired using the wetsanding method.

I may be more sensitive than most but can get a headache if I breathe too much of this stuff so use a respirator or keep yourself upwind.

Penofin's Marine Oil is non-yellowing, non-darkening and fast drying. No more sanding, scraping or stripping. Eliminates the cause of cracking and peeling. Best of all, no more varnishing.

• 550 VOC
• Two-coat application
• 99% UV protection via transoxide pigments
• Added high-grade mildewcide
• For use where wood is exposed to harsh conditions
• Translucent Natural