Hi Guys,
The
sun came out today..... for the whole day! No sudden squalls, no dragging
anchors, no wind reversals, no muddy water filled with logs and other
rubbish...... just beautiful clean ,clear water , in a pretty bay...... into
which every other yacht in the Marquesas seemd to home in on today. Not
surprising, really as it is rated as one of the most beautiful in the
Marquesas, and today we saw why! I was able to dive on the hull, clean it up,
and was delighted to find that not one barnicle had been able to keep up with us
from Panama! The Gooseneck Barnacles that one picks up along the way, on the
waterline, seem to hate fresh water, and had all fallen off.... Given the
amount of rain we have had , the Pacific bust be turning into a fresh water
lake in places! We went for a long
snorkel along the one side of the bay, and were surprised at the different
variety of tropical fish species we saw. Some we recognised easily, but others,
like birds, had the right "giz", but were coloured differently!
We also
managed agood nights sleep for once, and it makes a difference! We are looking
at one more day here, hopefully equally lovely, and are then looking to head
straight to Nuka Hiva, where we can get stuck into fixing the sail, and having
good enough email to finalise things with Quantum, re the new mainsail( Do we
have to pay duty as a yacht in transit,,, what are the freight costs etc). We
also need to find out from Mastervolt if they have an agent in Tahiti to fix
the Chargemaster, or can they help me to diagnose and fix the problem
myself! And.....Raymarine never replied
to my email to them from Galapagos. They clearly have a software problem in
their CW90 w model chartplotters. When I sent my old one to them ,in
desperation after 3 of their sugested solutions, , they returned it ,
apparantly fixed, at no charge. When it failed again on the very first time I
used itfrom Panama to Las Perlas, I demanded to know what they had found to be
the problem, and what they had done to fix it. It crashed again 7 times on the way
to Galapagos. They told me that they had agreed that there WAS a problem with
my unit, and had therefore replaced it with a new one unde,r warranty.Guess
what?It has the same problem... It crashes every time one uses the "track
function" or the" Follow route function". When challenged, they
wanted to know the serial no.s of all my other Raymarine products, and the
software versions, "to help me identify my problem"! They keep
missing the point.... I dont have a problem.... THEY DO!! Having failed to get any response from
Raymarine, I decided to dothe 3000 mile crossing, without evert using the
"track" function, or the "follow route" function,, and
guess what......? No problem... , apart from about 4 "Data management
system failure... position fix lost", After a few minutes, that seems to
fix itself alright. They have got a caching up problem with both their
"Track" and" follow" software in the C90W, and although the
agents in RSA acknowledge this,headoffice in USA do not They are happy to drive
thei rmodel boats around the office blocks ducking responsibility,, instead of
supporting the customers who actually depend on their products! I will keep
harrassing these guys until they extractus digitus! I will be reporting this as
a "repeated, and unsolved Raymarine product failure " to the Pacific Puddle Jumper
folk at" Latitude 38"in my report back. I have now sailed 9000miles
with this model chartplotter, and feel its time they did something other than duck and dive! Happily , I have a Garmin and a computer to back me up, neither of
which have given me any hassles!
Enough moaning about Raymarine now, I'm in search of peace and
tranquility, great sailing, and new hoizons ! We got a taste of the nice side
of the Marquesa today! Lets hope we find a lot more!
Love and regards to all, Rod & Mary,Hana Moe Noa Bay, Marquesas
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