Downloading GRIBs to an iPad over Iridium

It took me a few goes to get this to work so it might be useful to give some tips on what to do, which are:

1. First get the iPad configured to talk to the AxcessPoint. Switch it on and then in the iPad settings under wifi select it. To use it with web there are also some http proxy settings - look under the iPad App help as to the server and port to use.

2. Connect the AxcessPoint to the Iridium phone and switch it on and wait for it to say registered

3. On the iPad open up iNaxX and centre the chart on the location you want GRID data for

4. Select the "Forecast" tab and then go into settings.

5. It is very important to grab as small a file as possible. Go for (say) 3 days with resolution 12 hours / 2 degrees over an area 20 x 20 deg

6. Select get data by AxcesPt then save

7. Select "Request GRIB": it will appear to dump you into the AxcessPoint App without doing anything but actually it has created an email for you.

8. When you're ready select send/receive email and it will send off the request

9. Wait a couple of minutes

10. Then do another send/receive email and you should get an email with the data as an attachment. If you select it then you should be able to open it in iNavX

Eh voila!

Iridium 9555 phone

For this trip we're taking the Iridium 9555 phone.

At the London Boat Show I asked around for packages and the cheapest option seemed to be to hire it. In the end I've got it for 2 months from these guys which was a bit longer than need be but it gave time to get used to it.

As explained in the previous post we're using it to download GRIBs onto an iPad. As the USB connection doesn't work with iThings we had to get an Iridium Axcess point wifi node together with Apps for the iPhone and iPad to drive it.

The Apps give email and web browsing tools that optimise use of the limited data rates available.

In addition you can send and receive texts which is useful so don't have to have the phone on all the time. There's even a web site to send texts which is very useful:
       http://messaging.iridium.com/

All these boxes require power, so it was important to get car charging adapters for all of them.

However now, fingers crossed, should be able to download GRIBs and find out what sort of weather we can expect to receive.

Full review on return.

Software review: iNavX for iPad

For the sail we're planning this summer we're planning on using a range of navigation tools, including paper and chart plotter, but also iNavX for the iPad.

The reason for not using a laptop was two fold: firstly we didn't have one available and secondly the iPad is actually easier to make waterproof (touching wood at this point). Combined with the iNavX software it seemed to give a pretty flexible tool.

So far, checking it out on land, I've been impressed. Its not like Navionics just a chart display program as allows you to define waypoints and routes plus download GRIBs of weather information including wind strength and direction and wave heights.

To get the GRIBs while offshore a satellite phone is needed and in this case we used an Iridium phone. The standard USB cable doesn't work so instead we used the Iridium Axcess point which turns the phone into a very slow wifi hotspot.

Again a bit of practice was required but it seems to do the job.

To download charts for Europe you need an X-traverse account, but then its pretty straight forward. You have to buy online and then download within the application and then they get backed up to you computer which is a bit backwards but I'm blaming Apple's 30% AppStore cut for that.

My only grievance is that you have to buy them twice if you want it to be both on your iPhone and iPad which is a bit cheeky if you ask me.

Anyhow looks like being a good option for offshore sailing and will report back after return.

Blogging by email

I have spent the day buying 175 litres of diesel and stacking up four Tescos trolly loads of food and water so feel I deserve a "gud" (as its pronounced up here) cup a tea.

It also seemed like a "gud" time to try the promised email to blog feature while waiting for my lemon lemon cake to arrive.

Tomorrow we set sail, though I'm hoping for an hour or two to see highlights of the Orkney, in particular the pre-historic monuments.

Sent from my iPad

Off sailing....

... will post again where and when its possible.

There's also a couple of posts scheduled during the week.

Shopping for sailing

Tillerman spotted I haven't done much sailing this year.

But I have an excuse - I've been shopping, including the following:

• Charts from three countries
• Almanacs & tide tables ditto
• Assorted pilot books 
• Life jacket (above) and harness
• Musto base layers
• iPad and iPhone waterproof case
• iNavX for iPad with electronic charts
• Iridium 9555 satellite phone lease
• Iridium AxcessPoint and iPad software
• Cigarette lighter adapters for all widgets
• Additional camera battery & memory card
• Findfast 210 PLB and buoyancy kit
• Gloves and hat

Since then I've been busy getting all the widgets to work together and next I'll have to write some proper blog reviews (obviously).

There's surely no time to go sailing, is there?

iPhone vs DSLR

I was standing on the shoreline this evening looking out at the Gulf of Finland and there was this rather nice old boat sailing by.

I took a picture with the iPhone (above) and then with a Canon 550 DSLR with 300 mm lens (below) to see what how they compared to help Tillerman with his question.

While the DSLR might be heavier there is a good reason why I lug it around.

Photographic tip

Most old towns look even better with a couple of tall ships moored in the harbour.

Also helps if its sunny.    

Diamond Jubilee: Buff's sad story

G'day all! Buff Staysail here! Buff by name and Buff by nature!

Jeez, what can I say? It's not my fault, really, its that Laser.

It was all going so well despite the pommy rain, nipping in between the boring motor boats, having a laugh about how those rowers "do it backwards" until just after going under Tower Bridge (how cool was that?) I realised we were about to pass the Queen.

Obviously I wanted to do the right thing so stood up to salute at which point the stupid boat tipped over. I mean, honestly, who designed such a ridiculous thing?

So I goes head first into the drink - no dry capsizes here - but Buff had done this before, sort of, so knew the drill. Something about standing on the dagger board and then clambering in as it comes up.

Well I got back on-board ok, but felt this cool air around my privates and rain drops on my bum: my shorts and boxers had stayed in the Thames!

Fecking jeez was that police boat angry. You'd have thought the Queen hadn't seen an arse before.

Before you could say "transported for life" I was hauled away and spent the rest of the afternoon "at her majesty's pleasure".

This is a humbled Buff Staysail, just wanting to hand back to JP asap, over and out!

Diamond Jubilee: Buff's in the flotilla!

G'day all! Buff Staysail here! Buff by name and Buff by nature!

Yes, you heard that right - Buff has a place in the once in a lifetime - jeez, who am I kidding - once in three hundred years event!! The 1,000 boat Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the Thames - or regatta, I'm so excited I can't work out which - will now include yours truly.

I was just doing my journo bit, pounding the towpath getting quotes from the organisers and participants when what should I hear but "Laser for Mr Tillerman? Laser for Mr Tillerman?"

As a celebrity sailor and one time attendee on the Tillerman Laser Master's Course it was clear where my duty lay.

"Here I am" I said. "I'm Tillerman."

After signing a few forms the Laser was mine and I headed out onto the Thames, ready to play my part!!

Come back tomorrow to hear how it went!

This is Buff Staysail, Queen's Diamond Jubilee pageant participant, over and out!!


ps - sorry JP, won't be able to do that live commentary. But don't worry, I've a web cam all set up

Boats and Bunting

Today I had a meeting in town, a tough one, but there were two silver linings.

Firstly the time and location meant I could get the Putney river bus into central London, following the same route as the Queen will on Sunday. Both banks were lined with red, white and blue, what must have been miles of bunting.

Secondly after it finished I could spend my lunch hour wandering around London and Tower Bridges camera to hand where the first of the Parade of Sail were arriving.

So here are a couple of pics for you:

Bonus marks for identifying the boats and their history.

It was all a lot quieter up river between Putney and Hammersmith, where the boats are due to arrive tomorrow:

Diamond Jubilee Fever

London is going Queen's Diamond Jubilee crazy!

Bunting is going up in shops and across roads, street parties are being planned by the thousands, stores are advertising everything from Pimms (oh, yes please) to coloured cupcakes (no thanks).

There's a whole 4 day weekend of events from racing (horses that is), mega gig outside Buck P. (questionable line up if you ask me), carriage procession, church service (its not all fun), a flyby (writing QEII in the sky) and finally the real QEII herself on the balcony to do her waving thing.

Of course the highlight is the 1,000 boat pageant of boats on the Thames: as many ships for one woman as when Helen of Troy made Paris's heart go into thumping overdrive.

A lot more information is available out there, from the BBC's dedicated subsite to the newspapers (e.g. the Guardian's downloadable map here. Techies might be interested to note its being hosted on Google Drive), London focus sites like LondonTown.com have their own take here and of course the official site here.

On the Thames Jubilee Pageant site as well as the map shown above you can also find a lot of information about some of the boats taking part including:

• Fireboats
• Dunkirk Little Ships
• Avenue of Sail (which are separate and moored below London Bridge)
• Historic + Service boats
• Human powered boats (or at least that's what they should be called)
• Recreational motorboats
• Explore Vessels (not entirely sure what that means but they sound and look interesting)
• Narrowboats (I've seen them a few times)
• Kayaks (if rowers toss oars what do kayakers do?)
• Barges 
• Herald Music Barges (can they Handel the pressure - geddit???)
• Passenger Boats
• Royal Squadron

Plus without downloadable PDFs there are working boats, flags of the pageant and a whole swarm of police launches, RNLI orange specials, mean and menacing Royal Marines and the PLA to keep everyone in order.

Phew! What a list! Should be absolutely amazing even if the weather is threatening to be historically appropriate.

But I'm going to miss almost it all.

Ah well, there'll be another one in 350 years or so and Buff assures me that he has it all under control.

Nelson's Ship in a Bottle at its new home

While it was disappointing to find the Cutty Sark closed yesterday I took the opportunity while in Greenwich to see Nelson's Ship in a Bottle at its new home outside the National Maritime Museum.

And very good it looks too. It links the navy and empire with the peoples involved, combining a historic sailing ship with fabrics in a way that really works next to the new wing overlooking Greenwich Park (currently filled with Olympics preparations).

This evening there was a reception where its artist, Yinka Shonibare, gave a short talk about his thinking behind the work and what he wanted to achieve.

Make people think was one of his objectives, but maybe as important was to make a connection, for that is where it excels. It opens up the NMM to a wider audience and that can only be a good thing.

You can already judge its success by the steady stream of visitors having their picture taken with it in the background, at home as if it was designed for that location in mind rather than the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square.

The Cutty Sark is closed on Mondays

A top tip for those in London.

If the weather is great and you wonder if it would be worth taking Monday off work to visit the Cutty Sark, then don't.

The Cutty Sark is closed on Mondays.
 

The controversial restoration of the Cutty Sark

What could be controversial about restoring the beloved Cutty Sark?

It's a historic clipper, part of Britain's maritime tradition, as beautiful as it is functional in getting the first tea leaves back from China.

And yet the project has run into a host of difficulties and the decisions made created a storm equal to anything she saw when rounding Cape Horn.

The trouble was that the Cutty Sark was in a mess, even before it went up in flames. The iron frame had corroded away into thin air, her bones into dust. Resting the hull in a dry dock had stressed it further, warping it out of shape. Wood had rotted, as wood will.

That meant the only options available would be both brutal and expensive - £ 50 million or so was spent re-building her, or rather creating something that looks like the Cutty Sark. For there is a spanking new steel frame on which the hull sits like a 650 tonne coat on its hanger - but it is essential given the ship has now been lifted 3 metres into the air.

It isn't therefore something that could be sailed: it is an exhibit, and some are not at all happy. Indeed the Telegraph called the restoration a grade A turkey. Must admit there are worrying aspects - in particular the top deck is not authentic wood but instead uses modern composites.

I've yet to see for myself (planned for next week) but I have just watched this excellent BBC documentary: "Cutty Sark, a National Treasure Reopened". It reveals that in addition to the technical issues there were serious failings in management.

I'm very much looking forward to exploring the reborn Cutty Sark so I can see for myself whether the right decisions were made.

Book Review: Bounce, the myth of talent and the power of practice

Do you want to race as well as Ben Ainslie?

It sounds impossible, super human performance out of reach to us lesser mortals, but this book by Matthew Syed shows how it could be achieved.

Alas the starting point for the über athlete is childhood, so if those days are a dim memory you're going to be disappointed.

The key task is practice and lots and lots of it. The expert (for its not just about sport) typically has 10 years practice or maybe as much as 10,000 hours.

Its also got to be the right sort of practice, the sort that stretches you outside your comfort zone. As important is feedback, to learn from mistakes, and often these two come from being part of a small highly competitive group.

Motivation is also key, to keep going and it helps if practice is not a burden but a pleasure. As an example the author notes how a top skater could have fallen as many as 20,000 times, but every time she picked herself up and kept going.

One important lesson is to praise effort rather than natural skills. In an experiment by Carol Dweck in 1998 students were split into two groups and give a test. Afterwards one group was told "you must be really smart" and the other "you must have worked really hard" and then asked if they wanted to do an easy or difficult task.

The results were dramatic with the first group choosing to do the easy one, fearing to do badly and hence found out as not smart while the latter more likely to rise to the challenge and choose the harder. In addition when given another test those given the smart compliment scored 20% lower while the workers scored 30% higher.

Matthew Syed is clearly one to favour nurture over than nature, arguing that our minds are sufficiently plastic to learn almost anything.

That is great, as it means anyone could excel; but it is also sad, because so many don't.

Towards the end the book flags a bit and I did wonder whether information that didn't fit the story had been excluded (e.g. given two groups which both had practised equally wouldn't there even be the possibility of genetic factors influencing who wins?).

However its a great read, in particular for those that involved in training or motivating the young.

Jeremy Rogers and son, boatbuilders

Its the middle of a long weekend and we're peering into the battery compartment of a Contessa 32, trying to understand the numbers on the voltmeter.

But despite it being Sunday lunchtime we're not alone - we are joined by not one but two generations of boat builders.

That's what I call good service.

Playing at sailing

Over at the Proper Course Tillerman's theme this month is playing.

Playing gets a bad rap, kids stuff. Maybe its the way we use the word, to mean muck about, as if not serious, just going out and tacking at random before heading in.

But that's not what children actually do: play is much more complicated than that. There are whole worlds in which they are pirates or astronauts, there is action and drama, conflict and resolution.

Of course we could follow their lead and "play" we're Long John Silver (or Ben Ainslie or Ellen MacArthur or whoever is your hero) instead of taking the boat out for a day sail, but that feels odd.

One of the objectives for kid's play is to practice being grown up and we no longer have that excuse. Indeed life is now more serious as we are deep in the territory when we realise that this is not a drill - this our one time around.

However for kids practising being grown up isn't why they play, its just the benefit. The reason they play is to have fun, and that's something we can do too.

Whether its beating the opposition to the start or sailing to one of the remote untouched corners of the world or just admiring the glistening light on the waves sailing brings many pleasures.

Some are only apparent afterwards, when we must pay with pain, cold and tiredness for a wealth of memories or experiences.

But we chose to do that, because we want to.

And that makes it play, of the best sort.

A label promising much....

Blogging the Olympics - or not?

This summer is of course the Olympics and I have a couple of tickets to the sailing.

It will be great to see the world's best sailors compete together on home waters (and hopefully see blighty win a few more golds) and then blog about it afterwards - or so I thought.

Apparently the following warning is being printed on all Olympic tickets:

"Images, video and sound recordings of the Games taken by a Ticket Holder cannot be used for any purpose other than for private and domestic purposes and a Ticket Holder may not license, broadcast or publish video and/or sound recordings, including on social networking websites and the Internet more generally."

Wow - that's really restrictive and backwards looking.

London is a tech centre, home of start-ups & media friendly, and the mobile operators are already boasting how much 3G coverage the Olympic site will have (and reminding everyone that Beijing only had 2G) explicitly to support Facebook and blog updates.

There have already been signs of back pedalling with Olympic organisers admitting that:

"The internet has changed the world and we’re not going to be silly. But the reality is that we live in an Internet world where Facebook downloads and uploads are happening every day of the week and there’s not much we can do about it."

Anyhow I'm going to go ahead on the grounds that reading the restrictions with a fine tooth comb the issue is mostly with sound and video while for photography it simply mustn't be commercial.

As you might have noticed this blog is advert and hence revenue free so there'll be no commercial gain, but it does seem a bit ridiculous.

This is meant to be the big world-coming-together-unifying event but we're not meant to communicate about it.

That's just crazy.