An Apple A Day.....

On the day of The Great Holding Tank Disaster (GHTD) Cheri and I were putting together a new computer for La Vida Dulce.  We took the time to look into software that was available for navigation and other things that would be needed from the boat's point of view.  It quickly became apparent that everything out there is PC based which makes sense since the world revolves around Windows.  Unfortunately, I am sick and tired of everything Microsoft and couldn't stand the thought of having to deal with another PC and all the frustration that traditionally goes with it.  My brother-in-law converted over to a Mac last year and he loves it.  He showed it off to me recently and I felt like I was looking at a real solution.  I envisioned hours of internet use without having Explorer hang up.  Woohooo!  Yes, I know, there are other browsers available.  I use Mozilla at work and it's way better than IE.  Never-the-less, the whole mentality of "get it into production now and fix the problems later", which is pretty much the mantra of anything PC, has driven me to the edge.

So we jumped.  We looked at Mac laptops but the gazillion dollar price tags scared us off.  The all-in-one desktop was really cool but pricey too and the monitor was too big to use at the Nav Station.  Then we saw the Mac-mini.  This has everything I wanted wrapped up in a small 8" x 8" x 2" box:

• 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 2GB memory
• 320GB hard drive
• 8x double-layer SuperDrive
• NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics
• Mac OS X Snow Leopard

  You can add up to 8GB memory and a 500 GB hard drive but the base product is plenty for our needs.  It's really built for hooking up to your home theater and that works out fine for us.  We've set it up with a Samsung 23" LCD monitor on a Bretford desk mount at the Nav Station.  We went with the Apple wireless keyboard and mouse to keep everything clean, plus the keyboard is 1/2 the size of a regular one, which is perfect for using on the boat.  The monitor draws just 45 watts and the Mac mini draws 85 but drops to 10 watts in sleep mode.  Also perfect for the boat.  We wanted to have a 37" flat screen in the forward stateroom and a smaller screen in the Main Salon.  The Mac mini will support both at once.  Cool!  We'll have music, movies and TV over the internet using Pandora, Netflix and Online-television.tv.  This'll serve us well until we finally head away from the mainland and by then I hope to have all our music on a hard drive.  I don't expect we'll spend too much time watching TV or movies at that point.

We mounted the arm for the monitor at the Nav Station.  It's bolted down to the desktop and is stiff as a brick.  It kinda resembles the mast so I can pass it off as being a continuation of the interior design motif.  Right.  Like she'd really buy that.  The monitor is black framed and just kinda disappears against the instrument panel, at the same time hiding all the switches and gadgets from view.  For access to anything you simply pull the monitor out of the way.  I plan to add a hook to the cabinet with an eye mounted to the arm so I can lock down the monitor while we're underway.  Where it's mounted, the monitor can be turned for viewing from anywhere in the Galley or Main Salon.  All the wiring for the Mac is run through the Nav Station cabinet so it's a really clean installation.  Plus the Mac mini can be run by a remote control so it'll be nice for sitting back and watching TV or movies.  Oh yeah, one more thing.  The Mac can run Windows based software so now I've got the best of both worlds.

I actually got to use the Mac mini for about 2 hours before the GHTD but we've been off the boat ever since.  Bummer.  My short experience with it has been all positive.  I think it's gonna be a real breath of fresh air after years of dealing with Microsoft.  And let me tell you, a little fresh air is really needed right now.

On Saturday, 7/3, we sailed up to Gratitude.  We had originally planned to go there for 3 days so we could take in the fireworks and visit with my cousin's family; Steve, Vicki and Brandon Ward.  Now with the GHTD our plans had changed.  We were too mortified to have anyone come visit.  I mean, I want people to visit the boat and walk away with memories of a pleasant sail on our beautiful boat.  Right now they'd walk away with memories of dirty diapers.  Yuck!  So we canceled our social visit and turned the trip into a delivery.  We'd leave the boat so that repairs could begin the following week.  That meant that we had to drop off a car in Rock Hall the day before, requiring a 2 hour drive in each direction.  Love that Bay Bridge traffic!

We sailed up on Saturday with light winds, 6 to 8 knots, and averaged about 3.5 knots in speed.  It took us all day to get there, leaving Herrington Harbour at 0830 and arriving at Gratitude at 1930.  We had reservations for dinner at the Osprey Point Inn at 2000 which didn't leave us much time to tie up the boat and get ready.  Cheri hit the showers but I opted for a quick sponge bath.  We showed up at the inn just at 2000 and found that they didn't have us down for a reservation.  Not a problem though and they gave us a table for two in the best part of the room.  This place is really fine dining, gourmet in fact, and in my opinion is one of the best places to eat in Maryland.  Highly recommended.  After dinner as we walked out to the car we could see the start of the fireworks display over the tree tops (they do them on the 3rd in Rock Hall).  We hurried back to the marina and hiked out to the end of the stone jetty.  We had a perfect view across the water of the display going off just a few blocks away.  What a sight, really beautiful.

We spent the night on the boat with every hatch and port opened up to a nice sweet breeze off the water.  In the morning we headed back to Silver Spring after stopping for some pancakes, eggs and coffee.  The weekend turned out to be very nice.  Now we're in the wait mode for 3 weeks.  Waiting to get our home back.  Waiting to get our life back in order.  Waiting to get some time in on the Mac.  And waiting to go sailing again on this awesome boat.   I just gotta say, even with the setback of the GHTD our life on La Vida Dulce is pure magic.