Photo Tour of the boat

In response to requests from our readers to see more photos of the boat, I have posted a few photos.   It did require cleaning the boat and finding internet.  Both are tough jobs.   My tips for cleaning an Antares are to get on your hands and knees.   I use swiffer cloths for the wood and no soap.   (Yes, I am shocked that I am sharing cleaning tips, but this is the new Jason. Sorry, no photos.)   The second tip is to keep shoes off the boat.  Not even on tip-toes.   To fight bugs, we have dunked our fruit and vegetables in the ocean before they came aboard.   Bananas seem a great place for a village of odd bugs to live.

Another cleaning quandary is how to rid the boat of the new boat smell.   The boat closets leach a strong freshly made fiberglass odor.   It is so strong that cracker stored without a lid will taste like fiberglass.   Our solution is to air out the cabinets when in calm harbors.   Smarter tips from our readers?

Here is the photo of the navigation station.   We use it as the office desk while at anchor.   There is a great view of outside through the windows.   I kept an eye on Gail while she paddle-boarded from here yesterday.   What are all the electronics?   Left to right:

Iridium Extreme Satellite Phone:  Primary use: emergency phone,  Secondary use: very slow dowload of weather files.   The phone is in a cradle to access an outside antenna, but it can be used like a cell phone from the life raft if the worst happens.

Vesper AIS:   Primary use:  brains for our AIS.  This nifty device listens for short radio messages in electronic format from other boats with their location, speed, name etc.   It then puts this data on the network so all electronics can use it to avoid contact.  It also sends out data about Two Fish.    Vesper or Furuno brand AIS?   Vesper looks much cooler but needs an anchor alarm application ASAP.

Furuno Autopilot:   You can steer the boat from inside using a little knob.   Would not try this for docking but in cold weather, away from other big objects, it is a great option.

Speaker for Single Side Band radio:  Yup, it is a speaker.

VHF radio:   Used for chatting with nearby boats.   Everyone should be listening to channel 16.   And then we switch to another open chanel for longer chats.   “Huge supertanker, this is Two Fish”   “Two Fish this is the Super Carbon”  “Please continue on 71”

SSB radio:   Should be useful for long distance communication.   We have not tried it yet.

Black strip with white writing in second row:   Various places to plug in to the other satellite phone (KVH v3), TV, stereo and such.

White object in second row:   Modem for the SSB.   We will try that soon.