After being stuck in Customs for several days, my OpenWind instrument arrived yesterday. I bought mine through MauriPro here in the US, but OpenWind is a German company and my unit was shipped from there. While only time will tell, initially I am very impressed.
The solar powered transducer is at the top of the photo. It appears to be solidly built and came with a useful instruction manual.
Setup was a cinch. I put the unit in direct sunlight on our balcony for a half hour, which proved unnecessary. The battery was still fully charged. Turned the small on/off switch on the bottom to on. Downloaded the free OpenWind app from the Apple app store. Opened it and the unit instantly connected via Bluetooth. There is also an app for the Apple Watch. I installed it and have double read outs. Actually triple because it connects to my iPad Pro as well. Using the iPhone’s GPS, the OpenWind app can display SOG, COG, and other information in addition to apparent and true wind direction and speed. This has all been utterly painless. I am pleased and relieved. Connecting TackTick transducers to displays was often chancy and frustrating.
I can now view everything I need to navigate, except depth, on my iPhone, iPad and even my watch. Dick Tracy never had it so good.
The unit comes with a standard rail mount. I also bought an optional mast mount which may not have been necessary. It will enable the transducer to be mounted on the forward side of the mast. The top half of the rail mount can be used to mount the transducer on the mast top. I will try the rail mount first.
Elegant. Simple. And comparatively inexpensive. I can hardly wait to get it on GANNET. But I’m going to have to.
If you want to know more here is a link to OpenWind.
https://www.openwind.de/
I thank Andy for an excellent fifteen minute video about my favorite composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, but you already knew that, just as you know my favorite liquid, some of which I sipped last evening.
I had not heard of Rick Beato. Obviously others have. The video has been viewed more than a million times.
For what it is worth, I, who have no musical talent, agree entirely with his choices of Bach’s greatest compositions and listen to them repeatedly, most recently his Mass in B Minor over several evenings last week while Carol was watching what poses as the evening news.
Toward the end of the video Rick Beato mentions an hour and a half video narrated by Sir John Eliot Gardner, Bach: A Passionate Life. I watched it and have the temerity to believe it has some defects, including a psychologist who tries to judge Bach as she would an average man. He wasn’t. He may be the least average man our species has ever produced and he is, I believe, beyond her understanding and even imagination. Nevertheless I found the film interesting and entertaining. If that is not too much Bach, here is the link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o1DZPqqx-M&t=50s
Google again notified me that I am being talked about. This time it was a sailing forum in which a man was seeking a link to a free version of THE OCEAN WAITS. He said he had been ‘looking everywhere.’ Others said they had been too. Still others provided them with links. All they had to do was google my name, find inthepresentsea.com and it is there on the ‘books’ page. I would rather people buy my books, but if they can’t or won’t, almost all have long been available for free. I would have told them that, but to enter a comment I would have had to open an account and that was not going to happen.
Steve Earley is blushing. Mark Twain said, “Man is the only animal who blushes. Or needs to.” That seems perfectly straightforward, but when I googled to be certain I had the quote correct, I found several sites offering explanations. What is there to explain?
Steve has no need to blush, but he has advised me of glitches with viewing his track page and asked that I provide a new link.
Above is his position within the past five minutes. I think he has already had lunch.
Here is the link:
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