Hilton Head Island: unpleasant things and some poems

 I have been doing unpleasant things with electronics for several days.

Our Internet went out last Thursday morning.  For the past two or three years we have had wireless internet with T-Mobile at a cost of $50 a month which is never supposed to be increased.  Of that we will see.  

Not to burden you with all the frustrating details, I spent hours Thursday and Friday on the telephone with T-Mobile support.  It was determined that our Gateway had failed and needed to be replaced by a newer unit anyway.  T-Mobile sent the unit over night.  Actually they sent two, but we don’t need to go into that although it required another phone call.  What they did not send was complete instructions on how to set up and activate the gateway.  More phone calls until finally one competent technician told me to remove the SIM from the new unit and replace it with the SIM from the old.  Hallelujah!  It worked.  Internet restored.

Then on Saturday the replacement depth finder was delivered.  I took it down to GANNET.  I had already removed the old unit.  I hoped it would be as simple as attached the wires to the new unit and it would work.  Again Hallelujah!  For a while.  The unit beeped and showed us in 13.1’ of water.

I turned the unit off and proceeded to mount it in place and then did another few minor tasks.  Just before I left GANNET I decided to turn it on again just to be sure.  Anti-Hallelujah.  Nothing.  No beep.  No numbers in the display.  Nothing.  I removed the wires and then reconnected them.  Still nothing.

I came home.

I went to GANNET this morning and checked some of the wiring.  I found a loose connection and hoped that was it.  I put a new crimp connector on the wires.  Nothing.  

Carol will go down with me tomorrow or the next day to help me trace wires that require people on both sides of a bulkhead to follow.

The good news is that the Calypso wind unit continues to function and amaze.

When I first installed it the battery was at 17%.  The next day it was at 58% and the day after that 100% where it has stayed.  This is amazingly efficient, considering that there is no off switch.  The unit is always on.  Always measuring, calculating, transmitting, and the solar cell on the top is very small, not much bigger than two postage stamps.  I will be very happy if it continues to perform.

There is consolation in poetry.  I have needed some lately.

This from the tragic Scott return from the South Pole.

This from Lord Byron’s DON JUAN.

Of publishing, while I do not yet have a contract, I believe GANNET 6 has found a publisher.