I was setting up a second entertainment system in the bedroom, and wanted something relatively simple, since I already had a full on receiver in the living room. On the other hand, I wanted some nice sound, and it turned out that the Vizio 5.1 Soundbar not only sounded relatively good according to reviews, but also had a subwoofer and satellite speakers giving a real surround experience.
Installation was relatively easy, though I ended up having to buy a soundbar mount just to get it to mount under the TV, since the TV was on an articulating mount. The satellite mounts are very well thought out, and I had no problems driving them into a drywall and then mounting them into the correct places.
The biggest problem with my relatively old LCD TV is that it does not pass through surround audio signal from HDMI to the speakers, so there's no point plugging in any of the digital outputs from the TV to the soundbar. That's no big deal, since the primary video driver to the TV is the PS4, which does have a digital output which does plug into the soundbar just fine.
What's nice is that the subwoofer is wireless, while it does also supply wired power and sound to satellite speakers.
As a result, I ended up with multiple inputs into the soundbar, with the TV driving one, the PS4 driving another, and of course, bluetooth connectivity for music. This works very well, but it does defeat the point of one of the features of the system, which is that you can train it to understand the volume commands from your TV's remote rather than using the remote that comes with the soundbar. It was just easier to train myself to use the soundbar's remote.
One nit-pick is that the increments on the sound is rather large, so you can easily go from too soft to too loud in just a couple of clicks of the remote. This is no big deal since you learn how to work with the system relatively quickly. Another nice thing to have would have been for the soundbar to take a passthrough HDMI input so that it could get full surround output from the PS4 without having to flip back and forth between inputs. But all that's relatively minor. The system works and I didn't have to buy a receiver.
The sound is rich and full, and even with just stereo inputs the system does use the subwoofer and the satellite speakers. It certainly sounds much better than the TV's built-in speakers, and of course, when playing games on the PS4 you get the full surround experience, which is exactly what you want.
Recommended.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Monday, December 22, 2014
Virgin Islands 2014 Wrap Up: Equipment Reviews
After this past trip, I found the following pieces of equipment particularly useful:
- Anker 40W 5-Port Desktop USB Charger: This was an amazing piece of equipment, charging all the electronics plugged into the boat over the 2 hours a day of engine time we had. Since the only power available on the boat was during those 2 hours and through an inverter with only 2 power plugs and 2 USB ports, this was huge.
- Sony RX100: When I first got the RX100, I was mad at Sony for charging through a slow micro-USB port, rather than a fast brick charger like all the other cameras. This trip made me see the light. While other cameras would have hogged the sole inverter on the boat, this camera happily lived off the Anker charging port, and got plugged in often enough that battery life was never an issue.
- Monoprice Waterproof RX100 Camera Dive Housing: Cheap and worked. Enough said.
- T-mobile international roaming plan: Last time, we paid for an expensive internet device that didn't work half as well as our smart phone roaming on T-mobile's international plan. Posting to Facebook, shopping for Black Friday, this plan held up and did good. The only moment of irritation was when we visited St. John and found that we were on U.S. roaming data, which ironically was only 50MB of data! But once back in British waters, we were once again in happy land. Highly highly recommended. T-mobile deserves to continue to eat market share from the other carriers.
The following piece of equipment was disappointing:
- RAVPower 10400mAh: Don't get me wrong. Having an external battery was very useful. But this particular one charged very slowly and frequently left me without power. I would have appreciated a faster charging one like the one Arturo got. The slow charging didn't bother me at home, but bothered me a lot on the trip.
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Review: Silicon Dust HDHomeRun
I'm a notorious cheapskate who refuses to pay for TV. I installed a large TV antenna on my roof, and then ran cables to various parts of the house. But I still had a problem, which is that regular TV is a terrible UI. I hate using paper TV guides, and searching online gave me random results. Furthermore, video from the TV isn't portable: you can't watch it from your smart phone, computer, or tablet.
Amazon recently had a sale on the Silicon Dust HD HomeRun, which solves all the above problems and then some. Basically, this is a device that provides 2 tuners over the network for all your compatible devices, which includes your PCs, Android devices, and even some game consoles.
The coolest thing about this is that all the other non-TV devices provide better UIs for TV than the TV. With a Windows PC that has Windows Media Center, you even get automatic video recording features, including pausing live TV and ad-skipping. Not only that, the tv guide on Windows Media Center gives you search capability, as well as "automatically record all shows in the series." The UI is is as good a UI as I want.
The device comes with 2 tuners, meaning you can record one show while watching another, or have 2 different PCs/tablets/etc. watching different programs.
For $90, it enables us to make full use of the TV antenna, and has no monthly fees. Recommended.
Amazon recently had a sale on the Silicon Dust HD HomeRun, which solves all the above problems and then some. Basically, this is a device that provides 2 tuners over the network for all your compatible devices, which includes your PCs, Android devices, and even some game consoles.
The coolest thing about this is that all the other non-TV devices provide better UIs for TV than the TV. With a Windows PC that has Windows Media Center, you even get automatic video recording features, including pausing live TV and ad-skipping. Not only that, the tv guide on Windows Media Center gives you search capability, as well as "automatically record all shows in the series." The UI is is as good a UI as I want.
The device comes with 2 tuners, meaning you can record one show while watching another, or have 2 different PCs/tablets/etc. watching different programs.
For $90, it enables us to make full use of the TV antenna, and has no monthly fees. Recommended.
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Review: The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2014
I stopped reading Year's Best story collection a few years back, when being a subscriber to Asimov's would basically net you half the book anyway, so I always felt like I was wasting my money. This year, I tried again, reasoning that my Asimov's subscription had lapsed, and that if I selected Rich Horton instead of Gardner Dozois as the editor I'd get a wildly different selection than I used to, and would get different stories.
I was only partly right. The first half of the book was very good, and the entire collection only includes 3 stories from my current short-fiction magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (the Extended Edition of this magazine is the only magazine I subscribe to through the Kindle --- the value for money is simply unbeatable!).
The second half of the book, however, dragged down and had many more misses, some of which felt really lame. At $6.99, you're not out a lot of money for this book, but the time spent slogging through some of the stories are better spent elsewhere. Not recommended and disappointing.
I was only partly right. The first half of the book was very good, and the entire collection only includes 3 stories from my current short-fiction magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (the Extended Edition of this magazine is the only magazine I subscribe to through the Kindle --- the value for money is simply unbeatable!).
The second half of the book, however, dragged down and had many more misses, some of which felt really lame. At $6.99, you're not out a lot of money for this book, but the time spent slogging through some of the stories are better spent elsewhere. Not recommended and disappointing.
Friday, December 19, 2014
Virgin Islands 2014: Learnings and Conclusions
The biggest thing I learned this time was to stow away the mooring lines until you need them every time. Losing a prop was a scary proposition and while I don't think we did too much damage, on a mono hull we would have been forced to moor and anchor via sail, which is not a very safe thing to do. It's a good thing that we charted a Catamaran.
This was my first time using a second tier charter outfit like Conch Charters. Overall, their customer service was nothing short of amazing, better than most tier one outfits like Horizon, Dream Yacht Charters, CYOA or Anacortes Yacht Charters. Balanced against that is the age of a 10-year old Catamaran that's been in heavy use. If, for instance, we'd decided to go to Jost Van Dyke first and then over to St. John (which is a better itinerary since provisions were cheaper there!), the engine trouble we had right at the beginning would have been very costly in terms of time. Having an engine that wouldn't start right at the end of the trip when we were due to return the boat was also disturbing. I'm very glad that I chartered with Conch only after having extensive sailing experience with others, since an engine failure on any of the other trips would have caused me to tear my hair out. Overall, I'd still recommend Conch, since not all their boats had the troubles we had.
The third thing I learned was that the clearing of customs between the BVI and U.S. VI is much less bad that I'd remembered from 2007. That time, I was new to the area, and didn't know which harbors had little traffic and were easy to work with. This time around, I knew to work with Jost Van Dyke and Cruz Bay, and had zero problems, going very fast. On the return, if we'd gone to Virgin Gorda, it would have been easy as well.
Finally, I was concerned about Bowen on the sailboat, but I needn't have been. The boy's a born sailor and loves it. It's inevitable that at the end of every ride at Disney World, I'd ask him if he enjoyed the ride, and he said, "Yes." "Do you want to repeat it?" "No." Sailing has been the one activity where now if I asked him to go sailing, he would say, "Yes." Much have been made in the press and on blogs about the challenges girls have in school and what-not. To my mind, boys have a much tougher time in schools, etc. Boys don't like sitting down for a long time, and frequently have difficulty with an indoor life, yet there's next to no literature about this, and nobody seems to care. On a sailboat, however, Bowen blossomed, taking care of himself better, and in general learning to overcome his fear of water, exploring the Baths, and so forth. I understand better now why some families opt to live on a boat for years at a time, though I have no desire to do so. This style of travel does seem eminently suited for boys, and if you have one you owe it to him to give it a try, provided he's not the type to get sea-sick.
The Virgin Islands is one of the few places on the planet that I'd say are worth repeated visits to. (The other place, of course, is the Alps) This time, I finally saw some of the sights I missed the previous times, though a careful reading of the book indicated a few more than I missed, including the Fallen Jerusalem, which apparently has batholithic structures that rival those of the Baths. Nevertheless, I'd love to explore more of the Caribbean in the future, so am not likely to return for at least a few years. If you've never been there, do go, and do try to do it from a small sailboat rather than opting for a land cruise.
2 days after landing, I would lie in bed and would still feel the rocking experience of sleeping on a sailboat. That's how much I miss it. Recommended!
This was my first time using a second tier charter outfit like Conch Charters. Overall, their customer service was nothing short of amazing, better than most tier one outfits like Horizon, Dream Yacht Charters, CYOA or Anacortes Yacht Charters. Balanced against that is the age of a 10-year old Catamaran that's been in heavy use. If, for instance, we'd decided to go to Jost Van Dyke first and then over to St. John (which is a better itinerary since provisions were cheaper there!), the engine trouble we had right at the beginning would have been very costly in terms of time. Having an engine that wouldn't start right at the end of the trip when we were due to return the boat was also disturbing. I'm very glad that I chartered with Conch only after having extensive sailing experience with others, since an engine failure on any of the other trips would have caused me to tear my hair out. Overall, I'd still recommend Conch, since not all their boats had the troubles we had.
The third thing I learned was that the clearing of customs between the BVI and U.S. VI is much less bad that I'd remembered from 2007. That time, I was new to the area, and didn't know which harbors had little traffic and were easy to work with. This time around, I knew to work with Jost Van Dyke and Cruz Bay, and had zero problems, going very fast. On the return, if we'd gone to Virgin Gorda, it would have been easy as well.
Finally, I was concerned about Bowen on the sailboat, but I needn't have been. The boy's a born sailor and loves it. It's inevitable that at the end of every ride at Disney World, I'd ask him if he enjoyed the ride, and he said, "Yes." "Do you want to repeat it?" "No." Sailing has been the one activity where now if I asked him to go sailing, he would say, "Yes." Much have been made in the press and on blogs about the challenges girls have in school and what-not. To my mind, boys have a much tougher time in schools, etc. Boys don't like sitting down for a long time, and frequently have difficulty with an indoor life, yet there's next to no literature about this, and nobody seems to care. On a sailboat, however, Bowen blossomed, taking care of himself better, and in general learning to overcome his fear of water, exploring the Baths, and so forth. I understand better now why some families opt to live on a boat for years at a time, though I have no desire to do so. This style of travel does seem eminently suited for boys, and if you have one you owe it to him to give it a try, provided he's not the type to get sea-sick.
The Virgin Islands is one of the few places on the planet that I'd say are worth repeated visits to. (The other place, of course, is the Alps) This time, I finally saw some of the sights I missed the previous times, though a careful reading of the book indicated a few more than I missed, including the Fallen Jerusalem, which apparently has batholithic structures that rival those of the Baths. Nevertheless, I'd love to explore more of the Caribbean in the future, so am not likely to return for at least a few years. If you've never been there, do go, and do try to do it from a small sailboat rather than opting for a land cruise.
2 days after landing, I would lie in bed and would still feel the rocking experience of sleeping on a sailboat. That's how much I miss it. Recommended!
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Virgin Islands 2014: Sanders Bay to Tortola
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
We got out the dinghy, and went ashore to clear customs, and once again found the process easy, though with more hoops to jump through than either Cruz Bay or Jost Van Dyke. Nevertheless, we were done by 10:30am, though waiting for Conch Charters to get around to docking and de-briefing us took till 11:30.
Our trip was all over at this point, as was my responsibility for the Sail Pending. We hopped on the ferry back to St. Thomas, stayed overnight at the hotel, and the next day walked over to the airport to get on the plane back home.
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Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Virgin Islands 2014: Leinster Bay to Sanders Bay
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
Then, we motor'd over to Haulover Bay in search of another snorkel spot, but couldn't find any mooring buoys. My goal was to spend the night in Coral Harbor, so as to facilitate an easy sail back to Tortola to return the boat the next day. Arturo and Amy had spotted Eagle Shoal, a hard to find diving spot, so we raised the sails and headed over there, getting within 0.5 nautical miles by sail before I turned on the engine and asked for the sails to be dropped.
While dropping the sail, however, one of the mooring lines went into the water and wrapped around the starboard prop, and we could not get it unwrapped despite cutting the line both ways. That put a kibosh to any diving for the day, so we motor'd on one engine into Coral Harbor and tied up at the first mooring buoy we could find, even though it was private. I was getting good at mooring on only one engine, but this was not the way I wanted to end the trip!
Arturo put on scuba tanks and went down to cut the line, but couldn't make any headway with the knives we had on the boat. We took the dinghy ashore and there found someone who loaned us a rusty serrated knife. With those tools, Arturo finally got all the lines and any remnants off the prop. We called Conch Charters and they asked us to do a few basic tests and then okay'd us to continue, warning us not to motor on the starboard engine any more than necessary.
Getting off the private mooring buoy, we motor'd over to Coral Harbor proper but couldn't find a good anchor spot. I therefore opted to anchor off Sanders Bay instead. After dropping anchor, however, a dive check revealed that the area was too muddy to check the anchor properly, so I opted to stay on the boat instead while the others took the dinghy into Coral Bay Harbor for a look see. I took the opportunity to set up the BBQ, do some reading, and start rinsing gear in preparation for returning the boat. In exchange, I was rewarded with glorious views of a double rainbow as rain swept into the harbor.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
We had burgers that evening but didn't get much of a sunset as it was pretty rainy.
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Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Virgin Islands 2014: Sandy Spit to Leinster Bay
The morning revealed Sandy Spit to be empty, with only 3 boats choosing to anchor overnight there. This was a great anchorage, for not only was it sheltered, Little Jost Van Dyke and Green Cay were both uninhabited, so we had no mosquitoes, which were unwelcomed guests at Leverick Bay. We ate a quick breakfast and dinghy'd over to Sandy Spit, where we were the only group on the island, having it to ourselves until we left at 9:30am, whereupon a visiting boat dropped off a lone snorkler to add some company.
Occasionally, you would hear of people renting entire islands, such as Richard Branson's Necker Island for about $60,000 a night. These come with luxury accomodations, water toys, and all sorts of other things, including a large wait staff. But you can't pay for the experience of being on Sandy Spit or Sandy Cay by yourself, with nobody there (not even wait staff) while you walk around the island, snorkel, or build sand castles on a deserted beach. Even better, Sandy Spit had no mosquitoes (which was a problem on Sandy Cay in April), and was small enough to walk around even for a toddler. The only way to see such places is on a sailboat or tiny craft. Those who stay at land resorts don't get to visit such places easily, or overnight there and experience these gorgeous little places (such as the Baths) in solitude.
We had earlier debated doing more diving, or going over to St. John. I'd been very disappointed by the diving and the visibility of the water, so pushed for a visit to St. John, especially since my mom and Bowen wouldn't get very much out of diving spots. So we headed over to Great Harbor for a Mooring Buoy and Arturo, Amy, and I went over to the customs and immigration office to check out of the BVI to visit the U.S. Virgin Island of St John.
The checkout was relatively easy and painless, with an exit tax of $11. We then sailed most of the way to St. John's Cruz Bay, but discovered as we approached the harbor that the main sail would simply not come down! After a few failed attempts I gave up and motored into Cruz Bay with the main sail up and anchor'd off to the port where a few other boats were also anchored. There was only 4 feet of water below the Sail Pending, but since the Carribbean essentially has no tides, it was a reasonable temporary anchorage while we sorted out our problems.
I was all ready to get out the harness and go up into the mast to untangle the problem when Amy had the bright idea of pulling down on the reef line to pull the sail back down. Fortunately, this worked and I was saved the trouble of a hoist up the mast. Following that, we visited the customs and immigration office of Cruz Bay to check in (and out for December 2nd), and do some provisioning. Cruz Bay was tiny but there wasn't much to eat ashore from restaurants, so we chose to simply buy some ice cream and provisions and eat on the Sail Pending.
After that, we turned on the engines and headed back East along St. John. Eschewing Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay, I settled on Leinster Bay as a destination because of a short hiking trail available there, some ruins, and good snorkeling.
The hike took us to an old sugar mill that was relatively intact, complete with the windmill tower.
The hike took us the rest of the day, leaving us no time for snorkeling as we got back to the boat just as the sun set and it was time for dinner.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
Occasionally, you would hear of people renting entire islands, such as Richard Branson's Necker Island for about $60,000 a night. These come with luxury accomodations, water toys, and all sorts of other things, including a large wait staff. But you can't pay for the experience of being on Sandy Spit or Sandy Cay by yourself, with nobody there (not even wait staff) while you walk around the island, snorkel, or build sand castles on a deserted beach. Even better, Sandy Spit had no mosquitoes (which was a problem on Sandy Cay in April), and was small enough to walk around even for a toddler. The only way to see such places is on a sailboat or tiny craft. Those who stay at land resorts don't get to visit such places easily, or overnight there and experience these gorgeous little places (such as the Baths) in solitude.
We had earlier debated doing more diving, or going over to St. John. I'd been very disappointed by the diving and the visibility of the water, so pushed for a visit to St. John, especially since my mom and Bowen wouldn't get very much out of diving spots. So we headed over to Great Harbor for a Mooring Buoy and Arturo, Amy, and I went over to the customs and immigration office to check out of the BVI to visit the U.S. Virgin Island of St John.
The checkout was relatively easy and painless, with an exit tax of $11. We then sailed most of the way to St. John's Cruz Bay, but discovered as we approached the harbor that the main sail would simply not come down! After a few failed attempts I gave up and motored into Cruz Bay with the main sail up and anchor'd off to the port where a few other boats were also anchored. There was only 4 feet of water below the Sail Pending, but since the Carribbean essentially has no tides, it was a reasonable temporary anchorage while we sorted out our problems.
I was all ready to get out the harness and go up into the mast to untangle the problem when Amy had the bright idea of pulling down on the reef line to pull the sail back down. Fortunately, this worked and I was saved the trouble of a hoist up the mast. Following that, we visited the customs and immigration office of Cruz Bay to check in (and out for December 2nd), and do some provisioning. Cruz Bay was tiny but there wasn't much to eat ashore from restaurants, so we chose to simply buy some ice cream and provisions and eat on the Sail Pending.
After that, we turned on the engines and headed back East along St. John. Eschewing Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay, I settled on Leinster Bay as a destination because of a short hiking trail available there, some ruins, and good snorkeling.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
The hike took us to an old sugar mill that was relatively intact, complete with the windmill tower.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
The hike took us the rest of the day, leaving us no time for snorkeling as we got back to the boat just as the sun set and it was time for dinner.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
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Review: Garmin Inertia-based Speed and Cadence Sensor
My frustrations with the GSC 10 grew to the point where I'd pretty much given up on it, leaving it turned off on my single bike. I lived with it like this for a while, since I don't really need the cadence information, but having speed jumps all over the place and not having consistent speed readings was bothersome.
You can buy the speed/cadence inertia based sensors separately, but the package gives you $10 off. At $70, this is not cheap, but given the longevity of my other Garmin products, it seemed like a pretty safe bet.
The package comes with 2 sensors, one fat and short, and one long and skinny. The fat one goes around your front hub (or rear, if you like to use your bike on a trainer), while the skinny one goes on your crank. You pair it by selecting the speed and cadence sensor option (or just one or the other if you bough tone), and then ride off. It's as painless as it gets.
There is only one potential issue with the cadence sensor, which is that if you tend to scuff your crank, you might eventually wear out the rubber band. That's not a big deal for me, but it could lead to a loss of a sensor, which is expensive.
Both sensors take the CR2032 battery, the same as the heart rate monitors. That's very considerate of Garmin, and ensures that I can just stock one battery for most Garmin products.
Assuming that this sensor's going to be as reliable as other Garmin products, the replacement for the GSC 10 is much better and a worthy upgrade. Recommended.
You can buy the speed/cadence inertia based sensors separately, but the package gives you $10 off. At $70, this is not cheap, but given the longevity of my other Garmin products, it seemed like a pretty safe bet.
The package comes with 2 sensors, one fat and short, and one long and skinny. The fat one goes around your front hub (or rear, if you like to use your bike on a trainer), while the skinny one goes on your crank. You pair it by selecting the speed and cadence sensor option (or just one or the other if you bough tone), and then ride off. It's as painless as it gets.
There is only one potential issue with the cadence sensor, which is that if you tend to scuff your crank, you might eventually wear out the rubber band. That's not a big deal for me, but it could lead to a loss of a sensor, which is expensive.
Both sensors take the CR2032 battery, the same as the heart rate monitors. That's very considerate of Garmin, and ensures that I can just stock one battery for most Garmin products.
Assuming that this sensor's going to be as reliable as other Garmin products, the replacement for the GSC 10 is much better and a worthy upgrade. Recommended.
Monday, December 15, 2014
Virgin Islands 2014: Marina Cay to Sandy Spit
We got up early once again and headed over to Lee Bay, a short 20 minute drive away to dive in the little area. The mooring buoy looked questionable, but it was indeed tied down to concrete at the bottom, so it was safe for us to stay there and dive. The visibility in the water was disappointing, though we managed to see a large lobster and some shrimp.
After the dive, we motored over to Monkey Point, which was highly recommended in the sailing guide for good snorkeling, but disparaged in the dive guide as not being worth the time. We got there and picked up a mooring buoy and started snorkeling and yes, it was good snorkeling, though the visibility was till not great. There was even an interesting shore entry, and we got plenty of fish and other views.
We had an early lunch and then cast off to start our first long sail of the trip, a 9 nautical mile journey to Jost Van Dyke. This was only an hour and a half, though it was interspersed with rain. We got views of the North side of Tortola, as well as sights of the various places our charter company had forbidden us to go because of the difficult sea conditions found there.
On arrival near Jost Van Dyke, we spotted Sandy Cay, but upon reading the cruising guide closer, discovered that Sandy Spit was a suitable overnight anchorage, and looked just as inviting. We dropped anchor once, but then another boat left so we grabbed their spot closer to Green Cay, and dropped anchor again. While we managed to drop the hook into sand, the anchor chain itself was wrapped around a piece of coral, and Arturo had to snorkel down to unwrap it.
Given that Sandy Spit was more crowded at the moment, we decided to take the tender over to Foxy's and hike over to the bubbly pools. The hike was ok, though surprisingly long given its description as a "short walk". The bubbly pools wouldn't have been more exciting in north swell conditions. As it was the bubbles came only semi-frequently but it was enough to fascinate and excite Bowen.
Bowen fell asleep on the way back to the Sail Pending, so we dropped him and my parents off and snorkeled over to Sandy Spit for one last look at it. Then it was a beautiful sunset and we enjoyed dinner and the lovely views.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
After the dive, we motored over to Monkey Point, which was highly recommended in the sailing guide for good snorkeling, but disparaged in the dive guide as not being worth the time. We got there and picked up a mooring buoy and started snorkeling and yes, it was good snorkeling, though the visibility was till not great. There was even an interesting shore entry, and we got plenty of fish and other views.
We had an early lunch and then cast off to start our first long sail of the trip, a 9 nautical mile journey to Jost Van Dyke. This was only an hour and a half, though it was interspersed with rain. We got views of the North side of Tortola, as well as sights of the various places our charter company had forbidden us to go because of the difficult sea conditions found there.
On arrival near Jost Van Dyke, we spotted Sandy Cay, but upon reading the cruising guide closer, discovered that Sandy Spit was a suitable overnight anchorage, and looked just as inviting. We dropped anchor once, but then another boat left so we grabbed their spot closer to Green Cay, and dropped anchor again. While we managed to drop the hook into sand, the anchor chain itself was wrapped around a piece of coral, and Arturo had to snorkel down to unwrap it.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
Given that Sandy Spit was more crowded at the moment, we decided to take the tender over to Foxy's and hike over to the bubbly pools. The hike was ok, though surprisingly long given its description as a "short walk". The bubbly pools wouldn't have been more exciting in north swell conditions. As it was the bubbles came only semi-frequently but it was enough to fascinate and excite Bowen.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
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Sunday, December 14, 2014
Virgin Islands 2014: Leverick Bay to Marina Cay
It was time for a land excursion: despite visiting Virgin Gorda many times in the past, I'd never visited Gorda Peak, and Amy was itching for a hike, so at 8:00am we piled into the dinghy, and took a short taxi ride to Gorda Peak National Park where we told the driver to come back after an hour and a half when we saw that the trail was only 800m long.
The hike wasn't pretty, lots of rain forest amidst a steeply climbing trail, and even at the top the folliage covered up everything, except that the park service had built a viewing platform so you could climb up over the trees and look at the panaroma around you, and maybe even spot the boat.
Upon returning, we docked the boat against the fuel dock and acquired freshwater, got the dive tanks filled up, and then left to visit Prickly Pear Island for a snorkel and swim. We then ate lunch and headed over to the dogs for more diving. The first site we tried had too strong a current, so we visited a second site, called Billy Bronco, which lived up to its name.
By the time we were done it was 4:00pm and we made a beeline for Marina Cay, where we knew they would have mooring buoys to spare. It was nearly 5:00pm by the time we got there, and we got to watch the sunset from the boat this time in preparation for the long sail to Jost Van Dyke the next day.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
The hike wasn't pretty, lots of rain forest amidst a steeply climbing trail, and even at the top the folliage covered up everything, except that the park service had built a viewing platform so you could climb up over the trees and look at the panaroma around you, and maybe even spot the boat.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
Upon returning, we docked the boat against the fuel dock and acquired freshwater, got the dive tanks filled up, and then left to visit Prickly Pear Island for a snorkel and swim. We then ate lunch and headed over to the dogs for more diving. The first site we tried had too strong a current, so we visited a second site, called Billy Bronco, which lived up to its name.
By the time we were done it was 4:00pm and we made a beeline for Marina Cay, where we knew they would have mooring buoys to spare. It was nearly 5:00pm by the time we got there, and we got to watch the sunset from the boat this time in preparation for the long sail to Jost Van Dyke the next day.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Price Drop: How to Interview A Financial Advisor
It's been a year since the launch of How to Interview A Financial Advisor. The book's about matched my expectations, but it's the only one of my books that's really written for a general audience, and could potentially reach more people.
Effective today, I've reduced the price of the Kindle edition to $4.99, and the paperback to $11.99. Note that for the next few days, Amazon's running a promotion where you get to take 25% off any printed books by entering BOOKDEAL25 when you checkout, and the paperback qualifies.
I've also enrolled the book into Kindle Select, which means that it's also available to borrow if you have a Kindle Unlimited acccount or are a Prime member. This should further reduce the barrier to anyone wanting to read the book.
Happy Holidays!
Effective today, I've reduced the price of the Kindle edition to $4.99, and the paperback to $11.99. Note that for the next few days, Amazon's running a promotion where you get to take 25% off any printed books by entering BOOKDEAL25 when you checkout, and the paperback qualifies.
I've also enrolled the book into Kindle Select, which means that it's also available to borrow if you have a Kindle Unlimited acccount or are a Prime member. This should further reduce the barrier to anyone wanting to read the book.
Happy Holidays!
Virgin Islands 2014: Marina Cay to Leverick Bay
Much of the good diving in the area near Marina Cay was near the Dogs, a small cluster of islands between Tortola and Virgin Gorda. The most famous was the plane wreck at Great Dog in the Coral Gardens. According to the book, it was tough to find, but we had the fortune to get there just as another dive boat arrived, and Arturo snorkeled around to pre-scout the site, so he could lead us to the plane.
The wreck was a lot of fun, but we also saw sting rays on the return to the Sail Pending. We then went over to the Pinnacles, another dive site literally around the corner, which was known for good snorkeling. A quick snorkel told me that the place was over-rated and I opted out of the dive, but Amy and Arturo went ahead with it, and reported that the surge and terrain made it fun, but there wasn't much else to see.
We then headed over to the Bitter End Yacht Club, which I had missed the previous visit, and there to our dismay discovered that they didn't have laundry facilities! Upon learning that, we dropped off some garbage, Amy bought a pair of sailing gloves, and dropped our mooring to visit Leverick Bay, where in addition to having laundry and on-shore showers, they gave you 100 gallons of free water and a bag of ice for staying on their mooring.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
The wreck was a lot of fun, but we also saw sting rays on the return to the Sail Pending. We then went over to the Pinnacles, another dive site literally around the corner, which was known for good snorkeling. A quick snorkel told me that the place was over-rated and I opted out of the dive, but Amy and Arturo went ahead with it, and reported that the surge and terrain made it fun, but there wasn't much else to see.
We then headed over to the Bitter End Yacht Club, which I had missed the previous visit, and there to our dismay discovered that they didn't have laundry facilities! Upon learning that, we dropped off some garbage, Amy bought a pair of sailing gloves, and dropped our mooring to visit Leverick Bay, where in addition to having laundry and on-shore showers, they gave you 100 gallons of free water and a bag of ice for staying on their mooring.
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Friday, December 12, 2014
Virgin Islands 2014: Cooper Island to Marina Cay
We woke up early and were the second boat to leave the marina and the second boat to arrive at the Baths.
The Baths' entry had changed once again from 2 years ago when I last went. Last time, I could still dinghy into the beach to drop non-swimmers there. This time, the beach had been cordoned off and everyone had to swim. Bowen was no problem, since he'd demonstrated a willingness to let me tow him around in his lifejacket. But my mom upon seeing this just gave up and decided to stay on the boat.
The Baths are called that because of the Batholiths, not because you can actually take a Bath there. The hike through them is easily one of the prettiest and most exciting short walks you can take anywhere. Don't take my word for it. My son's idea of hiking is sitting on my shoulders, but upon entry into the Baths, he insisted on walking every step, only taking assistance whenever the water got too high for him to walk, which didn't happen very often.
The disclaimer on the entry claims this to be a difficult and challenging walk, but in reality, both the 3 year old and the 70+ year olds had no problem negotiating the stairs, the steep rock surfaces, and the water-laden portions of the walk.
Upon reaching Devil's Bay, we took a swim and spied a hole in the barrier where the dinghy could get through. Arturo went back to get the dinghy and my mom while the rest of us waited and played in the sand and water. By the time Arturo got back, however, the crowds had arrived and it was impossible to beach the dinghy, so I dragged my mom through the water onto the beach where she had no problems getting the walk back. The return to the dinghy was made easier by the lines the dinghy was tied to.
After that, we had lunch on the boat and then there was only a time for a single 60-minute dive at the Aquarium (just outside Spanish Town) before we headed to Marina Cay. At Marina Cay, Arturo and Amy went for tank refills while I took my family to the beach for an evening swim. The long dive and the swim made me realize that my recent weight loss had one negative side-effect, which was that I got cold and stayed cold even in 82 degree water.
The local dive shop didn't have a cold fill, so we had to wait a while for the divers to get back to return us to the boat. However, watching the sunset from Marina Cay didn't suck at all.
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The local dive shop didn't have a cold fill, so we had to wait a while for the divers to get back to return us to the boat. However, watching the sunset from Marina Cay didn't suck at all.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Virgin Islands 2014: Peter Island to Cooper Island
The morning rose and we discovered that the starboard engine was empty of coolant. I suspected that I hadn't closed the coolant cap properly during the previous coolant check, which caused the coolant to all leak out while the engine was running. We filled the coolant back up but I decided that the prudent thing to do was to bring the boat back to Conch Charters anyway.
Well, as we approached the mooring buoys off Burt's point, the alarm went off again and I found myself once again mooring with only the port engine! This validated the prudent decision we'd made earlier, and to reward us we got a few rainbows while waiting for the repair man to show up. When he showed up, he looked at it and realized that the water pump had broken, leaking coolant all over the place. "This is going to take at least an hour to fix, so feel free to go ashore."
We went ashore, reprovisioned and generally cooled our heels until the repair men (he didn't clone himself: he got reinforcements) declared the engine fixed. We ended up leaving Tortola around noon, and immediately headed for Cooper Island, since there was not a moment to spare in acquiring a mooring buoy: we ended up getting one of the last 3 available, and the others were immediately filled up within minutes after we were secure.
We took the tender over to the Cooper Island resort, and spent the rest of the day, snorkeling, getting ice cream, and swimming on the beautiful swimming beach. I decided to swim back to the boat using mask and snorkel, instigating a race with the tender. Unfortunately, I got lost and headed for the wrong boat and had to be steered back to the Sail Pending by the tender, which ensured that I lost.
It was a rolicking ride, because our late arrival meant we had one of the most exposed mooring buoys available, but we slept well, except for my son waking up in the middle of the night and upon seeing my CPAP mask, decided that since daddy was wearing a snorkel at night, he had to have his snorkel as well.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
We went ashore, reprovisioned and generally cooled our heels until the repair men (he didn't clone himself: he got reinforcements) declared the engine fixed. We ended up leaving Tortola around noon, and immediately headed for Cooper Island, since there was not a moment to spare in acquiring a mooring buoy: we ended up getting one of the last 3 available, and the others were immediately filled up within minutes after we were secure.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
We took the tender over to the Cooper Island resort, and spent the rest of the day, snorkeling, getting ice cream, and swimming on the beautiful swimming beach. I decided to swim back to the boat using mask and snorkel, instigating a race with the tender. Unfortunately, I got lost and headed for the wrong boat and had to be steered back to the Sail Pending by the tender, which ensured that I lost.
It was a rolicking ride, because our late arrival meant we had one of the most exposed mooring buoys available, but we slept well, except for my son waking up in the middle of the night and upon seeing my CPAP mask, decided that since daddy was wearing a snorkel at night, he had to have his snorkel as well.
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Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Virgin Islands 2014: Norman Island to Peter Island
As was my wont on these sailing trips, Arturo and I got up at 6:00am, made coffee, checked the engines, and moved the boat to the Indians. The seas were still rocky, but that didn't deter us from doing a dive and snorkeling in the area.
The waters were churned up, and so lacking in the clarity that I'd seen on previous trips, but it was still very good.
After lunch, we intended to motor over to Cooper Island to spend the evening, but just off Peter Island we heard an alarm from the engine, and quickly ascertained that the Starboard engine was overheating. We quickly turned off the engine and I took the boat into Peter Island's Great Harbor to a mooring Buoy to assess the damage. Upon examining the engine, we found some coolant on the floor but didn't see any other obvious damage. Calling Conch Charters, they asked us to run an experiment again in an hour and report back. We tried it and the engine quickly overheated once again, so they asked us to bring the boat over to them again tomorrow for a thorough check.
I didn't feel like moving the boat after that, so we grabbed the tender and went ashore, where we hiked over to Sprat Bay and walked up the hill towards the hotels until we saw Deadman's Bay and Honeymoon Beach, where we anchored during the previous trip. The winds were so high that there were no boats anchored on Deadman's Bay. Arturo successfully negotiated a low price for a diving boat at the island's dive shop, and we headed back for dinner and a beautiful sunset.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
I didn't feel like moving the boat after that, so we grabbed the tender and went ashore, where we hiked over to Sprat Bay and walked up the hill towards the hotels until we saw Deadman's Bay and Honeymoon Beach, where we anchored during the previous trip. The winds were so high that there were no boats anchored on Deadman's Bay. Arturo successfully negotiated a low price for a diving boat at the island's dive shop, and we headed back for dinner and a beautiful sunset.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
Tuesday, December 09, 2014
Virgin Islands 2014 Trip
Bowen, my parents, Arturo Crespo, Amy and I chartered a sailboat and visited the British Virgin Islands and St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands from November 23rd to December 2nd. It was my longest sailing charter yet, and in November we got great weather, plenty of rainbows, but murky waters (comparatively) for diving.
This is the hub for all the blog posts from the trip report, as well as photos, etc.
This is the hub for all the blog posts from the trip report, as well as photos, etc.
- November 23rd, Tortola to Norman Island
- November 24th, Norman Island to Peter Island
- November 25th, Peter Island to Cooper Island
- November 26th, Cooper Island to Marina Cay
- November 27th, Marina Cay to Leverick Bay
- November 28th, Leverick Bay to Marina Cay
- November 29th, Marina Cay to Sandy Spit
- November 30th, Sandy Spit to Leinster Bay
- December 1st, Leinster Bay to Sanders Bay
- December 2nd, Sanders Bay to Tortola
- Learnings and Conclusion
Virgin Islands 2014: Tortola to Norman Island
We got off the plane, spent a night in St. Thomas, and then took the ferry to Tortola to spend our first night on the Conch Charters catamaran, Sail Pending.
The Sail Pending was a 10 year old Leopard 43 that looked like it had been well used. Some of the hatches wouldn't seal properly, while everything felt just a bit loose. I'd always said that I'd take an old, well-maintained boat over a newer boat that'd been abused any day, but this was pushing it quite a bit.
Nevertheless, Sail Pending was half the price of all the other charters available at this time, so it was either this boat or we wouldn't have done the trip, given my difficulty in recruiting crew on short notice. Joining me this time around was Arturo and Amy, who were also present for the previous BVI trip.
As sail briefings go, Conch was very personal, but also very casual. In addition to going over ship systems, we were also given a chart briefing that was mostly unnecessary, but still a good refresher. Our dive equipment arrived just as the briefing was over and we were ready to sail. The engine tachometer on the starboard engine didn't work, despite the staff's attempts to fix the problem, but we promised not to over-drive the engine anyway, since we were in a sailboat!
The seas were high today, as were the winds. Rather than go out with reef'd sails, we were told that just opening up a reef'd jib and sailing downwind would get us to Norman Island on a broad reach rather quickly, and indeed we got there in a record 45 minutes! What was even better, my favorite anchorage, Kelly's Cove, had a mooring ball open and we quickly took it.
Then, it was the requisite visit to the caves, followed by a visit to shore where we did some light hiking. Sunset from Kelly's Cove was gorgeous as usual, and we got a dinner of Pasta as everyone was too tired to cook that evening. It was a rollicky night, but with the exhaustion from travel, we all got plenty of sleep.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
Nevertheless, Sail Pending was half the price of all the other charters available at this time, so it was either this boat or we wouldn't have done the trip, given my difficulty in recruiting crew on short notice. Joining me this time around was Arturo and Amy, who were also present for the previous BVI trip.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
As sail briefings go, Conch was very personal, but also very casual. In addition to going over ship systems, we were also given a chart briefing that was mostly unnecessary, but still a good refresher. Our dive equipment arrived just as the briefing was over and we were ready to sail. The engine tachometer on the starboard engine didn't work, despite the staff's attempts to fix the problem, but we promised not to over-drive the engine anyway, since we were in a sailboat!
The seas were high today, as were the winds. Rather than go out with reef'd sails, we were told that just opening up a reef'd jib and sailing downwind would get us to Norman Island on a broad reach rather quickly, and indeed we got there in a record 45 minutes! What was even better, my favorite anchorage, Kelly's Cove, had a mooring ball open and we quickly took it.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
Then, it was the requisite visit to the caves, followed by a visit to shore where we did some light hiking. Sunset from Kelly's Cove was gorgeous as usual, and we got a dinner of Pasta as everyone was too tired to cook that evening. It was a rollicky night, but with the exhaustion from travel, we all got plenty of sleep.
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| From Virgin Islands 2014 |
Monday, December 08, 2014
DisneyWorld Magic Kingdom
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| From December 4, 2014 |
DisneyWorld tickets are expensive, about $90 per day per person. You can opt for more expensive "park hopper" passes, but in practice, the overhead of switching parks is so high that you'd never do it with a toddler, so I opted to visit only one park a day. Given the realities of a 3-year-old, we could only visit the Magic Kingdom as he was unlikely to get much out of the other parks.
We landed in Orlando and got a hotel at the Ramada Inn Suites near the airport, rather than try for one of the park hotels. The park hotels are closer, and you don't have to rent a car, since they'll pick you up from the airport, but on the other hand they're very expensive, and you pretty much have to eat on site if you don't want to drive.
One fairly well known trick is to sign up for the FastPass+ in advance, so you can skip lines. There are books and apps that tell you which rides need Fast Passes and which rides don't, but I figured I'd just wing it. It turned out that we visited on low-crowd days (crowd level 4 on the first day and crowd level 3 on the second), so while the FastPass was good, it wasn't critical.
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| From December 4, 2014 |
It turns out that the FastPasses are most useful for kiddie rides like Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Goofy's Barnstormers, Buzz Lightyear, Winnie the Pooh, and the Haunted House. The rest of the rides like Pirates of the Carribean or Under The Sea were relatively unimpacted and we didn't need fast passes to see them. One ride that most needed FastPasses was the Astro Orbiter, but didn't offer them
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| From December 4, 2014 |
The fun ones for Bowen were the Tomorrow Speedway, where he got to drive his own car, Buzz Lightyear, because he got to rotate the car, and the Barnstormer, the only roller-coaster style ride in the park he was tall enough to do. But true to form, he tried every ride once and didn't actually want to repeat rides. He wasn't scared by Haunted Castle, but didn't find Winnie the Pooh as much fun.
One thing we did was to rent a stroller. That was OK, but it wasn't strictly necessary. I thought it might give him an opportunity to nap, but it turned out he was too wound up to nap anyway.
For me, about 2 days is right for a 3 year old in the Magic Kingdom Park. It's enough that you can do every ride (provided you arrive on a low crowd day), and watch a substantial number of shows, but not so much that you would have to repeat rides. The Orlando Park is a lot bigger than the California Park, so it's nice to see things like the steamer or the Tom Sawyer's island take on a scale that California just can't do.
As a break just before this year's Virgin Islands trip, it was just the thing, but I wouldn't want to do this more than once every few years.
Sunday, December 07, 2014
Review: Asus RT-N66U Router
My 5 year old used Cisco E3000 was on its last legs, and the cheap $20 replacement TPLink wasn't any better. Worse, in an attempt to upgrade the firmware on the TPLink, I bricked it, and was suddenly indeed of a decent router.
The problem with routers is that most of them use the 2.4GHz band, which is very prone to interference as everything in your house probably uses it as well. Furthermore, your neighbors also probably use the 2.4GHz channel for their wifi, and soon you're in connectivity hell.
The answer, then, is to get a dual-band router, one that will handle both 5GHz and 2.4GHz channels. You can't just get a 5GHz router, since legacy devices only support 2.4GHz, and chances are you have at least one of those in active use.
My lesson with bricking my TPlink also taught me that I should just rely on the firmware that comes on the router and not mess around with installing open source stuff. The net net is that I ended up with the Asus RT-N66R.
The weird thing about Asus is that rather than have only one product in each category, they have lots of products with the exact same name differing by only one character, but for all purposes there's no difference between the R and the U units, they just get revised at random and it's just pure insanity.
Installing the router was easy, as was configuring it. What you want to do is to separate the 2 SSIDs into 5GHz and 2.4GHz one so that there's clear separation. I then did an internet speed test and wow, ok, now I'm getting all the speed I was promised by comcast, rather than a pathetic performance. The real test came over the next few days as we saw zero dropped internet connections. The router was rock solid, as were connections with the devices.
You can spend lots of time dicking around with equipment or you can just throw money at it. This is one of those cases where throwing money at the problem solved all sorts of problems, and hence the product is highly recommended.
The problem with routers is that most of them use the 2.4GHz band, which is very prone to interference as everything in your house probably uses it as well. Furthermore, your neighbors also probably use the 2.4GHz channel for their wifi, and soon you're in connectivity hell.
The answer, then, is to get a dual-band router, one that will handle both 5GHz and 2.4GHz channels. You can't just get a 5GHz router, since legacy devices only support 2.4GHz, and chances are you have at least one of those in active use.
My lesson with bricking my TPlink also taught me that I should just rely on the firmware that comes on the router and not mess around with installing open source stuff. The net net is that I ended up with the Asus RT-N66R.
The weird thing about Asus is that rather than have only one product in each category, they have lots of products with the exact same name differing by only one character, but for all purposes there's no difference between the R and the U units, they just get revised at random and it's just pure insanity.
Installing the router was easy, as was configuring it. What you want to do is to separate the 2 SSIDs into 5GHz and 2.4GHz one so that there's clear separation. I then did an internet speed test and wow, ok, now I'm getting all the speed I was promised by comcast, rather than a pathetic performance. The real test came over the next few days as we saw zero dropped internet connections. The router was rock solid, as were connections with the devices.
You can spend lots of time dicking around with equipment or you can just throw money at it. This is one of those cases where throwing money at the problem solved all sorts of problems, and hence the product is highly recommended.
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