Gandalf

So, as I have mentioned in the past, I am blessed to be able to ‘lean on’ the expertise of Phil, a long time employee known, by my son, Ollie, as ‘Gandalf’ for his technical ‘wizardry’. He looks after the Atom IT and does this mostly remotely since moving to mid Wales. When I and other members of staff experience an IT issue, we make a call and our mouse begins to move, things happen, and the situation is resolved – what a fantastic resource. Phil comes into the studio (and stays over in my Summer House) every couple of weeks to deal with any hardware issues and the whole arrangement works exceedingly well. We share an interest in ‘boating’ and he has crewed on Hejira and I, and my wife have enjoyed time on his canal boat. Phil is a ‘Radio Ham’ and he set up the SSB on Hejira, although, I have to say, that I have never ever used it and may never do so since it has been eclipsed by the Hejira Starlink, also overseen by Phil.

In passing, Phil mentioned that the installation of Starlink does offer the possibility of mounting a security camera, accessed through the internet, beaming back images through an app on my phone. I was sceptical in that I intended to ‘pause’ the Starlink subscription when not cruising as this was a cost saving facility on offer at the time. Since then, a pause does not disconnect the system but reduces the speed of the connection for an ongoing £4.50 a month. So, basic, continuous internet options begin to affordably open up.

Phil suggested that a ‘Hejira YachtCam’ would also be a possibility, and this could be beamed onto the web site.  99.9% of the time this would be a boring static image in port, with only security benefits, but on passage, it might be a more compelling (or maybe not) dynamic account of Hejira under sail.

So, I have made a gimballed, adjustable mount for a camera powered by a photo voltaic panel, all waterproofed to, hopefully, marine standards.

It is mounted on the davit which can swivel through 180 degrees so the camera could film from outboard towards Hejira’s port side. This should furnish some more interesting (?) pictures on passage.

Unfortunately, we seem to be experiencing some teething troubles, and it could be that the photovoltaic panel is inadequate for the job. Gandalf is on the case and experience suggests that he will come up with a solution – in due course…

The most recent image can be viewed from the home page, clicking on the thumbnail on the right hand side should open a larger picture – or maybe it won’t…

If it all gets sorted, there will be no more solo starkers sailing for me in future – to everyone’s relief!