Video Editing and Underwater Photography

I have not been blogging as often. Work and family life is taking a lot of my free time. I try to provide something entertaining or educational in my posts. Things will start to get interesting soon. I will be at the Strictly Sail show this Friday. Soccer Saturday and Sunday so there goes the weekend. Camping will happen this month as well as La Paz next month. I need to sneak a fishing trip in somewhere in between as well.

Meanwhile I have been struggling with Video editing and streaming issues for the past week. What a mess. Avi, mpeg, mov, vob, etc etc. Can’t we all settle on just one format for crying out loud? I am not happy with the Microsoft WMM(Windows Movie Maker) and I am not a lone. For some reason it will not import my Sony DCR-SR100 mpg video’s. I have tried converting them to AVI’s and still no luck. I guess I will need to break down and buy some video editing software. I was able to use some old avi’s that came from my Cannon S50 and create a 3 minute avi with WMM. It turned out well and was easy to use.

Microsoft Windows Media Player is finicky as well when it comes to streaming videos. I have installed several codec packages, and still no luck. TVersity is working better although I have an issue with it loosing its connection. TVersity won’t handle mpegs, so unless you have video converters chances are half the stuff you want to stream through these programs won’t work. Hopefully they will improve on things soon.

Just received the latest issue of Multihulls World magazine and am reading it from front to back. I keep seeing information on multihull boat shows. I am going to have to travel far to see a good one. I will be lucky to see 3 multihulls at the upcoming show here in Oakland, Ca.

I plan to do a lot of exploring above water as well as underwater when I eventually go on a serious voyage. What I would like to find though is the best place to start weather I am fishing or diving. So I have often thought an underwater camera would be a good option. One that you could drop down. Often times you see things on the fish finder and you just don’t know what it is for sure. I could see myself getting a little more serious about underwater photo’s and video. But not too serious unless I can recoup my costs. A quick internet search and I found the Backscatter Underwater Video and Photo online store. $7,515 bucks for the FX1/Z1 Housing package. I might have to settle for the mini system at a mere $1899. wow. Save you pennies.

I keep thinking about all the things I want to do on my adventures. Everything cost money and is gear intensive and will add weight and take up space. I am going to need a bigger boat and a sponsor. Maybe there is a video crew that want to film a reality Catamaran Sailing show with me as the captain. Yeah right. :)

Directv, On Demand, Photo, Music, Video's Sling Box

Thought I would share the recent flood of techie stuff that I have learned lately. DirecTV customers listen up. So what does this have to do with Catamarans. The catamaran of my dreams will have all the conveniences of home. The information below could be used to improve life on your boat or your house. Check it out.

The HR10-250 is one of the 1^st HD DirecTV receivers that came out a couple years ago. It is similar to a TiVo box so you can record and pause live TV. It comes with an Off-Air receiver on it. Many of us are in the process or have already upgraded to the HR20 and HR21 DirecTV receivers. Don’t throw away your old HR10-250. Did you know the HR10-250 will function as a free off-air HDTV receiver and you don’t need to pay for DirecTV service to use it? It will still allow you to pause, rewind and FF live TV. You don’t need to have it activated as a receiver through DirecTV to use the Off Air receiver capabilities. I fumbled through the steps to get the unit working without instructions so it is not difficult. You will need to go through the setup and let the system know that you only have an Off-Air antenna. You will need to go through the step of identifying the off air channels in your area and then it should work. I apologize that I don’t have more detailed instructions. There are Help Forums out there like http://www.dbstalk.com/ that will more then likely have the instructions somewhere. You just have to search for them. If you don’t have any luck, send a comment to this post and I will see what I can find.

If you have gone through the recent upgrade to the DirecTV HR20 or HR21 you may already know this, but it is not widely known or advertised since I believe they are still in a beta phase. DirecTV now has On Demand. This is great when there is nothing on TV to watch. Go to On Demand and you can usually find something you want to watch. You will need an Ethernet connection to the Internet connected to your DirecTV receiver. Your best bet is a direct Cat 5 connection from your Internet router to the DirecTV receiver, but in my case I am using wireless. I purchased a Linksys WGA600N which isn't difficult to install. It is marketed towards networked gaming machines. It is a dual band Wireless-N adapter so it will work with the older wireless networks or the newer and faster network standards. It was easy to setup, however in my case I skipped over one step that I shouldn’t have skipped over. The step that advises you to update your wireless routers firmware. This turned out to be a requirement. Don’t skip this step. There is a ton of information here which should point you in the right direction regarding setup here.

Once you have On Demand working you can also share Photo’s, Music and Videos from your PC so you can watch them on your TV through your new DirecTV receiver. The music and photo’s are working great. You can have a slide show while listening to your mp3’s through your TV. It’s great for gatherings and parties. I have not been successful with Video yet which I presume is due to a wireless bandwidth shortage. I have an older Linksys that transmits at a maximum of 54mps and the receiver is not close to the wireless router. It will play for a few seconds and pause or cut out altogether. My plan is to upgrade to the new Linksys WRT600N Dual-Band wireless-N gigabit router. I hope this is the solution, otherwise I will have to try running cat 5 to the TV. Also keep in mind from what I have read and from my experience the Video’s must be mpeg 2’s.

Once the above is working, then the I plan to pick up the Sling Box. This looks cool. Since I work from home a lot and spend a lot of time in the office it would be nice to watch TV there. With the sling box, as long as you have an Internet connection I can watch TV. You could be on you boat connected via Wi-Fi and watch your TV at home. If you are in a Hotel, or Wi-Fi enabled coffee shop you can watch your TV. Pretty cool. The only issue is, whatever you are watching on you PC is what will be shown on you TV, so if you are at home and someone is watching the TV and you want to watch TV on the PC then you will have to fight over what you will be watching. This might not be the case if you have cable since I believe one of the unit’s has a cable tuner in it. This way the TV could be tuned to one show and the Sling Box is tuned to a different channel.

Photo's courtesy of http://www.aeroyacht.com/Yapluka/Sail/main.htm, www.linksys.com and http://www.sunreef-yachts.com/

Internet Access Options for Sailors

I wonder if the technology is good enough at the moment to work from the Catamaran. My biggest concern is whether or not the speed is fast enough and offered at a reasonable price. I work from home more then 3 days a week. I could work 5 days if I want. It wouldn’t make a difference. Most of the people I work with are from other states or countries. I would need a fast and reliable internet connection from the boat. If I am parked at home there is no problem. Just run a phone line or cable for internet access and power as well to the dock. But what if I wanted to take off and park it somewhere. Could I still work from the boat?

Mobilsat is advertising the SeaTel product with 768kbps download and 128 upload. I am not sure this is fast enough to get by. This is apparently there least expensive offer. They charge 309.00 per month for the service.

KVH offers a product that deserves some research. $2,395.00 to start, but only 89.99 a month and that includes MSN TV. They do say there may be other fees imposed by the cellular service provider. They also claim high-speed data connections provided by EVDO service with upload/download speeds ranging from 400-700 Kbps and capable of reaching up to 2 Mbps. Need to check your city as this is only reported to be available in 180 cities and counting.
KVH also has a Satellite TV, Internet and VOIP Phone option as well. Data rates as fast as 512 Kbps for ship-to-shore transmissions and as fast as 2 Mbps for shore-to-ship downloads as well as crystal-clear VOIP telephone service. Pricing was not available on their web site. I wonder how reliable the satellite connection is while in motion.

Some of them charge by the bit or minute used. This wouldn’t work for me unless I had no plans to work from the boat. Having to pay as you go is never fun. It feels like when you go over your minutes on your cell phone. You have to pay for every minute. It adds up and some people cut back as a result. I don’t want to feel like I have to cut back. I would be downloading a lot of data for my job.

What about power consumption? The KVH TracPhone FB250 claims the following. Power (max), incl. antenna: 150 W @ 10-32V. The laptop doesn’t take much energy. I am sure there is a Receiver and perhaps a wireless router that you need to consider. Add it all up and you might have to run the generator before long. If I have to run my generator the whole time then I am not sure I will be doing this very often. Some of these systems are going to require 50 to 100lbs of equipment.

I would hope that there are some other options and will continue to keep an eye out. It would be great if you had Internet access, TV and a phone along with all the other amenities. Why would you ever go home? There would be no excuse not to go sailing. I have a feeling you would soon find many other things to do other then watching TV. This is just another selling point or excuse to go big when buying a sailing Catamaran.

Captains Log - Man Overboard and Nude Models

I was invited to sail on a Catamaran this past Saturday and it was a huge learning experience. The weather was great; wind was from 5 in the morning to 20 in the afternoon. There was hardly a cloud in the sky. The sail began at 10AM and lasted until about 3PM. We met Cliff Shaw (Captain) at the Emery Cove Yacht Harbor and boarded his 35.8 foot Catamaran. His Cat is a custom built catamaran named Rainbow. I suspect she was built in the 90’s. The rear had recently been extended from 33 feet to 35.8. She was equipped with dagger boards, Twin diesels and appeared to have all the necessary equipment for a safe sail on the bay.

The captain asked us to put on our life vests and we complied. As it turned out, this wasn’t a bad idea. We motored away from the marina with almost no wind to speak of. One our way out I was examining and familiarizing myself as much as possible visually with the craft. We cleared the end of the last channel markers and continued a safe distance further before turning off the engines. The captain and his crew examined the wind conditions. There wasn’t much wind at all, but we proceeded to bring up the main. We then unpacked the spinnaker and set initially in reverse. I don’t think this mattered much with such light wind, but we soon corrected the issue and continued on.

I guess you never know what you will run into while sailing. Generally it is the wild life that can be amazing. Well, we hadn’t been sailing long as we slowly passed by a rather large and weathered yacht in the 70 foot or so class that had some wild life on it. I had a good view from the front of the Cat, I was the 1^st to notice that some of the passengers didn’t appear to be wearing any clothing. As we approached it was obvious that a photo shoot was in progress. There were at least three almost nude to fully nude women in various positions on the boat. The trip was starting out on a good note. Unfortunately I was nowhere near a camera or pair of binoculars. It appears that our cat could potential be in the background of a few of the photos, although I doubt viewers will be interested in the picturesque background.

We continued on. The wind began to increase and before long we were moving around 5 mph. As we were nearing the point where we wanted to tack the captain suggested we take down the spinnaker and put up the jib. Rainbow is an older cat as is the rigging. It is in great shape, but requires more manual effort then newer vessels. This is a great way for a new sailor to learn and to learn what I will want or not want on my future catamaran.

One of the crew and myself were front balancing on the on the trampoline in still very mild conditions packing the spinnaker,. We were nearing completion when one of the crew, not me, stepped back perhaps to gain better balance and fell back and to the side as he tripped over the low support wire on the very front of the craft. By the time I noticed what was about to happen there was nothing I could do but watch in shock as he was went over the front of the crossbeam and into the cold San Francisco bay waters. A moment later after the shock wore off and a large splash could be heard yelled “Man Overboard”. At this point my assumption is that he would end up floating to the rear of the boat, so I immediately ran to the back of the cat in hopes of catching an arm as he floated by. This didn’t happen. He had managed to reach up and grab onto the cargo net from below. I ran back to the front joined with Captain Cliff. By this time he was making his way to the front of the cat hanging from the net and dragging through the water. I noticed that his self inflating PFD had inflated and it appeared to be choking him or at least very uncomfortable. Never the less it did it’s job and deployed when it contacted the water.

He was a large man, but both the captain and I grabbed an arm and pulled him up as far as we could onto the front cross beam, but it was clear to me that we wouldn’t be able to pull him in this way without help. The captain handed him a rope initially and was asked to float back under the bridge deck to the rear where we could bring him in. He wasn’t going for that and suggested instead that he move to the outside of the cat instead. He must have been concerned as there wasn’t very much bridge deck clearance on this Cat. A small wave could cause him to hit his head I am sure. By this time the cat wasn’t moving too fast and he was drug around the right front of the cat and then down the right side to the rear where he could access the ladder. I was waiting there for him just in case he needed help. I had no idea how cold the water was or if he had lost any strength in the struggle. Never the less he was fine and didn’t need any help. He put a dry pair of clothes on and we continued our sail only to laugh about the ordeal later. We are pretty sure his blackberry has seen its last day though.

This was a learning lesson for all. I asked the captain, “so does this happen often?”. He said it was a 1^st on his boat. After this experience I will be seriously considering the purchase of a PFD, preferable the self inflating variety due to their small size. The vest I was using was for waterskiing and was bulky and uncomfortable. The Captain advised me to pick one up at a boat show as they are usually marked down in price. Sounds like a plan.

We had to maneuver around a couple races and finally came to a stop behind a large island that was blocking the wind. We decided it was a good time for lunch, and relaxed for about an hour taking in the sights and talking about sailing experiences. Soon we were on our way and sailed back towards home. On the way there, the winds had picked up to around 20. The cat hit its max speed for the day at just over 10MPH after a some tuning adjustments were made to the sails.

Watching him park the boat at the dock was fun. I was a little concerned due to the cross wind and with a cat that is so wide there isn’t room for mistakes. He made it seem so easy. As if he had done it 100’s of times. With a combination of forward thrust on the port side and reverse thrust on the starboard side the cat turned on a dime and came to rest just next to the doc allowing an easy exit to secure the lines on the dock.

So what did I learn?

• I learned the basics of sailing a big cat to the point where if needed I could have sailed her home.
• I confirmed my suspicion that I would need a fast cat.
• I confirmed my suspicion that two hulls are better then one as the ride was comfortable.
• I learned of some things that are a must for me when purchasing a cat. The cat has to have a comfortable roomy and protected cockpit area. In SF Bay the wind can be cold so I will require a cockpit that can be somewhat sheltered for the guests to stay outside without the cold wind in their face.
• The same goes for the salon. It must be comfortable and spacious and tall enough to walk from one end to the other without bending over.
• Passengers need to have room to roam or socialize and be protected from the weather if desired and still see out to enjoy the views.
• I also felt that rainbow required two much manpower. Although single handing her was possible it wouldn’t be two much fun after a while. It is a great way to keep the crew involved and to learn though so I really appreciated the experience.
• I confirmed the need to wear shoes with non marking soles. My wife left some marks while climbing up the incline to move from the back to the front.
• Gloves are a must. I had some that did the trick. I brought them not really know why I would need them. Now I know why. We were constantly handling the ropes on this cat.
• I need a hat with a stronger rim to keep the sun off the face and still maintain it’s shape in the strong winds.
• I require a cat that minimizes the possibility of being hit with the boom when coming about (ouch!).

I envision sailing in the bay to be faster, less work, maybe with some music, food and beverages for the guests and maybe some fishing depending on the crew. I am sure there will be some racing where the crew will need to be more serious, but the bulk of my sailing I image will be for fun. I really appreciated Cliff taking us out and look forward to my next sailing adventure.

Lets Talk About Gear

We have been invited to go sailing on Saturday on a cruising catamaran. Woo Hoo! I can’t wait. He has asked us to bring a life jacket. Currently I own several; however these are typically used for wake boarding or water skiing. I expect we will look like rookies on this trip. I hope he doesn’t expect us to wear these life jackets on a large catamaran. I think he meant that if we have kids, that they should have them since he most likely doesn’t have their size. Nevertheless we will bring ours because the Captain said to bring them.

As a boat owner I prefer passengers to wear shoes that are non marking. I am sure the captain of this catamaran is no different. Boat shoes are preferred for several reasons. We don’t own any boat shoes. I do have shoes that are non marking that will have to do. It is most likely safer to wear shoes designed to grip well on a boat and that will stay dry or are designed to dry quickly.

Rain gear and protection from the wind and cold will be important as well. SF weather can be cold this time of year. We are ok in this department for now. The important thing is to stay warm. It is no fun if you are cold the entire time.

I have been pricing inflatable PFD USCG Approved life vests. They are not cheap. Cabelas sells the Guardian Essential brand for 89.95, however most brands I have seen so far are well over 100.00. These vests are compact and won’t get in the way like older vests. Some inflate automatically and others require you to pull an activation cord to inflate the PFD. I suspect this is the way to go. I could also use it on fishing trips in the ocean.

Shoes aren’t cheap either. I have seen several pairs of Harken Sailing shoes selling for $72.60 each, but I have no idea if that is the right way to go yet. Other brands like the Cabelas guidewear I have seen as low as $24.95 on sale. Again I will be able to use these on fishing trips.

Foul weather gear, gloves, hats, sunscreen and sunglasses are all things to think about as well. I expect to learn a lot on our catamaran trip this Saturday and will report my experience. I don’t want to go spending a ton of money on gear only to find out later that I made the wrong purchase. I will of course bring a camera with a waterproof case although I don't expect I will need the case based on the weather predictions. I expect to learn from experience and advice from others.

Lets Talk About Trash

Let’s talk about trash. I have yet to see this discussed in my research. So you are planning to circumnavigate the earth and may be at sea for weeks. Do you bring bottled water, paper towels, paper plates and cups? I think not. For those of you who consume alcohol, do you bring 5 cases of beer in bottles or cans? I am assuming if you are a decent human being, you won’t be throwing your trash overboard, so you will be collecting it and storing it which may eventually take on an odor. I have heard of people being at sea for weeks. The trash can add up right?

I am thinking instead of paper towels, you bring cloth napkins. Instead of paper plates you bring reusable plastic lightweight plates (Use plastic to keep the weight down). If you only bring enough plates, cups and bowls for the amount of people you have on your trip you will keep the trash and the dishes to a minimum. Some prefer bottled water, but I would imagine a good water maker and perhaps a compact reverse osmosis water filtering system would provide good tasting clean water. This would save on weight and space and keep the level of trash down.

Perhaps instead of cases of beer and wine, you bring a small keg or wine in a box, or switch to hard liqueur and mix it with your favorite beverage. After all, where would you keep all the empty bottles or cans? If you are a soda drinker, do you bring cans or the plastic bottles? Soda isn’t healthy, so maybe you can switch to juice. Perhaps the powdered juice will do but if not you could bring the frozen can variety.

I think I heard of one cat coming with a garbage disposal. Perhaps this is more common then I know or it is a new trend that is catching on. Is it legal to dispose food waste into the ocean? I found the following statement from the USGS Marine Sanitation Devices (MSDs) web site.

Discharge of Graywater
Graywater is defined as drainage from dishwasher, shower, laundry, bath, and washbasin drains. It does not include drainage from toilets, urinals, hospitals, and cargo spaces. Gray water discharge is prohibited only in the Great Lakes. Gray water is NOT sewage and may be discharged overboard without passage through an MSD or a holding tank. In fact, draining galley wastes into the MSD is not recommended, because food waste is much more difficult to decompose than the human sewage which the marine sanitation device is intended to handle.

Regarding human waste the MSD is required while the vessel is within U. S territorial waters (three nautical miles offshore), the Great Lakes, and navigable waters. A valve may be installed on any MSD to provide for the direct discharge of raw sewage when the vessel is outside U. S. territorial waters.

If I understand this correctly, you can dispose of sewage without treating it when you are at least three miles off U.S. shores. There was no mention of when you are allowed to dispose of graywater. Unless I missed something technically you can dispose of graywater whenever you like although I am sure this is frowned on in some situations. I presume there are some limitations on disposal of graywater, I just haven’t found it.

Bottom line is that trash can be kept to a minimum. This will save on space and keep our environment cleaner.