Headed through the Current Cut with parts or not

For the record, I like mermaids and hope to see one. Ouida says I did when a manatee came right up to me. That was great but the Daryl Hannah version would be better.

After 9 nights at anchor in Spanish Wells, IT'S TIME TO GO.  We will check for our part at the post office at 11 AM.  We're leaving whether it's there or not.  We can't wait any longer.  We'll have to have them forward it to us down the line if it's not there.  Where, I have to figure out.  If by any luck our raw water pump is there, we'll install it after we stop tonight.

We'll top off with fuel before going to the post office.  We're power hogs and run the generator too much.  We're only down a little over 1/4 tank after 9 days but it' worth topping off our 100 gallon tank.

We should have time to get to and through Current Cut south of us by the end of today.  We should go through the Cut around 3:30 PM when we should be nearing high tide and slack water.  Tomorrow we head to Rock Sound Harbor.  We are going to be moving quickly from here on out.  We need to get to St. Croix by mid February to receive our son and daughter-in-law.  It's going to be close. Weather looks good, but we're most likely going to be burning some diesel fuel.  Ouida is anxious to get there as well.

Good news and bad on the boat repairs.  I did everything I could to get the chartplotter to receive the GPS with no luck.  I tried hooking the GPS up to the chartplotter on all 3 NMEA 0183 ports with no luck.  I tried SeaTalk again and that was still a no go.   Lest anyone worry about that, Navionics on our 10 inch tablet works GREAT!.  We also have Navionics on FOUR phones with the maps all updated.  I also have my marine Garmin GPS with the charts on it.  We also receive our position on our handheld VHF radio and even our digital camera.  The chartplotter still displays the charts, just not our position on the chart.  I have the government charts on three computers and even the Navionics web site when we have internet.  For you old timers, we have several books of paper charts and cruising guides.  Yes, we even read them.

The good news is I tried connecting the GPS directly to the VHF and IT WORKS.  That won't help us with the chartplotter, but at least rescuers will be able to read our position in the event we need to scream for help on the VHF.  Now, I also know the GPS isn't the problem.  As a bonus, when I hooked up the GPS to the VHF it also started receiving voice audio above the squelch!  That's a big improvement.  I'm not sure why it happened.  The GPS should have nothing to do with the audio.  My guess is the VHF made a better ground contact, but who knows.  For some reason, the SSB (marine HAM radio) didn't pick up the GPS.  The SSB receives it's signal split off from the same wire going to the VHF.  I don't think it's a bad connection, but eventually I'll have to cut that connection and resplice it.

Cheers for now.