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One of the big things that I have done here is to do a complete depth survey of the water on the southwest end of the island - where the only anchorages are. I discovered that the survey data used on nautical charts here was taken before the U.S. Civil War. Yes - the depths charted here were recorded in the 1850s, and the water is as shallow as San Luis Pass, with a sandy bottom. Ya think it might have changed?
So, I published a chart back in 2005 that has been a hot seller and has enabled many people to come here. I did the soundings for the original chart with a hand-held sounder, a handheld GPS, and a tablet and paper. It has been 8 years since, and we had Hurricane Earl (category 4) in 2010. I figured it might be time for a chart revision.
So - over the past few months, I designed and built a self-contained recording fathometer. The heart of it is a Hummminbird GPS/sounder coupled to an NMEA 0183 data recorder that I built. It records the position and depth about once per second. I put in a grid of waypoints and just drive over the waypoints. The fathometer does the work.
We are spending a couple of nights in a cottage a couple of miles east of ours (at Keel Point). Long story, but we are helping some friends out by letting their guests stay at our cottage at Cow Wreck Beach. This is the first time we have stayed anywhere on Anegada other than our our home since we built it in 2007.
We woke up this morning to light breeze from the north. This was the view out the front door.
A perfect day to go do some survey work on the south side of the island. We (my wife and I) were on the water in out 11' Whaler about 9AM, and we took soundings until nearly 2:30PM. I hope to finish the south side of the island in the next few days while we have nice smooth water.
Taking soundings in the rain.
Taking a break.
Our fathometer.
When we got in from doing our surveying, we stopped by our place at Cow Wreck Beach. Henrique had come and gone. He had come over last night while we were gone and was very disappointed that we were not at home. He told his grandmother that he wanted to go back home this morning because Uncle Walker was not here. She told him he should go fishing.
He did - and he caught his first fish while fishing totally alone. Sadly, I was not there to get a photo. He caught a small blue runner while fishing from the beach all by himself. He brought it up to his grandmother, and had removed the hook all by himself. Then he cleaned it. Yes - we eat blue runner here.
I am so proud of him!
So, I published a chart back in 2005 that has been a hot seller and has enabled many people to come here. I did the soundings for the original chart with a hand-held sounder, a handheld GPS, and a tablet and paper. It has been 8 years since, and we had Hurricane Earl (category 4) in 2010. I figured it might be time for a chart revision.
So - over the past few months, I designed and built a self-contained recording fathometer. The heart of it is a Hummminbird GPS/sounder coupled to an NMEA 0183 data recorder that I built. It records the position and depth about once per second. I put in a grid of waypoints and just drive over the waypoints. The fathometer does the work.
We are spending a couple of nights in a cottage a couple of miles east of ours (at Keel Point). Long story, but we are helping some friends out by letting their guests stay at our cottage at Cow Wreck Beach. This is the first time we have stayed anywhere on Anegada other than our our home since we built it in 2007.
We woke up this morning to light breeze from the north. This was the view out the front door.
A perfect day to go do some survey work on the south side of the island. We (my wife and I) were on the water in out 11' Whaler about 9AM, and we took soundings until nearly 2:30PM. I hope to finish the south side of the island in the next few days while we have nice smooth water.
Taking soundings in the rain.
Taking a break.
Our fathometer.
When we got in from doing our surveying, we stopped by our place at Cow Wreck Beach. Henrique had come and gone. He had come over last night while we were gone and was very disappointed that we were not at home. He told his grandmother that he wanted to go back home this morning because Uncle Walker was not here. She told him he should go fishing.
He did - and he caught his first fish while fishing totally alone. Sadly, I was not there to get a photo. He caught a small blue runner while fishing from the beach all by himself. He brought it up to his grandmother, and had removed the hook all by himself. Then he cleaned it. Yes - we eat blue runner here.
I am so proud of him!
Thanks Uncle Wakah!
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