Calling Home - Inexpensive but Somewhat Effective Methods of Communicating with the Kids

2012 02 01
Almerimar, Espagne


We have been experimenting with inexpensive ways to call home.  Here are the two best.  One we not only recommend but urge you to add to your onboard systems.  The other we are very hesitant to recommend despite some promising aspects.  First the really really good system:

Undisputed Champion of
Person to Person Communication

BLACKBERRY PLAYBOOK VIDEO CHAT 

As difficult as this may be to accept the Blackberry Video Chat software, exclusively for the Playbook, is a joy.  Even with low bandwidth the Playbook delivers clear audio and decent video.  If bandwidth is lacking it will shut off the video and go to voice only.

There is only one drawback: you can only talk to other people who own a Blackberry Playbook.  But this system is so superior to anything we have tried so far we bought a second Playbook for our children so we can all chat online with video whenever we want.  We are in Spain, our children are in London Ontario and Esquimault BC.  We all talk all we want for nothing.  With great audio and good video.

It is so simple to use and to set up.

Here sits Magic Jack
Occupying one of my USB Ports

The Bad: Magic Jack

The disappointment in communications has been the "Magic Jack".  This is a $50 USB device that sets up a VOIP type service for you.  You get a US phone number and supposedly free telephone service.

It works better than Skype, which no one in Europe seems to use, I suspect due to the truly dismal wifi service around here.  When it works the quality is acceptable but not great.  Calls are often broken and hacked up sometimes to the point of uselessness.

Also the program eats up a lot of computer resources.  When it loads  and while it runs it flashes advertising messages at you and you cannot make them go away.  You can minimize the software window to stop the advertising but every few minutes it pops right back up.

This last bit is just plain unacceptable in a commercial program.  I paid for this.  How dare they take over my machine and stop me from working.

Not what you expect when you pay real dollars for a product:  Garish, flashing messages that cover up the documents you are working on and that you cannot remove for minutes at a time.  What a crock.

Also I discover that the owner is a Dr. Ho type sensationalist.  Remember the twitching muscle machine?  All your phone info is wide open to this guy and his henchmen: everyone you call, everything you say.  They can eavesdrop on all your calls.

This product was recommended to us by two other sailors.  This morning we called one of them, our magic jack to theirs.  The broken delivery of the automated message on the other end of the phone apologized for not answering because their magic jack service was not working very well.  "Maybe when the internet improves" they intoned as they made their recorded farewells.

When we hung up, leaving MagicJack running we logged into the Playbook and spoke with our Esquimault daughter for half an hour without a glitch.

We do not recommend Magic Jack.

The Night The Lights Went Out on Darsena Tres

2011 01 27
Almerimar

More Trouble Than You Might Imagine
- A Melted Plug on our Transformer

Until the temperatures climb a bit higher we are devoting ourselves to boatwork.  Not much posting to be done about boatwork you might think.  Well...here's something you might not want to try at home:


The situation arose because the Budget Committee was not totally enthused with my cheapskate solution to using European 220 volt 50 cycle power on our 120 volt 60 cycle Northam boat.  You may remember my simple inexpensive idea:

• buy a car battery charger in Europe that charged 12 volt batteries
• use the Xantrex inverter to convert the 12 volt power to 120 volt 60 cycle electricity and Voila!!! the TV would work and we did not need to let that pesky 220 volt 50 cycle power on the boat.  It also meant I did not have to spend much money.  

It worked.  It was cheap.  Bliss.

Well...it was a near miss on bliss.  There were two things the charger/battery/inverter system would not power: a cabin heater and the water heater.  They drew too much current.

A cabin heater is a necessity in Spanish November even in southern Spain.   We purchased an inexpensive 220 volt heater in Spain and ran it right off the mains.  Easy peasy.

Hot water I dismissed as irrelevant.  I mean we had a stove and a kettle.  Correct?

Apparently not incorrect.  The BC explained to me that hot water is not to be dismissed.

The local marina showers  leave a bit to be desired in the comfort and hygiene departments.  Dish washing in cold water is horrid (so I was told) and using valuable butane to  heat water on the stove is not only costly but vaguely imitative of life in a pioneer village.  Again, this is all as it was explained to me in some detail with repetition where necessary to make sure the material was understood.

Apparently I had not even approached Bliss Light.  Well, there are more than one way to skin a european cat, even a 220 volt 50 cycle cat.

While in Canada over Christmas I got on the internet (Unlike Spain Canada has good internet) and looked on Amazon (Europe does not even have Amazon) where I purchased a cheap transformer/voltage converter for only $104.   I had it shipped to  Port Huron using two day shipping (USA has the best shipping the world, except maybe for China) where we picked it up.

The darn thing weighed 28 pounds.  But it converted 220 volt 50 cycle power to 120 volt 50 cycle power and lots of it.  Enough to power the hot water heater.  The difference in frequency, from 50 cycles to 60 cycles, was not a factor for any of the equipment on Meredith.

A new problem presented itself: our luggage allowance to fly back to Europe was only 50 pounds each.  Already we were already packing 8 litres of maple syrup and four kilos of Peanut butter (only nominally available in Europe) and a Blue Sky solar panel controller for a friend and about 20 pounds of electronics.

But the promise of hot water motivated the BC.  She packed, repacked and packed again.  For a full day she configured the luggage and manipulated which sock went into which suitcase to make sure we would each take one 50 pound bag on the airplane.  There was  another 30 pounds in carry on bags but who notices that.

She did pretty well.  At the airport the two bags were each one half kilo over limit and the very nice man at British Airways waived the difference.  Nice airline that BA.

Once back in Almerimar we schlepped 130 pounds of stuff back onto Meredith and started to set things up.   First came the transformer/voltage converter.  I plugged the inlet of the transformer into the 220 and the shore power cord into the output socket.  As I threw the breaker starting up the long dormant electric water heater I involuntarily scrinched up.

But everything was perfect.  No smoke, no smell.  Water was heating in the tank, the BC was happy and me, I was pretty smug at my $100 fix.  Perfect.

Twenty minutes later it was perfection lost.

Dark fell, and up and down the darsena (dock) stoves started to be used up and down the dock to cook supper, heads started to emerge from boats all along our stretch.  People were calling to one another, urgent questions were being asked, just out of earshot of those of us snug and smug down below on Meredith.  Then, of course, came the knock on the hull.

"Is your power out too?" inquired David, the 82 year old co owner of the boat beside us.

No I answered for indeed our power was not out.  However it seemed we were the only boat on the darsena that enjoyed this happy situation.  Dark and cold claimed the length of the dock.  Except for our Meredith.

Sharp queries were raised by the other men all of whom found themselves without electricity and with wives in the middle of preparing dinner.  Unhappy wives I might point out.  Funny how all the other boats thought there was something suspicious about our being the only boat with power working.

We shared a power stand with David and Barb the octogenarian couple inhabiting the boat beside us and their boat too was dead as a doornail and David's meal, until then heating on their electric cooker was cooling rapidly. David could not get the breaker that controlled current to his boat to reset.  I tried for him to no avail.  As soon as it was set it blew.  No one else was having any luck either.

Then we turned the breaker for Meredith off.  David's breaker then worked just fine.    David thought this suspicious, I just figured it was fortuitous.  I was the only guy with power and a happy wife.  Not too shabby.

Climbing back on my boat  I noticed a smell...a smell of overheated transformer.  Tranformer!!!  Quickly I moved to the cockpit of the boat to check on our transformer.  The smell definitely emanated from the transformer.  Little wisps of something vaguely white and smoke like were emerging from the front of the transformer case.

Perfection was not lost.  It had been kidnapped, and was being tortured and murdered horribly right in front of me.

At least no one else saw anything.  What was there to see?  Well, the 120 volt output receptacle had melted.  Little geysers of black plastic were spitting out of one of the socket holes in the receptacle, spraying molten black stuff everywhere.  I unplugged the transformer.  I did this gingerly for fear of electrocution.

"Everything is fine here" I shouted to the men whose wife was standing beside him.   "I have power and all lights are green".

And all of that was true at that precise moment.  I went back to the power stand, reset David's breaker and Voila! again.  There was power on his boat.  Then there was power all down the dock.

In the end it was David, the 82 year old man on the boat beside me, who was blamed for the outage.  Apparently his 80 year old wife was cooking dinner on their electric cooker.  Two electric burners and an electric oven and all were on full bore.  The current draw must have been ferocious and we all know how rickety these Spanish systems are.  Right?

The guys on the dock who knew about these things told us all in whispers, out of respect for the elderly, that we would have to watch those two in case they burned the whole marina down.

I agreed to do my bit.  In the interests of safety.

Post Mortum:

I repaired the transformer.   Examination of the receptacle showed it was cheaply made and inadequate to its designated function.  Luckily electrical fittings are cheap and plentiful in Europe.

I cut out the melted receptacle, installed new wiring and connectors at both ends, resoldered several dodgy looking solder joints inside the transformer and tried everything again.

As you can see the three prong Canadian Plug
Does Not fit the Two Prong Euro Receptacle

To make it work we use an
adapter - shore power into adapter into Euro connector

The water grew nicely hot.

Then the hoses, which had sat through one too many heat up/cool down cycles started to fly off connector barbs.

I hate boatwork.

How Bureaucrats Solve Problems or Why We Should Shoot All the Deputy Ministers Long Before We Shoot All the Lawyers

2012 0124
Almerimar

Italy, racked by economic turmoil, recession and unrelenting overspending by government has decided that one way to solve its budget problems is to TAX SAILBOATS.

 Here is a report from Noonsite:

The newly appointed Italian government has presented parliament with a set of austerity measures to save the Italian economy. As it stands, boat owners / users (including foreign visiting yachts) will be subjected to a daily tax for the duration of their stay within italian waters. This will come into effect on the 1st May 2012 and the proposed tax per day is as follows:

a) euro 5 - from 10,01m to 12m;

b) euro 8 - 12,01m to 14m;

c) euro 10 - 14,01m to 17m;

d) euro 30 - 17,01m to 24m;

e) euro 90 - 24,01 to 34m;

f) euro 207 - 34,01m to 44m;

g) euro 372 - 44,01m to 54m;

h) euro 521 - 54,01m to 64m;

I) euro 703 - above 64m.

The above measurements are intended as overall length in accordance with EN/ISO/DIS 8666 Small Craft Principal Data.

The above daily tax rates will be reduced by 50% for all sailing yachts with an auxiliary engine. It is however still unclear whether this reduction will be restricted to sailing yachts between 10 and 12m or whether the 50% reduction will apply to any sailing yacht of any length..

Further reductions of the above rates will be applied to all yachts in accordance with the age of the yacht calculated with effect from the 1st january subsequent to the year of manufacture. The reductions are as follows:

• 5 years and over - 15%;
  - 10 years and over - 30%;
  - 15 years and over - 40%.

All yachts undergoing yard maintenance will not be liable to pay tax for the duration of works.

The penalty for late, partial or non payment of the tax will be a charge between 200 and 300% over and above the amount of tax evaded.

Now there two certain outcomes:  

• It will cost Italy more to collect this nightmare of a tax that it will collect.  Think of all the new bureaucrats and enforcement personnel that will have to be hired.
• Once imposed it will never be removed.

and several possible additional outcomes:  

• All foreign boats will leave Italy driving up the cost of wintering in Spain.  
• Spain and all the other Med countries will follow suit and tax pleasure boats.
• Every country with a metre of shoreline anywhere in the world will impose a tax for boats transiting their territorial waters.

For Meredith the tax will be €5 less 40% because we are more than 15 years old which leaves us at €3.  The €3 is reduced by 50% because we are a sailboat so our net tax will be €1.50 per day.  

 €1.50 is a not a lot of money.  But now we will have to carry proof of payment of tax at all times while in the country and produce it probably at every marina and to every cop and interfering government sob who demands it.  

We can enter Italy in a $100,000 motor home for free.  Somehow because I sail I must pay a tax.

If the tax holds it is unlikely we will go to Italy at all, not even by car.  This crap just pisses me off.

Closed Because the Pig is Late

2012 01 23
Almerimar, Spain

All Hail His Majesty
King Cerdo seen here among his subjects
at the butcher counter at the Supercor in El Ejido

Tragedy struck this sleepy oceanside town this week when the local carniceria was forced to close early due to a lack of pork.

A terse hand sign drawn in stark black hung in the door of the popular butcher shop and marisco outlet informing the pig eating public of the town's new meatless diet:

 "Cerrado. El Cerdo es tarde."
[closed.  The pig is late]

In only a few hours the consequences of the tragedy began to make themselves known.  With the cerdo being late the butcher saw no purpose in being open.  No cerdo  meant no carniceria and that meant no pescado (fish) and worse, no mariscos (shrimp).

Around here people do not keep freezers full of meat.  Meat is something you buy today to eat today.

In our little community life as we knew it changed.  Having no cerdo was inconceivable.  We became the village of the damned, crowds of walking dead,  staggering about the streets zombie like seeking mindlessly to find and eat fresh flesh.  Flesh of Cerdo.  Cerdo.  Cerdo.

Jamon Iberico on the Wall at Mercadona
our Favourite Grocery in Almerimar
In the foreground you see the intricate rig
they use to shave the ham properly

Spain runs on the pig you see.  Pork is king and there are no pretenders to the throne.    Fish and shrimp are much ballyhooed but more in the sense that we fete gold medalists at a handicapped olympics: we applaud the effort not the result.

There is no beef in this country worth calling beef.  There is not even cow good enough to grind up for ground beef.  Stores here stock something called "Burger Meat"" so housewives can make meatloaf and such without having to grind their own protein.  (Despite the astounding growth of McDonalds outlets and Burger King facades in the territory burgers have not made much of an impact in local kitchens.)

Steaks, when you can find them which is never, are 1/3 inch thick (for metronomes that would be on the order of 8 mm) so there is no such thing as rare.  The instant that piece of meet touches the grill it is flame broiled to a nice well done leather.  Such organization of gastronomic society is inconceivable to a Norte or Sudamericano.  Our entire existence is dependent on consumption of some part or other of a cow.  

Local grocery stores devote as much shelf space to beef products as a Piggly Wiggly allows for goat.  That is to say virtually none.  Piggly Wiggly, a big American food chain, by the way knows nothing about pigglies.

Counter at the Carnaceria, Supercor, El Ejido

The action centres on the jamon or ham.  Local ham is dry cured and made from distinctive black pigs found only around here.  You have simple Jamon Iberico, exquisite Iberico Pata Negro, unbelievably expensive de Bellota and then de Recebo, de Campo, de Cebo.  In the interests of racial harmony, Jamon Serrano, usually made from white pigs (which taste pretty darn good too I must say) is sold as a less expensive alternative.

Hams are sold whole, everything from the toe to the thigh, and every butcher shop has its walls lined with cured hams, hundreds of them, hanging from the hoof along one or two walls.   A ride on the local bus is guaranteed to introduce you to one or two senior citizens returning from their morning shopping with a hoof emerging from the top of their grocery carts.

It is only disconcerting the first couple of times.

When you taste the ham you get it.

Soothing Over Comments for Upset Euroweenies

The EU does have stuff.  Food and booze and tobacco are available in abundance.  Life in the cafes is unequalled.  You may wonder what more could ever be needed.

For a geek the EU, at least the southern EU, does not have good discount computerware or marine ware.

So I am not upset with Europe, well no more than normal, but Europe just does not have good computer discount stores.  Or chandlers.  Or Walmart.  Or Amazon.  Or UPS.  (EU shipping sucks totally by the way).

So Europe is a nice place but honestly I am too North American for this ever to be home.

It is so darn foreign :)

Returning to the Land of Not Enough Stuff

2012 01 12
London, ON

"Every time I come to Ontario I make sure there is room in my suitcase"

These words from my daughter Erin who lives close to the Naval base in Esquimault BC promulgate the beginning of an unfortunate situation for the crew of Meredith.

Not only do we lack the room to carry everything we need back to Europe but we are unsure how to smuggle 8 litres of maple syrup and 4 kilos of peanut butter into Spain.

It's only two voices in the choir, I know, but Spain does not have Peanut Butter and does not have Maple syrup.  What else does Spain not have? I am not even going to start on the mass of computerware that just does not exist in the EU (as in Tigerdirect real) :

• Goldsource 3000 watt transformer/voltage converter to transform EU 220 volt shore power to 120 volt power usable on our very north american sailboat.  It will also isolate the ground wire and this makes us very happy.  We tried using a German made battery charger to keep our 12 volt batteries topped up but it was a half measure and half measures rarely work.  The transformers available in the EU cost upwards of €400 plus VAT of 18% in Spain (24% in Portugal scheduled to go up). In USA price was $104.
• Logitech USB microphone so I can practice my Spanish in the Rosetta program. In Spain the mike was €40.  In Canada $18.
• Toshiba Thrive and Blackberry Playbook with an Otterbox.  A separate blog will be forthcoming on the astonishing change in onbaord computing in the last 6 months.
• Skullcandy earbuds for $10 CDN, not available in EU
• new CISCO router for sharing wireless.  $15 CDN at Tigerdirect, no idea how dear in EU
• Fuji camera to replace the old Olympus now lying at the bottom of the Atlantic in Almerimar 
• GoPro Xtreme videocam with headband and assorted mounts for various boat mounting options.  $100 US in North American, selling for just over €200 in the EU. Plus VAT of course.
• 2 tubs of peanut butter, one for a friend
• 8 litres of maple syrup
• two new fittings for the staysail track.  Custom made for us by Garhauer for $20 each.  The marine metal specialist in Almerimar told us it was impossible and could not be done.  Of course the chandler in Almerimar told us that Cetol had been banned and was not being made any longer.  He then told us we could buy it at the shipyard only 200 feet away.

So we leave home with a heavy heart and a heavier bag.

Elliott Gould on Blogs

I have little respect or use for Elliott Gould as an actor but the writers for the movie Contagion provided his character with a righteous quote:

"Blogs aren't writing.  Blogs are graffiti with punctuation"