19th December - Hobart days - AIS tracking

Saturday 19^th December 2015

The festive Thomas family gingerbread house 

Such a glorious sunny day.  All of the brides and grooms – and there are hundreds, I am sure - will be thrilled to bits. 

Yesterday it was very chilly (16) while the day before was glorious.

We had drinks with friends in a beautiful sunny secluded garden

I am not complaining at all about our volatile weather.  It keeps us on our toes…

Last night we had another cheery gang of people for dinner.  I disgraced myself by gently nodding off to sleep, just a bit, at the table, round 11pm…

But before that, I was fascinated to see an app on Chris Wood’s phone.  Not sure what it is called but it costs about $5 and it shows any boat anywhere in the world, provided it has AIS (Automatic Identification System.)   How wonderful, was my first thought.  I can see where some of my long-lost friends are.  (Long lost friends are those who do not communicate by email or Facebook…)

But…is it so wonderful?  Chris looked for 2XS, and there it was, with a lovely photo, taken somewhere or another, and it showed the exact location of the 2XS berth in Ocean View marina.  This is all actually a bit alarming.  Anyone with bad intentions would be able, with an iPad or a smart phone and a $5 app, to find any yacht with AIS.  And most of them do – it is a a very good safety feature.  Not only can you see where a boat is at any given time, you can also see if it is under way, how fast it is going, and which direction it is heading in.

Hmmm…I need to think about the ramifications of all of this.  Much as I love technology, maybe in this case, I don’t!   I thought maybe we should turn the AIS off when in dodgy places, but, of course, the AIS is turned off right this moment; everything on the boat is turned off!   The technology is much too clever…

On a completely different note…I was listening to a podcast about Salmon Rushdie a few days ago.  He was, apparently, challenged about some inaccuracies in  Midnight’s Children.  He had written things about Indira Ghandi were anachronistic.  Hmmm…well…he thought about it for a moment, and then said, To tell the truth, I lied!  Love it!

And look below - how bright can a van be??  This is James's Assemble Anything workvan - fabulous!