Boat dreams, sometimes don’t work out

“In the foreground is a Furuno 1731MKIII radar, then behind it is a Garmin GPS162 usually left in a large map view, then there is the primary Simrad CP32 GPS which is left in a data display mode. The Simrad drives the next instrument, a Robertson AP22 autopilot. Then behind the nice Hynautic engine controls is a Dell Latitude laptop running Nobletec’s Visual Navigator. Up above from left to right is the FM radio, weather telex and stabilizer controls (all out of the photo), then a B&G wind indicator, a B&G depth and speed indicator, then an Icom M-127 VHF radio which we used constantly, and finally an ICOM M-710RT SSB radio which when used causes the boat’s autopilot to initiate a turn!”  This is from a well-done blog I came across. Here the author is documenting an enjoyable 2003 trip down the ICW as mate aboard a friend’s 1999 Krogen 39. But there’s also a nautical sad side to the blog, which is when the author’s whole family flies to Fort Lauderdale for the dream cruise aboard their Nordhavn 46 (shipped ahead), goes out 4 miles into the Gulf Stream, then comes back to Florida, gives away all the provisions and puts the boat on the market! He’s not specific about what exactly went wrong, but this sort of thing happens more than many of us would imagine, and hats off to a guy who doesn’t try to hide it.