A LOOK AT THE XS SCUBA GOPRO MASK

I have a GoPro camera that I use on board BIANKA and when chartering on other boats. Though my homemade floating handle requires I use one hand to hold it when taking videos or stills. While I was looking around for a new dive mask this summer I came upon the XS SCUBA GoPro MASK . This mask has a metal bracket where one mounts the underwater housing of a GoPro camera when snorkeling or diving.
Seemed like a good item to have on board. Though my local waters are rather nutrient rich and visibilty is limited. I do get to spend a lot of time in waters of the Caribbean and elsewhere around the world where visibility is much clearer and the mask would be more useful. So I bought it and here is a quick look and test on how it works:


I'm pleased with the mask and will get to try it out in clearer warmer waters soon. If you know someone who has a GoPro or similar camera like the Swann Freestyle Waterproof Video Camera  it would make a great gift too!

A CAPT. MIKE TIP OF THE HAT: Swann Communications & their Freestyle HD Camera

I've got several video cameras that I use on board BIANKA. From GoPro, Canon Powershot to the one built into my Blackberry phone. They all come in useful for various purposes.  But, one I've been using a lot has been the  Swann Freestyle 1080p HD Waterproof Sports Video Camera. It  is small like the GoPro but, comes with a lot of accessories that that GoPro charges extra for. Things like a remote start and LCD screen are included with the base unit. I also like that it has separate buttons to either shoot video or stills. Unlike the GoPro which requires pushing several buttons to change how you want to shoot. On a recent trip to the Spanish Virgins my Swann stopped working. It seems one of the battery connectors broke. Not sure when it happened but, it was not something I could fix. Since the Swann warranty was for a year I contacted them  for a repair. After getting receiving the shipping information I sent it off. Then the other day I got the package back from Swann USA. It was not the camera I sent to be repaired my camera  but, they had sent a brand new camera with all the accessories. All I can say is WOW that's great customer service. So that's why Swann and their  Swann Freestyle Sports Video Camera get a tip of the hat from Capt. Mike.

Here's some of the video I've taken with the camera. The first is from a recent trip to Vieques:



and here is a timelapse of Dawn arriving on Hook Mountain as BIANKA sat at anchor:

A LITTLE HELP FOR MY FRIENDS

The other day I awoke from an extended nap after have spent several unsuccessful hours trying to get the new GoPro Wi-Fi BacPac remote to work.  I sat in the cockpit thinking about the lack of the days productivity. Then I noticed an older couple on the shore rigging up a Sunfish to go for a sail. It was blowing hard because the area was squeezed between hurricane Leslie passing to the east and high pressure moving in from the west.  Winds were 15 to 20 gusting to 27 knots. I saw the older gent start to sail. A few minutes later I saw the boat had capsized. The guy eventually was able to right it but, obviously he had had enough. He lowered the sail but, the winds were still driving him and the boat out further into the harbor. He was having a difficult time removing the mast as the boat continued to drift. Then I noticed the woman on the shore had jumped into the water and was now swimming to toward the man and the drifting Sunfish. After she reached it both she and the man were hanging on to a nearby sailboat to avoid drifting further out into the harbor. This was not looking good. So I got on the radio and called the Harbor Master who luckily was still around. I let them know about the situation and directed them to the scene and a few minutes later had rescued the couple and got them and their boat to the shore. So it turned out it was not such an unproductive day after all and I felt pretty good.

FIXING MY GOPRO CAMERA MOUNT

 I bought a GoPro HD camera a few months ago and really like it. But, it is so small and light one could easily lose it. Especially if there are sinister Seagulls around:



I have not yet lost the camera but, I did lose one of the  Acorn Cap Nuts

 that holds the camera to a home made GoPro mount I made.

If it happens once it can happen again. So I decided to make it more secure. First I had to find a replacement Acorn Cap nut. It is 5 mm in size.  Look for something that reads M5-.8 on the package. They are also available on  AMAZON

So when I got the replacement nut I secured it with a little super glue:

This should make it pretty secure so it does not come loose again:

GOOD TO KNOW: KINDLE AND GOPRO CAMERA CHARGING TIP

I was out on a charter in the Leeward Islands recently and bought along my new GoPro Hero camera. I also bought along a 12 volt USB adapter and the GoPro charger cable to charge it. But, when I got on board I found that the boat did not have any 12 volt cigarette sockets on board that were wired.  But I did have a 120 volt outlet in my cabin hooked up to the  boats inverter. So I did what any good sailor would do and looked around for something that I could adapt to charge the GoPro camera. I found just what I needed with my Kindle e-reader charging cable:

The Kindle comes with a small 120 volt to USB adapter plug with a removable cable. So I was able to plug the GoPro Hero camera cable into the Kindle adapter and charge via the boats 120 volt inverter. It's a good thing to know if you need to charge the GoPro camera and just have a 120 volt Kindle charger. It will serve a dual purpose charging both your Kindle and GoPro camera.
Speaking of the GoPro cameras nothing gets me looking forward to summer and the up coming sailing season than a video like this:

CAPT. MIKE IN THE LEEWARD ISLANDS PART FOUR: CULEBRA

"I mixed a drink and went out on the balcony to sit down. The town still looked deserted. Far out on the horizon I could see the neighboring island of Culebra, and from somewhere in that direction came the shuddering thump of explosions. I recalled Sanderson telling me that Culebra was an aerial

bombing range for the U.S. Navy. Once it had been a magic place, but no longer."

-Hunter S. Thompson, THE RUM DIARY 

Hard to believe that this peaceful little island was used for target practice by the U.S. military but, it was for many years. I had heard about the demonstrations against the practice on nearby Vieques but, had never heard about Culebra. The practice started in 1939 in preparation for World War II. It seems the topography of the island and it's beaches were excellent training grounds for the invasion of the Pacific Islands by U.S. forces. By 1971 the people of Culebra had had enough and started protesting. In 1975 operations were switched to Vieques.

Culebra to my mind has once again become a magical place and one that I hope to get back to soon hopefully with BIANKA. The magic on our second morning started for me as I awoke a little before dawn and witnessed a real nice sunrise to start the day:

Capt. Billy and Pat went into town looking to provision up with some ingredients for salads. Being an arid island most produce comes in by ferry from the Puerto Rico mainland. Though there was some mechanical problem with the ferry and it did not operate the previous day. Things were a little up in the air and the island suffered an economic hit because the Puerto Ricans from the mainland were not able to get the Culebra for the weekend as they usually did.  So the island was pretty quiet even though it was a holiday weekend.  We decided to take a  two hour tour around the island with one of the local taxi drivers. He took us up into the hills where we enjoyed some real nice vistas:

and traveled down to the other side of the island to visit some of the lovely beaches including Flamingo Beach. Which is just as pretty from the air:

as it is from the shore:

The next morning the magic continued as just before breakfast a beautiful rainbow seemed to emanate from the middle of the harbor:

Since this harbor was a known hangout for pirate ships it was very easy to assume that some pots of gold plunder might be located on the bottom of the harbor at the end of the rainbow.

Culebra has just about everything a cruising sailor might need especially those who don't need the nightlife of a San Juan or St. Thomas or some of the British Virgin Islands. There is a grocery store and a farmers market with a fellow who comes over by ferry one day a week. There will soon be two places where one can get fuel. But, a lot depends on whether the ferries are running. So one needs to be aware that schedules and supplies do not always coincide.  But, there are a few bars where one can go to mingle with other cruisers. Including one appropriately named The Dingy Dock:

A restaurant and bar with a great waterfront view. You can easily tell when it's happy hour by all the dingies tied up to the dock:

There is a convenient cut across the island with a lift bridge that is opened once a year to make sure it is working. It's height and water pipe prevent most cruising boats from using the cut.

It is however convenient to take a dingy to the other side of the island to visit some of the very beautiful snorkeling and dive sites around Culebra. Which is why we came here in the first place. Here are some videos I took with my GoPro camera snorkeling some of the reefs off of Culebra:

Though the videos do not really do justice to how nice most of the reefs around the island really are. Our original plans called for us to stop at Culebra and then head off to Vieques and finally sail the the Puerto Rico mainland and getting off the boat at Farado. But, once we got to Culebra the feel of the place and beauty of the reefs made us decide to just stay here for the rest of the charter. Culebra is certainly a place I will want to come back to.

WINTERLUDE 2012

I went down to check on the boat recently. It's that time of year that I call the winterlude period after the waltzing Bob Dylan tune of the same name. This year was a rather mild winterlude compared to the winterludes of 2011 and 2010 and even 2009.  So I'm not complaining.  I spent several hours just hanging out an enjoying the unusual winter warmth. I even set up my new GoPro camera and tried a little time lapse shooting from my cockpit view as the tide ran out:

 You know after seeing this video I made sure the camera was Seagull proofed before I started shooting. All in all not a bad way to spend part of winters day.

BOATERS BEWARE OF THIEVES IN THE NIGHT

If you ever have found things mysteriously missing from your boats cockpit the explanation may be fairly simple. I recently ordered a GoPro video camera . While I was researching about the camera online  I came upon this video of a brazen theft by a Seagull:

The GoPro camera weighs about 6 oz with the housing. After seeing this video I won't be leaving it or anything else like keys laying around in the cockpit especially overnight. One thing is for sure though Seagulls are not real good when it comes to making videos, they can steal things pretty quickly.