Another week zipped by and it is starting to feel a bit like Spring is on its way over here.  Taxing seems to be the common theme this past week as I’ve been busy preparing our income taxes for 2022, Christine took on more and more challenging daily walks that taxed some new muscles and we both continue to work on projects and problems with various onboard systems which has been taxing our patience and perseverance.  Not much to show and share visually so this will be a short weekly update for a change so enjoy the break while it lasts folks!

Spring on its way?

There is no Turkish equivalent that we know of for Groundhog Day and not sure that is a loss, but based on our sunny and warmer weather of late we are getting hints that Spring may arrive early this year here in southern Turkey. 

Mother Nature seems to be sending out that message quite clearly and on one of her daily walks this week Christine found these bees busy with their Spring chores already.

That beautiful flowering tree was one of several treats Christine came across on one of her daily walks.  Hard to see as it was a bit overcast, but if peer out over the red tile rooftop you can make out the waters of the Med that we are floating on.
The photo above was taken at about the Blue dot here on Christine’s phone and Möbius is in the marina at the White dot on the far Right.

Looks like a nice simple walk right?
That is until you look at the elevation or altitude and see that this walk is all pretty much straight UP and the bee tree was already 862 feet/262m above our sea level on Möbius.
Not the best photo but this shot from the water looking up from nearby Finike Marina will give you a better idea of why this walk was a bit “taxing” for Captain Christine.
This shot from our deck helps to fill in the way the land behind us goes pretty much straight up. 
On the way down, you can stop at the new mosque and get a much better view of the marina and Möbius below.
More signs of Spring as more and more flowers start to blossom all around us as well and Christine’s daily walks allow her to see the progress day to day.
Saturday is market day here in Finike so Christine did her weekly trek over there to stock us up with more fresh produce and groceries.

for Instance ….

One system that we have not been able to KISS or Keep It Simple, is the “network of networks” which allow all our electronics to be interconnected with each other.  This diagram that Christine created shows this quite graphically and this is only the ethernet and NMEA2000 or N2K networks.
This is a screen shot of the Maretron N2K Builder app which she used to design just the Maretron monitoring portion of the N2K network on Möbius.
Maretron is what we use on Möbius for all the monitoring of all the systems onboard and their N2K View software allows us to then create any number of screens like this one as you build your own virtual gauges and lights to show whatever information you want.  This screen is courtesy of James & Jennifer on mv Dirona and if you go to their blog with this link they do an eXcellent job of explaining how this all works.
This is a huge asset for anyone running a passage maker as you can build any number of screens so each one is just right, just for you.  As you’ll see in the bottom Right corner of Dirona’s screens, these two are for when Underway and then you could have screens for when you are at anchor or away from the boat, etc.  
The actual installation of these networks is relatively simple but the devil in the details shows up as you start to configure the system and keep everyone on the network playing nice with each other.  Software such as N2K Analyzer here, helps you see each individual device and what they are sending out, receiving, etc.
I won’t get into the technical details here but to help explain what has been “taxing” Christine this week is dealing with “instancing” on the N2K network.  Each N2K device has to have a unique identifier known as an “instance” and for things like Maretron monitoring black boxes with multiple channels, each channel has its own instance and then each of the “sentences” which are created to carry the specific information such as tank level, oil pressure, room temperature, etc. etc. also has their own unique instance.  Simple enough, everything has its own unique ID or instance number so the system knows who’s who on the network.  The challenge comes as you start to bring each device into the network or do updates or add new equipment and as each manufacturer provides their own default instance numbers.  Not quite so simple when you have ALL those sentences, devices and channels all talking back and forth simultaneously!

As you might imagine this often results in conflicting instances and until they are resolved the devices or gauges or alarms don’t work.  As you can see on this screen where Red = conflict, not everyone is playing nicely together in Christine’s world this week which has been taxing her patience and perseverance.

Literally Taxing!

We continue to file our income tax in the USA and that deadline for tax year 2021 is coming up on April 15th so this week I got started on the rather laborious task of filing our taxes for last year. 
So most of the screens I’ve been looking at this week look a little similar to Christine’s above as I go through filling in all the forms with the IRS. 
As with the network stuff Christine is working on, software certainly helps make this less arduous than it was in the past when you had to do it all on paper forms by hand, but it is still rather complex when you add in all the “tax instances” for being self employed running a self employed business as Christine does for all the books she writes and you have things like retirement accounts, investments and where she is a US citizen and I’m an “alien” (in more ways than one!) from Canada.

Progress continues on getting Mr. Gee all sorted out as well and this past week I’ve been organizing a trip up to London where I will spend some time at Gardner Marine and see some dear friends in the London area who I’ve not been able to see the past 2+ years with all the travel restrictions. 

I will leave you with this lovely shot Christine grabbed last week from our forepeak during a brief squall that blew through.  Moments like this help us keep everything in perspective even in taxing times.
Sorry things are not more visual or interesting for you this past week but please do check back in for the next weekly update from Möbius .World

-Wayne