The first week onboard Elida has been fun and refreshing. I and Robert have as usual been working together on in the navigation cabin, installing antennas, radios and wires.
This radar will be turned on all the time when we are not in port and when we do not need the radar. This sounds pretty strange, but its purpose is to transmit the to the black box when we are underway. If the sun goes down, or it becomes foggy, we will start the primary radar, which gives us a sharper and larger picture.
Another antenna we got up this week was the GPS heading sensor. The heading sensor is a device which consists of two GPS receivers attached to a rig. It looks almost like a radar antenna, just that it won’t rotate. A computer knows the distance between these receivers, and can by comparing the devices calculate the exact heading the ship has.
Compared to a standard magnetic compass, this sensor displays the exact heading and not the magnetic heading.
I and Robert also got a new display installed in the navigation cabin. The depth sounder! This instrument is installed under the VHF radio and shows how the depth curve goes like.
The Ukrainians and Americans have been busy finishing the saloon floor, and have now painted two layers of topcoat over the sanded floor. Therefore that floor is now finished, and they have begun painting the passenger cabins.
Jimmy and our guest electirican Bengt-Olof have been working on the main electric central in the officer’s cabin as well as all the miscellaneous cable installations, going down down into the most remote hatches in the ship.
NÅP, our doctor and second officer on board, has been installing our large 200mm Harken blocks for the sheets. They are really huge, here am I compared to their size.
Stefan came with a delivery of life buoys today with the text “Elida V” on them.
The last few days the water level has risen considerably because of bad weather. Low air pressure and eastbound winds averaging over 20 m/s (40 knots) pushes the sea water from Denmark to Sweden.
Today, Brian and Jarod from YWAM have arrived to Elida IV to start to rebuild the ship to become the YWAM ship “Next Wave”. The plan is that that ship is to be delivered to Liverpool on the 20th of February.