Boat work and new crew

Hello All,
It has been over a week since I have been here. I have been slaving away installing navigation equipment on the boat. For almost 3 years I have had to steer the boat by hand under engine only and even though I have mostly sailed there is still heaps of times myself and my crew have had to sit for hours on end steering. Under sail I have a Monitor wind vane that has done a wonderful job. It is all mechanical so it doesn't use any power but it only works when the wind blows.

I have just finished installing an electric auto pilot to help us when under engine only. After I leave Guam and the trade winds I am foreseeing a little more motoring so I wanted to make it easier on us and as the temperature decreases we wont have to freeze to death holding on to the tiller so much. I have also installed an AIS system (Automatic Identification System) In the shipping industry the boats are required to send out a signal that states there position, heading there length, what they are carrying and where they are going. The system I installed picks up this signal and puts them on my chart plotter so I can see them with out using my radar. The radar will pick them up also but this system is more precise and it gives you a boat name also so if you need to call them on the radio you can hail the name of the vessel. It hasn't been an issue so far in my travels to track ships but I am told Japan has heavy ship traffic and I just want to keep things safe.

Now for the news everyone has been waiting for. Stephen from Canada will be arriving in Guam on the 4th of April to help me get the boat to Japan. He has never sailed before so this will be an adventure for both of us. We have been visiting for weeks on email and skype and he is really excited to make the trip. I dont plan to leave till about the 15th of April so it will give us some time to get the boat out sailing and get us both used to the boat again.
Things are coming together on the Freestyle and it will be good to get underway again to visit strange and interesting ports.
I will keep you guys up to date as things move along and I will add some Regatta pictures to the Guam album.
That's all for now.

PEACE