Baby monitors

[Bill Allen]

Anyone ever use a baby monitor to help with sounding an anchor draging alarm to their aft cabin? My Northstar has an anemic alarm but otherwise quite acceptable, thinking of using a baby monitor so I could hear it in the aft cabin. Sugestions, alternatives, Thanks Bill

[ThirdHatt]

I'm not sure about Northstar, but some manufacturers offer an external alarm buzzer for such applications. On my last boat I added one to the Furuno VX2 for about $20 and ran it to the Master Stateroon Closet so that it would be able to wake me up over the A/C blower noise, etc. It worked great!

I know Pascal likes to use a handheld Garmin GPS by his bedside which is also a good solution if your Northstar does not support an external buzzer.

[Angela]

Anyone ever use a baby monitor to help with sounding an anchor draging alarm to their aft cabin? My Northstar has an anemic alarm but otherwise quite acceptable, thinking of using a baby monitor so I could hear it in the aft cabin. Sugestions, alternatives, Thanks Bill

Yes. We have just that on Sanctuary. The previous owner had the wireless cameras mounted in the engine rooms and a few extra loose cameras laying around. Because I can get sound over the little TV monitor, I thought that would be an excellent way to hear the anchor drag alarm in the absence of a lot of high tech equipment. We already had the baby monitors onboard, so I just didn't see the sense in spending a lot of money for something "marine".

[Canuck Dennis]

If you use the "Bahama" style anchoring set up with all chain rode, you should not need the monitor

[Fanfare]

I already had a depth alarm loud speaker next to my ear in my berth. Last year I ran a wire from my salon Northstar 952 GPS to connect its fairly mild alarm to the existing speaker in my cabin. Probably because it is so close to my ear (right next to the remote burglar/fire alarm panel) it wakes me immediately. On the Northstar I can set the anchor dragging distance depending on circumstances. Currently using 0.10 nmi. from anchor drop. I also run the chart plotter in to its maximum magnification and have the plotter place a dot for the boat's position every 2 minutes so I can observe the arc of the segment of swing as I pass by. Worked fine in the Bahamas this year, but last year had a late night false alarm which my newer Northstar 6000 on the bridge said was a tracking error. Didn't find this warning until morning.

I normally wake up several times a night and check our position when anchored out. But both myself and the Admiral sleep a lot better now with the alarm. I have become diligent in remembering to set the alarm, but not so good in turning it off as we get under way. Fortunately I have trained my guests and grandchildren to notify me when anything is beeping or otherwise seems unusual.

The anchor depth alarm, which goes off at 3 ft. below the keel (7 ft total depth) did not work out as well. I finally figured it was sounding as the boat drifted over the second anchor line from my usual Bahamian two-anchor up-and-down-current moor. Or perhaps a fish swam beneath us. On at least one occasion it did save us from a grounding. The GPS is better.

[MikeP]

Tie the alarm with an old fashioned alarm bell and I guarantee you'll never miss hearing it. The po did that with 12point alarm system. It'll definitely get your attention.

[nyrussell]

Nope sorry, Baby Monitor is with the ummmm oh yes Baby!!!!

[saltshaker]

Tie the alarm with an old fashioned alarm bell and I guarantee you'll never miss hearing it. The po did that with 12point alarm system. It'll definitely get your attention.

I've been thinking about doing just that. The alarm is inaudible in the cabin, particularly below decks. My high water alarms could be going off and I wouldn't hear them, even if we were awake. Even in the salon it is barely audible, unless your listening for it.

[Boatsb]

Jack you can get piezo electric buzzers that use almost no power and run them parallel to the indicator lights. The come in ranges up to about 110 DB for about $10.

[saltshaker]

that's exactly what I was thinking. No need to put an actual bell in the boat. I think an alarm in the master and one in the salon would more than do the trick.