It was nice to be back in a city again after being in the either the Ottawa ex-urbs and/or the countryside for over three weeks. We would have enjoyed being tourists, but we got the welcome news that the Mercury technician was able to see us as soon as we arrived and then the antenna/electronics guy was coming the next day. Both guys came and stayed all day long dealing with our technical issues - a really good thing, but it really involved us being there to talk about the system failures and other issues and get everything done that needed to get done. Plus we needed time to do a sea trial of all the fixes, get provisions and do some miscellaneous shopping for supplies. The result was that we didn't get to explore much or see much of the many cultural and museum offerings in the city.

Kingston's City Hall facing the harbor side park; Shoal Tower National Historic Site (a 19th century defense tower within the marina), Kingston Streetscape

Poor Salty. After all the electronic work done on her after the last three weeks - we found out from our Mercury technician that she had lost her "personality" - which explained why some of the drive functions were not working. Her personality is essentially software code that describes the dimensions and features of the vessel that allow the electronics to function. Her new "personality" was duly downloaded and installed and a lot of things began to work which previously had not.

We also had a new VHF/AIS antenna installed. Now we could actually hear what people were saying to us on the VHF radio instead of garbled muffled growls. Further our AIS (automatic identification system) now began to function - so that we could identify and be identified by other vessels. The AIS will be important later on the US river system where large tug-barge vessels may need to see and been seen by us beyond the curves of the rivers; as well as represent an important communication method should we need to be rescued or have serious problems on the water.