I bought a lipstick video camera (the size of a lipstick, silly!), plus a recording deck and a deck to connect it. And 50 feet of wire.
The grand plan is to install the camera at the top of the mast, run the cable down to the cabin, and then hook up the recording deck. The camera is weatherproof. We shall soon find out just what sort of weather it is proof against!
The gear arrived a couple of weeks ago, I had a quick look at it, and put it aside. But I did note that the recording deck is a Philips unit, small, 30gb drive. And it runs on Windows mobile. Compatible with XP. Yes, it is old.

That is why I put it back in its box. But now I have found my old Sony Vaio Xtreme, bought in 2004 in Japan. Carbon fiber, thinner than a MacBook Air. But long since relegated to the “it might come in useful” box.

It was under the two Psion 5s, and by the two Apple Newtons.

My, how life has evolved. It is soooo slow. I am trying to get the Sony up to date, and also downloading the latest firmware to update the HP thingy.

I expect I will just cut to the chase and either download the latest Parallels to my Mac, and run XP from there – or look for something better to capture video from the camera.

But I love the idea of getting video from the top of the mast, as well as having a monitor in the cockpit with live video feed, to see ahead without having to be in the crow’s nest!