Morning
I woke up at 05:30 and made coffee while firing up the computer in preparation for my first conference call of the day at 06:00. Fresh coffee in hand and wearing a “formal” collared polo shirt, I joined the meeting only to discover that I’d miscalculated by an hour and the call had already ended. Computer issues plagued me all day.
Then I read my e-mails and had my second setback of the day. DHL had sent me the bill for my StarLink RV shipment, and it was significantly different from the quote. I was already miffed at DHL because they’d been quoting delivery on Friday until I actually hit the “pay” button. Upon screen refresh it read the following Monday, going from 4 to 7 days in the blink of an eye. And although the package weight, dimensions, pickup and delivery had not changed, the price had gone from the quoted $340 to $520. Not surprisingly, I really feel cheated. I submitted my complaint/query and the automated response along the lines of “your business is important to us. We might get back to you on this matter sometime this century.” didn’t help.
Computer Woes
I’ve been getting almost daily BSOD on Windows 11 with my Gigabyte Brix and saw that they had a new BIOS update. I downloaded that version and updated the system. Upon reboot my Windows BitLocker stated that I needed to enter my backup key in order to access my drive. I use a password manager for things like that and checked my list of about 20 BitLocker id/passwords to no avail. This one was missing.
Oh no, my most recent backup is a week old. I don’t want to install Windows and all the associated programs from scratch! I checked various versions of my password manager but cannot find the associated key. Before biting the bullet and reformatting my drive and re-installing Windows, I thought that perhaps I could revert to the old BIOS. It took a while to use my notebook to scour the web for the old BIOS version and to format/update a USB stick so that I could use UEFI text input mode to revert; but I finally got that done. After reverting to the ancient BIOS version, I rebooted and waited with bated breath for either my login screen or a BitLocker message and was extremely relieved to get the former! The backup is running as I write this…
Noon
No lunch for me today, but I think I’ll have a sandwich later ashore at Jambe de Bois. I still need to install the newest BIOS as my PC had the BSOD again; but now I’ve saved and backed up the BitLocker disk ID and password. My computer program at work keeps on hanging and forcing me to restart. Nothing seems to be going my way today…
At least I found the hidden screws holding the toilet panels in place to let me access the plumbing.
Afternoon
I decided to have a baguette ashore for lunch but as I got into the dinghy I looked over and couldn’t believe my eyes. It looked like Zanshin’s twin was anchoring next to me!
I zipped over to say hello and it turns out that there were 2 Germans aboard and that they’d just completed the ARC. They invited me aboard Alizé and it turns out that not only was it the same Jeanneau 57, but also the same hull color and the same year of manufacture! We chatted for a while and then went to Jambe de Bois for libations and roti. We left after they’d shut down at 17:00 and continued chatting aboard their J57.