Review of: My Team Talks Headsets. By Cruising Solutions

If there is one topic that everyone has a story to tell about, it is anchoring. Anchoring is a spectator sport so get to your harbor early and enjoy the show.  After two decades sailing, I have seen all the stages of anchoring with your spouse. First you give hand signals that your spouse doesn't recognize though they make perfect sense to you. Then, when your crew mate gives you a confused look, you repeat the signal while miming the speech with your mouth in a slow O-V-E-R-L-Y   D-R-A-M-A-T-I-C way. Then frustration takes over, you point wildly with so much effort that you injure your rotator cuff. I call this the angry mime phase. Finally things boil down to yelling over the sound of the motor, and then one last hand signal that everyone knows. Your evening is ruined, and you have guaranteed that you won't be invited for cocktails on any of the neighboring boats.

 It's one of those things that you just suffer with when you're on a boat. The inability to communicate with the person at the helm because it's too far, they can't see you, or they can't hear you, is just a frustrating detail that we tend to live with. I have found that it really isn't necessary. My wife and I now wear Cruising Solutions My Team Talks headsets every time we pick up or drop a mooring, dock the boat, or pick up or drop our anchor. To put it in the words of one of my cruising friends, "It's like she's in my head!" There is never any confusion and you never have to raise your voice. We do find it helpful to repeat what the other person says as we do it. So if I say, "Shift into neutral." My wife repeats, "shifting into neutral."

Blue LED shows Power On

Once we became used to them, almost everything about the new headsets was better. They were significantly more expensive but there were significant differences between the two types of headsets. One thing that I really appreciate is the ability to instantly turn off my communication with my wife, so that I can talk to someone else on the dock and with the press of a button we reconnect. Warning sailors, "turning off" your wife when she is mad is a bad idea! The Marriage Savers are on full time and it is possible to yell in your wife's ear when you are calling to someone on the dock, or confuse the person on the other end when you aren't talking to them. They are smaller, lighter, more powerful, have less static interference, and stay on your head better then the Marriage Savers do. Additionally they could fit on your head inside the hood of your foul weather gear (when you may need the the most) which the Marriage Savers do not. They are rechargeable which is far better than 9V batteries as you do not need to keep an extra set of batteries around in case they die. Of course they tell you when the battery is getting low too. The volume is readily controllable whereas the marriage savers only have a high and low setting. They are totally private which is important if you don't like interruptions from other boaters. I particularly like the indicator lights. I have accidentally left my Marriage Savers on thus killing the battery only to find them dead when I need them the most.

When I received the headsets in the mail I was excited and put them together quickly and tried to pair them. They connected but I received a little bit of static and I was definitely having trouble with one headset. I called Cruising Solutions and they recommended a factory reset and that did the job. We have become very accustomed to using them, but there are a few things that it took me a while to get used to. This is a good time to note that you need to buy at least two. Given that upto 4 headsets can be paired for private communiaton, they are sold by the piece, not the pair. This is a major factor for some crews, who may want to connect more headsets, not just 2, in order to keep the entire crew in the loop.

Boom Mic Length

I have fount that the boom microphone seems a little short. It fits my wife but, it only reaches the corner of my mouth so it's very important to have the microphone facing toward your mouth and curved so that is right in front of the corner of your mouth otherwise it may be hard for your companion to hear you. Given time, I have learned to appreciate the compact nature of the headsets. The Marriage Savers were great, but it is possible for people to not even notice that you are wearing the My Team Talks headsets as they are much smaller and less obtrusive. You don't look like you're directing traffic on the deck of a aircraft carrier (though that is far preferable to not communicating.)


I occasionally wear glasses and the My Team Talks headset mounts over and behind your ears. They are much more stable than the Marriage Savers and will remain on your head in all positions, but they do tend to interfere a little with my wireframe glasses. The foam ear covers of the Marriage Savers worked a little better for this but the 

Put Glasses On After Headset

Marriage Savers are heavier and tend to slide around on your head, particularly when you bend over. The My Team Talks headsets fit both my wife and I very well. I think that they adjust more readily to different size heads. You have to put the glasses on after placing your headset on to get the best fit.

The My Team Talks headsets came without a charging transformer. You get a USB cord, and they will plug into any Apple or Android USB charger that excepts USB cords but I expected to receive a wall outlet inverter with the set. I had no trouble finding extra transformers around the house from old cell phones but that may be an issue with other people. I purchased a couple of inexpensive converters that fit into 12 V lighter sockets on the boat that have USB ports in them for $5.99 each.

Because of the complexity of the Bluetooth headset, it took me longer to learn how to use them. The Marriage Savers are simply "on and off" where as the Bluetooth headsets are capable of many different functions and therefore you need to spend some time with the manual and learn how to turn them on and off and connect to the other person. Not a big deal, but if you are a "manual skipper" like I am, you will find yourself going back to read the directions. I couldn't begin to discuss all the other things these do like connect to your cell phone, or let you listen to music wirelessly. That is beyond the scope of the ariticle.

The last issue is a minor one. I really liked the storage bag that the Marriage Savers came in. The My Team Talks headsets do not come in a storage bag, they only come in a cardboard box. So you need to find a place to store them which can be a hassle on a boat. I sold my old Marriage Savers inexpensively to a friend but kept the storage bag for the new headsets.

As always I try to be honest when writing these evaluations. I list the good the bad and I can say that these are a good product and that I'm glad I have them. Though the price seemed expensive, now that I have used them, they are worth it. I beleive that they will be one of those things I can't imagine living without like a windlass or self tailing winches. Currently we spend about 2 months living aboard each year, but my wife and I intend to live on our boat year round and the quality of these headsets fits our needs better than the Marriage Savers did.  Full disclosure, I received a small discount when purchasing the "My Team Talks" given that I would try them out and evaluate them. I have used them for a few weeks and have put my impressions in this blog post. 

Captain Doug Purdy

Review: The New Port Henry Marina on Lake Champlain

The marina itself was raised a couple feet with gravel.

Seldom has a marina undergone such a extreme makeover as Port Henry has. I once kept a 23' sail boat out of there when it was owned by the Velez family back in the late 80's. Many things have changed since those days.  The marina location was used as the site for the construction of the bridge at Crown Point. Once New York and Vermont were done using the location it was turned over to the owner who has been installing a first rate marina.


The most important part of a marina isn't its equipment or its location. The most important part is the service and staff. I found Dave the manager to be knowledgeable and accomodating. He has big plans for the marina and is well on his way to implementing them.  The other people working there were very polite and helpful as well.

Fishing Docks

The site has been raised with gravel from the old marina so that it can operate at over 100 feet of water level. It is well protected by the two breakwaters that were installed by the state. The breakwaters separate the fishing boats which leave early in the morning and the cruising boats which tend to sleep in. It is a neat concept that will ensure quieter mornings for both parties. It might be a little rough on a mooring in a northerly breeze but the docks are well protected.

One of the large power distribution boxes.

breakwater

There is a 25 Ton travel lift and plenty of water under the lift to get boats out. The travel lift is used to place the boats on the cradles and or jackstands.  This will handle very large boats. Once I got a look at the lift and the space, I decided to move my boat there for the winter. There will be power and water available for people to work on their boats in the spring on the hard.

The docks were brand new and really nice. I especially like the height of the docks. I didn't need a ladder to get down to the dock from the deck of my boat.  The new docks have brand new power poles and several large service panels are spread out. There seems to be plenty of infrastructure available for the place to expand. When you build from the ground up you can put in good equipment and these docs were as good as any I had been on around the lake. The lighted power poles were also very nice.

There is a brand new pumpout on the work dock. You enter the northerly section of the marina and the pumpout dock is on the end of the first dock on your right. Water and electricity were easy to reach and I had no trouble getting my 42' boat into the first set of docks.

The bathrooms were just being finished as I visited. They were brand new and were very clean. On the other end of the building there were two drains being plumbed in for laundry. I can't think of very many marinas with laundry in them on this lake.

The good and the bad. Many of the marinas on the New York shore of Lake Champlain have to deal with sound from trains as they travel north toward Montreal.  We heard 4 trains go through in the 24 hours we were there. Most of them were tankers cars with oil. I believe one was at night. Both marinas in the Port Henry area have train tracks near them. There is a state boat launch just south of the marina and there is a lot of traffic but it won't upset the marina patrons as it is far enough away. There is a dollar store and an ice cream stand a few hundred feet away and up the hill in town you will find a real grocery store which is the only one I can think of on the lake other than in Burlington. The town is very quiet and although it has seen better days during the mining era of days gone by, it seemed to still be a quiet Adirondack town. There are a places to eat in town and even a small little trailer that serves breakfast at the state boat launch. There are also several vacant buildings in town. This marina might bring in more people during the summer which the local economy could use. The mining museum in town is worth a visit if you are staying for long enough for a good walk.

Prices are reasonable. You can check out their website at http://porthenrymarina.com/

This blog was written on 8/10/14 and is my personal opinion about my visit.