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Anafi Videos of my Boat "Alpine Mist" Underway

Harry Brooks

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I recently acquired an Anafi drone and filmed "Alpine Mist" my boat a Rosborough RF-w46 while underway on the first cruise of this year. The video was filmed in and just outside Fossil Bay on Sucia Island. Sucia Island in Washington State, is at the southern end of the Strait of Georgia a body of water roughly 100 nautical miles long by 30 wide. Normally this is a very crowded anchorage, but in late April, I was the only boat the 1st night with one other boat pulling into the head of the bay the next morning. The drone camera system has a limit of 5 minutes per clip and as a result, the videos were uploaded to YouTube in four parts as I haven’t yet learned how to join and edit them. The videos were shot in UHD and High Dynamic Range which look incredibly gorgeous on a large screen monitor. I had to convert them to a lower resolution for uploading.

Flying the drone and operating the boat single handed is a bit of a challenge - nearly lost the drone while landing. Conditions were quite calm with wind speed up to about 6 knots. I launched off the inverted dinghy and gained altitude quickly to avoid VHF antenna & crane. This worked very well. The landing was the hard part as a slight wind picked up just when getting ready to land with limited battery left. The drone maintains position by GPS, but the boat was drifting sideways. I tried to anticipate drift when I gave the instruction to land. Would have lost the drone were it not for the dingy crane lines which caught the drone aircraft carrier style!

H. Brooks

Video Links to YouTube are as follows:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
 
Very nice videos. I love the location. Did you fly the Anafi manually or use Cameraman or Follow Me modes?

For joining the clips together try this MP4Joiner
 
Excellent videos - you must be very pleased with the results. I'm impressed you managed to do that single-handed! (and very lucky not to lose the Anafi right at the end!!) I have not yet risked a boat launch/landing though I feel it's a challenge for some time this summer...
 
Very nice videos. I love the location. Did you fly the Anafi manually or use Cameraman or Follow Me modes?

For joining the clips together try this MP4Joiner
Hi,
I flew using follow me mode with the 2nd choice which I believe is called locked. This works very well and I have also used this mode for tracking my Jeep on forested and off-highway jeep roads.
 
Very nice boat and video. Were you using the Follow Me mode in the action videos? That was pretty fast flying.
 
.... I tried to anticipate drift when I gave the instruction to land. Would have lost the drone were it not for the dingy crane lines which caught the drone aircraft carrier style!
This would be a case where I would fly the drone close enough to grab it out of the air rather than use the land command. I would face it away from me and bring it in from astern or aside. Then you turn it 90 degrees on its side quickly to shut off. Yes, that will register as a crash but many of us do that and it doesn't seem to cause any problems.

Perhaps you could move the awning to proved a clearer path to the aft cockpit. I'd be happier there than trying to fly the drone, catch it, and avoid falling overboard all at the same time from the fore-deck. :eek:

Nice day, nice boat, and well done follow me!
 
Last edited:
This would be a case where I would fly the drone close enough to grab it out of the air rather than use the land command. I would face it away from me and bring it in from astern or aside. Then you turn it 90 degrees on its side quickly to shut off. Yes, that will register as a crash but many of us do that and it doesn't seem to cause any problems.

Perhaps you could move the awning to proved a clearer path to the aft cockpit. I'd be happier there than trying to fly the drone, catch it, and avoid falling overboard all at the same time from the fore-deck. :eek:

Nice day, nice boat, and well done follow me!

That's a good idea regarding moving the awning (bimini top) forward resting against the cabin top - I do this when trailering the boat and easy to do. I agree trying to catch the drone by hand from the bow is risky, but from the security of the cockpit might be quite doable. Will practice hand launching and retrieval at home. Thanks for the idea.
H. Brooks
 
Will practice hand launching and retrieval at home. Thanks for the idea. H. Brooks

Good idea. What I would practice is to walk forward or backwards to simulate drifting and control the drone manually to match your pace, then bring it close enough to grab. Then try the same in a light breeze at different angles. You will be expert at retrieving the Anafi from a boat in short order! :)
 
HaHa. The first few seconds of the first video I thought Alpine Mist was an RC boat.
Next time I wear my glasses.
Great videos!
 

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