Well I have good news (for me). I am not sure exactly how, but I got a call this morning to say that someone would come to my boat and have a look at my AIS.
This afternoon two tech guys turned up (with a tool box, a
laptop and several cables). Unfortunately their
laptop had a flat
battery and they did not have their
charger.
Unable to communicate with them as they only spoke French, I booted up my laptop and showed them that I was unable to change the MMSI with the software, ProAIS2, which is downloadable from the Raymarine website.
They pulled out their
cell phone and read the instructions that had been emailed to them on how to update the MMSI. Unfortunately their instructions were in
English... So I helped them translate the instructions with
Google Translate. Long story short, if you know what you are doing, it should take no more than 3 mins to update the MMSI.
It is in fact done with the same software the end user has (ProAIS2). However, what the end user does not know, is the commands that need to be entered into ProAIS2 to remove the existing MMSI.
I am told I need to pay 50 EUR for the
service. Not too bad I guess, although I did practically end up doing it myself.
Good luck to anyone who needs to update their MMSI.