« November 1996 | Main | January 1997 »
December 25, 1996
Ho! Ho! Ho! So there is a Santa Clause …
25 Dec 1996:
Yes - we think we've found ours in the form of Tandem Computers who have agreed to sponsor us with immediate monies for logistics and subsistance (real food enroute) for the trip to Peru, then further sponsorship for the Pacific crossing to Australia, This now means we will have the financing and the technology to keep in contact with all our web followers with text and images on our weekly updates.
To all our schools and many of the children through the Weekly Reader who are sharing the expedition through the web - we say " May Santa bring you everything you ever wished for. Have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year !"
The boat Moksha is currently resting in the Monterey Maritime Museum waiting for a clean-up before receiving visitors officially in the new year. However she will be happy to see you over the vacation if you are passing through.
Jason, Stuart and new helper Oliver from France are spending Christmas and New Year in Sausalito being well looked after by friends. In early January Jason is on the road again.
Keep checking the updates - ‘click, click!’ and see you in ’97. In the meantime we leave with you with some festive food for thought….
‘Sound the clarion, fill the fife! To all the sensual world proclaim, ne crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name "
Sir Walter Scott (1771- 1832)
‘Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life ‘
Lucius Seneca - the elder (4 BC - 65AD)
- Stuart Smith
Posted at 5:36 AM
December 15, 1996
A Day to Remember
15 Dec 1996:
Sunday, 15 December 1996, will certainly be remembered by members and friends of the Expedition 360 family who joined us. We finally managed to move Moksha 100 yards from the water to the Monterey Maritime Museum. The only scenario I would ask you to imagine would be placing your mother in a rest home under great protest!
The first 90 yards, which took 10 minutes, were easy. It was as if Moksha had decided she wasn't ready to join Neptune's relics! Suffice it to say that the last 10 yards took five hours, which, had you tried to write a script for, you would have been nominated for an Oscar!
In keeping with the spirit of the Expedition, using human power alone, (not by choice this time, I hasten to add) we grunted and strained and screamed and shouted at her. Eventually, inch by inch, with Herculian effort on everyone's part, we cajouled her to rest in her "Pride of Place" assuring her she would have hordes of admiring visitors and an eagerly awaiting public to show off to. So please don't dissapoint her, come along and visit Moksha out of the water perched on her cradles feeling sorry for herself!
We shall be busy now cleaning her up, booking school visits and lectures to groups and organizations interested in a personal tour complete with videos, slide shows, and other visual aids.
The compiliation of our Web Site is shaping up nicely. So please be patient with us, and we assure you that you will not be disappointed.
Our main priority right now is to find a suitable vehicle for our backup crew to safely drive down to Peru. Nothing fancy, so long as its reliable and costs less than $1,000. Any offers!?!
Keep checking the web and we will keep you posted.
- Stuart Smith
Posted at 2:44 AM
December 10, 1996
On the Beach
10 Dec 1996:
Hello from foggy Montery. While it's thick as soup outside today, our final leg fifteen miles down the beautiful beach from Moss Landing to Montery harbor was extraordinarily calm and sunny. Moksha, with her new pedal system, performed like a balarina on opening night.
Jason was accompanied by Theresa, our photo exchange education co-ordinator, who reveled in the knowledge that she had chosen the smoothest leg of our short voyage South from the Golden Gate Bridge. Making excellent progress, they found time to swim off the boat, too flushed with excitement to feel the Pacific's winter chill.
Our warm reception by the local press, Channel 35 and the Monerty Herald, completed this perfect leg. We made the front page with a color picture and also TV headline news. Moksha will be proudly on display in the Maritime Museum of Monterey, having earned a prime position for public viewing and school visits.
The past week has been hectic for us visiting schools, brainstorming late into the night on our terrific new web site (more details later), and arranging trip outfitting.
Among the latter, we have just finished trials on a new propeller - two bladed 18" x 21" custom stainless designed and built by Scott of Pitchometer Prop Inc, of Alameda, CA. Moksha now averages 4.2 knots, up from 2.5. That's a 68% increace in speed for the same effort, almost 200 miles further a week!
We have a few scheduled talks at schools and yacht clubs but would welcome a few more. Stuart and Jason will be continuing their efforts over the next few weeks to coordinate the wealth of volunteer talent working very hard on tight deadlines.
Duncan, our "web daddy", has pitched in with generous gift of time, expertise, and enthusiasum, enabling a "quantum leap" very shortly in our web site style and content, which as disappointed all of us over the last few months as previous volunteers faded out.
So "watch this space" for more and frequent news.
Posted at 2:19 AM