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November 15, 1998

San Francisco to Hawaii, Second Attempt. Update #55

55. Date: Sun, 15 Nov 98 05:03:16 GMT
Latitude: 21 degrees 37.796 minutes North
Longitude: 150 degrees 23.543 minutes West
Wind NE, Force 3
Heading: 210 degrees(M)

At last our prayers have been answered -a North Easterly! It's all hands to the pumps before it veers back to the East which it must do soon enough. In the mean time we count the miles made South on the GPS with rising spirts; every mile made good South now with a following wind would take us four times as long to make in an Easterly. The further South we get, the hotter each daylight pedaling stint becomes, requiring fewer and fewer cloths to be worn. In fact Steve and I have for the last few weeks worn very little apart from our birthday suits, which has one major draw back when permanently covered in salt; chaffing. By noon today the problem for me had become intolerable. I'd spent the morning thinking up various ways to adapt parts of the boat into a make-shift athletic support, and was on the verge of putting into action a plan involving one of my wooly socks and a strip o duct tape, when my eyes lighted on a piece of Steve's clothing that he sometimes uses for protecting his baldy patch from the sun (I also seem to have increasing need of it these days too!); a pair of white lady's underwear entitled "it-se-bit-se" by French Dressing (made in Hong Kong). In a flash my problem was solved. Desperate times call for desperate measures. The frivolous demands of 'right dress etiquette' by society on land don't hold much water out here. When duty calls (in this case getting a boat 350 miles to land by pedal power) a man has to do what a man has to do. However, for those who know me better, I have to admit that I'd be lying if I tried to make out that wearing women's underwear is that bad; the silky inner-lining of "it-se-bit-se's" are after all very silky, and the little red roses dotted across the front are quite becoming, and then there's a cute little knot at the front in the shape of a Christmas cracker, just waiting to be pulled...

But let's not get carried away hear. It is after all a functional need I'm talking about. Gone is the chaffing and I feel like a real man again, able to focus on pedaling, not pain. "And in any case" says Steve looking up from measuring our day's milage on the chart, "Any experienced sailor will tell you that there has to be a VERY good reason for a person to be prancing about in front of the rest of an all male crew wearing nothing but a pair of woman's underpants". He looks down at the chart again and ads, "After all, we HAVE been out quite a few weeks now..."

PS: For those of you who don't know British humor -don't get too worried!

KIT KORNER - COMMUNICATIONS The harsh environment in which Steve I have been living these past 50 days has afforded a great opportunity to test out various pieces of equipment for there performance in the field. If you are a sailor yourself or outdoor enthusiast, you might be interested in these assessments over the next few days.

To keep in touch by E-mail with our support group on land, our families for their peace of mind and to send a daily update to the web site, we use the TRIMBLE GALAXY Inmarsat-C transceiver; capable of text transmission only -the unit has been perfect for our needs -even sending digital images by ASCII file. Weather never seems to be a problem for transmissions -very impressed by its performance and reliable GPS position fixes. The only snag is our having to keep the unit in PELICAN case in order to keep fully waterproof; access to the control buttons is therefore somewhat restricted. Also when our power drops below 11 volts message transmissions will fail.

Equally impressive has been our Argonaut R-300 rugedized PC made by REALWORLD Computers. This hardy little brute has seen the worst of it out here; deliberately kept out in the open cockpit, it has constantly been wet with salt water and more than a few times dropped onto the floor during a sudden wave surge. I pride myself on having personally poured a mug of hot tea all over the keyboard- and the thing still works! After John and Casey's disaster with their communications during their 10 day attempt to Hawaii last year, we were expecting the worst knowing what a beating a PC would get out here. The R-300 has done us proud though. Highly recommended.

Although we rarely get to use it once out from coastal waters, our ICOM M-39 VHF has been quickly brought into service on a number of occasions in the 1st 1/ of the voyage to make communications with container ships heading our way! Although only water resistant -not ideal for our purposes should we take a roll and the cockpit ooded -the unit has taken many a direct hit fra a 'smart wave' coming in through the hatch and is still working fine.

Finally our GRUNDIG Yachtboy 400 short wave radio receiver has kept us connected with news and weather reports from the outside world via the BBC World Service, VOA (Voice Of America) and a huge band-width of frequencies to choose from -87.5Mgz FM all the way to 29,700KHzSW. Again, this unit has seen A LOT of wet and is still working fine. An antenna extension wouldn't be a bad idea as reception seems limited during daylight hours.

Lewis & Smith,
The Moksha crew

Posted on November 15, 1998 7:45 PM