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November 16, 1998
San Francisco to Hawaii, Second Attempt. Update #56
56. Date: Mon, 16 Nov 98 04:48:34 GMT
Latitude: 21 degrees 08.104 minutes North
Longitude: 151 degrees 09.289 minutes West
Wind NE to E, Variable Strength
We are making good progress. We're totally out of M&M's and Jason is pedaling all day in women's underwear. It's high time to jump ship at the nearest port. If there is no major change in the winds we should arrive by Friday.
We do not have much to report. The hampster's cage is still turing. We did manage a short "5 degree party" today celebrating the crossing of 150 degrees West longitude. We unearthed the sole bottle of beer I stowed as an after thought minutes before leaving San Francisco, tried unsuccessfully to chill it in the ocean, and devoured in seconds on the back deck midday. There is now a recapped bottle of Bass Pale Ale heading slowly SW across the Pacific containing a message of its origin and reward for safe return to San Francisco. We hope to see land before it does.
KIT KORNER - POWER GENERATION Moksha is of coarse a totally self reliant power house, and since the Atlantic voyage we have greatly increased our power needs due to upgrades in communications, navigation and safety equipment. We felt it necessary to use both wind and solar power for extra power security, and so far the performance of our system has been without fault. The real work horse is our SOUTHWEST WINDPOWER generator which really kicks out the juice and with a decent trade wind will recharge our batteries in a few hours. It can get noisy in higher winds, and it's weight could be a danger for us in a storm -perched 6 feet above the roof on a short, stepable mast -both of which makes the shut-down feature all the more important for us. A very reliable, invaluable unit for us now.
Augmenting the wind generator are four Unisolar solar panels (one model 32, two model 16) from Golden Genesis, improved versions of the panels we used on the Atlantic. Despite their low power output per surface area compared to other brands, these panels are ideal for our boat because of they are flexible and conform to our curved decks, and there ability to continue functioning when punctured or partly shaded -which no other panel can do. They have a reputation for having only a short, 6 month life exposed to ocean conditions, but this depends on how you look after them. Ours look fine after two months and should last the entire Pacific to Oz.
The batteries themselves, two 105 Ampere Hour Concord Lifeline batteries, have proved more than ample for our needs and give us great confidence. Combining the no-maintenance, no leak advantages of gel batteries with the load-recharging capability of lead-acid, these absorbed glass fiber batteries are sure to take much more of the market in the future.
Lewis & Smith,
The Moksha crew
Posted on November 16, 1998 7:49 PM