Communications and Cold

The "Communications" of the title refers to two separate issues.

To date I've been using my Toshiba laptop for my off-boat internet work. Because its battery is totally dead I have been bypassing the local shop, which supplies Internet but no AC power, to make the 2km trip to a coffee shop that provides coffee, lunch, internet, and electric power. Unfortunately their wireless services has been unavailable for two frustrating days so I decided to use my little Acer machine here at the local shop. That has worked very well. The Acer has lived up to its promise of more than 2 hours of battery power. Hopefully my blogging and email efforts will be a bit more regular from now on.

The other communication issue concerns the Acer-Sailmail-Pactor-HF setup. I get intermittent failures where Sailmail reports that it has lost contact with the Pactor modem. This invariably requires a full machine reboot. My fear is that the problem will go "hard" in the wilds of Patagonia. This morning I had a snoop at the cabling and confirmed that the computer is connected to the Pactor and the Pactor is then connected to the HF radio. So if there was really a problem between the Pactor and the computer the first thing to look at was then one cable between the two. I took out all of the cables from the back of the Pactor and sprayed them and the sockets with that CRC terminal spray that Arnold had recommended. I wiped off what I could with a paper towel and have left it all to dry. I then gave similar treatment to the computer end of that cable. I then recalled that the Pactor had been delivered with a cable that was not quite long enough for comfortable use. I had then gone to Radio Shack and gotten a longer one, which turned out to be an ordinary printer cable. The point is that I have a spare cable on board and if the problem persists I will swap in the original cable and see how that works. Failing that the next step will probably be to replace the Acer with the Toshiba and see how that works out.

Likewise the "Cold" in the title refers to two things. The top half of the USA seems to be under the spell of a winter "storm" and I must say that life here at the marina has been very cold. I figure that the temperature is hitting about 5C in the middle of the night. In the morning the jetty walkways are covered with slippery frost. And during this I am battling my own cold, with the usual syndrome of lethargy, rough throat, a bit of a cough etc. I mentioned it to Barry yesterday and he said that two fellows further up the jetty are experiencing the same thing. I am very much looking forward to the Sea of Cortez, and I don't care how hot it is supposed to get as the summer approaches.

I've been trying to purchase a chart of the south end of South America that covers the Horn and the Falklands. If all else fails I need to be able to navigate through Drake Passage the old fashioned way. Whalepoint couldn't help me, KKMI couldn't help me, West Marine couldn't help me. The West Marine guy gave me the number of the West Marine "Superstore" in San Diego saying that they can print the chart out (in color) on demand. I phoned San Diego today and they print only NOAA charts of US waters. Great. Maybe I can round the Horn using the globe of the world in Pachuca's cabin. ... The woman at West Marine did refer me to another nearby business that stocks "all kinds of charts" but I'm not holding my breath.

I've just received a message from Arnold and it looks like he has booked the same Alaska Airways flight that I am taking for my return to Oakland. He will be in 22A and I will be in 21A just in front of him. Maybe we can play games with the flight attendant.

(Note: The next blog entry contains Pachuca's cruising log.)