11/18/11

Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:01:28 -0500
Noon position 15 16.5' N, 116 40.7' W, SOG 6.5kts, COG 160, days run
150nm. Well, the wind has built during the night into the mid teens,
and this morning the staysail is back down and we're down to a double
reefed main and full genoa. Coming down the waves we've been surfing up
into the high 7s, which is certainly pleasant to see on the GPS. My
general philosophy with this boat has been one of simplicity, to keep
problems to a minimum - minimum electronics, minimum systems. I
invested pretty much every minute of the last 5 months to making Odyssey
a competent sail boat, where the various gewgaws were a nice add-on, but
by no means necessary. I've spent too much time fixing broken water
pumps and air conditioners and lights and fridges and what have you to
really have any desire to do any more of that, particularly on this trip
where there's so much more room (and time) for things to break. Now I
find myself with the potential to be screwed over by a worthless piece
of electronics, and more importantly, one which I only have a single
spare of. I've been kicking myself all day, and night, thinking about
the extra $50 it would have taken to have just picked up another
inverter or even a car-charger for my computer - then I would be far
more independent of the electronics devil. After all my efforts in that
regard, I'm realizing that I really approached all the electronics as an
afterthought - I was caught up in thoughts and romance of sailing off
into the sunset with a sextant. I console myself with the fact that the
boat is pretty well bulletproof and sorted out otherwise, so that worse
comes to worse and I suffer a total electronics failure, I can still get
my sorry butt wherever I need to be.And, truth be told, it's not like
I'm helpless if it goes down - it really only powers my computer, so I
still have my sat phone and SSB, which is quite a bit more
communications than absolutely necessary. I'm
going to protect the damn thing as best as I can, but I need to get
around Cape Horn as soon as possible - it's too far south to risk
lollygagging about in the pacific over some fool piece of electronics
when Summer is only a few months long.