12-4-11

Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011 at 2:10 p.m. PST: 12 14S, 117 55W, SOG 6kts, COG 175, 24-hr. run 110nm.   Eric reported in this afternoon.  He turned off his GPS a few days ago and has been testing his celestial navigation skills.  When he turned the GPS back on today, he was pleased to see that his readings were close, only 2 miles out of latitude and 6 miles out of longitude.    For the last 36 hours he has been moving slowly, enduring what he calls a "tropical wave":  overcast weather, squalls, and a confused sea with 8ft swells coming at him from different directions.  Odyssey has been going up and down, up and down continuously, catching waves and spray that wash over her frequently preventing Eric from catching any fresh rainwater from the squalls off the mainsail because its all contaminated with saltwater.  The weather seems to be hovering, moving slowly, but Eric is hopeful that this system is starting to show signs of moving on.  The trade winds are blowing from the SE, and he is sailing mostly upwind at about a 70 degree angle to the wind.  Eric is also discovering that Odyssey leaks on the leeward side, so now he has an additional 10-11 new trickles going down behind the stove on the starboard side.  Luckily these are much smaller than the ones he experienced earlier on the port side which he has mostly managed to seal from outside.  Without completely pulling out the headliner nicely lining the ceiling of the cabin, Eric can't get to the leaks from inside the cabin.  He's hoping the leaks won't get any worse so he won't have to strip the ceiling bare.   Most of our lengthy conversation concerned plans for purchasing replacement electronics:  computer, inverter, stereo to be shipped to the Falkland Islands.   We are very grateful to good friend and experienced sailor Rich West who quickly leaped in as consultant on this project, helping determine the specs for what needs to be purchased and making recommendations, providing Eric with a list of shortwave sources for voice weather broadcasts, and supplying a long list of helpful tips to try and shake and coax his computer back to life.