12/1/11

3:14p.m. PST:  06 9' S, 117 13' W, SOG 6.5kts COG 200T  After the exhilaration of crossing the equator and zipping along at a good clip, Eric awoke this morning to find that his beloved, but quite ancient, Lenovo T61 had finally given up the ghost.  Black screen.  1-3-4-3 pattern of beeps.  He feared the worse.   Even with his background in computer science, there is only so much that can be diagnosed and fixed when you are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  This afternoon Eric called home and I (Eric's mother), a phone clamped to each ear, linked him up with Lenovo tech support who quickly diagnosed the problem.  The video card on his system board has gone...well, south.  The only way to fix it, replace the system board.  Of course, that is one spare part that Eric wasn't expecting to need and doesn't have on board.  Not even his trusty 3G Kindle 2  is able to come to the rescue.  Besides posting to this blog, Eric relies on his computer for weather reports.  After debating various options--he has decided to continue on,  round Cape Horn and stop in the Falkland Islands where we will ship him 2 new laptops loaded with the software he needs to access weather and 2 new back-up inverters.    In the meantime, Eric will be calling in every few days for voice weather reports from home.  Until he reaches 40 S weather shouldn't be too much of an issue, so Eric will have plenty of time to train us into weather experts.   As for Eric's blog postings, he will continue to post using the text function of his satellite phone...but, loyal blog readers, please be patient.   Until he is able to reach the Falklands and receive his new computers sometime after the first of the year, Eric's posts will be restricted to mini-posts...haiku-length posts.  Despite this setback, Eric sounded great on the phone and very optimistic.  He also expressed how much it means to him to know that he has so many supporters and well-wishers at home.