Well, Gentle Wind left the San Francisco area on schedule
last Wednesday and was 250 miles outside the Golden Gate
when one of our crew members decided this was not the trip
he'd signed up for. He quite successfully faked a sea-
sickness bout, on top of a left-side-appendicitis! :)
At his insistence, we contacted USCG Pacific Area group to
solicit medical advice. The flight surgeon decided that
the best course of action was for us to head back towards
SF and meet a Med-Evac helicopter at its max range of 120
nm. Funny, the crew member decided he wasn't so sick
after all when h e realized he wouldn't be able to carry
any of his personal stuff on the helo! :)
Anyway, we cancelled the evac and delivered the crewman
to Monterrey. (We would've had to continue in to port
anyway since a return to 120 miles off-shore would have
used up nearly half of our fuel reserve.) So we're back
to fixing things and trying to find a replacement crew
for the SF-to-Hilo leg.
We still haven't been able to get the SSB/HF radio up,
despite all the experts declaring it "operational". I
don't believe the sun flares are still going on... But
we'll make do using the satellite phone to call the
weather folks. The big loser here is the updates-at-
sea that we intended to send to the list, but I'll just
have to apologize; making the trip is more important
to me than telling you all about it!
Well, Gentle Wind left the San Francisco area on schedule
last Wednesday and was 250 miles outside the Golden Gate
when one of our crew members decided this was not the trip
he'd signed up for. He quite successfully faked a sea-
sickness bout, on top of a left-side-appendicitis! :)
At his insistence, we contacted USCG Pacific Area group to
solicit medical advice. The flight surgeon decided that
the best course of action was for us to head back towards
SF and meet a Med-Evac helicopter at its max range of 120
nm. Funny, the crew member decided he wasn't so sick
after all when h e realized he wouldn't be able to carry
any of his personal stuff on the helo! :)
Anyway, we cancelled the evac and delivered the crewman
to Monterrey. (We would've had to continue in to port
anyway since a return to 120 miles off-shore would have
used up nearly half of our fuel reserve.) So we're back
to fixing things and trying to find a replacement crew
for the SF-to-Hilo leg.
We still haven't been able to get the SSB/HF radio up,
despite all the experts declaring it "operational". I
don't believe the sun flares are still going on... But
we'll make do using the satellite phone to call the
weather folks. The big loser here is the updates-at-
sea that we intended to send to the list, but I'll just
have to apologize; making the trip is more important
to me than telling you all about it!
