Thursday, September 23, 2010
No mold
Good news from Panama. We asked some cruising friends to check in on New Morning and we got back the report that she is looking good with no mold on the interior. Also no leaks so she is sitting pretty, just waiting for us to return.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
The coldest winter I ever knew...
Mark Twain said it first, but it was confirmed by NASA:
"The invisible summer, seamless from spring to fall," said Bill Patzert, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who studies the role of oceans in the global climate. "The ocean never warmed," Patzert said. The cause was a stalled jet stream pattern in the Northern Hemisphere that created a semi-permanent trough of low pressure from Alaska to southern Baja California, Mexico, and kept the entire west coast of North America cool, Patzert said.
In Sausalito we've had the furnace on almost every day since we got home last May, though now that summer has officially ended, it has actually warmed up! We did escape the cold a few times, including some great time at Lake Tahoe which included this hike to the top of Ellis Peak at 8,700'.
But now our attention turns to New Morning as we have roughly two months to prepare everything we need for a year of cruising. We plan to return to Panama in early December and repair the autopilot, install the new solar panels and fix a few other problems that were identified back in April. These include an incorrectly plumbed shaft seal vent, broken raw water pump, and a few problems we created ourselves while decommissioning in April. We have plenty to keep us busy, probably right up until Christmas. Then we plan to return to the San Blas Islands for a few months before transiting the canal in late March.
"The invisible summer, seamless from spring to fall," said Bill Patzert, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who studies the role of oceans in the global climate. "The ocean never warmed," Patzert said. The cause was a stalled jet stream pattern in the Northern Hemisphere that created a semi-permanent trough of low pressure from Alaska to southern Baja California, Mexico, and kept the entire west coast of North America cool, Patzert said.
But now our attention turns to New Morning as we have roughly two months to prepare everything we need for a year of cruising. We plan to return to Panama in early December and repair the autopilot, install the new solar panels and fix a few other problems that were identified back in April. These include an incorrectly plumbed shaft seal vent, broken raw water pump, and a few problems we created ourselves while decommissioning in April. We have plenty to keep us busy, probably right up until Christmas. Then we plan to return to the San Blas Islands for a few months before transiting the canal in late March.
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