"Welcome to Sailmail Honolulu"

1700PDT, 33.41.6N, 118.16.5W, Wind NW 8, Cloud Cover zero, Start + 92 Hours.

Evil, feeling a bit contrite yesterday, after undoing all the good work MacArthur had completed during the previous week, and having fielded numerous inquiries like, "so what did you do with all the money that was supposed to be spent on Electrician School", got right down to business today - no more messing around.

Having lovingly installed the very SSB rig in question I know how twitchy and complicated and difficult they can be. I performed days and days of fiddling work following the exact instructions received from Stan Honey - HF Radio expert. I didn't understand what I was doing. I was pretty sure it would not matter if I cut a corner here and there but instead I doggedly persevered and completed all the seemingly unimportant details too. So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that, after buying the exact gear recommended in the Sailmail Primer and following the instructions patiently offered by experts - well it all just worked perfectly!

And it is hard to describe the sense of satisfaction when "Welcome to Sailmail Honolulu" appears that the first time on your computer screen. That means through some method next to magic you are connected with a Radio Station, manned by volunteers, 2300 miles away - and it is a heady feeling!

Today I received this message, "Please let me know if you get this message??" form a *.sailamail account and I knew right then that the crew in Rainbow Harbor had come to understand that sensation too.

And more importantly communications on Plan B is now up and they are able to communicate with us by HF e-mail and comply with the race instructions check in requirements.

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