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Latitude 38
• September, 2007
log on process with your computer. Similar techniques were used at Marina Palmyra in La Paz the last time we visited. 3) Other locations use secret encryption keys that you need to set in your WiFi adapter's configuration. I strongly recommend avoiding the investment in a boatwide internet access Ethernet client bridge and other complex gear — unless you're geek enough to thoroughly understand it, reconfigure it, figure out how to connect to strange access points, and generally keep it running. This gear can also cost quite a lot. I've seen installations that cost well over $1,000. I suggest keeping it simple. We have and use both of the following: the Hawking Technologies $60 HWU8DD. As mentioned in the article, it comes with a six-ft USB cable. I recommend getting a 10-ft extension cable, putting it in a Zip-Loc baggie, and putting it on top of your boat's cabin — or better yet, on top of your boom. If it's windy, put a soft SCUBA weight or something similar in the baggie to keep it from blowing around. And take the unit in when you're not using it and overnight to keep it out of the dew. If you're going to be at anchor a lot, consider Netgate's $200 EUB-362-EXT Marine Kit. This comes with a higher-power USB adapter and an omnidirectional external marine antenna. With this set-up, you can run the antenna outside and keep the adapter down below out of the elements. You can mount the antenna permanently if you want, but we just run ours up a halyard when we're at anchor. We used this set-up when we were anchored in Tenacatita, and could occasionally hit an open access point in four-mile-distant La Manzanita. We found that the combination of these two adapters works best in the variety of circumstances we've seen. We have yet to find a place where a permanent installation with a client bridge works and either the Hawking or Netgate doesn't. In San Diego, for instance, there were too many access points around Shelter Island for the omnidirectional Netgate setup to work. We saw over 40 of them online, and half were on WiFi channel 6! We had to use the Hawking and aim it at the access point we were using to have any success at all. At anchor away from it all, however, where we swing around, the Netgate works great. In those situations the Hawking is troublesome, as it won't stay aimed in the right direction. By the way, I don't own stock or have any interest in any of the companies mentioned. Bill Finkelstein and Mary Mack Raptor Dance, Valiant 50 Paradise Village Resort Marina, Nuevo Vallarta ⇑⇓I NEVER REALIZED I WAS AN ELDERY SAILOR I've read with interest your articles on elderly people who still sail. Never did I realize that, at age 77, I am one of them. Nevertheless, on January 2 I'll be sending my Little Harbor 62, currently at the San Francisco YC, through the Canal to the East Coast. I plan on spending a year with her there, mostly in the Bahamas and Charleston. By the way, does the publisher of Latitude still remember doing the Long Beach YC's Long Beach to Cabo and La Paz Race in December of '81? I still remember us on my Cheoy Lee Offshore 47 Pericus and the publisher on his Freya 39 Contrary to Ordinary with all those girls, becalmed near Catalina after a small front came through, just after the start. John Alden Williamson Pericus, Little Harbor 62 San Francisco YC
John — We remember being briefly becalmed next to your