[Submitted by Daniel Nye, and first published in the Colorado ARES D24 Newsletter.]

On the morning of Saturday, October 10th I received an email to my D24 EC email address from a woman who said that she had just moved to Castle Rock and that she and her husband had be cruising the Sea of Cortez in their sailboat the Allure for the last two years. Her husband was still in Baja and was docked at Bahia de Los Angeles and they had been faithfully communicating every day via Skype. However, she hadn’t heard from him in four days and she was really worried; he was an experienced and reliable Captain. She also said that although she and her husband weren’t hams, they listened to the 75 meter Sonrisa net each morning to hear the latest weather conditions and information about the Baja area. She asked if us “hamsters” (evidently that’s what sailboaters call ham radio operators) could provide any assistance in contacting her husband. In her email she provided a Castle Rock phone number and I was able to confirm her story and collect additional information. I also gain a real sense of the level of concern that she had for her husband.

[From the ARRL web site www.arrl.org]

On Wednesday, December 23, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued an Instruction concerning MARS, effective immediately. This Instruction gives the three MARS services -- Army, Air Force and Navy/Marine Corps -- a new focus on homeland security and a new name: Military Auxiliary Radio System. The Instruction is the first major revision to MARS since January 26, 1988 -- as such, the first revision since the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, two major events that changed the way Amateur Radio dealt with emergency communications.

[Posted with permission. This was originally published in the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management newsletter "MEMO", November 2009. The complete article is posted as a PDF for downloading at the botom of the page. ed.]

Most in the emergency management community are aware that amateur radio provides backup communications to support public safety agencies. In the past, amateur radio has consisted of voice messages; relaying tactical information or resource requests on behalf of other agencies. But technological advances are changing amateur radio operations.

Lanzarote, Canary Islands, October 11, 2009 -- The intrepid Jeanne. She just pushed off for the long ride. She recently reported, "I'll head down to South Africa and around again.... but this time I'll be sailing east-about nonstop .... via Cape Horn.... We'll see how it goes, but this time I hope to get all the way around!! It'll be totally different from my previous circumnavigation.... starting from the Atlantic, heading east in higher latitudes, passing south of the Five Great Capes.... I expect the journey to take 6-7 months. It'll be a definite challenge but [the new] “Nereida” sails beautifully, is a good sturdy boat and I'm looking forward to it."

Jeanne Socrates is no stranger to sailing, she started her first solo round-the-world voyage in March 2007 for it all to end in disaster June 2008 with the loss of Nereida at Playa Michigan, Mexico, just 60 miles from her destination. Yachting Monthly featured the details of the shipwreck in an article in their August 2009 edition, "Shipwrecked 60 Miles Short of Triumph".

Jeanne retired as a teacher in 1997 and bought Nereida with her husband George. Together they sailed Nereida, a Najad 361, from Sweden to the Mediterranean, over the Atlantic to the Caribbean and the east coast of America. Sadly, George was diagnosed with cancer and died in 2003. For most this would have been an end to cruising, but not for Jeanne. From 2004 – 2006 she sailed solo around British Columbia, Mexico, California and then in 2006 took part the Single-Handed TransPac from San Francisco to Hawaii, getting to know Nereida and gaining confidence.

Cancer pushed her to the next level. Besides George, she’d lost other good friends to the disease. She decided that she wasn’t getting any younger, and began to plan her solo sail around the world. From March 2007 until June 2008 she did just that. She sails today supporting the charity Marie Curie Cancer Care.

The longest passage that Jeanne has sailed previously is three and a half weeks. This time, she will be at sea non-stop for 6-7 months. She will be relying on Winlink for weather and e-mail, and satphone and SSB for her only connections to the outside world. Her website is http://www.svnereida.com and you can follow her progress while at sea with both of her regular reports on the home page and her daily noon positions from her travels page. We will be posting news here from time-to-time as well.

And, oh yes, Jeanne is now 67 years old. That will make her the oldest woman to sail solo--not to mention non-stop--around the world! Intrepid Jeanne!

The install file is on the yahoo WINMOR group site as well as the instructions and goals for the beta program. I'm sure there are still subtle bugs (maybe some not so subtle!) but we have done some extensive over-the-air testing with the previous 32 alpha versions. The help file is included in the install and while it may not win any literary prizes it is pretty complete and accurate. During the next few weeks there will likely be many updates (Your program should auto update if you are connected to the internet and haven't blocked all the WINMOR ports). Let's focus on the basics now and not get bogged down in creeping features.

Good luck to you beta testers.

--Rick Muething, KN6KB
Winlink Development Team

[Beta testing is conducted on the WINMOR yahoo group. Beta software, instructions and goals, and the latest information are available there. You must join the group to participate.]

Rick Muething posted a development update on September 8. Beta testing may begin in about a week if all goes well. Read it on the WINMOR page.

Rick recently posted an update on WINMOR development, now that he is back home from an extended trip. See the WINMOR page for the latest information.