[PUP] Bluewater Noon Report - July 6 - Nearing the Halfway Point

[Georgs Kolesnikovs]

Noon Report July 6, 2007

Position 38-51.0 N 17.57.7 W as of 12:00 Azores time (GMT - 0 hrs) 
Friday, July 6
Course 094 deg M
Speed 6.7 kts @ 1850 RPM
Distance to go: 639 NM to go to Gibraltar (56% of the way)
Distance made good past 24 hours:  164 NM (6.9 kt average)
Distance made good since Horta: 512 NM (45% of the way)
Total fuel consumed:  (74.3 engine hours) 340 gals (23%), average 4.0 
GPH (incl. genset), fuel remaining 1140 gal. (77%)
Conditions: Wind NNE 5 kts, seas NE 2-4, mostly cloudy, visibility excellent
Barometer: 1028.7 and steady
Sea water temp: 70 deg F, air temp 70 deg F.
ETA Gibraltar: PM July 10

Fresh sashimi for lunch!   Except for White Bread George who declines 
to eat "raw fish" and, instead, has placed his order for tuna salad 
made with canned tuna.  Go figure.

Just as I was about to bring in the line and stow our rod after 
sunset last night, we had a hit and reeled in a nice small tuna-about 
25 inches long and nine pounds.  (Remember the pink lure I mentioned 
yesterday? Yup, that did the trick!)   Salty Dawg caught two of what 
sounds like the same kind of tuna today.  I've studied our fish books 
and queried the other boats in an effort to identify the type of 
tuna, utterly without success.  Based on what one book said, I was 
sure it was a small albacore tuna-the description was perfect; then 
Dennis told me that albacores have light meat, and the meat from this 
fish looks exactly like the fresh tuna in the fish market-bright red. 
We had a taste last night while I was butchering the fish and it was 
delicious!

Andy Lund, who has seen his share of heavy weather both crossing the 
Atlantic in his Nordhavn 46 and cruising from Norway to Croatia, 
e-mailed me that, "You've had a really benign crossing so far, so a 
bit of 35-knot wind is only appropriate!"  He can get by with that 
because in the same e-mail he surprised me by saying said he's 
sending us his Vodafone GSM modem and a GSM mobile phone with a 
Spanish SIM card.  Once we charge those with minutes, they should 
provide us with both talk time and Internet access all along the 
coast of Spain.  Andy has been a trail-blazer for us and Med Bound 
2007, and much of the European cruising information we accept as the 
gospel truth has come from him.  His boat is now for sale through 
Nordhavn's office near Southhampton, England.  It's one of the last 
Nordhavn 46s built and it was very well equipped for cruising in 
Europe and well shaken down.  Andy is a very knowledgeable cruiser 
who once owned the Grand Banks dealership in the Seattle area.  Alas, 
his long cruise has ended and it's time for him to go back to work!

True to Bob Jones' forecast, the barometer is on its way down, though 
not rapidly-I think if it as a nice orderly descent.  It dropped 10 
millibars overnight, then rose a couple this morning.  But the trend 
is definitely down, and we're preparing for heavier weather.  Let me 
be quick to add that we're not feeling sorry for ourselves!  We're in 
touch by e-mail with our good friend Scott Flanders, who writes the 
popular Voyage of Egret blog on the Nordhavn website from his 
Nordhavn 46 at the bottom of the world.  He reported a couple of days 
ago that he was experiencing heavy snow with occasional williwaws, 
then went on to say:

"The Gibraltar-bound small fleet is experiencing great weather with a 
barometric pressure reading of 1032.7 millibars.  We have just pulled 
up the gribs (weather files) for today.  The deep low passing due 
south of our protected anchorage is 945.4 millibars.  The difference 
is 87.3 millibars.  THAT, mi amigos is a VERY deep hole in the 
atmosphere.  Now the surrounding high pressure is trying to fill that 
hole.  See where these stiff winds come from?  The Drake Passage 
between Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula has to be every 
mariner's nightmare at the moment."

In anticipation of the coming weather, after breakfast this morning 
George and I lowered the paravanes.  It gets easier each time.  Today 
it went quickly . . . about five minutes start to finish.  I didn't 
mention it before, but when we hauled them out in Horta it also went 
very quickly.  Experience counts!

We noted a speed drop of about three-tenths of a knot to about 6.6 
knots as a result of the paravanes.  This leg is only 1,100 miles so 
fuel is not much of an issue.  With that in mind, I've eased the 
throttle ahead enough to make up for the speed loss, and we're now 
running at 2000 RPMs and 6.9 knots.  Curiously, when we did our full 
power run today, our top speed with the paravanes in never reached as 
high as 8 knots.  Yesterday with no paravanes in the water, it was 
9.0 knots.  I know of no other variables that would affect the speed. 
We still like the idea of a short full power run to "blow out the 
carbon" and check the vacuum gauge on the main engine Racor filter.

I doubt that anyone else is tracking our fuel consumption as closely 
as I am, but in case you are you may have noticed a small hiccup in 
today's fuel report.  From the time we left Horta until today, my 
fuel consumption figures reported here were an educated guess. 
That's because our main fuel tank sight gauges don't reach all the 
way to the top of our tanks.  Today I can finally get an accurate 
measure of the fuel remaining because it's down to the sight gauges, 
meaning that for the first time since leaving Horta I can actually 
see the level of the fuel in our tanks-today's measure is very 
precise.  Unlike the red-dyed fuel purchased in the U.S., the 
tax-free diesel fuel we've had in our tanks from Bermuda on is a 
light honey color.  All indications are that we've taken on extremely 
clean fuel in Bermuda and Horta.  A tip of the Bluewater cap to Marco 
Quadros in Horta and Global Yacht Fuel in Fort Lauderdale!

Unlike our sailing days, we're not being especially careful with 
water.  Bluewater carries 400 gallons in her single water tank, but 
our Village Marine Tec watermaker can replenish water at close to 25 
gallons per hour.  Two mornings ago George washed down the whole boat 
to get rid of the dirt we picked up in Horta, and yesterday Judy did 
two loads of wash.  We take hot showers daily, use whatever water we 
need for cleaning, and run the watermaker as required to keep the 
tank topped off.  Of course, we have to run a generator to operate 
the watermaker-a small price to pay for our bottomless tank of fresh 
water.

We expect to reach our waypoint at 39 degrees North and 15 degrees 
north tomorrow morning.  I'm hopeful we'll be able to turn directly 
for Cabo Sao Vicente then, but in his most recent e-mail Bob says we 
may wish to continue on closer to the coast of Portugal.  We'll see 
what the weather brings!  Meanwhile, we should reach the halfway 
point on this trip later today-break out the champagne!

--Milt, Judy, George and Schipperke Katy
-- 
Milt Baker
Bluewater
Nordhavn 47 #32
http://www.bluewaternav.com

A compilation of reports from Med Bound 2007 may be viewed at 
<http://www.nordhavn.com>. Click on Med Bound 2007.