[PUP] Bluewater Noon Report - June 2, 2007

[Georgs Kolesnikovs]

Position 31-44.23N 67-27.98W as of 12:00 EDT Saturday, June 2, 2007
Course 093 deg M
Speed 7.9 kts @ 2100 RPM
170.5 NM to go Hamilton, Bermuda
Distance made good last 24 hours 173 NM, average speed 7.2 kts
Distance from Fort Lauderdale 862 NM
Total fuel consumed 820 gals, average 6.9 GPH (including genset 
time), fuel remaining 660 gal
Conditions: Wind 170 deg M @ 12 kts. swells 3-4 ft with 1 foot chop 
from 160 deg. M partly cloudy, visibility excellent.
Barometer 1025.0 mb rising slowly.
Sea water temp 74 deg F, air temp 74 deg F.
ETA RBYC Hamilton, Bermuda, 1100 Sunday, June 3

The Med Bound fleet's good fortune continues with smooth seas and 
winds moving aft, though they are not yet aft of the beam.  It's the 
little things at sea that get one's attention, and after essentially 
no news from the real world for close to a week, our 30-person group 
remains mostly focused on a world that's roughly 3 x 5 miles-the 
distance from the head to the back and the port to the starboard side 
of our flotilla.

Just after 7 this morning we passed a small pod of whales a few 
hundred feet away.  We could not determine what kind of whales we 
were seeing because except for a tiny piece of head or tail we didn't 
see the animals themselves.  However, we all saw them blowing-big 
white clouds rising perhaps 12 feet from the surface of the sapphire 
sea.  Not much later, New Frontier reported bringing a six-foot blue 
marlin to the transom where he jumped to give Capt. Jerry and crew a 
show before they cut him loose.  Bluewater has been dragging a 
fishing line without success since noon yesterday.  Well, actually, 
we caught a sea bird.  Somehow, we hooked a booby and reeled him in. 
I held him still while George cut the hook with our big bolt cutters, 
which Judy had retrieved, and I was able to back the hook out with 
what appeared to be little damage to the wing.   The bird was 
surprisingly calm throughout the "operation," and we gently put him 
back into the sea.  The hook had penetrated the wing but there 
appeared to no broken bones.  With a little luck, he'll have a tale 
to tell his grand-birds.

Weather router Bob Jones continues to warn of increased winds and 
seas.  The remnants of tropical storm Barry combined with a 
developing gale off Cape Hatteras will likely bump up against the 
unyielding Bermuda high to our west, tightening the gradients and 
bringing more wind.  To quote Bob's latest missive, "As both weather 
fronts approach, increasing ESE-SE winds of 20-30kts with locally 
higher gusts will develop during Sun/pm. Once the warm front passes, 
winds will quickly veer to a more SW direction with SW winds of 
25-35kts, intervals/gusts of 40kts possible. In addition rain showers 
will develop nearing Bermuda, but the steadier/heavier rain will 
arrive as the warm front, then cold front move through."

With a little luck, the Med Bound fleet should be alongside at Royal 
Bermuda Yacht Club by late morning, well before the worst stuff 
arrives.  At least that's our plan!  One of the advantages of 
arriving as part of an organized rally is that customs has agreed to 
clear our group at the yacht club, so we do not need to make the 
usual stop at St. Georges.

The informal discussion group on the 21-2400 watch continued last 
night with a little show and tell.  Among a laundry-list of items, we 
began talking about strobe lights and spotlights.  Bluewater carries 
an ancient but workable strobe from our first boat, a Columbia 22 
sloop which we sailed in Hawaii in the 1960s.  I've always thought of 
it as my ultimate visual attention-attractor.  Last night I decided 
to light it off and asked Jim Fuller, a mile away, and Braun Jones, 
about two, if they could see it.  Imagine my surprise when they said 
"No!"  Jim suggested that it was obscured by Bluewater's very bright 
running lights, and, sure enough, when I turned off the running 
lights both captains could see the strobe flashing-Jim with his naked 
eye and Braun with his binoculars.

We also compared searchlights (or is it spotlights?).  Grey Pearl 
carries a huge light on the cabin top and fired it up to show us. 
 From two miles away, it bathed Bluewater in light.  My problem with 
lights like that is controlling them using a rinky-dink joystick or, 
worse, pushing buttons as we have to do aboard Bluewater with our 
expensive Guest light.  Our answer is a $35.00 rechargeable 2 million 
candlepower hand-held light, which Braun and Jim reported they could 
see very well.

Back to AIS.  All Med Bound skippers with AIS agree that Moana Kuewa 
has the best AIS intallation.  She has the same Furuno FA-150 units 
most of the rest of us have, but Moana Kuewa consistently seems to be 
able to pick up targets farther out and her signal never drops out, 
while other Med Bound yachts sometimes have difficulty seeing other 
Med Bound yachts' AIS data at five or six miles and often cannot pick 
up ships until they are about 8 to 15 miles away.  The differences 
are (a) antennas, (b) antenna cabling, (c) antenna termination (that 
is, the soldered connector at the end of the antenna cab le), and (d) 
installer.  We're all comparing notes, but Braun and I, at least, 
think the real difference may lie in antenna termination which has of 
course includes the installer, the person who did the termination. 
More investigation is needed!

On our morning roll call, Christine Bauman reported a flood of sorts 
aboard the Nordhavn 55 Moana Kuewa.  A solenoid valve in a toilet 
stuck open, putting about 300 gallons of fresh water into a cabin. 
Chris told us that the water quickly found its way into the bilges, 
and both normal and high water bilge pumps kicked in and made quick 
work of it.  Her entire crew jumped out of bed to lend a hand, and 
the boat was back to its usual spiffy condition in no time.  She 
complimented her crew on working well together to deal with the 
problem.  And that, sports fans, is probably the most serious "issue" 
this group has had since Downtime's stabilizer issue a few days ago. 
Lots of miles; very few problems . . . YES!

Speaking of problems, Andy Lund, skipper and owner of the Nordhavn 46 
Resolution, e-mailed me from the Atlantic coast of Spain about 
Bluewater's fuel consumption.  Andy knows of whence he speaks, since 
he took his trusty Nordhavn direct from Newport to Horta without 
stopping.  "We traveled 2,062 nautical miles at an average speed of 
6.34 knots per hour, burned 722 gallons of diesel, leaving 278 
gallons in the tank, or a 27% reserve, averaging 2.78 miles per 
gallon, or 2.22 gallons per hour," Andy told me.  "I had planned a 
1,950 mile trip at 5.6 knots, using 750 gallons of fuel."  Andy 
suggests slower speeds, less generator time, and checking the bottom 
for drag-all good ideas and all of which we'll incorporate.  Greg 
Beckner reminded me that on the way to Horta, Bluewater will be the 
"holdback vessel."  No shame in that-we will indeed!  Somebody's 
gotta do it.

At noon today, on cue from Beso, our fleet timekeeper, we advanced 
our clocks one hour to Atlantic Time, which Bermuda uses.  We're now 
three hours later than Greenwich and one hour ahead of Eastern Time.

If for no other reason than that we've taken a huge amount of salt 
spray, this is one salty fleet.  We're all eager to get into Bermuda 
for a wash down.  It's probable that we'll get some serious rain with 
the coming blow, so our wash down jobs may be a little easier.

The fine rhythm of being at sea notwithstanding, I don't think 
there's anyone in the Med Bound fleet not looking forward to a 
respite in Bermuda . . . about 18 or 19 hours and counting!

--Milt, Judy, George and Schipperke Katy

Bluewater
Nordhavn 47