[PUP] Med Bound 2007 Noon Report - June 14

[Georgs Kolesnikovs]

Noon Report June 14, 2007

Position 32-53.16 N 61-46-16 W as of 12:00 EDT Thursday, June 14, 2007
Course 095 deg M
Speed 6.2 kts @ 1700 RPM
1,652 NM to go to Horta, Faial, Azores
Distance made good since departure:  164 NM (average 6.3 kts)
Total fuel consumed 82 gals, average 3.0 GPH, fuel remaining 1398 gal
Conditions: Wind 170 deg M @ 13 kts. swells 3-4 ft, mostly overcast, 
visibility excellent.
Barometer 1017.0 mb rising slowly.
Sea water temp 74 deg F, air temp 74 deg F.
ETA Horta: May 25-26, 2007

Med Bound 2007's visit to Bermuda is history, and all Med Bound 
yachts are back at sea, all of us much the better for the experience 
thanks to Bermuda's legendary hospitality.

In Bermuda we discovered two boat problems: a leaking stabilizer 
actuator and a broken icemaker fitting.  Vic Kuzmovick, head of Naiad 
Florida, quickly dispatched a service technician to Bermuda to 
replace the leaking actuator.  Tech David D'Orazio arrived Friday 
afternoon with tools and parts in hand and went to work immediately. 
We tested everything in the morning and he left in time to catch a 
noon flight out of Bermuda.  The entire fix was taken care of under 
warranty!  What a terrific company Naiad is to deal with.  I can say 
from long experience that Vic Kuzmovich and Naiad set a very high 
standard for customer service!  Our icemaker issue, a broken Sub-Zero 
part, was not so easily fixed, nor was it of such importance.  We 
still have ice, but must manually turn the icemaker on and off--not a 
big deal.  We'll replace the broken part when we get to it!

Back to the real news: N62 Grey Pearl and N47 Imagine departed Royal 
Bermuda Yacht Club Monday, Pearl bound for Annapolis and Imagine for 
Newport.  Both needed to get moving , and weather router Bob Jones 
called the conditions they'd face difficult but not dangerous, 
something their reports bear out.  Until today Imagine reported a 
pleasant trip with moderate winds and seas, but today's report had 
her approaching the Gulf Stream off Newport with  9-12 foot head seas 
and 25-30 knot headwinds-nasty stuff, indeed.  Grey Pearl reports the 
she has had a rough ride all the way, her speed reduced to less than 
eight knots by headwinds and head seas.  Both yachts have experienced 
crew onboard and are prepared to tough it out.

N47 Summer Skis, N62 New Frontier and N40 Beso, bound for Newport, 
departed RBYC at 10 am yesterday, minutes ahead of Horta-bound group, 
Bluewater, N55 Salty Dawg and N44 Moana Kuewa.  We had taken a cab to 
check out at St. Georges, a painless process.  This morning Skipper 
Jim Fuller sent this report from Summer Skis:

"The Newport Gang has survived it's first of 4 nights at sea.  We 
started off in some substantial seas and wind from the west at 15-20. 
As the night progressed it abated somewhat, and we are now pretty 
comfortable. Seas still on the beam but less than yesterday. We have 
511 miles to go and the crew of all the boats seem to be holding off 
any mutiny plans at the current moment.  Joey's line did catch a 
fish. Jer reeled it in because Joey was asleep. It was a mahi mahi of 
the huge size of 12". The crew of New Frontier took pity on it and 
sent it back to its mother.  So I guess we have to give Joey the 
benefit of the doubt and give him his fish."

This is taken from my rough log written yesterday:

"0730  Impromptu meeting at the YC to discuss Bob's latest.  Joint 
decision made to go.  Off to St. Georges  by cab with driver Cornell 
to clear out.  Outbound clearance is quick and mostly painless, once 
a few bureaucratic T's are crossed and I's are dotted.  I spy the 
sailing yacht Frog Kiss at the dock and introduce myself to the son 
of Patrick Mouligne, who is juts checking in after completing Leg 1 
of the Bermuda 1-2 Race-singlehanded and ahead of his father's 
Nordhavn 46 as he pointed out.

"1005  Underway from RBYC.  We are sent off by Commodore Andy Cox and 
ace Dockmaster/Marina Manager James Barnes.  Newport-bound group off 
the docks first.  Moana Kuewa last off the docks, with Christine 
Bauman running hard at the last minute to buy Euros then get her 
yacht club bill paid.  We did circles in the harbor waiting for Moana 
Kuewa, then called Bermuda Harbor Radio, and received clearance to 
depart.  Local Nordhavn fans Donald and Mavis Cave are our escort 
vessel in their Mainship, accompanying us nearly to the Spit Buoy off 
St. Georges.

"We proceed out the South Channel, following about a mile astern of 
the Newport-bound yachts.  Much chatter on the radio back and forth.

"By agreement with Salty Dawg and Moana Kuewa, the Horta-bound group 
is running at about 6.3 knots.  For Bluewater that's 1700 RPMs, 
several hundred RPMs below our usual speed but a good speed for 
conserving fuel on this, the longest non-stop run we've undertaken in 
this boat.  Having enough fuel for this 1,818-mile run is something 
we need to pay close attention to.  We notice that the boat is quiet 
and the engine room running much cooler at these low RPMs and with no 
generator on line.

"About three hours out from RBYC as we're leaving Bermuda waters we 
receive a VHF radio call from Patrick Mouligne aboard Frog Kiss II. 
Patrick wishes Med Bound well,  reporting his trip was excellent and 
that he already likes his "new" Nordhavn 46 a great deal.  His is 
what I call "the First Lady of Nordhavn," the very first Nordhavn 
yacht ever built.

"By late afternoon, the morning overcast gives way to sunny skies. 
Winds are on the starboard quarter at 6-8 knots and seas are 2-4. 
Water temp is 75 degrees and air temp about the same.  The boat is 
open, the fishing line trails in our wake, and it couldn't be nicer. 
No fish"

Today dawned overcast with light rain, but the winds and seas were 
still down, giving us a comfortable ride.  We saw just a couple of 
ships overnight; this run is mostly out of the shipping lanes so we 
expect to see few ships along the way.  All three yachts on this leg 
have two-way AIS units, so it's very easy to keep track of one 
another.  We're running in the same kind of loose inverted-V 
formation we used on the way to Bermuda, but with three yachts it's 
much easier.  Bluewater is at the top of the V with Salty Dawg a mile 
back to port and Moana Kuewa a mile back to starboard-close enough to 
keep an eye on one another day and night yet far enough away to pose 
no danger.

Aboard Bluewater we use three-hour watches, starting at 2100 or 9 pm. 
I take the first watch, Judy relieves me at midnight, and George 
relieves her at 0300.  I'm back on watch at 0600, fresh from nearly 
six hours of sleep, then Judy is back at 0900.  From 1200 to 2100, no 
one "officially" has the watch-it falls to whomever is available. 
Judy does all the meals, so George and I usually split off the 
daytime watches informally.  With only three yachts, rolls calls are 
quick and easy; we're doing them at 0900 and 2100.  We do a full 
power run about 1145 each day to run up the engines to full RPMs, 
blow out the carbon, and check the fuel filter vacuum gauges-Lugger 
Bob Senter pointed out in a seminar that the vacuum gauge readings 
are valid only at full power.  I like to think that a short full 
power run will help identify problems well because they become 
serious; I hope I'm right!

Many yachts measure fuel consumption precisely using an expensive 
device called a FloScan.  The FloScan is so accurate, to quote Dennis 
Bruckel on Salty Dawg, it shows a burn rate of a tenth of a gallon or 
two (per hour) more going up a swell than down a swell!  Both Salty 
Dawg and Moana Kuewa have FloScans, and both skippers have high 
confidence in their accuracy.  Alas, Bluewater does not have one so 
we do our fuel measurement the old fashioned way-by looking at sight 
gauges, estimating, and using a table created for our boat using an 
Excel spreadsheet.  This morning I used the Nordhavn 47's elegant 
fuel system to measure our actual fuel consumption at 1700 RPMs with 
no generator running.  It came to 3.0 gallons per hour, and I should 
hasten to add that's approximate at best: watching the fuel level 
using a sight gauge on a rolling boat is never going to be precise! 
Still, 3 GPH is consistent with our past experience and what our 
engine manufacturer, Lugger, calls for running at 1700 RPMs.

If we look at our 1,818-mile passage from Bermuda to Horta and divide 
by a speed of advance (SOA) of 6.3 knots, Bluewater should be 
underway on this passage for about 290 hours or 12 days.  Multiply 
that by 3 gallons per hour and we SHOULD use less than 900 of our 
1480 gallons.  Ah, but that does not include the possibility of more 
hours for a weather divserion or for heavy headwinds and head seas 
(let's add, say, another 20% ) which could take us up to main engine 
fuel consumption of 1,044 gallons.  Then add in some generator time, 
for openers let's say an average of 2 hours per day at one GPH, for a 
generator burn of 26 gallons.   It all comes to an admittedly soft 
fuel burn estimate of 1,070 gallons, leaving a reserve of 410 
gallons-roughly 28%.  I hope it works out that way!   In fact, we'll 
watch it day by day.  If we reach the halfway point with what we 
expect, perhaps we can ratchet up the speed and generator time a bit 
and arrive with less.  One more consideration: we need to take on at 
least 1,325 gallons (350 liters) in Horta to qualify for duty free 
fuel pricing.

As I finish this up at 1400, I note that the wind has come around to 
SSE and our boat speed at 1700 RPMs is down to 5.6 to 5.7 knots-it 
may just be a longer trip than we think!

--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.