[PUP] Med Bound 2007 Noon Report - June 19: Life at sea on a passagemaker

[Georgs Kolesnikovs]

Position 35-18.7 N 47-46.4 W as of 12:00 Atlantic time (GMT - 3 hrs) 
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Course 095 deg M
Speed 5.9 kts @ 1700 RPM
940 NM to go to Horta, Faial, Azores (52% of the way)
Distance made good past 24 hours:  133 NM (5.6 kts)
Distance made good since Bermuda: 878 NM (48% of the way)
Total fuel consumed (146 engine hours) 540 gals, average 3.7 GPH 
(incl. genset), fuel remaining 940 gal. (fuel used/remaining: 36%/64%)
Conditions: Wind 15-20 kts., swells 3-5 ft from 250 deg M, partly 
cloudy, visibility good.
Barometer 1018.5 mb and falling slowly
Sea water temp 76 deg F, air temp 81 deg F.
ETA Horta: June 26, 2007


A trip like this is a series of ups and downs.  Yesterday was one of 
the down days.  Not only did we lose our port stabilizer, but our 
speed was down.  Whether that's due to the starboard fin working 
harder, a current on the nose, or something else I cannot tell, but 
our noon-to-noon run was a depressing 133 NM, and I'm feeling bad 
about holding up our two buddy boats who have the fuel to make more 
speed to Horta but who are hanging in with Bluewater.

I spoke with Vic Kuzmovich at Naiad Florida minutes ago, and he is 
making arrangements to ship the vital replacement stabilizer part to 
us in care of our agent in Horta, Marco Quadros.  Marco is the most 
organized man in Horta, and he has provided detailed instructions on 
how to ship the part so it will be waiting for us when we arrive. 
Vic promises to include detailed instructions for installation, and 
he's confident that it's within my capabilities-"piece of cake, 
Milt," he says.  Braun Jones, who has gone through this particular 
replacement twice aboard Grey Pearl, also e-mailed me and said, "You 
can do it."  Vic says that if we have problems, he will put a 
technician on an airplane to Horta to sort it out for us.  What 
terrific support!

I noted yesterday that a single fin is reported about 80% as 
effective as two, and it's time to modify that!  In the 3-5 to 4-6 
foot quartering seas Bluewater has had since our problem yesterday 
and our sub-six-knot speed, we've had a good opportunity to observe 
the difference between two working fins and one.  My own take based 
on this single experience is that we're getting about 2/3 of the 
stabilization we normally get.  It's a LOT better than nothing, but 
noticeably rollier than with two working fins.

I continue to obsess over fuel!  Bluewater should reach the halfway 
point between Bermuda and Horta in another few hours.  We've been 
underway six days, and indications are that we're burning about 90 
gallons per day, including a few hours of generator time for 
watermaking and laundry.  We have another six or seven days to go; at 
our present consumption rate, we should arrive in Horta with a 
reserve of 310 gallons or 21%.   Those numbers are looking good to 
me, so today as an experiment old conservative Milt increased RPMs to 
1800, which added about one knot of boat speed.  We got no complaint 
from Moana Kuewa or Salty Dawg.  The increase speed also passes more 
water over our working stabilizer fin, so our stabilization is 
improved.  I'll check fuel consumption tomorrow to see if we can keep 
it up.

Ships are few and far between out here.  We nearly always pick them 
up on AIS before seeing them on radar.  Moana Kuewa (which has the 
same Furuno FA-150 AIS unit we have) clearly has the best 
installation and picks up the ships first every time, sometimes as 
much as 20-30 minutes before they show up on the AIS units aboard 
Salty Dawg and Bluewater.  Chris has her watchstanders well trained, 
and they're always the first to report a contact to the other two 
yachts.  We see an average of one or two ships per day, though 
yesterday we have three converging on us at once.  Night before last 
I asked one, overtaking us on the starboard side, to alter course to 
give our group a two-mile CPA.  The watch officer responded 
cheerfully in accented English, immediately began a minor course 
change to starboard, and wished me a good watch and a good evening. 
My experience has been that other ships are quick to comply when I 
come up on the radio and ask for course change giving us "a safe CPA 
of two miles or more."  Part of the deal, I believe, is being 
proactive: take the initiative, tell the other guy what you want, be 
polite, and use proper radio procedure and terminology.   Of course, 
I never ask for a course change unless we have the right of way.

Weather Router Bob Jones seems to be in the grove and his forecasts 
are right on the money.  That may have something to do with the fact 
that the weather seems to be much more like it's supposed to be-the 
North Atlantic summer pattern.  We had an e-mail from friends Pam and 
Andy Wall aboard Kandarik on the Azores island of Terciera noting 
that the summer weather pattern is late in coming to the Azores this 
year.  Other friends around Europe have reported the same.  But, 
finally, the summer weather seems to be taking hold.

One resource I am beginning to use again is Ocens' WeatherNet.  We 
used this while cruising in the lower Caribbean last year, but the 
software is not exactly intuitive; after being away from it for a few 
months, I've had to re-learn it .  My re-education process is coming 
along nicely, and I can now select the weather "products" I want and 
download them via satellite phone-the same system we use for e-mail. 
Thousands of weather products are available, a bewildering array. 
One especially interesting product comes from a Navy (FNMOC) site via 
WeatherNet and shows ocean currents; it's derived from satellite data 
and the one this morning showed a persistent current of .7 to .9 
knots against us for the past 150 miles or so.  Hmmm.  I've also 
downloaded the next 72 hours forecast for wind, waves and surface 
pressure charts shown in 6-hour increments-it's very nice to play 
them sequentially and watch the changes coming.   The cost of these 
charts is about $5.00 a day, plus the satellite time to download 
them-another $5.00 or so.  If you are into offshore passagemaking, my 
recommendation is to take a look at WeatherNet and its companion 
program, Grib Explorer.  But be sure to learn how to use it while you 
have a fast Internet connection, something I failed to do!

WeatherNet used to offer Associated Press headline news, but, alas, 
they discontinued that, they say, due to lack of interest.  So here 
we are nearly a week out of Bermuda with little idea what in the 
world is going on.  If we were truly interested, we could turn on the 
SSB and listen to Voice of America or the BBC.  The truth is we'd 
rather read.  Does anyone know of w good e-mail resource that will 
e-mail a short, text-only daily new summary?

Judy is doing her usual stellar job of keeping Bluewater's crew 
well-fed, a great morale booster.  George, a confirmed bachelor, is 
loving having three meals a days served to him and never fails to 
compliment Judy on her food.  After many years of Judy's good 
cooking, I've come to take it for granted-it's great and I know it. 
Judy stocked up at Bermuda's tony Miles Market, supplementing her 
great finds there with staples from the MarketPlace on Church Street 
in Hamilton.  Bluewater's refrigerator and freezer were over-stuffed 
when we departed, but there's actually some space coming available 
now.  It would be nice to see some fresh fish, but so far the only 
fish on this leg are the flying fish which end up on deck overnight. 
Dennis on Salty Dawg is very frustrated, his four lines in the water 
every day!

Time to check the engine room!  We're taking Lugger Bob Senter's 
advice and doing that every hour.

--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.