[PUP] Med Bound 2007 Noon Report - June 21: Paravanes down

[Georgs Kolesnikovs]

Noon Report June 21 2007

Position 36-17.1 N 42-02.2 W as of 12:00 Atlantic time (GMT - 3 hrs) 
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Course 095 deg M
Speed 5.6 kts @ 1800 RPM
Distance to go: 655 NM to Horta, Faial, Azores (36% of the way)
Distance made good past 24 hours:  138 NM (5.8 kts)
Distance made good since Bermuda: 1161 NM (64% of the way)
Total fuel consumed (193 engine hours) 736 gals, average 3.8 GPH 
(incl. genset), fuel remaining 745 gal. (fuel used/remaining: 
49.7%/50.3%)
Conditions: Wind 16 kts., swells 3-5 ft from 240 deg M, clear, 
visibility excellent
Barometer 1019.4 mb and rising
Sea water temp 72 deg F, air temp 79 deg F.
ETA Horta: June 26, 2007

It's a pristine blue day out here, the kind that makes me appreciate 
being on what Christopher Columbus called the ocean-sea.  After our 
full power run at mid-day, by pre-arrangement Moana Kuewa approached 
from our port side for a photo-op.  With Bernie on the wheel and 
cameras clicking all around, she passed by Salty Dawg for pictures, 
then began her run up to Bluewater.  Seas were down from earlier this 
morning, but the 3-5 foot swells, whitecaps and cobalt-blue sea still 
made for dramatic pictures, with the swells obstructing the view of 
Moana Kuewa as we sunk down in the trough and she in the trough next 
door, a crest often between us.  We shot at least 100 pictures of 
Moana Kuewa as they approached the port side, turned hard to 
starboard across our wake at three boat-lengths, then overtook and 
passed us to starboard.

We usually run about one to two miles apart, so it was great fun to 
be close enough to smile and wave at one another.  Every time I see a 
Nordhavn 55 up close I am impressed with the sheer size of the yacht. 
She is one big baby!

Bluewater has been running since late yesterday afternoon with 
paravanes in the water, and they've made a real difference in 
steadying us up.  With low pressure still in place over our little 
flotilla yesterday, winds and seas increased in the afternoon with 
dark clouds on the horizon.  By mistake I punched a wrong key 
combination on the stabilizer control panel and removed our one 
working stabilizer from service, then had to get out the instruction 
manual to get it back on line as we rolled uncomfortably (but not 
dangerously) along to the east, winds and seas on our quarter.  In 
the meantime, with the weather going downhill--thunderstorms and more 
wind and seas forecast overnight-I made the decision to deploy the 
paravanes ("fish").  Putting the paravanes into the water in big seas 
is not easy; it's always best to do that when conditions are settled.

To reduce the motion, we slowed the boat to about three knots, barely 
enough speed for the autopilot to keep us on course in the seas. 
With George beside me in the cockpit handling the electric winch 
controls, I eased the starboard fish out of its bracket on the 
transom, oriented it fore-and-aft, and positioned it to go into the 
water, then George lowered it slowly.  The boat was rolling perhaps 
15-20 degrees, so as George paid out the control cable the paravane 
would kiss the water, then rise into the air as a pendulum, then kiss 
again and go a bit deeper.  After a few tenuous up-and-down moments, 
the fish dug deep enough to stay in the water, and George lowered 
away.  When he finished, the paravane was running 15 feet below the 
surface, pulling entirely on its chain, with the lowering cable 
following loosely in a bight astern.  The white-painted paravane 
appeared aquamarine through the deep blue water, running outboard and 
a little forward of our transom.  We repeated the procedure for the 
portside fish.   Neither bird impacted the hull or swim platform-no 
damage.

The difference was in our ride noticeable immediately, even with a 
single fish deployed.  Instead of rolling up to 20 degrees, we were 
back to rolling 5-10 degrees to a side, a serious improvement.  To my 
surprise, I found that the paravanes slowed the boat no more than the 
single fin working very hard.  With both paravanes riding nicely, I 
returned to the stabilizer controls, got the single working fin back 
on line, and experimented with the settings.  In what Naiad calls the 
"adaptive" mode (and I call the high setting), the combination of the 
single fin and the vanes knocked our speed down by about 4/10 of a 
knot.  With the stabilizer system in the "active" mode, a lower 
setting, speed was down about half that.   As wind and seas 
increased, we remained quite comfortable with the vanes alone, but 
for dinner we added the stabilizer fin to the mix for a smoother ride.

Looking out the window now, with Moana Kuewa a half mile off to 
starboard, George remarked that it appears that with paravanes alone 
we're rolling less than Moana Kuewa.  Hard to tell, but there's 
certainly not a lot of difference between the amount or degree of 
roll the two yachts are experiencing.  Bluewater's rolls are 
typically in the range of 5-10 degrees, something we all find 
comfortable.  Other than a short practice session in the Bahamas a 
couple of months ago, this is the first time we've run Bluewater's 
paravanes offshore since our trip from North Carolina to Puerto Rico 
in 2005.  It's an altogether good experience-an excellent reminder 
that our backup stabilization system can do the job!  "Nice backup 
system," as narrator Jo Swerling said in the NAR movie!

Katy celebrated the halfway point with a new toy, and Christine 
reports that Moana Kuewa will break out the champagne to celebrate 
reaching the 2/3 mark later today.  With nearly 2/3 of our passage 
now behind us, I'm feeling better and better about fuel.  By 
measurement using sight gauges in the engine room, by noon today 
Bluewater had almost exactly half our fuel still in her tanks and 
only 36% of the passage remaining.  Said another way, we have 655 
miles to go yet we have another 196 hours of fuel remaining, enough 
at our present burn rate for close to 1100 miles.  One more thing to 
move a few notches down on my list of concerns.

Enroute to Brazil on his second Atlantic crossing in his Nordhavn 46 
Egret, Scott Flanders waxed eloquent in Voyage of Egret about having 
full confidence in his Nordhavn 46 as a safe and comfortable home on 
the sea, a cocoon of sorts.  As usual, Scott is right on the money on 
this stuff: an ocean passage that is essentially trouble-free like 
this does indeed inspire confidence in the yacht that makes it all 
possible. Whenever we do a longer passage I come away with great 
admiration for our boat.  Over building, outfitting, commissioning 
and supporting more than 300 oceangoing yachts, the guys at Pacific 
Asian Enterprises have learned what it takes to build yachts designed 
from the keel up to make safe, comfortable ocean passages.  Those of 
us who own these yachts and take them to sea are the beneficiaries of 
that knowledge and we owe them a great debt of gratitude for helping 
us fulfill our dreams.

On a different topic, we received our first e-mail CNN new summary 
today-thanks, Tut!  It ran about 500 words, was less than 5.0 K in 
size, and, for Bluewater on a passage at least, seems an ideal way to 
have some idea what the news headlines are.  To be sure, I'd much 
rather read today's Wall Street Journal or watch the NBC evening 
news, but for a small yacht on passage CNN's news summary is 
terrific.  If you're interested, I believe you can subscribe at: 
http://edition.cnn.com/EMAIL

This afternoon we will set move clocks ahead for the second time on 
this passage.  Bluewater is now some 2,050 miles from Fort Lauderdale 
and a mere 1,750 miles from Gibraltar.  Cruising in the Mediterranean 
is beginning to seem all the more real to us now.  For so long we 
have focused on Med Bound 2007 and the passages across to the Med, 
and we're now at the point where we can look beyond that.  Med 
cruising guides and travel books are more in evidence aboard 
Bluewater these days.

--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.