[PUP] Med Bound 2007 Noon Report - June 22: Of fish and fish

[David Law]

Has anyone experience of a horizontal mounted paravane, I have only ever seen one and lost the web page it was on.
  The Idea was great as it could be controled easily by lines just for opening and closing it and it ran fore and aft when closed. It was easy to drop and retrieve the fish as well, although it interrupted the shere of the boat it is still an idea worth investigating.
  Anyone ??
  Regard 
  David

Georgs Kolesnikovs <waterworld@rogers.com> wrote:
  Noon Report June 22 2007

Position 36-45.7 N 39-11.4 W as of 12:00 Mid-Atlantic time (GMT - 2 
hrs) Friday, June 22, 2007
Course 095 deg M
Speed 6.2 kts @ 1800 RPM
Distance to go: 514 NM to Horta, Faial, Azores (28% of the way)
Distance made good past 24 hours: 140 NM (5.8 kts)
Distance made good since Bermuda: 1301 NM (72% of the way)
Total fuel consumed (216 engine hours) 860 gals, average 4.0 GPH 
(incl. genset), fuel remaining 620 gal. (fuel used/remaining: 58%/42%)
Conditions: Wind W 10 kts., swells 2-4 occ. 3-5 ft from 250 deg M, 
clear, visibility excellent
Barometer 1025.3 mb and rising
Sea water temp 75 deg F, air temp 85 deg F.
ETA Horta: June 26, 2007

All's right with the world aboard Bluewater as we make our approach 
to the Azores:

--Barometer is rising;
--Wind and sea are declining;
--Whitecaps are disappearing;
--Weather Bob is calling for good conditions all the way into Horta;
--We're making good time towards the Azores.

Two-time circumnavigators Heidi and Wolfgang Hess once told me that 
the below-the-surface noise from the paravanes aboard their Nordhavn 
46 never failed to raise fish. With out paravanes in the water, I 
had great hopes that ours might do the same, but we've tried dragging 
a fishing line for two days now without a strike. Not so for Med 
Bound 2007 fish-meister Dennis Bruckel who told us, with more than a 
little pride in his voice, that he hooked three small tuna, brought 
all three aboard, and returned two to King Neptune. The other, cut 
into filets, is being served for Lowie Bock's birthday lunch today 
aboard the Dawg.

Our paravanes may not be much at raising fish, but they continue to 
do yeoman service for stabilization, and Bluewater remains very 
comfortable. We've turned off the active fin stabilizer altogether. 
We don't really need it for stabilization now and it tends to slow 
the boat down slightly. Nevertheless, the parts will be waiting for 
us in Horta and I'll happy to have our active fin system back on line.

We heard today from John Harris, who crossed on the Nordhavn Atlantic 
Rally in 2004 as owner and captain of the Nordhavn 46 World Odd @ Sea 
with no active fin stabilizers, depending on paravanes all the way 
across. After reading my description of launching the paravanes, 
John was kind enough to provide some suggestions for a better way to 
do the launch:

"1. Slow the boat to near idle - 2 or 3 knots;
"2. Let out enough fetch cable to allow the loop in the cable to just 
touch the water, i.e. most of what you will need;
"3. Pitch the fish in the water and let the tow cable take most of 
the shock and load, not the fetch cable, - there is no need to orient 
the fish - that will happen all on its own;
"4. Let out enough additional fetch cable to allow some slack in the 
fetch cable;
"5. Return to normal cursing speed for best stability."

As I told John by return e-mail, "My crewmember George also suggested 
letting out more cable, then tossing in the paravane and letting the 
tow cable take most of the shock but I was afraid to try that. 
Hearing from you that it works, I'll give it a try next time 'round. 
Especially when the boat is rolling, the time when the fish is 
kissing the water then becomes a pendulum then goes back to the 
water--that's the difficult time! It's also the time when we're at 
most risk for damaging the boat with an out-of-control paravane."

In response to my comments about Moana Kuewa always picking up 
targets ahead of Bluewater and Salty Dawg, Capt. Braun Jones of Grey 
Pearl e-mailed and asked about the difference in the AIS 
installations. We'll compare notes in Horta, but the short answer is 
that Bluewater and Moana both have the same Furuno model FA-150 AIS 
units Braun has aboard Grey Pearl, and Salty Dawg's is an ACR Marine 
Electronic model Nauticast AIS. Bluewater has the standard antennas 
that came with the Furuno unit, and Chris is not certain what VHF 
antenna Moana Kuewa is using for the AIS. We're started a little 
experiment that may be of interest to those of you interested in AIS 
performance (are you listening, Ben?). When Moana Kuewa picks up an 
AIS target, she notifies Bluewater of the time and distance. When 
Bluewater picks up the same target, she notifies Salty Dawg. When 
the Dawg picks up the same target, she reports. Here's data for the 
first two ships:

M/V Fezzano:
First detected by Moana Kuewa at 24.4 NM at 2007 local at 
36-27 N 40-41W
First detected by Bluewater at 15.3 NM at 2030 local
First detected by Salty Dawg at 8.5 NM at 2105 local

M/V Federal Asahi
First detected by Moana Kuewa at 23.6 NM at 1009 local at 
36-21 N 39-55 W
First detected by Bluewater at 16.9 NM at 1125 local
First detected by Salty Dawg at 12.0 NM at 1230 local

Do you see a pattern here? Adding to the mystery, we all noted on 
leg one of Med Bound that while the AIS (output) signals from Salty 
Dawg, Bluewater and Grey Pearl were lost by other rally yachts 
occasionally, no yacht on Med Bound ever lost Moana Kuewa's AIS 
signal when the yacht was nearby.

When we have more data and have been able to investigate Moana 
Kuewa's installation in more detail, I'll try to report back with 
more information. Interestingly, the installations aboard Grey 
Pearl, Bluewater and Grey Pearl were done by the same installer. 
Among the other variables worthy of investigation are: type of VHF 
antenna being used, length of VHF cable run, possible connections in 
the VHF antenna cable, and height of the VHF antenna. I welcome any 
other suggestions or ideas.

The salad fixings aboard Bluewater are still holding our well, but 
Judy's now beginning to look forward to a supermarket spree in Horta. 
Our memory of the supermarket there is that iceberg lettuce-not among 
our favorites-is the big deal in the greens department, but I 
remember some other fresh Pico-grown greens in the public market. 
For the most part, fancy greens like arugula, spring mix, bib lettuce 
and the rest had not arrived in the Azores when we were last there. 
We remember the Modulo Supermarket on the outskirts of Horta, 
however, as an excellent one and it'll be among the first 
supermarkets in Europe to capture some of our Euros.

>From Stuart, FL, Nordhavn Southeast chief Ray Danet e-mailed us, "Not 
sure if it helps but you can tell the group that in those rough 
conditions the body is constantly doing low-impact isometrics and 
everyone is losing weight. There's always something good in 
everything." Ray knows of whence he speaks . . . he covered a lot of 
miles aboard the company Nordhavn 40 on the Around-the-World event.

During lunch today, finally, our fishing line went off. We slowed 
the boat to steerage, reporting same to the other boats, and I began 
to reel in the line. ("If it has feathers and not fins," Dennis 
said, "it doesn't count!") At first, I thought we may have lost the 
fish because there was little action on the line. Yet as I reeled it 
in, we could not see the lure-usually it skips right along the 
surface in plain sight. As I spooled on the line with little effort 
I could feel that there was something there but I was sure it would 
not be much of a fish. Then, at the last moment, a small, slender, 
iridescent sailfish emerged at the end of the line. He was a 
stunning blue and silver, about three feet in length, and seemed as 
surprised as I was. George, in the cockpit with me, was unable to 
remove the gaff down from its mount on the overhead, so I tried to 
bring the fish over the transom on the line. When I did so the hook 
dislodged itself, the fish landed on the swim platform, and then 
seconds later flipped his way to freedom-just as well because we 
certainly would not have kept a sailfish. We fish for food, but 
sailfish are not food-not for us, at least. At least we can say we 
were not skunked on this leg, but, alas, we have no pictures to prove 
it.

Onward to the Azores Islands!

--Milt, Judy, George and Schipperke Katy
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