[PUP] Med Bound 2007 Noon Report - June 23:Sea conditions calm--and littered

[Georgs Kolesnikovs]

Noon Report June 23 2007

Position 35-15.4 N 36-13.1 W as of 12:00 Mid-Atlantic time (GMT - 2 
hrs) Saturday, June 23, 2007
Course 095 deg M
Speed 6.4 kts @ 1900 RPM
Distance to go: 368 NM to Horta, Faial, Azores (20% of the way)
Distance made good past 24 hours:  146 NM (6.1 kts)
Distance made good since Bermuda: 1455 NM (80% of the way)
Total fuel consumed (240 engine hours) 950 gals, average 4.0 GPH 
(incl. genset), fuel remaining 530 gal. (fuel used/remaining: 64%/36%)
Conditions: Wind calm, swells 2-3 confused, clear, visibility excellent
Barometer 1030.1 mb and rising
Sea water temp 73 deg F, air temp 81 deg F.
ETA Horta: PM June 25, 2007

Day Ten on this Med Bound 2007 passage to Horta dawned oily calm with 
a high barometer, the highest we've seen on this trip.  That puts us 
smack in the middle of the Azores/Bermuda high, and it makes for just 
about perfect cruising.  There's a spark in everyone's voice, and you 
can sense "channel fever" setting in as we close the distance to 
Horta.  Our Nobeltec electronic charting software computes a new 
estimated time of arrival (ETA) every time the speed changes, but 
it's leaning toward arrival in Horta late Monday.

The weather is ideal for many things.  Moana Kuewa and Salty Dawg 
both decided to shut down main engines to check oil, and at least 
some of the Moana Kuewa crew jumped over the side to check running 
gear.  Moments before David on Salty Dawg claimed to have seen a 
shark, but the tough Moana Kuewa crew ignored the "threat" and jumped 
in anyway.

Aboard Bluewater, we concluded that we could pull the paravanes and 
pick up a little speed.  George and I hauled the vanes after 
breakfast and, sure enough, speed increased by a perhaps two or three 
tenths of a knot.  We're back to using our single working Naiad 
stabilizer fin in active mode (the low setting), a configuration that 
removes nearly all roll in these flat seas and does not seem to 
reduce our speed.  We like the flexibility of having fins, er, fin, 
and paravanes.

Meanwhile, Judy is baking her third batch blueberry muffins on this 
leg, George is down to his next-to-last pack of cigarettes, and the 
skipper is feeling very good about the fuel situation: 20% of the 
passage to Horta remains with 36% of our fuel remaining, and good 
weather is forecast for a straight run in to Horta.  Now we'll have 
shift out focus on to burning down fuel so we can take on the minimum 
required to qualify for duty free pricing.   At the low speeds we've 
been running, the Nordhavn 55s have been burning about the same 
amount of fuel as our Nordhavn 47, and they carry nearly 1,000 
gallons more.  That means they have lots of fuel left.  Their 
skippers are considering whether or not to take on duty free fuel in 
Horta and will make their decisions soon.

Perhaps it's my early background in destroyers in the U.S. Navy, but 
I learned long ago to take on fuel at every opportunity.  Braun Jones 
and I think alike on that score: more fuel buys options, and less 
fuel crosses options off the list.  Personally, I'd like all the 
options open!  On this rally, every captain makes his or her own 
decisions so I will not try to persuade the other skippers to take on 
fuel, though for me it's a no-brainer.  The passage from Horta to 
Gibraltar is about 1,130 miles, roughly 170 hours at 6.6 knots, so at 
a fuel burn of 4.5 gallons per hour our yachts should burn less than 
1,000 gallons, including generator time.  Gibraltar is an excellent 
place to refuel-probably the lowest prices we'll see in the 
Mediterranean.

Something else on the agenda today aboard Bluewater is haircuts. 
Judy knows better than to trust me giving her a haircut, so she had a 
haircut in Bermuda.  My last haircut was about six weeks ago in Fort 
Lauderdale, and I am definitely on the shaggy side.  George is too. 
Tucked away among Bluewater's many tools is an excellent set of Oster 
electric barber clippers together with a pair of German barber 
scissors.  Even with the boat rolling, the prospects are good that 
George and I will end the day looking much neater than we started it.

I'd love to give you more results on our AIS testing but we have not 
raised a ship since yesterday's report.  When Moana Kuewa fell astern 
while checking the running gear and doing other chores, Salty Dawg 
discovered that they lost part of the Moana Kuewa AIS signal; at 4.5 
miles from Moana Kuewa they received the basic data (transmitted 
every few seconds), but failed to receive the other AIS "sentence," 
typically transmitted every few minutes.  Bluewater received all the 
data just fine at six miles from Moana Kuewa.  Clearly, we have 
something going on here, and Med Bound seems a good laboratory for 
exploring the differences.  Andy Lund of the N46 Resolution weighed 
in and may be able to put us in contact with someone at Furuno who 
would find this kind of side-by-side at-sea comparison useful.

Late yesterday we spotted a sail on the horizon about six miles 
distant late, but two of our three yachts tried hailing it without a 
response.  The sail slipped off over the horizon to starboard a 
couple of hours later.  In today's calm, we're seeing all manner of 
flotsam-a lobster pot buoy, a wooden cask, a small fender, a big 
fishing net marker with a radar reflector at the top, lots of small 
fishing floats, and the usual pieces of polypropylene line big and 
small.  With flat seas and no chop to obscure, the trash is much in 
evidence.

On this leg of Med Bound 2007, we have three well-traveled Nordhavn 
motor yachts.  Chris just called from Moana Kuewa to tell us that 
today her yacht passed its 10,000th mile, an impressive number--but 
all the more impressive when you consider that she took delivery of 
her boat barely over a year ago--in California on May 28, 2006. 
Since that time, with Chris as captain Moana Kuewa has completed a 
shakedown cruise to the north and then the south around the notorious 
Point Conception (the so-called Cape Horn of California), down 
through Mexico and Central America, through the Panama Canal, out to 
the San Blas Islands, on (into the teeth of the winter Caribbean 
tradewinds) to Aruba, St. Thomas, and up to Florida before joining 
Med Bound last month.  Moana Kuewa has 1570 engine hours, an average 
of 120 per month since commissioning.

Bluewater has a few more miles in her wake.  By coincidence at 1345 
local today we marked our 12,000th mile.  But we were commissioned in 
Florida in September 2005, well ahead of Moana Kuewa, so Moana Kuewa 
is catching us rapidly!   Since commissioning, Bluewater has ventured 
from Florida to the Chesapeake, then offshore to Puerto Rico, across 
the Caribbean to Venezuela and its offshore islands for the winter, 
then back to the Virgin Islands, on to Bermuda, then to Maine last 
summer, and back to Florida to get ready for Med Bound 2007. 
Bluewater now has 1830 hours on the main engine, an average of 87 
hours per month since commissioning.

Salty Dawg just passed her 1,000th engine hour.  She was 
commissioning in February 2006, has completed two round trips between 
Florida and New England, and Dennis Bruckel-aboard for almost every 
one of those hours-estimates she has about 6,500 nautical miles in 
her wake.  Salty Dawg's monthly average since commissioning is about 
62 engine hours.

When you consider that the average boat owner puts perhaps 200 engine 
hours on his or her boat each year, the numbers above speak for 
themselves!  Just in case you couldn't tell, you have three pretty 
serious crews on these Med Bound yachts!  But there are many more 
Nordhavn owners better traveled: Heidi and Wolfgang Hass, Andy Lund, 
Scott Strickland, Scott and Mary Flanders, John and Gail Maloney, 
Fred and Chris Caron, Braun and Tina Jones, Bill and Arline Smith, 
Bob and Jan Rothman, Wayne and Laurel Hill, Dave and Karen Crannell, 
Chris Samuelson and Sonaia Maryon-Davis, Dick and Gail Barnes, Bill 
and Ellen Bane, and John and Sue Spencer to name a few!

--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.