[PUP] 2nd leg of FUBAR, Ensenada to Turtle Bay, night one

[Scott E Bulger]

Well it's 01:10 as I start to type this.  Marian, my wife is asleep in the bow
stateroom.  Capt. Mike Maurice is asleep in the saloon and his wife Pam is
asleep in the guest stateroom, bottom bunk.  The Lugger is hummmming away, the
gen set is running and I'm making water with my brand new Village Marine
600gpd no frills unit.  We left Ensenada about 100 gallons shy of water
because my wife is paranoid about taking on water in Mexico.  So, this is the
first night we are making a lot of water, honestly it was one of my biggest
worries preparing for the trip, because the previous owner had installed a
PUR160 which just wasn't going to supply enough water to meet our demands.
Thanks to Village Marine in San Diego and Gregg, we are now capable of making
lots of good clean water in a reasonable amount of time.

A little about the FUBAR and fueling.  Well I was boat number 5 in the queue
and was called to the dock about 13:00.  Being a betting man I'd have put $100
bucks on a bet that there was no way Patrick on Paloma was going to get fuel,
but somehow he did.  To the credit of the FUBAR staff all the boats got the
fuel they wanted or needed and all boats were ready for departure in the
morning.  We had been discussing the leg to Turtle bay and come to the
conclusion we would not make a daytime arrival if we left any later than
midnight Thursday.  Being a 7 knot boat there was just no way to do it sunrise
to sunset over a 40 hour period.  So we opted to leave yesterday at 20:00.
Paloma, Alanui and Wandering Star ( a Selene 43 with Adrian and Joanne Salzar,
and their nephew John aboard) are currently heading about 160 degrees at 7
knots, probably the lead boats in the fleet as of now!  I suspect the faster
boats will begin to pass us tomorrow in the afternoon.

The sea state is very calm, a gentle swell from astern and just a hint of
breeze.  No stars, no moon as there is a low overcast obscuring the night sky.
I've got the FLIR in the Picture in Picture of the 19" Nauticomp display, and
Coastal Explorer and Miltech AIS as the major part of the display.  The Furuno
is on 3 miles Radar, no chart overlay as Mike thinks it reduces the capability
of the Radar,

Uh oh, I think I hear my wife getting sea sick...

Whew, false alarm.  Just Pam coughing a bit.  Poor Marian has been dealing
with managing her nausea on every leg.  She's tried the Scope patch,
Dramamine, the wrist shocker and everything else we can think of, with varying
success.  The Dramamine makes her sleep, probably the best alternative.  The
Scope patch makes her really thirsty, so much so that she won't use it.  The
wrist band didn't do anything for her.  I was skeptical, but the guy at West
Marine said it cured his wifes morning sickness.  Mike said sugar pills are
70% effective, so we are tying those next.

Anyway, I was describing what works and what doesn't.  I guess another
disappointment is the Miltech AIS no longer seems to pick up targets from a
good distance.  a few weeks ago I saw targets as far as 30 miles away, now I'm
missing them at 5 miles.  I think it may be a hardware issue, but it's going
to be hell to figure it out.  The guy at Miltech seems to be willing to work
with me, so perhaps a replacement unit will be on the way.  Only problem now
is where to ship it?

Next problem is the FLIR video quality has gone to crap.  I've got some
significant interference in the display and it looks like the resolution has
changed dramatically as well.  It's still usable, but if it degrades more it
will approach being unusable.

I just noticed our speed is up to 7.4 knots so we must be getting a bit of a
push.  Decision time, pull back a hundred RPM and save some flue, or put some
miles in the bank?

So, just a glimpse into a night passage from a newbie on the first of what we
hope to be many passages.

Have a great day, and keep the wind at your back!

Scott Bulger, Alanui, N40II, Seattle WA
Pacific Ocean, S of Ensenada, 31.18.6 x 116.4

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