[PUP] PPM, Convergence, narrow boats, etc.

[Dave Cooper]

<Mark wrote in part: Re stabilization, I love the roll tank I idea.  I
believe someone on this list has one.  It seems a bit to good to be true,
otherwise we'd see them all over the place.  Simple is good.>

That would be us. Last night we had another demonstration of why the
stabilization tank is good.

Bonaire doesn't allow any anchoring at anytime or place and they have but 40
moorings which are on a first come bases. Make cruising there a bit of a
crap shoot. Yesterday we arrived there at 1330 after a 50 mile passage from
the Aves ( the last group of Venezuelan Islands before the ABC's) only to
find one mooring left and it was in too close to the seawall for our 60'
length. Curacao is another 45 miles west but has no harbor that can be
entered at night in a small boat.

So we motored 15 miles towards Curacao and shut down for the night in 4000
ft of water. The sea was 3-5' on the beam 4-5sec period with a wind of 10 to
14 kts. Swan Song rides very well beam to and makes about .5 kts leeway and
.1 to .2 forward. We drifted from 1600 to 0700 and made 10 miles north. A
very comfortable evening at sea and a good nights sleep.

AIS and Radar alarms were set along with our full perimeter lighting. So
little chance of being run down.

The stabilization tank made this stop possible. Without it we would have
been rolling out insides out.

Simple IS good :-)

Cheers

Dave & Nancy
Swan Song
Roughwater 58
Hawaii Passage '08/09