Saturday, March 28, 2009 8:05:58 AM Location: Santa Barbara de Samana The boat position was not recorded. This weather observation was taken on Saturday, March 28, 2009 7:54:44 AM local time. Observation location: Santa Barbara de Samana. Observation position was not recorded. The air temperature is 78, and water temperature is 0 degrees Fahrenheit. The forecast is Sunny. The current weather is dry. The sky is clear or a few clouds. The wind is 5 knots from the east. The visibility is 10 nautical miles. The wave height is 0 feet with 0 foot swells. The barometer is 1022 millibars and rising. The refrigerator is now turned off. All the Freon gas has escaped. I have been unable to locate the perpetrators. UGH. Fortunately, I have the deep freezer and have set it to its warmest setting. All the refer stuff is now sitting at 40 degrees in there. Now that it is the weekend, I have little hope of finding and getting the guys back out to find the leak. So, maybe Monday... Last night I had dinner with the Nelsons on their 70 ft custom trawler Voyager. Their home port is Los Angles and they are working their way back that direction. The boat is long and narrow, with the extra length devoted to a very large living / dining room with all the feel of a condo. It is very nice and very spacious. However, they wish it were somewhere around 55 ft instead of 70. Slip costs and availability are an issue for them. They have TPS stabilizers and on the way in one came out of the water and hit the boat. We discussed two possible solutions although there are three. One is they find the birds are being towed way back, this causes the birds to fly nearer the surface then they would if they were flying up-and-down. They were interested in switching to wire to reduce the drag and get them to fly deeper. And the third option would be to increase the weight of the birds. I run birds that are about 40 lbs and theirs are only 45. Big 70 ft sword fishing boats run 200 lb birds. Their speed and size might require them to run bigger birds, but that would require winches to get them in and out of the water. Since the Nelsons have been through the Cacos and Bahamas four times, I brought over the backup nav computer and reviewed my planned routes with them. I'm glad I did since they had several good suggestions for different route planning. They also provided a degree of assurance about being able to navigate the banks with Jenny since they have a 7 ft draft and they had no problems with the routes they took and recommended. Also, the trip back sounds like it will be filled with nice stops. Nicholas went for dinner to and got lots of attention. Wendy was a vet so they are very dog friendly and knew all about the Havanese breed. She remarked that Nicholas was a little large for a Havanese. Yea... he is. Mary is taking care of business back in Florida and getting set up for returning to Jenny. She's flying in on the 6th. Hurray... The Nelsons confirmed that there is really good weather in the Bahamas in May and June. So, we will wait here for a while before heading north. Spirit and Catching Up might come over and head north with us. That would be fun. The Nelsons also gave me some good ideas about how to see the east coast. So, life is good. David Powered by BoatExec http://www.BoatExec.com