Noon Report July 7, 2007 Position 38-53.4 N 14.41.5 W as of 12:00 London time (GMT +1 hrs) Saturday, July 7 Course 121 deg M Speed 6.9 kts @ 2000 RPM Distance to go: 484 NM to go to Gibraltar (42% of the way) Distance made good past 24 hours: 164 NM (6.9 kt average) Distance made good since Horta: 666 NM (58% of the way) Total fuel consumed: (97.3 engine hours) 470 gals (32%), average 4.8 GPH (incl. genset), fuel remaining 1010 gal. (68%) Conditions: Wind NNE 7 kts, seas NE 2-4, clear skies with just a few clouds, visibility excellent Barometer: 1025.2 and steady Sea water temp: 69 deg F, air temp 78 deg F. ETA Gibraltar: PM July 10 Could it be that by dropping in the paravanes yesterday we scared away the bad weather? The Med Bound fleet is making good time under sunny skies, still in light winds, flat seas with lazy swells, and barely a whitecap in sight. May our perfect trawler weather continue! We reached our 39N/15 waypoint and made a slight right turn for Cabo Sao Vicente at mid-morning. Over the past few days I've begun to have the feeling that the nasty weather moving along the coast down to the cape might either blow itself out or move out of our way as we approach the cape. Maybe that's just wishful thinking. But maybe not. This morning, approaching our waypoint, I had to make a decision: keep heading east or turn towards the cape. Since Bob's forecast doesn't arrive until afternoon, I went to our backup weather resource: the so-called grib files from Ocens weather, downloading weather charts for the 72-hour forecasts for surface pressure, winds and seas for our patch of ocean. Voila! My reading of the data indicates that we can expect continued light winds and seas from the N most the way to the cape, though winds and seas should pick up on Monday as we get close to turning the corner. If the grib files are correct, the wind from the cape to the Strait of Gibraltar will go light and blow from the west with seas to match-exactly what we'd like to see for transiting the strait! I should point out that Bob's latest forecast, just received, does not agree-he's sticking to his guns, calling for winds over 30 knots with seas to match as we approach the cape and E winds (against the current) approaching the strait and in the strait itself. In reporting all this to our other two boats, I made the point that Bob is the professional and I'm the amateur, so whom to believe should be an easy choice. Local weather conditions are a big deal in the waters around the Strait of Gibraltar, with the colder Atlantic systems battling it out with the warmed Mediterranean systems for control of weather in and around the strait. Thanks to these dynamics, some of the usual weather rules go out the window, and it pays to give attention to what the locals are saying and what conditions are being reported locally. Our friend Sonaia Marylon Davis is in the Gib area and sent us her first report on winds at Tarifa, nearly adjacent to the strait. We look forward to more reports on this from Sonaia! Pam and Andy Wall reached Lagos, just around the corner from the cape, aboard Kandarik today. Here's part of a dispatch we received from Pam: "Last night I was wondering if I would ever be warm again! The wind was howling, the seas were huge, and I was really cold all night steering! And, now that we have arrived in Lagos, just got a berth for two nights! It is hot and still and sunny and we are dying of the heat!!!!! Just for your information, we had very strong, 25 to 35 NNE winds once we made the turn to the right at Lat 39N, and Lon 11W. All the rest of the day it was still pretty miserable even though we had the wind and seas behind us. Ships everywhere, NO visibility, more like thick fog, and lots and lots of wind! THEN at about 3AM, we were 40 miles from Cabo Sao Vicente, and bam! the wind stopped, soon the seas calmed down, the moon and stars came out, only thing that did not happen was a lack of ships to avoid! By early this morning, it is hard to believe we were motor sailing in light winds, and huge harmless lazy swells!" Pam and Andy found calm conditions in the lee of the cape, and I hope such conditions are there when we arrive three days from now. Their e-mail reminds me that we'll have very hot weather in Gibraltar if our last visits there are anything to judge by. Welcome to the sunny Mediterranean! The Med Bound fleet reached the halfway point from Horta to Gib last night, but nobody celebrated. We're all focused on getting where we're going, to be sure, but we're also enjoying the idyllic days at sea and the halfway point is no real reason for celebration. This passage-so far anyway-is proof positive that after a few days at sea on a well-found, well-run cruising yacht in good weather, things fall into a nice routine and it's easy to enjoy being at sea. While Salty Dawg seems to be the boat that can attract and catch fish, Moana Kuewa seems to attract dolphins and whales and has reported more than the other two boats combined. At mid-day today, George was really excited when he spotted what he thought was a large dolphin, three boat-lengths away and coming right at us. "That's no dolphin," I told him as we both reached for our cameras. "It's a pilot whale." But pilot whales travel in pods and this guy was a loner. Looking at our ID book later, I'm quite sure what we saw was a pygmy sperm whale-easy to identify (using the book) because of its very small dorsal fin and surfacing pattern. Alas, he surfaced three or four times then sounded before we got a picture. Speaking of sea life, Judy says Bluewater's freezers and reefers are full up with fish and will not let me drag a line behind the boat until we eat some of the fish down. Dennis, on the other hand, continues to fish from Salty Dawg, and at sunset last night, 24 hours after I caught my lone tuna of the trip, Salty Dawg got two on at the same time. Dennis reeled in one and Capt. David the other, landing two tuna about the size of the one I caught. We all surmise that they trolled through a feeding school of the fish. With two catches right at sunset, I'm tempted to ask the admiral if I can wet our line only at sunrise and sunset! Dennis got busy with his onboard reference material and is convinced that the tuna we're catching are the ones called bigeye. To be sure, the eyes are outsized for the fish and that ID occurred to me, but, alas, I have no reference material on bigeye tuna but noted that Linda Greenlaw's book, Hungry Ocean, reported that bigeyes were keepers and were treated with the same respect as swordfish on her longline fishing boat. Dennis' reference material says that even a trained scientist finds it impossible to tell a small (juvenile?) big eye from a small yellowfin tuna. Both bigeye and yellowfin tuna are prized both as sportfish and for eating. The sashimi we had for lunch yesterday bears out the eating part. The absence of boat problems in my daily reports should speak for itself, but for the record let me mention that all three Med Bound yachts continue to perform like the champs they are, keeping their crews comfortable and contented. Perhaps part of that is due to the work done on the boats and the inspections before departure from Fort Lauderdale, but there's more to it than that. Our Lugger (Bluewater) and John Deere (Moana Kuewa and Salty Dawg) engines, Northern Lights generators continue to purr along, and our frequent engine room checks seem all for naught-we virtually never find a problem. The problems seem to come, of course, more often aboard boats NOT checking engine rooms frequently! To be sure, we all have a few items on our maintenance lists but they're the kind of projects that can and should wait 'til we reach port. Speaking of maintenance, I heard from Vic Kuzmovich at Naiad yesterday. Naiad Phil should be in Gibraltar on July 10, the day we expect to arrive, to tackle our stabilizer repairs. I suspect Phil will want to wait a day to let our 110-degree engine room cool down! May your weekend weather be as pleasant as that we're having today! --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.