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.