Noon Report June 17, 2007 Position 34-22.6 N 53-12.9 W as of 12:00 EDT Sunday, June 17, 2007 Course 095 deg M Speed 6.3 kts @ 1700 RPM 1,215 NM to go to Horta, Faial, Azores Distance made good past 24 hours: 159 NM (6.6 kts) Distance made good since Bermuda: 602 NM Total fuel consumed (98.3 hours) 370 gals, average 3.7 GPH (incl. genset), fuel remaining 1110 gal. Conditions: Wind variable 3-6 kts., swells 2-4 ft confused with 10 sec. period, partly cloudy but with mackerel sky, visibility excellent. Barometer 1024.0 mb and beginning to drop slowly. Sea water temp 75 deg F, air temp 85 deg F. ETA Horta: June 25, 2007 By early afternoon today the Med Bound 2007 Azores fleet had covered nearly 1/3 of the distance between Bermuda and Horta. Conditions were so terrific and we decided it was a good day for a swim call. George was designated "swim call czar" and coordinated arrangements: about 1330 Bluewater would slow, Moana Kuewa and Salty Dawg would catch up, then Bluewater would stop and the other two yachts would close within about 100 yards and also stop, leaving one person at the helm to maneuver if required. Judy promised rum punch to anyone who swam over. As John Lennon observed famously, life is what happens while you're planning your life. Just before we put the plan into effect effect (and after much ado from Dennis about this being a swim call sans swim suits), Salty Dawg balked. The plan called for the other yachts to stop a few hundred yards away, jump in long enough for pictures, shut down the engine to check oil, then move on. For insurance reasons, Moana Kuewa needed to maintain two of their four-person crew onboard, and, anyway, Bernie wanted to shut down and check the main engine. When all was said and done, Salty Dawg stopped a quarter mile distant, while Moana Kuewa was just a couple of boatlengths away. Chris and Dave swam from Moana Kuewa to Bluewater, Dave resplendent in his custom full-length pale-purple-with-yellow-lips Lycra body glove--at first we thought he was wearing his pajamas! (Katy was amazed to have visitors offshore but quickly got into the spirit of things!) George, Judy, Chris, Dave, Katy and I had a good visit while we downed glasses of Judy's rum punch, took pictures, and enjoyed the company and the wonderful day. Standing in Bluewater's cockpit, we all agreed that it was great fun to see "new" faces and visit in person rather than on the radio. George, Judy and I plunged into the 75-degree water-COLD at the start, but barely noticeable after a couple of minutes. We posed for pictures, then I donned a mask went beneath the hull in search of a dirty knotmeter paddlewheel, cleaned same with a bristle brush, and checked the running gear-main propeller, auxiliary wing engine propeller, rudder, and stabilizer fins. Hove-to in the swells, those onboard were concerned about me as the boat rolled, but, to be honest, swimming alongside and beneath the hull, I barely noticed the motion-the hull and I were in the same plane, so we were moving together, something I'd never considered when thinking about working beneath a rolling, pitching yacht at sea. And it was so easy to see in the clear, clear water-I've never been in clearer water, not even in a swimming pool. According to the chart, water where we stopped was roughly 18,000 feet deep; if my math is correct, that's approximately 3.4 miles. After 45 minutes aboard Bluewater, Chris and Dave swam back to Moana Kuewa and discovered a polypropylene line tangled in the yacht's wing engine propeller. Using knives on lanyards, they managed to cut it away. By the time we got underway, Salty Dawg was a few miles ahead and Dennis reminded us by radio that we have another 1,200 to catch up. As I write this, we're back on-course for Horta. Horta is three time zones east of Bermuda, and our little flotilla is roughly 1/3 of the way there, so yesterday we decided to move clocks ahead one hour. Chris told us that recent research shows that the best time to do that was between 4 and 8 pm. (I wonder how "recent' that research was, since in the Navy we virtually always moved the clock ahead on the dog watches, either 4-6 or 6-8 in the evening.) At any rate, yesterday at 1700 it suddenly became 1800 for Med Bound 2007. We are still adjusting to the time change in the same sense that everyone takes a day or two to adjust to daylight savings time. Weather Bob's forecast is for increasing wind and seas beginning tomorrow. The mackerel sky and barometer, now just beginning to dip, foretell that as well. I also downloaded a few WeatherNet charts which show the high slipping away to the east of us as a low approaches from the west. Unless there's a surprise in store, our winds should continue aft of the beam but we may get up to 25 knots or so with seas to match. With quartering winds and seas, we'll give our stabilizers a good workout! Meanwhile, a very contented Med Bound 2007 fleet continues its passage east under what must be considered some of the best passagemaking conditions ever. I'd better get this out so I can go take a snooze. As the shirt I'm wearing says,"Life is Good." --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.