All hands-- The latest report from Ann Caywood has been posted at http://www.trawlerworld.com/travels_boundary_waters_04.htm on the rapid cruise of the Nordhavn 50 Boundary Waters from California to Florida. An excerpt appears below. --Georgs The crossing from Isla Mujeres to Florida was the roughest we encountered on the trip. I'm not sure that the waves and wind were the highest, but the angle at which we hit those sharp and closely spaced waves certainly gave us the roughest ride yet. (All together now, "Just how rough was it?!?") Starting aft, Tom reports floor burns on his elbows and knees from sliding off the settee berth in the main saloon, (this is in addition to the cushions themselves sliding off the settee because there's no way to secure them in place). Sandy tells of cramped and sore hands from holding on to the bedside table edge in the main berthing space amidships. Ron feels that 'God's Roller coaster' got old pretty quickly. In the forward head, the toilet paper roll bounced off the wall hanger, the grate in the shower tried to escape the shower stall, and all the shampoos in the tight fitting wall holder (a measured 3-3/4 inches tall) leaped out and dove to the floor. And, in addition to the usual 2 ceiling panels down in the fwd stateroom, one came down in the pilothouse. Once again, Sandy gets the award for the most dramatic moment: With her sitting in the helm chair, she and I watched a pretty little blue wave scamper over the anchor on the bow roller, its back just about touching the bottom of the hand rail. Sweeping over the foredeck, it smashed, still blue, over the pilot house and up onto the flying bridge. Sturdy as ever, the Nordhavn 50 shook it off and plowed forward as Sandy and I listened to the cascade of water pouring down the walkway steps outside. What makes this pretty little blue wave remarkable is that the anchor on Boundary Waters is 7 feet above calm, flat water. Ann gets the dumb stunt award on this leg: While getting a jug of water out of the fridge, I bumped the tension rod holding everything back from the edge of the top shelf, releasing a cascade of soda cans, pickle jars and assorted goodies. With Ron's timely help, we managed to get the door shut again, and all the escapees that the sea had dumped onto the floor (Thankfully, none leaked or broke!) were unceremoniously dumped into the sink where they remained for the remaining 2 days of the trip.

Georgs K. from your letter about the Boundary Waters Story. A crossing from Cancun to Florida. At 03:18 PM 1/29/03 -0500, you wrote: >pouring down the walkway steps outside. What makes this pretty little >blue wave remarkable is that the anchor on Boundary Waters is 7 feet above >calm, flat water. I hate to weigh in on this, but conditions like this where you are out in the open with absolutely no cover to hide behind, can easily result in a wave that not only laps over the anchor, but laps over the top of the boat. The Gulf Stream swings north, then NE and then E on this leg. At this time of year, cold fronts are sweeping down off the North American continent. The results are strong northerly winds which send swell into opposing current from the Gulf Stream. This is like crossing the Columbia River Bar on the ebb. That's the good news. The bad news is that the "bar" is several HUNDRED miles long. And the crossing can take several days. A 50' Nordhavn can take a dinky wave described above without hardly loosing it's stride. The hull itself (not the accessories) should withstand frontal waves clear over the top of the boat for at least an hour. This means standing water over the TOPS of the windows. As long as a breaking wave does NOT stand up and plunge down, straight into the windows they should not break. If you should encounter waves high enough and breaking, to reach directly to the front windows then you would be in big trouble. Even if the window itself won't break there is some chance of the entire assembly being dislodged from the frame. In such a situation, it is absolutely necessary to maneuver such as to cause the plunging portion of any oncoming breaker to expend the worst of it's force on the hull, up forward. This is not easy to do at night, in which case pray for a full moon, or sunrise. It may be necessary to use full throttle forward or even in reverse to get the bow into position to take the brunt. The first time this happens to you, you won't have long to learn the ropes or you will be out of business. The chances of this sort of wave action lasting any length of time over an hour or two is pretty unlikely. On the other hand, it is unlikely that if it does you will retain the upper hand. Taking even a 7-10' high breaker against a side window is taking a real chance of breaking it. In the scenario, crossing from Cancun to Florida, the current is only headed directly north for a ways, the rest of the leg it runs east. If you were to be crossing from Cancun to New Orleans and the current were by some improbable circumstance headed directly north all the way, it is doubtful that you could stand the experience. The ship would abandon you or vice versa. There has been a lot of northerly wind flow in the area the past few weeks and it has made it very hard to find a really good opening for this passage. On the US West Coast the conditions from the Nordhavn story are pretty normal somewhere in a 1000 miles or so, any time of year, lasting an hour or two. And should be anticipated anywhere, as a matter of prudence. Capt. Mike Maurice Wilsonville, Near Portland Oregon