Noon Report July 6, 2007 Position 38-51.0 N 17.57.7 W as of 12:00 Azores time (GMT - 0 hrs) Friday, July 6 Course 094 deg M Speed 6.7 kts @ 1850 RPM Distance to go: 639 NM to go to Gibraltar (56% of the way) Distance made good past 24 hours: 164 NM (6.9 kt average) Distance made good since Horta: 512 NM (45% of the way) Total fuel consumed: (74.3 engine hours) 340 gals (23%), average 4.0 GPH (incl. genset), fuel remaining 1140 gal. (77%) Conditions: Wind NNE 5 kts, seas NE 2-4, mostly cloudy, visibility excellent Barometer: 1028.7 and steady Sea water temp: 70 deg F, air temp 70 deg F. ETA Gibraltar: PM July 10 Fresh sashimi for lunch! Except for White Bread George who declines to eat "raw fish" and, instead, has placed his order for tuna salad made with canned tuna. Go figure. Just as I was about to bring in the line and stow our rod after sunset last night, we had a hit and reeled in a nice small tuna-about 25 inches long and nine pounds. (Remember the pink lure I mentioned yesterday? Yup, that did the trick!) Salty Dawg caught two of what sounds like the same kind of tuna today. I've studied our fish books and queried the other boats in an effort to identify the type of tuna, utterly without success. Based on what one book said, I was sure it was a small albacore tuna-the description was perfect; then Dennis told me that albacores have light meat, and the meat from this fish looks exactly like the fresh tuna in the fish market-bright red. We had a taste last night while I was butchering the fish and it was delicious! Andy Lund, who has seen his share of heavy weather both crossing the Atlantic in his Nordhavn 46 and cruising from Norway to Croatia, e-mailed me that, "You've had a really benign crossing so far, so a bit of 35-knot wind is only appropriate!" He can get by with that because in the same e-mail he surprised me by saying said he's sending us his Vodafone GSM modem and a GSM mobile phone with a Spanish SIM card. Once we charge those with minutes, they should provide us with both talk time and Internet access all along the coast of Spain. Andy has been a trail-blazer for us and Med Bound 2007, and much of the European cruising information we accept as the gospel truth has come from him. His boat is now for sale through Nordhavn's office near Southhampton, England. It's one of the last Nordhavn 46s built and it was very well equipped for cruising in Europe and well shaken down. Andy is a very knowledgeable cruiser who once owned the Grand Banks dealership in the Seattle area. Alas, his long cruise has ended and it's time for him to go back to work! True to Bob Jones' forecast, the barometer is on its way down, though not rapidly-I think if it as a nice orderly descent. It dropped 10 millibars overnight, then rose a couple this morning. But the trend is definitely down, and we're preparing for heavier weather. Let me be quick to add that we're not feeling sorry for ourselves! We're in touch by e-mail with our good friend Scott Flanders, who writes the popular Voyage of Egret blog on the Nordhavn website from his Nordhavn 46 at the bottom of the world. He reported a couple of days ago that he was experiencing heavy snow with occasional williwaws, then went on to say: "The Gibraltar-bound small fleet is experiencing great weather with a barometric pressure reading of 1032.7 millibars. We have just pulled up the gribs (weather files) for today. The deep low passing due south of our protected anchorage is 945.4 millibars. The difference is 87.3 millibars. THAT, mi amigos is a VERY deep hole in the atmosphere. Now the surrounding high pressure is trying to fill that hole. See where these stiff winds come from? The Drake Passage between Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula has to be every mariner's nightmare at the moment." In anticipation of the coming weather, after breakfast this morning George and I lowered the paravanes. It gets easier each time. Today it went quickly . . . about five minutes start to finish. I didn't mention it before, but when we hauled them out in Horta it also went very quickly. Experience counts! We noted a speed drop of about three-tenths of a knot to about 6.6 knots as a result of the paravanes. This leg is only 1,100 miles so fuel is not much of an issue. With that in mind, I've eased the throttle ahead enough to make up for the speed loss, and we're now running at 2000 RPMs and 6.9 knots. Curiously, when we did our full power run today, our top speed with the paravanes in never reached as high as 8 knots. Yesterday with no paravanes in the water, it was 9.0 knots. I know of no other variables that would affect the speed. We still like the idea of a short full power run to "blow out the carbon" and check the vacuum gauge on the main engine Racor filter. I doubt that anyone else is tracking our fuel consumption as closely as I am, but in case you are you may have noticed a small hiccup in today's fuel report. From the time we left Horta until today, my fuel consumption figures reported here were an educated guess. That's because our main fuel tank sight gauges don't reach all the way to the top of our tanks. Today I can finally get an accurate measure of the fuel remaining because it's down to the sight gauges, meaning that for the first time since leaving Horta I can actually see the level of the fuel in our tanks-today's measure is very precise. Unlike the red-dyed fuel purchased in the U.S., the tax-free diesel fuel we've had in our tanks from Bermuda on is a light honey color. All indications are that we've taken on extremely clean fuel in Bermuda and Horta. A tip of the Bluewater cap to Marco Quadros in Horta and Global Yacht Fuel in Fort Lauderdale! Unlike our sailing days, we're not being especially careful with water. Bluewater carries 400 gallons in her single water tank, but our Village Marine Tec watermaker can replenish water at close to 25 gallons per hour. Two mornings ago George washed down the whole boat to get rid of the dirt we picked up in Horta, and yesterday Judy did two loads of wash. We take hot showers daily, use whatever water we need for cleaning, and run the watermaker as required to keep the tank topped off. Of course, we have to run a generator to operate the watermaker-a small price to pay for our bottomless tank of fresh water. We expect to reach our waypoint at 39 degrees North and 15 degrees north tomorrow morning. I'm hopeful we'll be able to turn directly for Cabo Sao Vicente then, but in his most recent e-mail Bob says we may wish to continue on closer to the coast of Portugal. We'll see what the weather brings! Meanwhile, we should reach the halfway point on this trip later today-break out the champagne! --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.