Position 31-44.23N 67-27.98W as of 12:00 EDT Saturday, June 2, 2007 Course 093 deg M Speed 7.9 kts @ 2100 RPM 170.5 NM to go Hamilton, Bermuda Distance made good last 24 hours 173 NM, average speed 7.2 kts Distance from Fort Lauderdale 862 NM Total fuel consumed 820 gals, average 6.9 GPH (including genset time), fuel remaining 660 gal Conditions: Wind 170 deg M @ 12 kts. swells 3-4 ft with 1 foot chop from 160 deg. M partly cloudy, visibility excellent. Barometer 1025.0 mb rising slowly. Sea water temp 74 deg F, air temp 74 deg F. ETA RBYC Hamilton, Bermuda, 1100 Sunday, June 3 The Med Bound fleet's good fortune continues with smooth seas and winds moving aft, though they are not yet aft of the beam. It's the little things at sea that get one's attention, and after essentially no news from the real world for close to a week, our 30-person group remains mostly focused on a world that's roughly 3 x 5 miles-the distance from the head to the back and the port to the starboard side of our flotilla. Just after 7 this morning we passed a small pod of whales a few hundred feet away. We could not determine what kind of whales we were seeing because except for a tiny piece of head or tail we didn't see the animals themselves. However, we all saw them blowing-big white clouds rising perhaps 12 feet from the surface of the sapphire sea. Not much later, New Frontier reported bringing a six-foot blue marlin to the transom where he jumped to give Capt. Jerry and crew a show before they cut him loose. Bluewater has been dragging a fishing line without success since noon yesterday. Well, actually, we caught a sea bird. Somehow, we hooked a booby and reeled him in. I held him still while George cut the hook with our big bolt cutters, which Judy had retrieved, and I was able to back the hook out with what appeared to be little damage to the wing. The bird was surprisingly calm throughout the "operation," and we gently put him back into the sea. The hook had penetrated the wing but there appeared to no broken bones. With a little luck, he'll have a tale to tell his grand-birds. Weather router Bob Jones continues to warn of increased winds and seas. The remnants of tropical storm Barry combined with a developing gale off Cape Hatteras will likely bump up against the unyielding Bermuda high to our west, tightening the gradients and bringing more wind. To quote Bob's latest missive, "As both weather fronts approach, increasing ESE-SE winds of 20-30kts with locally higher gusts will develop during Sun/pm. Once the warm front passes, winds will quickly veer to a more SW direction with SW winds of 25-35kts, intervals/gusts of 40kts possible. In addition rain showers will develop nearing Bermuda, but the steadier/heavier rain will arrive as the warm front, then cold front move through." With a little luck, the Med Bound fleet should be alongside at Royal Bermuda Yacht Club by late morning, well before the worst stuff arrives. At least that's our plan! One of the advantages of arriving as part of an organized rally is that customs has agreed to clear our group at the yacht club, so we do not need to make the usual stop at St. Georges. The informal discussion group on the 21-2400 watch continued last night with a little show and tell. Among a laundry-list of items, we began talking about strobe lights and spotlights. Bluewater carries an ancient but workable strobe from our first boat, a Columbia 22 sloop which we sailed in Hawaii in the 1960s. I've always thought of it as my ultimate visual attention-attractor. Last night I decided to light it off and asked Jim Fuller, a mile away, and Braun Jones, about two, if they could see it. Imagine my surprise when they said "No!" Jim suggested that it was obscured by Bluewater's very bright running lights, and, sure enough, when I turned off the running lights both captains could see the strobe flashing-Jim with his naked eye and Braun with his binoculars. We also compared searchlights (or is it spotlights?). Grey Pearl carries a huge light on the cabin top and fired it up to show us. From two miles away, it bathed Bluewater in light. My problem with lights like that is controlling them using a rinky-dink joystick or, worse, pushing buttons as we have to do aboard Bluewater with our expensive Guest light. Our answer is a $35.00 rechargeable 2 million candlepower hand-held light, which Braun and Jim reported they could see very well. Back to AIS. All Med Bound skippers with AIS agree that Moana Kuewa has the best AIS intallation. She has the same Furuno FA-150 units most of the rest of us have, but Moana Kuewa consistently seems to be able to pick up targets farther out and her signal never drops out, while other Med Bound yachts sometimes have difficulty seeing other Med Bound yachts' AIS data at five or six miles and often cannot pick up ships until they are about 8 to 15 miles away. The differences are (a) antennas, (b) antenna cabling, (c) antenna termination (that is, the soldered connector at the end of the antenna cab le), and (d) installer. We're all comparing notes, but Braun and I, at least, think the real difference may lie in antenna termination which has of course includes the installer, the person who did the termination. More investigation is needed! On our morning roll call, Christine Bauman reported a flood of sorts aboard the Nordhavn 55 Moana Kuewa. A solenoid valve in a toilet stuck open, putting about 300 gallons of fresh water into a cabin. Chris told us that the water quickly found its way into the bilges, and both normal and high water bilge pumps kicked in and made quick work of it. Her entire crew jumped out of bed to lend a hand, and the boat was back to its usual spiffy condition in no time. She complimented her crew on working well together to deal with the problem. And that, sports fans, is probably the most serious "issue" this group has had since Downtime's stabilizer issue a few days ago. Lots of miles; very few problems . . . YES! Speaking of problems, Andy Lund, skipper and owner of the Nordhavn 46 Resolution, e-mailed me from the Atlantic coast of Spain about Bluewater's fuel consumption. Andy knows of whence he speaks, since he took his trusty Nordhavn direct from Newport to Horta without stopping. "We traveled 2,062 nautical miles at an average speed of 6.34 knots per hour, burned 722 gallons of diesel, leaving 278 gallons in the tank, or a 27% reserve, averaging 2.78 miles per gallon, or 2.22 gallons per hour," Andy told me. "I had planned a 1,950 mile trip at 5.6 knots, using 750 gallons of fuel." Andy suggests slower speeds, less generator time, and checking the bottom for drag-all good ideas and all of which we'll incorporate. Greg Beckner reminded me that on the way to Horta, Bluewater will be the "holdback vessel." No shame in that-we will indeed! Somebody's gotta do it. At noon today, on cue from Beso, our fleet timekeeper, we advanced our clocks one hour to Atlantic Time, which Bermuda uses. We're now three hours later than Greenwich and one hour ahead of Eastern Time. If for no other reason than that we've taken a huge amount of salt spray, this is one salty fleet. We're all eager to get into Bermuda for a wash down. It's probable that we'll get some serious rain with the coming blow, so our wash down jobs may be a little easier. The fine rhythm of being at sea notwithstanding, I don't think there's anyone in the Med Bound fleet not looking forward to a respite in Bermuda . . . about 18 or 19 hours and counting! --Milt, Judy, George and Schipperke Katy Bluewater Nordhavn 47