Position 35-18.7 N 47-46.4 W as of 12:00 Atlantic time (GMT - 3 hrs) Tuesday, June 19, 2007 Course 095 deg M Speed 5.9 kts @ 1700 RPM 940 NM to go to Horta, Faial, Azores (52% of the way) Distance made good past 24 hours: 133 NM (5.6 kts) Distance made good since Bermuda: 878 NM (48% of the way) Total fuel consumed (146 engine hours) 540 gals, average 3.7 GPH (incl. genset), fuel remaining 940 gal. (fuel used/remaining: 36%/64%) Conditions: Wind 15-20 kts., swells 3-5 ft from 250 deg M, partly cloudy, visibility good. Barometer 1018.5 mb and falling slowly Sea water temp 76 deg F, air temp 81 deg F. ETA Horta: June 26, 2007 A trip like this is a series of ups and downs. Yesterday was one of the down days. Not only did we lose our port stabilizer, but our speed was down. Whether that's due to the starboard fin working harder, a current on the nose, or something else I cannot tell, but our noon-to-noon run was a depressing 133 NM, and I'm feeling bad about holding up our two buddy boats who have the fuel to make more speed to Horta but who are hanging in with Bluewater. I spoke with Vic Kuzmovich at Naiad Florida minutes ago, and he is making arrangements to ship the vital replacement stabilizer part to us in care of our agent in Horta, Marco Quadros. Marco is the most organized man in Horta, and he has provided detailed instructions on how to ship the part so it will be waiting for us when we arrive. Vic promises to include detailed instructions for installation, and he's confident that it's within my capabilities-"piece of cake, Milt," he says. Braun Jones, who has gone through this particular replacement twice aboard Grey Pearl, also e-mailed me and said, "You can do it." Vic says that if we have problems, he will put a technician on an airplane to Horta to sort it out for us. What terrific support! I noted yesterday that a single fin is reported about 80% as effective as two, and it's time to modify that! In the 3-5 to 4-6 foot quartering seas Bluewater has had since our problem yesterday and our sub-six-knot speed, we've had a good opportunity to observe the difference between two working fins and one. My own take based on this single experience is that we're getting about 2/3 of the stabilization we normally get. It's a LOT better than nothing, but noticeably rollier than with two working fins. I continue to obsess over fuel! Bluewater should reach the halfway point between Bermuda and Horta in another few hours. We've been underway six days, and indications are that we're burning about 90 gallons per day, including a few hours of generator time for watermaking and laundry. We have another six or seven days to go; at our present consumption rate, we should arrive in Horta with a reserve of 310 gallons or 21%. Those numbers are looking good to me, so today as an experiment old conservative Milt increased RPMs to 1800, which added about one knot of boat speed. We got no complaint from Moana Kuewa or Salty Dawg. The increase speed also passes more water over our working stabilizer fin, so our stabilization is improved. I'll check fuel consumption tomorrow to see if we can keep it up. Ships are few and far between out here. We nearly always pick them up on AIS before seeing them on radar. Moana Kuewa (which has the same Furuno FA-150 AIS unit we have) clearly has the best installation and picks up the ships first every time, sometimes as much as 20-30 minutes before they show up on the AIS units aboard Salty Dawg and Bluewater. Chris has her watchstanders well trained, and they're always the first to report a contact to the other two yachts. We see an average of one or two ships per day, though yesterday we have three converging on us at once. Night before last I asked one, overtaking us on the starboard side, to alter course to give our group a two-mile CPA. The watch officer responded cheerfully in accented English, immediately began a minor course change to starboard, and wished me a good watch and a good evening. My experience has been that other ships are quick to comply when I come up on the radio and ask for course change giving us "a safe CPA of two miles or more." Part of the deal, I believe, is being proactive: take the initiative, tell the other guy what you want, be polite, and use proper radio procedure and terminology. Of course, I never ask for a course change unless we have the right of way. Weather Router Bob Jones seems to be in the grove and his forecasts are right on the money. That may have something to do with the fact that the weather seems to be much more like it's supposed to be-the North Atlantic summer pattern. We had an e-mail from friends Pam and Andy Wall aboard Kandarik on the Azores island of Terciera noting that the summer weather pattern is late in coming to the Azores this year. Other friends around Europe have reported the same. But, finally, the summer weather seems to be taking hold. One resource I am beginning to use again is Ocens' WeatherNet. We used this while cruising in the lower Caribbean last year, but the software is not exactly intuitive; after being away from it for a few months, I've had to re-learn it . My re-education process is coming along nicely, and I can now select the weather "products" I want and download them via satellite phone-the same system we use for e-mail. Thousands of weather products are available, a bewildering array. One especially interesting product comes from a Navy (FNMOC) site via WeatherNet and shows ocean currents; it's derived from satellite data and the one this morning showed a persistent current of .7 to .9 knots against us for the past 150 miles or so. Hmmm. I've also downloaded the next 72 hours forecast for wind, waves and surface pressure charts shown in 6-hour increments-it's very nice to play them sequentially and watch the changes coming. The cost of these charts is about $5.00 a day, plus the satellite time to download them-another $5.00 or so. If you are into offshore passagemaking, my recommendation is to take a look at WeatherNet and its companion program, Grib Explorer. But be sure to learn how to use it while you have a fast Internet connection, something I failed to do! WeatherNet used to offer Associated Press headline news, but, alas, they discontinued that, they say, due to lack of interest. So here we are nearly a week out of Bermuda with little idea what in the world is going on. If we were truly interested, we could turn on the SSB and listen to Voice of America or the BBC. The truth is we'd rather read. Does anyone know of w good e-mail resource that will e-mail a short, text-only daily new summary? Judy is doing her usual stellar job of keeping Bluewater's crew well-fed, a great morale booster. George, a confirmed bachelor, is loving having three meals a days served to him and never fails to compliment Judy on her food. After many years of Judy's good cooking, I've come to take it for granted-it's great and I know it. Judy stocked up at Bermuda's tony Miles Market, supplementing her great finds there with staples from the MarketPlace on Church Street in Hamilton. Bluewater's refrigerator and freezer were over-stuffed when we departed, but there's actually some space coming available now. It would be nice to see some fresh fish, but so far the only fish on this leg are the flying fish which end up on deck overnight. Dennis on Salty Dawg is very frustrated, his four lines in the water every day! Time to check the engine room! We're taking Lugger Bob Senter's advice and doing that every hour. --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.