Noon Report June 21 2007

Position 36-17.1 N 42-02.2 W as of 12:00 Atlantic time (GMT - 3 hrs)
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Course 095 deg M
Speed 5.6 kts @ 1800 RPM
Distance to go: 655 NM to Horta, Faial, Azores (36% of the way)
Distance made good past 24 hours:  138 NM (5.8 kts)
Distance made good since Bermuda: 1161 NM (64% of the way)
Total fuel consumed (193 engine hours) 736 gals, average 3.8 GPH
(incl. genset), fuel remaining 745 gal. (fuel used/remaining:
49.7%/50.3%)
Conditions: Wind 16 kts., swells 3-5 ft from 240 deg M, clear,
visibility excellent
Barometer 1019.4 mb and rising
Sea water temp 72 deg F, air temp 79 deg F.
ETA Horta: June 26, 2007

It's a pristine blue day out here, the kind that makes me appreciate
being on what Christopher Columbus called the ocean-sea.  After our
full power run at mid-day, by pre-arrangement Moana Kuewa approached
from our port side for a photo-op.  With Bernie on the wheel and
cameras clicking all around, she passed by Salty Dawg for pictures,
then began her run up to Bluewater.  Seas were down from earlier this
morning, but the 3-5 foot swells, whitecaps and cobalt-blue sea still
made for dramatic pictures, with the swells obstructing the view of
Moana Kuewa as we sunk down in the trough and she in the trough next
door, a crest often between us.  We shot at least 100 pictures of
Moana Kuewa as they approached the port side, turned hard to
starboard across our wake at three boat-lengths, then overtook and
passed us to starboard.

We usually run about one to two miles apart, so it was great fun to
be close enough to smile and wave at one another.  Every time I see a
Nordhavn 55 up close I am impressed with the sheer size of the yacht.
She is one big baby!

Bluewater has been running since late yesterday afternoon with
paravanes in the water, and they've made a real difference in
steadying us up.  With low pressure still in place over our little
flotilla yesterday, winds and seas increased in the afternoon with
dark clouds on the horizon.  By mistake I punched a wrong key
combination on the stabilizer control panel and removed our one
working stabilizer from service, then had to get out the instruction
manual to get it back on line as we rolled uncomfortably (but not
dangerously) along to the east, winds and seas on our quarter.  In
the meantime, with the weather going downhill--thunderstorms and more
wind and seas forecast overnight-I made the decision to deploy the
paravanes ("fish").  Putting the paravanes into the water in big seas
is not easy; it's always best to do that when conditions are settled.

To reduce the motion, we slowed the boat to about three knots, barely
enough speed for the autopilot to keep us on course in the seas.
With George beside me in the cockpit handling the electric winch
controls, I eased the starboard fish out of its bracket on the
transom, oriented it fore-and-aft, and positioned it to go into the
water, then George lowered it slowly.  The boat was rolling perhaps
15-20 degrees, so as George paid out the control cable the paravane
would kiss the water, then rise into the air as a pendulum, then kiss
again and go a bit deeper.  After a few tenuous up-and-down moments,
the fish dug deep enough to stay in the water, and George lowered
away.  When he finished, the paravane was running 15 feet below the
surface, pulling entirely on its chain, with the lowering cable
following loosely in a bight astern.  The white-painted paravane
appeared aquamarine through the deep blue water, running outboard and
a little forward of our transom.  We repeated the procedure for the
portside fish.  Neither bird impacted the hull or swim platform-no
damage.

The difference was in our ride noticeable immediately, even with a
single fish deployed.  Instead of rolling up to 20 degrees, we were
back to rolling 5-10 degrees to a side, a serious improvement.  To my
surprise, I found that the paravanes slowed the boat no more than the
single fin working very hard.  With both paravanes riding nicely, I
returned to the stabilizer controls, got the single working fin back
on line, and experimented with the settings.  In what Naiad calls the
"adaptive" mode (and I call the high setting), the combination of the
single fin and the vanes knocked our speed down by about 4/10 of a
knot.  With the stabilizer system in the "active" mode, a lower
setting, speed was down about half that.  As wind and seas
increased, we remained quite comfortable with the vanes alone, but
for dinner we added the stabilizer fin to the mix for a smoother ride.

Looking out the window now, with Moana Kuewa a half mile off to
starboard, George remarked that it appears that with paravanes alone
we're rolling less than Moana Kuewa.  Hard to tell, but there's
certainly not a lot of difference between the amount or degree of
roll the two yachts are experiencing.  Bluewater's rolls are
typically in the range of 5-10 degrees, something we all find
comfortable.  Other than a short practice session in the Bahamas a
couple of months ago, this is the first time we've run Bluewater's
paravanes offshore since our trip from North Carolina to Puerto Rico
in 2005.  It's an altogether good experience-an excellent reminder
that our backup stabilization system can do the job!  "Nice backup
system," as narrator Jo Swerling said in the NAR movie!

Katy celebrated the halfway point with a new toy, and Christine
reports that Moana Kuewa will break out the champagne to celebrate
reaching the 2/3 mark later today.  With nearly 2/3 of our passage
now behind us, I'm feeling better and better about fuel.  By
measurement using sight gauges in the engine room, by noon today
Bluewater had almost exactly half our fuel still in her tanks and
only 36% of the passage remaining.  Said another way, we have 655
miles to go yet we have another 196 hours of fuel remaining, enough
at our present burn rate for close to 1100 miles.  One more thing to
move a few notches down on my list of concerns.

Enroute to Brazil on his second Atlantic crossing in his Nordhavn 46
Egret, Scott Flanders waxed eloquent in Voyage of Egret about having
full confidence in his Nordhavn 46 as a safe and comfortable home on
the sea, a cocoon of sorts.  As usual, Scott is right on the money on
this stuff: an ocean passage that is essentially trouble-free like
this does indeed inspire confidence in the yacht that makes it all
possible. Whenever we do a longer passage I come away with great
admiration for our boat.  Over building, outfitting, commissioning
and supporting more than 300 oceangoing yachts, the guys at Pacific
Asian Enterprises have learned what it takes to build yachts designed
from the keel up to make safe, comfortable ocean passages.  Those of
us who own these yachts and take them to sea are the beneficiaries of
that knowledge and we owe them a great debt of gratitude for helping
us fulfill our dreams.

On a different topic, we received our first e-mail CNN new summary
today-thanks, Tut!  It ran about 500 words, was less than 5.0 K in
size, and, for Bluewater on a passage at least, seems an ideal way to
have some idea what the news headlines are.  To be sure, I'd much
rather read today's Wall Street Journal or watch the NBC evening
news, but for a small yacht on passage CNN's news summary is
terrific.  If you're interested, I believe you can subscribe at:
http://edition.cnn.com/EMAIL

This afternoon we will set move clocks ahead for the second time on
this passage.  Bluewater is now some 2,050 miles from Fort Lauderdale
and a mere 1,750 miles from Gibraltar.  Cruising in the Mediterranean
is beginning to seem all the more real to us now.  For so long we
have focused on Med Bound 2007 and the passages across to the Med,
and we're now at the point where we can look beyond that.  Med
cruising guides and travel books are more in evidence aboard
Bluewater these days.

--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.

Milt,

I suggest a few changes for deploying your paravanes. 1. Slow the boat to
near idle - 2 or 3 knots;  2. Let out enough fetch cable to allow the loop
in the cable to just touch the water, i.e. most of what you will need; 3.
Pitch the fish in the water and let the tow cable take most of the shock and
load not the fetch cable, - there is no need to orient the fish - that will
happen all on its own,  4. Let out enough additional fetch cable to allow
some slack in the fetch cable.  5. Return to normal cursing speed for best
stability.

Thank you for the great logs - we are enjoying them.

John Harris
World Odd @ Sea