Noon Report July 4, 2007 Position 38-29.4 N 24-59.1 W as of 12:00 Azores time (GMT - 0 hrs) Wednesday, July 4 Course 097 deg M Speed 7.0 kts @ 1850 RPM Distance to go: 968 NM to go to Gibraltar Distance made good past 24 hours: 161 NM (6.7 kts) Distance made good since Horta: 183 NM Total fuel consumed (26.3 engine hours) 1215 gals, average 4.0 GPH (incl. genset), fuel remaining 1375 gal. Conditions: Wind N 5 kts, seas N 3-4, partly cloudy, visibility excellent Barometer: 1034.9 and rising Sea water temp: 71 deg F, air temp 80 deg F. ETA Gibraltar: PM July 10 Every day is a gift! The weather gods have been kind during the Med Bound fleet's first full day out of Horta, offering up light winds and flat seas as we regain our sea legs, giving us an altogether comfortable ride for our three yachts as we eat up the miles between the island of Faial and Strait of Gibraltar. This morning we passed by the easternmost of the Azores Islands, Sao Miguel, so it's open ocean for us from here to the European mainland. Weather, of course, is everything when one is making a passage in a small boat, so we study the weather carefully, check many sources, and take our best shot. Our own secret weapon is "Weather Bob" Jones of Ocean Marine Navigation Inc. From his post in New Jersey, Bob provides telephone and e-mail weather routing advice and counsel to yachts around the world. In return for what we consider a very reasonable fee, Bob-who is a trained meteorologist who has been doing professional weather routing for years-provides us a daily e-mail report: an overview of the weather systems interacting to provide our weather and his best estimate of what to expect in the days ahead. Based on Bob's advice, we are bound for a waypoint at 39 degrees north and 15 degrees west, north of the direct course to Gibraltar and about 250 miles off the coast of Portugal. That will add a few miles to our trip, but Bob expects our winds to increase and move more to the north in a few days, and taking this route should give us an easier ride when that happens. The case for using a professional weather router for a yacht like ours is strong: Bob has access to far more information from his office ashore with full Internet capabilities than I do at sea with a very thin e-mail connection, and as a professional meteorologist he knows far better than I how to interpret the information he receives. As much as we like and rely on Bob, we also have a backup and counterpoint: Ocens WeatherNet. The learning curve for WeatherNet is steep and it's not intuitive, but it's a rich weather resource with real depth and breadth. It even offers real-time information on ocean currents based on satellite data, something I've not found elsewhere. Of course, none of this could happen without communications. In the middle of an ocean, Internet connections and cell phone networks are nowhere to be found. We employ an Iridium satellite phone as the link between low-earth-orbiting satellites and our computer, using a slow-as-molasses e-mail connection via an Ocens system specifically designed for cruisers. It's painfully slow, operating at a fraction of the speed of a dialup modem, and interruptions are frequent. At around a dollar a minute, it's also expensive. All its disadvantages notwithstandng, it's by far the best solution we've found for sending and receiving text messages at sea. As compared with our Bermuda-Horta leg, Bluewater is riding more comfortably now and we're making slightly better speed at lower RPMs. That's because Med Bound chief engineer Bernue Francis and I discovered in Horta, troubleshooting Bluewater's stabilizer problem, that the boat had been "dragging" our port stabilizer fin through the water at an acute angle causing considerable drag. That extra drag both slowed Bluewater down and caused us to burn more fuel on the last leg. We could have waited in Horta for a repairman to fly in and fix the problem, but the truth is that we were ready to move on and our ride to Horta was so comfortable that the decision to move on was an easy one. Naiad promises to have a technician in Gibraltar with the parts needed to make the repairs, a job that will be done under warranty. Last we heard, the Naiad tech would be "Naiad Phil" who spent time on many NAR yachts. Once upon a time, ships passing in the night depended on radar, navigation lights and radio to determine how to pass one another safely, but AIS adds a whole new dimension. You've heard me sing the praises of AIS, and here I go again. Last night on my 2100-2400 watch our AIS picked up a Mexico-bound tanker named Ballad at about 24 miles dead ahead. As the ship tracked towards us at 14 knots, the predicted CPA (closest point of approach) varied between one-half mile and 30 yards. I spoke with the other two Med Bound yachts on our "private" radio channel and we agreed that I would negotiate the pass with Ballad. Once we were within 10 miles, I called Ballad on VHF, noted that we showed a very close CPA, and proposed a port-to-port pass with a CPA of 2.0 miles, suggesting that Ballad change course to the right and that our three-vessel formation would do the same to increase the distance between us as we passed. The watch officer aboard Ballad agreed to my proposal and we changed course, but I noted watching Ballad's course information that the tanker did not. Minutes later, a woman's voice came on the radio from Ballad calling Bluewater. She asked if our three vessels were fishing and if that's why we were requesting a two-mile CPA. I told her we were not fishing, that we were three vessels traveling in company, and that a two-mile CPA in deep water offshore is our normal preference. She rogered, and the ship began to change course. Clearly, the first watch officer had kicked the decision up to someone more senior and Ballad's female officer OK'd the course change. The pass was actually at about 1.85 nautical miles, plenty safe. David proposes that we shoot off some old flares tonight as fireworks. If we have no other ships nearby, we'll give it a try! Have a great Fourth of July! --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.