At sea 141 miles south of Bermuda.

Date and time: Sunday May 21, Noon AST
Position:  30-03.0N 64-37.8 W
Course:  006 deg. M
Average speed:  7.0 kts
Distance made good since departure: 688 NM
Distance made good noon to noon: 169 NM
ETA St. Georges, Bermuda: 0900 Monday, May 22
Conditions: Wind NW 4  kts, seas confused 2-3. ft., fair, air temp.
80 deg. F, sea temp. 75 deg. F, barometer 1031.1 mb - steady

Today is one of those days that make one happy to be on a motor boat
passage at sea: crystal clear skies, not a cloud in sight, light
winds, and no chop on top of long, easy ocean swells.  We first heard
Bermuda Harbour Radio on VHF when we were 190 miles from the St.
Georges sea buoy early this morning.  Using our 130-amp VHF booster
amplifier (thanks, Tut!), I called them at 180 miles out and had a
perfectly clear conversation; that's a record for distance for a VHF
conversation for us!  I'd have bet good money one could not have a
VHF conversation that far between a shore station and a vessel at
sea.  To be fair, I should point out that Bermuda Harbour Radio is
high on a hillside in Bermuda and has excellent directional antennas;
Judy and I spent a couple of hours visiting BHR and checking out
their facilities in advance of the Nordhavn Atlantic Rally.

We envy the Taylors, Kesslers and Farrels who will see each other in
Solomons today-we'd love to be there, guys!  But we are focused on
our arrival in Bermuda and very much look forward to that.  I hasten
to add, however, that this passage has been so pleasant that we all
feel we could easily go another week or two.  We have a good team and
work well together; our sleep patterns are now well developed for our
regular three-hour watches, a good sense of routine has been honed,
and this is barely more stressful than living aboard at anchor-well,
except for Katy who can't get to the beach!

As the outside air and water temperature have cooled, the engine room
temperature is down a bit to 110-115 and the air conditioners are not
having to work so hard to keep the rest of the boat cool. In fact, we
turned off the air conditioners and generators and for the first time
in many months are running the boat sans generator.  It's SO pleasant!

We have received our last weather report from Bob until we get ready
to depart Bermuda two weeks from now, and he says that as the day
wears on we can expect winds and seas  to increase on our port
quarter.  He has us prepared for winds to 25 knots, with seas to
match, but coming from aft of the beam they should not be a problem.
Bob, many thanks for your spot-on forecasts which have contributed
mightily to our comfort-level on this passage.  We look forward to
more of the same on the next leg.

While it's certainly possible to make long passages without weather
routing, for me it's a no-brainer to use a weather professional
ashore with access to dozens of sources I cannot easily access at
sea.  Moreover, Bob has the experience to look at the evidence and
draw the right conclusions, customizing his forecasts for our needs.
In my judgment, having a good weather router ashore on our team is
one of the many critical components that goes into making ocean
passagemaking safe, comfortable and pleasant for the Bluewater crew.

Yesterday we pulled up the paravane booms and they are now stowed in
the up position.  Scott Flanders of the N46 Egret e-mailed that he is
trying out his new paravanes in Greece and has discovered that the
windage of the paravane booms is significant; he says having the
poles up or down makes a difference in speed made good to
windward--up is better.  We're happy that we have not had enough wind
from ahead on this passage to test Scott's observations.  With the
wind aft of the beam we could discern no difference in boat speed
relating to the positions of the booms.

So far our to-do list for the end of this passage is short: change
oil on the main engine and one genset, tighten the hydraulic fittings
on one autopilot pump which is leaking a few drops each day, and
clean up our dirty transom.  I'm not sure whether the dark grey smoke
coming from our wet exhaust is the result of the left-over
low-sulphur fuel we took on in Venezuela or our propeller being
over-pitched by one to two inches, or a combination of the two.
Whatever the reason, we definitely need to clean the transom!
Re-pitching the propeller is on our to-be-done warranty list.

That reminds me to mention that the dirty transom notwithstanding, we
continue to be very pleased with Bluewater's wet exhaust system.
It's traditional for Nordhavns to have dry stacks, of course, and
there are good reasons to do so, but Judy and I have had wet exhaust
boats all our lives and understand them, so we leaned on PAE and got
the wet exhaust system we wanted on this boat--the first Nordhavn 47
to have one.  Once we got the engine room ventilation problems sorted
out, it's been a terrific and trouble-free system and we don't have
the two big negatives of a dry stack boat: the cabinetry which really
cuts up the main saloon and galley on a N47 and the dry stack's
propensity to spew greasy black soot over the boat and its neighbors.
We'd specify wet exhaust again in a heartbeat!

As I close out this report, Katy is snoozing on the pilot berth over
my shoulder.  She seems to make no distinction between being
underway, being at anchor, or being in a marina--she's a happy dog no
matter where we are.  She loves going for a walk on the beach or
around the marina, but underway she know instinctively that's not
going to happen.  She really misses her Havanese buddies, Coco and
Breezy.  She's definitely more than a little trouble, but Judy and I
agree that she's well worth it.  She's even beginning to grow on
Dean, an admitted cat person!  He saves her a sliver of his bacon
every morning, a real sacrifice.

James Barnes, marina manager at Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, reports
that he will put Bluewater and Summer Skis together on the east dock
at RBYC, right where the NAR Nordhavn 46s were, at least initially.
With a little luck, we'll have wi-fi there!  Jim Fuller tells us that
Summer Skis is having a nice passage should reach in St. Georges
Tuesday afternoon and get to RBYC Wednesday morning.

We move our clocks ahead one hour to Atlantic Daylight Time  today at 1300.

Next report: after arrival Bermuda tomorrow.

--Milt, Judy, Dean and Schipperke Katy

Milt Baker
Bluewater
Nordhavn 47 #32
http://www.bluewaternav.com

I'm surprised as well. I don't know the Bermuda antenna height to calculate
line-of-sight, so I've queried Bermuda Radio. An amplifier can't contravene
the concept of straight line distance, but it might contribute to "skip." Of
course, that doesn't explain their gearing Bermuda Radio, unless they too
resorted to an amplifier as our Coast Guard does occasionally.

NSA coveted certain locations in Africa because skip delivered Russian VHF
communications to those sites. I know that there is AM two-way skip, as I
have talked to Latin America and Cuba in the old days - but VHF?

Stay tuned, {;^))
Ron Rogers

----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith" keith@anastasia3.com

| Wow! Receiving VHF line of sight at 190 miles??? That antenna must be one
| tall SOB. Also, are amplifiers like that legal outside the US?

Maurice and Arild are on target. Here is the kind response that I received
from the Bermuda Duty Officer:

"Ron,
Thank you for your e-mail, we have been experiencing extended range on our
VHF equipment over the last couple of days, receiving signals from the US
Coast - over 600 miles away,

this is caused by atmospheric high pressure systems, enhancing the skip
distance of rf signals.

As you point out, normally VHF range would be line of sight - and one would
expect 40 or 50 miles range maximum from Bermuda.

Kind Regards

Duty Officer

Bermuda Maritime Operations Centre"

Ron Rogers

----- Original Message -----
From: "Arild Jensen" elnav@telus.net
|
| REPLY
| Ron,  radar and VHF  actually have a slightly better than horizon "line of
| sight" somethign like 1.15X  the distance to horizon.
|
| I recall reading other reports fo great distance reception from Bermuda
| radio. Ibelieve their transmit tower is around 212 feet above mean sea
| level. Assuming Blue Water has an antenna height of 20 feet above water
plus
| a radiated power of 150 watts times whatever the antenna gain is  that is
a
| pretty good range.