At sea 552 NM SE of Portland, ME Date and time: Sunday, June 18, 2006, Noon AST Noon AST position: 33-03.1 N 66-37.7 W Course: 344 deg. M Average speed: 7.0 kts. Distance made good since departure: 191 NM Distance made good noon to noon: 168 NM ETA Portland, ME: 2000 Wednesday, June 21 Conditions: Wind 030 deg. M at 5 kts, seas 1-3. ft., partly cloudy, air temp. 72 deg. F, sea temp. 78deg. F, barometer 1038.0 - steady Passage conditions have been precisely what weather router Bob Jones at OMNI has called for and we're delighted. Winds increased slightly to about 15 knots yesterday afternoon and both wind and sea remained ahead of the beam, the seas averaging 4-6 feet and declining to 3-5 overnight. At the moment we have perfect water skiing weather! The generators are off, doors and windows open, there's no spray, and Bluewater and Summer Skis are moving along nicely at 7+ knots. It always seems to take us about 24 hours underway to get into the rhythm of a passage and gain our sea legs. The article Judy was just reading in Passagemaker says Steve and Linda Dashew find it takes them four days. On our passsage up from the Virgin Islands to Bermuda we certainly hit our stride at about four days out and I remember thinking, "We could easily go on for another week or so!" At any rate, we's established a good rhythm now after our first 24 hours, and we very much look forward to the rest of the trip. As usual, the current gods seem to toying with us. Having a buddy boat along experiencing the same makes us confident this is not some boat gremlin; it's really varying currents as we track our course. Using the same RPMs we've had over-the-bottom speeds in the last 24 hours varying from 6.1 to 8.2 knots. Overnight we dropped to an average of 6.5 knots prompting both boats to increase RPMs to keep the speed up. Now we're back to 1800 RPMs and running 7.8 knots over the bottom and 7.0 through the water. We're approaching the eastern edge of the Gulf Stream and there's a cold eddy very near our track. Plotting our position on Gulf Stream charts which we received from several sources confirms that we're definitely being influenced by the cold eddy. We should also get a nice push to the NE when we enter the Stream tonight. After about nine months, 888 engine hours and nearly 6,000 NM, Judy and I continue to be extremely pleased with this Nordhavn 47. Offshore passages like this show us once more that PAE has designed, planned, managed, built and commissioned us one terrific offshore cruising machine. Like all boats, it has its strengths and its weaknesses but for a couple seeking a safe and comfortable offshore live-aboard passagemaker with room for occasional guests, it's one terrific boat. On the plus side we continue to be impressed with the robust systems and the systems integrity and PAE's desire to fix what's wrong under warranty. If we could make one wish for the boat, it would be for a little more speed. Yeah, yeah, I know-it's a full displacement boat and more speed comes at a serious cost of burning more fuel, something not compatible with an ocean-crossing boat of this size. In short, PAE got it right! Looking at the N43 nicely keeping pace with us, I have the impression that the comfort level is very much the same over there. This is our first passage aboard our N47 in company with another boat, but we've done it on other boats and always enjoy a friendly voice on the radio on a night watch or someone to compare notes with. Looking out the window and seeing another Nordhavn reminds us very much of the Nordhavn Atlantic Rally. Summer Skis is a good buddy boat and I believe Jim Fuller and crew Charlee Poindexter, and Joe Ashley are enjoying the company as much as we are. They did the trip from Vero Beach to Bermuda alone. While an offshore passagemaking boat does indeed need to be self-sufficient, the safety of another boat nearby cannot be denied. We will be with Summer Skis until mid-day tomorrow, when we turn off to the north to Portland and they continue on the rhumb line to Newport. We've spoken twice in the last 24 hours with Cabot Lyman making the passage from Bermuda to New England aboard his sailing yacht; he is not a happy camper because the wind is too light and it's from the wrong direction. This has shown us once more that our Icom M802 single sideband installation needs some work! One of several problems is that transmitting on 4045 temporarily knocks out the compass for the Furuno NavNet which supplies several other electronic devices. Getting it back requires recycling the NavNet system which causes more havoc. On our morning call Cabot was about 100 miles away and our ground wave signals--send and receive--were very strong. Better grounding for the SSB installation is one more for the "to do" list! For those of you wondering, Katy is her usual happy self. Judy and I stand three-hour watches night starting at 2100, and Katy generally sleeps with the off-watch crew. That means that Judy and I each get six hours of sleep overnight and Katy gets 12--a dog's life. When the last of us arose this morning, Katy was ready to romp and stomp! She told Judy in no uncertain terms that she wanted to go to her island, Whites Island off RBYC in Bermuda. Each day in Bermuda Katy got two trips to the island and, of course, it quickly became an entitlement. Katy's probably quite certain that we could launch the dinghy and have her on the island in five or ten minutes and no doubt wonders why in the world we don't do so! Anyone looking for a great live-aboard boat dog would do well to consider a Schipperke and, as we did, introduce the dog to the boat as a puppy. Katy's home is a Nordhavn 47; if she could talk she'd tell you it's just about the only home she's ever known and it works just fine, thank you. Andy Cox of RBYC e-mailed us from Bermuda this morning that at 0530 today the front-running Newport Bermuda Race boat was 271 miles from Bermuda, so yesterday's seat-of-the-pants calculations on when we might see the first race boat was not too far off base. We're now estimating mid-afternoon today. But I expect most of the race boats are not following the rhumb line (otherewise they'll be sharing our mill pond) so it won't surprise me to miss never see a one. At noon today we moved our clocks back so we are now on Eastern Daylight Time. All is well. --Milt, Judy, Schipperke Katy -- Milt Baker Bluewater Nordhavn 47 #32 http://www.bluewaternav.com