At sea 239 NM S of Portland, ME Date and time: Monday, June 19, 2006, Noon EST Noon EST position: 39-50.9 N 68-46.9 W Course: 001 deg. M Average speed: 6.6 kts. Distance made good since departure: 505 NM Distance made good noon to noon: 159 NM ETA Portland, ME: 0700, Thursday, June 22 Conditions: Wind 260 deg. M at 10 kts after steady 20 kts. overnight, seas 6-8 ft. overnight and in AM, declining to 5-7 as wind drops, clear with some haze, air temp. 75 deg. F, sea temp. 61 deg. F, barometer 1029.7 and falling Bluewater said goodbye to N43 Summer Skis as we departed the cold eddy at mid-afternoon yesterday, and we entered the Gulf Stream about 2130. We'd crossed the cold eddy with a one-knot current on the nose early yesterday and hoped the Gulf Stream would give us a push, but it was not to be. We had head currents all the way as we crossed the 55-mile girth of the Stream overnight. Winds and seas increased in late afternoon yesterday, with SW to W winds in the high teens peaking at a steady 20 knots and seas a steady 6-8 feet on the port quarter all night. Much to our surprise, Cabot Lyman aboard Chewink heard us on VHF yesterday afternoon and hailed us. He left Bermuda four hours after us aboard his Hood-designed sailing yacht and here he was about 30 miles ahead of us; savvy navigator that he is, Cabot reported that he had hit the cold eddy just right and rode a 4- to 5-knot current all the way across. But he paid for it: the whole trip across was like a washing machine, he reported, with wind against current. Maybe be didn't do so badly after all! Forecasts from Bob Jones at OMNI, Commanders Weather, and Chris Parker are consistent: all call for our afternoon winds today to be the worst of the trip: SSW-SW 17-25 knots, occasionally 27-30. While the barometer continues to fall steadily, probably foretelling the approach of the forecast cold front, our winds and seas actually have been decreasing since early morning and we're having a comfortable day so far. Hedging our bets, we took our showers early and have taken care of a few boat chores while the motion is minimal. That reminds me to mention that the Naiad stabilizers are doing a terrific job of keeping us stable. At nine square feet, the fins are a bit oversized for this boat so we normally keep them dialed back, but with the 6-8 foot seas overnight we increased the gain with noticeable effect. I have changed our ETA to 0700 Thursday morning. If we continued on at our normal speed, we'd arrive in Portland sometime after midnight. While we've taken boats into and out of Portland perhaps a half dozenl times and it's a big-ship harbor, we're still not all that familiar with it so a daylight arrival makes better sense to me. We'll slow down as necessary on the final approach to time the arrival for 0700. Our next major waypoint is the entry to the Great South Channel about 50 NM SE of Nantucket, and we should be there about 2100 tonight. From there, we have another 170 miles to go, leaving Cape Cod and Boston well off to port as we head NNW up to the entry channel into Portland. With the light winds and seas on the port quarter forecast, we're hoping the final day in will be a comfortable one. With just the two of us standing watches, our three-on-three-off overnight schedule-something we've used many times-is working very well. We're both well rested, the ship's jobs get taken care of, and there's time left over to read or take a nap. Once we left the Bermuda Race boats behind, traffic has been very light-just an occasional ship which we normally see first on AIS. Bluewater's crew, including Katy, have found our sea legs once again and a longer passage with a short-handed crew is certainly conceivable. However, as our good friend Bruce Kessler likes to point out, what happens if one of a small crew is injured or gets ill; not a pretty prospect! All is well, --Milt, Judy, Schipperke Katy -- Milt Baker Bluewater Nordhavn 47 #32 http://www.bluewaternav.com