At Sea - 195 NW of Fajardo, PR Report as of 12:00 AST Nov. 9 2005 - Next report in 24 hours PART ONE FOR ALL On day six of our passage Bluewater's crew is now so settled into the comfortable routine of being at sea that one day segues into the next with little fanfare. Bob's original forecasts for heavier winds and seas have eased, and we're seeing the same moderate conditions we've experienced right from the get-go. Have we been lucky? You bet! Noon-to-noon, our daily average over the past 24 hours has been the best of the trip: 7.375 knots. Part of that is no doubt due to the fact that we're much lighter because we've burned over 800 gallons (5,600 lbs.) of fuel, but we're sure there's a current pushing us along as well. As Dean points out, all that water going north has to come back sometime! We also burned more fuel in the last 24 hours than at any other time on the trip, 160 gallons. This was not, as you might imagine, because we upped the RPMs-we didn't. Rather, we ran gensets for the entire 24 hours-the 12 kW to cool the boat down after an experiment aimed at cooling the engine room also heated up the whole boat, then the 6 kW to provide cool sleeping and pilot house in this tropical weather. The engine room heat has been very much on our minds. Over the past 24 hours we've exchanged e-mails with Dick Gee, VP engineering for Alaska Diesel (Lugger), and Jim Leishman and Mike Jensen of Nordhavn. All were very helpful. Dick says the industry standard nominal temperature for engine rooms is 50 deg. C or 122 deg. F, well below what we're experiencing. Jim believes the best way to deal with the problem is to install a pair of large Delta-T axial fans, one to pull new "cool" air into the engine room and the other push the hot air out. They would go aft in the ER, using the existing ducting to port and starboard (from the cockpit) which now brings in new air without any fans. Mike proposes to have a new exhaust wrapper built to go over the existing one, something Dick Gee feels will help a lot. Together, these sound like they ought go a long way towards solving our problem. Some details remain to be worked out, but I believe we are now on a good course towards a solution. I salute Jim and his team at PAE for again stepping up to the plate to deal with the problem-something they're awfully good at. On her morning watch just before 7 am today, Judy thought she saw a sailboat mast but it turned out to be a large brown piling, perhaps 18-20 inches in diameter jutting straight up and rising 20 feet above the ocean surface, at position 21-36.010 N / 67-41.953 W in roughly 17,000 feet of water. Bluewater passed it close-aboard at about 300 yards without the need for a course change. We've puzzled over what it was and what kept is in its vertical position. It definitely is one of those things that would go BANG in the night had we hit it. We must be getting near the end of the passage. We ran out of fresh fruit for cereal this morning, and Judy tells us the makings for salad are very low. With a little luck, we're enjoy dinner in a restaurant at Fajardo tomorrow night. For the crew of Seabird: hope you arrived safely! PART TWO FOR OMNI WEATHER Bob, thanks once more for your latest forecast and the moderate conditions you are calling for. We are still seeing mostly SE winds and seas, with wind speed, seas and periods as you forecast. We will close the loop with you shortly after arrival at Fajardo tomorrow. Unless you see a change coming, I think we have what we need for the balance of the trip. As always, we're grateful for your terrific service and accuracy in forecasting. PART THREE FOR ALL Position 21-03.8 N / 67-20.7 W as of 12:00 AST Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2005 Course 166 deg M Speed 7.4 kts @ 1900 RPM 350 NM to go to Fajardo Distance made good last 24 hours 177 NM, average speed 7.4 kts, distance from Beaufort 966 NM, average speed from Beaufort 6.8 kts. Total fuel consumed 835 gals, fuel remaining 635 gals, trip avg 1.2 NMPG and 5.8 GPH. Conditions: Wind 120 deg M @ 12-20 kts., swells 3-5 ft from 120 deg. M, mostly cloudly, Visibility excellent. Barometer 1018.1 mb and falling slowly. Sea water temp 86 deg F, air temp 88 deg F. ETA Fajardo: 1500, Thursday, Nov. 10. All is well. --Milt, Judy, Dean and Schipperke Katy -- Milt Baker Bluewater Nordhavn 47 #32 Bound for Venezuela, via Puerto Rico, from Beaufort, North Carolina http://www.bluewaternav.com/index.html

At 01:43 PM 11/9/2005 -0500, you wrote: >On her morning watch just before 7 am today, Judy thought she saw a >sailboat mast but it turned out to be a large brown piling, perhaps >18-20 inches in diameter jutting straight up and rising 20 feet above >the ocean surface, at position 21-36.010 N / 67-41.953 W in roughly >17,000 feet of water. Bluewater passed it close-aboard at about 300 >yards without the need for a course change. We've puzzled over what >it was and what kept is in its vertical position. It definitely is >one of those things that would go BANG in the night had we hit it. It was most likely a water logged log, where the water is concentrated in one end. Such logs then float upright and in a large swell will even go completely under for some time before bobbing to the surface and out of the water, then back down again. Such sightings are not common here on the US West coast, but in 50 years I have seen a couple. The biggest was about 70 feet long and 2 feet in diameter. In a technical way smaller versions are fairly common in Puget Sound and the inland passage behind Vancouver Island and on into Alaska. The smaller ones are called "dead head sinkers". We generally see a few every year. The really big ones are pretty rare, but all of them are scary as h... Mike Capt. Mike Maurice Tualatin(Portland), Oregon