#39 NOW April 17, 2005 5:45 PDT
N15’50.5  W109’56.2 ’46.7 Temp 77.9, Water Temp 86.5
Wind 020 @ 10 kts. Seas are 3-5 feet, Para-vanes
retracted, Heading 205’ magnetic
Miles Completed 397,  Miles to Go 2378,  SOG (speed over ground) 5.0 kts.

Hello Again,

All’s well as we continue putting miles behind
us.  However, Friday turned out to be a very busy
one with a couple of difficult problems to deal
with.  First the engine overheat alarm went off
and stayed on.  This very loud, attention getting
horn, cannot be silenced, and is one certainly
not to be ignored.  Upon closer examination, it
was determined that the sending sensor had failed
and was giving us a false indication.  We also
have a regular engine temperature gauge and it
was working properly.  By disconnecting the
sensor, silence was restored.  Unfortunately, we
will not have an aural warning if the engine
overheats.  Careful monitoring of the engine will
be required.

A little later, I turned on the watermaker only
to find that the pump motor was making a terrible
noise and had stopped working.  I had anticipated
this problem and fortunately, we had a spare pump
head.  This was installed and we now have our
tanks full of fresh water.  That, along with
filter changes and other minor maintenance made
for a very busy day.

Saturday, was a much quieter, with calm seas and
following wind and current.  We are getting ahead
on our float plan by about seven hours, and way
ahead on fuel burn.  The calm seas have allowed
us to run with out the para-vanes and thus
greater speed and fuel savings.

In my last “NOW” I mentioned a little about our
route.  The route we are taking is derived by a
computer program call “Visual Passage Planner.”
Stored in this program are all the Pilot Charts
for the world.  Pilot charts are thousands of
position reports made by ship navigators over a
period of 100 years.  This is compiled into
useful data to determine what the expected
current, wind, and seas will be for every 1
degree of Longitude and Latitude.  This program
then picks 50 possible routes to your destination
and does 100 iterations on each route to
determine the fastest or least seas or several
other parameters that you can put in.  It then
gives you waypoints to follow and a graphical
portrayal of your route.  It is all rather high
tech but amazingly accurate.

\Last night we enjoyed a wonderful salmon
dinner, along with potatoes and a nice salad.  We
finished off with some cantaloupe and of course,
I added ice cream.  Jim passed on the ice cream.
He has more will power than I do.  We have been
getting plenty of sleep and with our watermaker
working just fine nice fresh water showers.  We
are not exactly “roughing it.”

Around 2000 last night, we started picking up
the Northeast trade winds, which are running 10
to 15 knots so the seas are starting to get a
little lumpy and we will probably have to put the
para-vanes down soon.

Life is a Cruise, LR

Larry Rick
Done Dreamin'
Nordhavn 40 #33
http://gricknet.homedns.org/

Since most weather models have lost their value owing to warming, it will be
interesting to learn whether this program's analysis of historical data will
hold up. Domestically, one day forecasts and a layman's view of weather
radar seem to be the only dependable forecasting method. Many probably know
this, but most forecasting hinges on historical data. When the NWS says that
there is a 30% chance of rain tomorrow, that means that, historically, when
conditions were identical, it rained 30% of the time. Warming has damaged
the credibility of these statistical models. I wonder why the NWS buys
supercomputers when their models are wrong. Perhaps they are trying to
generate new models. We do know that alterations in the location of Pacific
currents dramatically affects our weather and particularly West Coast
weather.
Ron Rogers

----- Original Message -----
From: "by way of Georgs Kolesnikovs" poohwen@comcast.net

In my last "NOW" I mentioned a little about our
route.  The route we are taking is derived by a
computer program call "Visual Passage Planner."
Stored in this program are all the Pilot Charts
for the world.  Pilot charts are thousands of
position reports made by ship navigators over a
period of 100 years.  This is compiled into
useful data to determine what the expected
current, wind, and seas will be for every 1
degree of Longitude and Latitude.  This program
then picks 50 possible routes to your destination
and does 100 iterations on each route to
determine the fastest or least seas or several
other parameters that you can put in.  It then
gives you waypoints to follow and a graphical
portrayal of your route.  It is all rather high
tech but amazingly accurate.