At sea 397 NM SE of Portland, ME Date and time: Monday, June 19, 2006, Noon EST Noon EST position: 37-16.9 N 68-07.4 W Course: 344 deg. M Average speed: 6.2 kts. Distance made good since departure: 347 NM Distance made good noon to noon: 155 NM ETA Portland, ME: 2000, Wednesday, June 21 Conditions: Wind 250 deg. M at 10 kts, seas 4-6. ft. swells with light chop on top, partly cloudy, air temp. 72 deg. F, sea temp. 69 deg. F, barometer 1035.8 and rising Bob, I was wrong on yesterday's noon latitude; it should have read 34-03.1 N. Sorry! Bluewater passes the halfway point in this passage later today. Yesterday afternoon was idyllic-one of those lovely days at sea you're always hoping for: sunny weather, flat seas, excellent boat speed, and good progress. Then the day began to dissolve into one that we'll long remember but don't care to repeat: strong head currents slowing our progress at times to less than 5 knots, and meeting a sizeable part of the Newport Bermuda Race fleet head-on in squally conditions. We spotted our first three racing yachts shortly before 1800 and in the next 12 hours passed an estimated 50 Bermuda racers, changing course dozens of times. We're advised that the fleet split into two parts, one going east to ride the meander and the other west to ride the cold eddy; it's our guess that the racers who went east are out front because those we met overnight were having slow going-one of them saying he was down to 2 knots and having a hard time steering. We say goodbye to Summer Skis in an hour or so as we make our turn to the north for Maine and they remain on the rhumb line into Newport. We all agree that it's been enjoyable to share the passage. We all appreciated having a buddy boat last night to help one another find our way through the Bermuda fleet in squally conditions that made picking radar targets a lot like trying to separate out individual snowflakes in a blizzard. Fortunately, picking the racers up on radar was far easier than getting an eyeball on their dim running lights-though the squalls didn't help either chore. And there was the usual confusion: we'd make a radio call to the yacht four miles from us by latitude and longitude, only to have another answer thinking we were calling him-then it would take several minutes to sort that out and get back to trying to contact the nearest one; many yachts simply didn't answer the calls leaving us to guess their intentions, not always easy in the slow-going for them-many had difficulty maintaining steerage so we'd see sometimes see a racing yacht's red light, then his green, then nothing. The potential for danger was definitely there, but common sense, good humor and courtesy prevailed and it all sorted itself out. We were reminded that AIS is a wonderful tool for avoiding large ships, but last night it was useless in dodging the sailing yachts. We crowned our Furuno ARPA radar as king for a night for the great job it did for us sorting out the threats from the also-rans and squalls. Last night offered a good tutorial for us on navigation lights. Coast Guard requirements say navigation lights (other than white "masthead lights")-even for vessels up to 65 feet-need only 2 NM visibility. For us, two miles is too close at night! Almost invariably, the lights on these racing boats seemed designed to meet the minimum legal requirements rather than to be seen at sea at night. The tricolor lights at the top of the mast were visible for a much greater distance than the low-down side lights-often twice as far-yet only one boat in five had a tricolor burning at the mast top. Moreover, by Sunday night the racing yachts had been underway for over 24 hours and many of their batteries were no doubt low, further reducing light visibility. One skipper pleaded no engine and turned on his lights only after we called her by radio! If the name of the game is being seen at sea offshore in the darkness, most of the Newport Bermuda Race yachts we passed barely scraped by. About 9 this morning we spotted what appeared to be a great white sail on the horizon. As we approached, it became apparent that what we were seeing was a large white square rigger. Then we noticed that it had a bright orange stripe across the bow; it was the Coast Guard's training ship Eagle, under full sail-what a sight!. Jim spoke with them, and we took a few pictures. Even with all sails drawing in 12 knots of wind, Eagle was making good only five knots! Because of our reduced speed overnight, our ETA Portland is suspect; we may bite the bullet and slow down to arrive Thursday morning. We continue to be comfortable and boat speed is on the increase again, currently just above 7 knots. We may even get a push when we cross the Gulf Stream later today. All is well. --Milt, Judy, and Schipperke Katy -- Milt Baker Bluewater Nordhavn 47 #32 http://www.bluewaternav.com