At sea 470 miles south of Bermuda. Date and time: Friday May 18, Noon AST Position: 24-34.2 N 64-34.5 W Course: 015 deg. M Average speed: 6.9 kts Distance made good since departure: 346 NM Distance made good noon to noon: 166 NM ETA St. Georges, Bermuda: 0800 Monday, May 22 Conditions: Wind SSE 7-14 kts, seas SSE 3-4 ft., overcast, air temp. 81 deg. F, sea temp. 80 deg. F, barometer 1031.2 mb steady All systems are go as Bluewater continues on course for Bermuda in easy going. Our three-person one-dog crew remains well fed and well rested, and, so far at least, this is one very pleasant passage. Weather is light, but Bob says that'll change somewhat as we pass through a front later today. Yesterday Bluewater passed out of the tropics, defined as waters between the Tropic of Cancer (23.5 deg. N) and Tropic of Capricorn (23.5 deg. S). Water temperature has dropped 10 percent from our 88 degree high at Anegada, and the days are decidedly less steamy than in the Caribbean. The air conditioners aren't having to work so hard! We are reminded once more by the lack of other vessels what a lonely ocean it is when one is out of the shipping lanes. In the past 24 hours, we've found only two other vessels. One was a sailboat named Celebrate which came up on radar eight miles ahead and to port. We hailed him by radio and learned that, like Bluewater, he is enroute from the BVI to Bermuda. He was making good only 3.5 knots in the light air and could not yet project his ETA in Bermuda. Something quite nice about traveling in an ocean-going power boat is that, in spite of being headed by currents for much of this trip, it appears that our ETA Bermuda will be within a few hours of our original projection. Fortunately, we have a good and compatible crew--not to mention incoming e-mail to keep us company! Thanks for your e-mails. A number of people receiving our reports have commented in return e-mails on AIS, and we continue to be very pleased with it. Let me give you an example of why we like having it onboard. We normally keep our radar at six miles, going out to 24 or occasionally 36 miles or more to see what's over the horizon. Yesterday we picked up a ship on AIS at about 18 miles and confirmed his presence with radar. By the time he was at 15 miles we had ID on him, a 945-foot cargo vessel named Manasota bound for Denmark. Based on the data transmitted by his AIS and diplayed on our Nobeltec navigation software, we could see that his CPA (closest point of approach) was going to be about 1.2 miles ahead of us-a little too close for comfort--if we both continued on course. His size notwithstanding, under the international rules of the road he was the burdened vessel, crossing from our port side aft of the beam. Dean and I watched the situation closely, and at 6 miles separation I called Manasota by name on VHF channel 16. He responded on my second call. I reported that we were the small, slow motor vessel six miles ahead on his starboard side and that we showed a CPA of 1.2 miles, then I asked that he turn to starboard to give us a safe pass of at least two miles astern. He came back immediately and rogered, saying that he would change course to starboard and give us a port-to-port pass two miles astern. The radio exchange was quick, professional, and clear. Almost immediately we could see his ship begin turning to starboard and his course (displayed on Nobeltec) changing. He passed just about two miles astern of us. Thanks to the AIS, we had a clear and unambiguous picture of the developing crossing situation including CPA. Being able to call him BY NAME on the radio is what made it so quick and easy to safely resolve the situation. It's also what, almost surely, made him respond to us so quickly. The ARPA (advanced radar plotting aid) on our Furuno radar provides similar information, and it's an excellent complement to AIS. Significantly, however, it cannot provide the name of other vessels being tracked. Tracking the same vessel, we often find some significant differences between the ARPA data and the AIS data-especially the CPA and time of CPA. We have learned that the AIS data is virtually always more reliable and that's because the AIS data on the other ship is coming right from his own GPS receiver and reaching us via a VHF datalink. Still, ARPA is a great asset because it tracks all vessels, not just those which have AIS transceivers onboard. However, all ships over 300 tons engaged in international trade are required to use AIS, so we can generally count on the big guys showing up on the AIS display. Weather since yesterday has been very light and aft of our beam: typically SSE winds at 10 knots and SSE seas at 2-4 feet. This has made for a comfortable day, and the stabilizers are not working hard. Neither is Bluewater's crew; we're getting in lots of reading. We continue to be plagued with what appear to be random ocean currents on the nose. We'll go from hours of having a half-knot current slowing us to hours of having the current go around and give us a push. At our 1850 RPM setting the knotmeter shows consistent boat speed of about 6.8 to 7.2 knots, but the over-the-bottom speed varies from about 6.0 to 7.7 knots. The real message is how many miles do we do in a day! Weather-wise, here's what OMNI's Bob Jones is calling for over the next two days: --Fri/19: Mostly cloudy, chance of showers/thunderstorms passing the front through the afternoon-evening. Chance of showers and thunderstorms, some of which could be heavy to severe. Winds SSE-SSW 08-16kt, up to 20kts at times nearing the front. ESE-SE to confused 3-5ft. Winds may become more ENE-NNE 08-15kt near and north of the front by late Fri/night. --Sat/20: Variable to SW 07-14kts with mixed ESE-SE with WSW 3-5ft through morning/afternoon. Veer WSW-SW 08-15kts, gusty during the eve-night. Become mixed SE & SW 3-5ft nearing 30N/lat through the overnight Jim Fuller of Summer Skis is underway from Florida, across the Gulf Stream, and having what sounds like a pleasant passage to Bermuda. We will try to make contact with him by SSB radio on 6727 at 2000 this evening. Next report: noon tomorrow. --Milt, Judy, Dean and Schipperke Katy -- Milt Baker Bluewater Nordhavn 47 #32 http://www.bluewaternav.com