Update received from the Nordhavn 47 Bluewater: At Sea - 201 NM S of St. Thomas, USVI Report as of 12:00 AST Saturday, Dec. 3, 2005 - Next report in 24 hours PART ONE FOR ALL Bluewater has had nearly ideal passagemaking conditions since departing St. Thomas. Until a few hours ago winds and seas have been nil and progress excellent. The engine room remains at 120 degrees F, though we have one or two warmer spots where the breeze from the Delta-T fan doesn't quite reach. Still, it's a marked difference in the engine room and that carries over to the entire boat. We're running our 6 kW genset which supports three air conditioning units (pilot house, galley/salon, and master stateroom) and the whole boat remains comfortably cool in the 86-degree tropical weather--a real change from our trip down from Beaufort. We have not seen a ship or other vessel in close to 24 hours. Scott Flanders once told me it took him a year to really learn his new Nordhavn, and I'm beginning to truly appreciate that. Every passage and every day we learn more. Each boat has a few pesonality quirks, and one of ours is the stuffing box which has required attention from the get-go. Once we get it adjusted, it seems to work fine on a passage--then we go into port, start another passage a week or two later, and it heats up again. In St. Thomas I replaced the 7/16 in. packing with 3/8 in. packing, hoping to open up the water passages a little. Nope. It still overheated. For the past 24 hours we have had it running fine at about 106 degrees with a good, steady drip. I suspect our problems may stem from the fact that the N47's stern tube and stuffing box are relatively high, near the LWL, and there's little pressure to force the water in. Even with no packing in place when I was changing the packing, the water flow was not what I've experienced in other boats. I need to do a post on the N47 owners bulletin board asking other 47 owners if they've had similar problems. We're learning! At our present speed of advance, we would arrive in Puerto la Cruz in the dark. With that in mind, our plan is to lay over at Blanquilla for a few hours tomorrow, then depart in time to arrive at PLC in mid- to late morning Monday, giving us a daylight approach. PART TWO FOR OMNI WEATHER Bob, thanks for your morning update. To date, the winds and seas we're seeing are less than your forecast. The past 24 hours winds have averaged 4-7 knots from the NE, veering to E'ly around dawn, and SE'ly at mid-morning. Winds increased at mid-morning today to 12-15 and we saw our first whitecaps of the passage. Seas for the past 24 hours have been 1-2 feet from NE, increasing to 3-4 feet and moving to the E as the wind increased. We note that pressure has been consistently between 1014 and 1016.6 with mainly diurnal variation. Looks like that high is definitely on top of us. I had a feeling this was going to be a good weather window, and so far is is one of the best! PART THREE FOR ALL Position 14-59.7 N / 64-48.4 W as of 12:00 AST Saturday, Dec.3, 2005 Course 192 deg M Speed 7.0 kts @ 1800 RPM 286 NM to go to Puerto la Cruz 24-hour distance made good 181 NM, average speed 7.4 kts, distance from St. Thomas 201 NM Total fuel consumed 125 gals, fuel remaining 780 gals, trip avg 1.6 NMPG and 4.4 GPH. Noon conditions: Wind 120 M @ 15 kts., swells 3-4 ft from 090 deg. M, partly cloudly, visibility excellent. Barometer 1015.2 mb and falling slowly. Sea water temp 85 deg F, air temp 86 deg F. ETA Puerto la Cruz: 1000, Monday, Dec. 5. All is well. --Milt, Judy, 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