On Aug 19, 3:14*pm, "Skip Gundlach" wrote:
Maine Passage - Successes and failures, Moving On...

Written mostly a week ago; current stuff at the end...

Unusual because at this time of year, Maine is usually beautiful
and wreathed in sunshine and warm weather, followed by
crystal-clear nights at great sleeping temperatures. *It's why we
came all this way, hoping to enjoy the bounty of the Maine coast,

Huh????????????
Having mhy ggg grand pa born in Baring ME in 1804 and my gg grand pa
married a Corless in Houlton Maine in 1840 id say it sounds like Maine
weather. But what would I know!?!? I wont even get into the DAR


Instead, we've had nearly unrelenting rain.

So.......


Today is overcast and
foggy,

Ummm, wonderful soothing blanket of mist and grey




We had many successes, mostly revolving around our initial "blue
water" voyage. *We were as far offshore as 250 miles for quite a
while, and as our earlier postings have revealed, were very
blessed to have had ideal conditions for the first week or so of
our trip.


Good! new areas. veryimprotant.

Our watch "schedule" wasn't really - that is, there was no set
time of watch rotation, but it worked well for us. *We'd come off
watch either because the other relieved, or because we rousted
the other from sleep, because we were failing in our ability to
remain sharp. *

Excellent ! Sleep and rest is a good position to start from. Ya never
know when ya gots to go for 36 hours straight.


The off-watch would go immediately to bed, in
order to gain the sleep available, and thus, we were both
remarkably rested despite having maintained a 24-hour watch,


good idea to sleep first.

HOWEVER ! ! ! ! BE ADVISED The USCG Manning Requirments state that a
seaman should not work excess of 12 hours out of every 24. Follow the
idustry standards SKip and remember that a buch of oil field
republicans agreed to the 12 hours! That should say somthing about the
need for rest ! ! !


We got a great deal more familiar with our new sails, occasioned

Good , but Id hope yould have done that jsut straight out of a harbor
you knew and then shook them out in your back yard not on the high
seas...


We caught two large fish in succession,

And i hpe you sliced them on the deck with your knife and ate the RAW
flesh as it twitched on your lips. Be a man and embrace the sea as a
preditor instead of wimpy spouse. ARgg!


We got reasonably familiar with, and nominally successful at (the
challenges being blamed on worldwide lousy HF radio signal
propagation, but perhaps an issue with our rig??) sailmail, the
radio-based email program which allowed us to send and receive
email from the middle of the coastal Atlantic.

**** can, deep six, and send the ssb to Davy Jone's locker.
Get a SSB RECEIVER and irridum sat phone


While we were under way, of course we couldn't access the links to the
current charts (that is, the forecasting charts showing the direction
and strength of the currents flowing in real time), our forecaster's
recommendations made it so we were able to either avoid adverse, or
take advantage of positive, currents. *Still, those links were
invaluable to our initial planning, and will figure, again, in our
planning when we actually leave here.



**** Skip, get some CHART ! and **** the guys telling ya where to go.
take a class on how to set a course and then do it. Sont EVER rely on
someone telling you where to go. Your the guy in charge only you know
whats going on. So do it!


Regrets, I've had a few... *

Of course, thats called learning.
Skip, its time you found a "Captain Ron" some one OUTSIDE of
recreational yachting. Find a 1600 mate with OINW on a day off. Pay
the guy $600/day and get ready to learn more than you ever emagined.

Bob