[This message forwarded from their sailmail status report.]

Day 4 - Maine Passage

Hello from the Gulf Stream at 30*4'N 71*51', charging along toward
our turning point where we leave the Gulf Stream

The radical political parties (left wing and right wing) did their
jobs very well initially, but the wind conspired against us. Lydia
got up from her long nap at 5 and we enjoyed our dinner before I
went down for a nap at 10 as a soft rain fell, helping to clean off
all the salt from all the excitement earlier in the day.

Lydia came to fetch me at 2, saying that she thought the Stugeron,
previously apparently marvelously symptom-free, must be making her
groggy, as she can't stay focused. As I got up to speed on what was
happening, the radar showed a couple of very large targets about 17
miles out.

That turned out to be rain, but fortunately, they stayed in the same
relative position for the couple of hours it took to disappate.
Unfortunately, back to the beginning, the wind had been clocking
around such that our heading required to keep the sails full was now
90 degrees. That's the slight northerly component to the wind which
Chris had forecast a couple of days ago. If we were about a hundred
miles further, it would be perfect, as the Gulf Stream turns east
later today, and that angle of attack would have been perfect to
stay in it at that point. But we're a good half-day away from there,
still...

The good news is that we're still within the Gulf Stream, as we're
receiving a 20 degree push north, making our actual course only 70
degrees. However, that's 20 degrees to the south of where we'd need
to be if we were to have kept on course. As long as the speeds hold
up and the set (the change in direction to our benefit) remains as
good as it is, we'll not worry about it before daylight.

At daylight, we had a chance to see if we could actually leave our
pole in position and still use the genoa on a close reach. My
question had to do with whether or not our sheet (the line which
controls the sail attitude) was long enough to go all the way to the
other side from that far out...

However, despite our good speed, like the old ethnic joke, "we're
getting awfully far from the truck" at this rate. So,at about 3, I
rolled in the genoa, removed the preventer from the main, sheeted it
in tightly, and commenced a very close reach to put us back into the
main portion of the Gulf Stream.. Once again, we were climbing
north to catch up with our target, in benign (what be after 8?)
seas, albeit still 6-8' but long-period, making for a smooth motion.

Radar remains blank, as we're in a part of the world where there's
not much commercial traffic, and even fewer nuts like us. Most of
the transatlantic folks have already made their passages, and, in
fairness, we're setting out a bit late in the season. Despite all
that, it's great being out here, and we're making fabulous time,
despite the occasional soaking with salt water.

We've concluded that the major waves and washing-machine effect was
the fabled Cape Hatteras Syndrome. Weather in that area is always
dicey, and looking at the flow maps of the area always showed wild
variances from one place to another. That makes for some
interesting waves, particularly when the flow suddenly reverses,
hits the other direction, with sometimes heavy wind to boot.

In any event, we seem to have left that behind, and the sailing is
relatively smooth. With any luck we'll be able to return to the
"political parties" mode of transport. Then there's the expected
calms in a day or two. Those will be valuable as I have to go up
the mast to secure our hailer horn, apparently about to give way
(that would be number 3!), as well as figure out why it is that it
doesn't talk when the hailer does. And, of course, no voyage would
be "normal" without some equipment failures. Our current "crisis of
the day" as our good friends on the sistership "Cyrano" called it is
that the spreader and masthead lights are not operating. If we get
the expected calm, we'll take advantage of it!

At 9, the rains came, in earnest. A gully washer and toad
strangler, we now have clean decks, sails and everything else,
topsides. Wind died to nearly nothing, so we sit and drift with the
current, Lydia writes her log, and I go back for the rest of my rest
period...

By 11, I'm refreshed, and we set sail into the very small wind, on a
hard beat - except it was a zephyr. Unfortunately, it wasn't
consistent in direction, so we couldn't stay pinched. Accordingly,
we bore off to a very close reach or a very broad beat, depending on
how you looked at it so the minor shifts in direction wouldn't
result in a 360 while we recovered. (The water speed was slow
enough once we got backwinded that we had to pirouette with a jibe,
not having enough momentum to tack through the shift.) Eventually
the wind came up to consistently over 5. Once returned to the beat,
the water speed picked up. Fortunately, the wind picked up to 7-10
knots, and once we bore off, we've not had to adjust anything.
These new sails draw wonderfully, and in 8 knots of wind, we make
over 5 knots of water speed. The best part, however, is that we're
still in the effects of the Gulf Stream, and our speed over ground
is consistently above 9, and frequently close to 11, again/still.
Even bettter is that the change in wind direction to nearly north
(PM to KCL: North in the Gulf Stream sometimes is fun!) has settled
the seas, despite the leftover SW persistent swell, which pushes us
along.

We start turning the corner with the wind still moderate, about 200
miles due East of Norfolk. Except that it's very dicey practice for
other than fully crewed racers, the temptation would be to run the
spinnaker once we actually make our turn fully. At this point we're
not yet fully there, so while we're making 70 degrees, the wind is
very close. If it continues to clock around, though, we'll be on a
beam or broad reach.

Our forecaster has said, on Wednesday, the one time I was able to
raise him, that the wind would die tomorrow, so we want to make the
most of it while we can. On the other hand, we're further than was
expected, so perhaps further offshore there will be more wind. At
this point we're evaluating whether we should stay with the stream
or make the triangle run to Cape Cod, as it would be rather shorter
-- 258nm vs 334nm total -- but not if we continue to gain 1/4-1/3 of
our speed by being in the Stream! Lessee... Gulf Stream leg of 162
@ 10knots = 16, north leg of 162 miles at 7knots = 23 (total ~39
hours, assuming good conditions), vs 258 @ 7knots = ~37 hours. A
tossup, which may be very dependent on weather. If there's no wind,
the current will take us along the Gulf Stream leg anyway. I sure
wish the radio contact was better!! However, we sure can't
complain, as, not counting times where we were other than straight
line, which, of course, would add slightly to the distance in the
knot log, we've gone more than 650 miles in 4 days, over 150 miles
per day, on average. We're very pleased...

So, despite this not quite being the full 4 days time, I'll sign off
here and let David get this one out in a more timely fashion. Sorry
I've not been able to directly mail you all, but the propagation out
here is absolutely abominable currently, and there's no way the
entire message would go. As it is, it takes several tries for
2-paragraph segments to make it through, and dozens of attempts to
find any connection which will stay up for more than the handshake
(remember the old dial-up days? We're lucky to see 200 baud...).
Conditions all over are the same, as every net we hear (we've not
succeeded much in making contacts), through the trash over the air,
includes calls for relays - someone who can hear a caller where
either net control can't be heard, or vice versa, in order that
traffic make it through.

Tomorrow or Sunday will begin the more conventional portion of our
passage, as we leave the Gulf Stream, and behave like most sailors,
perhaps tacking or jibing our way through the second half of our
journey.


L8R

Skip, Lydia, and Portia, the sea cat

Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at
www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog and/or
http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to
make it come true. You may have to work for it however." (and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its
hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts."

Salty,

If you are not going to do the rest of us the courtesy of not including the
entire text of the message you are responding to, at least do it if you are
trying to send a message to Skip. His bandwidth is extremely limited and
it's doubtful that he will ever see your excellent advice way, way, way,
down at the bottom.

BTW he won't see this newsgroup anyway until after he gets back to shore.
See his first trip report post for the address where you can send him your
SHORT medical suggestion.

--
Roger Long

wrote:


There is a serious warning in the above that needs immediate attention, Skip.
The report before this one described Lydia as "exhausted" and now you are
ascribing her lack of concentration to the Stugeron. I think she possibly needs
medical attention. Have you checked her vitals, at least? Heart Rate, Blood
Pressure, etc? She may be sleep deprived or have something else going on.



No, she's just feeling the effects of quiting smoking.


--

Richard

(remove the X to email)

wrote in news:b4ea5fa2-9b60-462b-95da-e3a67bb40617
@r66g2000hsg.googlegroups.com:

Hello from the Gulf Stream at 30*4'N 71*51', charging along toward
our turning point where we leave the Gulf Stream


Skip and Lydia must have killed the Spot for a day, no reports from 0500
yesterday to 0900 today but they're back on the air, now. It shows them N
of Atlantic City this morning making good headway.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/f...ots.jsp?&glId=
0sKGa9AJRCF45FaX5L5g6PLcZGvSb3nMe

There, see how much better brief and to the point works

--
Roger Long

On Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:21:23 -0500, cavelamb himself
wrote:

wrote:


There is a serious warning in the above that needs immediate attention, Skip.
The report before this one described Lydia as "exhausted" and now you are
ascribing her lack of concentration to the Stugeron. I think she possibly needs
medical attention. Have you checked her vitals, at least? Heart Rate, Blood
Pressure, etc? She may be sleep deprived or have something else going on.



No, she's just feeling the effects of quiting smoking.

That's a big change for a long time smoker. Wouldn't want to do that
out in the ocean. Hope Skip kept some cigs stowed for emergencies.

--Vic

On 2008-08-03 19:11:35 -0400, Vic Smith said:

On Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:21:23 -0500, cavelamb himself
wrote:

No, she's just feeling the effects of quiting smoking.

That's a big change for a long time smoker. Wouldn't want to do that
out in the ocean. Hope Skip kept some cigs stowed for emergencies.

NO! As one who would like to quit, I wouldn't want that sort of "kindness".

If I remember correctly, she had stopped for some years and recently
re-started.

Seems the meds are the prime culprit and she's gone off of them at last
report (I'm catching up from being on the boat 5 days). Her log
mentions the meds, but nothing about the cigs.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-à-Deux -- Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/