SITREP
Departed St. George's Bermuda on Sunday, 10 June at about 1635Z. Ran over to the fuel dock and customs via dinghy so I didn't have to deal with bringing Reboot into the customs dock again. When I arrived it was blowing 20 knots and it was a royal pain. I bent my plough anchor when I finally put Reboot into the dock so that I could get a line over. I obviously misjudged the speed and distance but it is difficult from 40 feet away. As my day by day summaries indicate it was a very unusual weather pattern for the North Atlantic in June. Instead of going up to 40 N and riding the westerlies I stayed down in the low 30's and road the south side of the progression of lowes including Hurricane/Tropical Storm Chris that were roaring across the higher latitudes. Came into the Marina da Horta. No radio communication - wandered further into port until I discovered the marina office building - a couple of guys were waving at me so I went over and rafted up to the fuel dock (yes, rafted up to the fuel dock.) Nice, clean, well run marina but very crowded, almost everyone is rafted up 2 or three boats.
RECORDS
1. Furtherest East Longitude for Reboot
2. 150 NM day (to be precise 151)
MOVREP
Dates: 10 June - 26 June 2012; 16 days
Voyage Length: 2071 NM
Great Circle Distance: 1788 NM
Distance lost to avoiding weather (or not) and tacking downwind: 283 miles or 2 1/2 to 3 days
Average Speed Made Good: 5.5 Knts
Hours Motoring: 20.7; 2 hours out of Bermuda, 2 hours charging batteries; 16.7 hours into Horta (note that when I get close and the wind dies I tend to "go for it.")
CASREP
1. Refrigerator (again:) Works sometimes, reset fuses; still does not cool the way it should. I will have to get Maury to come and look at it. Unfortunatley he and Ginger are buying a house so he will not have the $1200 for a round trip to Dublin. Maybe he can help me troubleshoot it over the phone.
2. Water maker - Once again spotty. Some days it would make water, some days it would not. Some days it would start and then decide not to work any more. Have contacted the manufacturer - hope to get resolved in Ireland/England. Really a pain, it has never worked the way I would expect it to - that is day in and day out without failure.
3. Bow light - intermittent - will replace fixture in Ireland
4. Port rub rail - came out of its metal bracket. I should be able to pop it back in.
5. Bilge pump float switch - not working, will replace before I leave.
6. Jiffy furl (main sail furling sock) - both battens that hold the top of the sock have come apart, not sure what the story is.
7. Tachometer - stopped working after long period of very wet and damp weather - now works again. I think it was just affected by the mosture.
XOREP
XO did fine. Weather was not condusive to a lot of sun bathing so he curled up in a ball and slept most of the time. He is still the best bad weather early warning system on Reboot.
COMS
1. Was able to contact the Maritime Mobile Service Net (14.300) daily - special thanks to Fred (W3ZU) who met me every day - patched me to Bill (KI4MMZ) for weather and phone patched me to my sons.
2. Was able to talk to Herb (Southbound II) most days for weather reports
3. Weather charts were too fuzy to be much use. Downloaded using Airmail
4. Was able to get good links to Airmail until the last three days. Then it became progressively harder. Now very spotty. Hope it will get better as I get nearer to Europe
5. As noted in 4. above was able to make a decent Airmail connection most of the time.
Discoveries
Once you cross the 45 W longitude line the US (NOAA) weather becomes less useful. Almost no forecasting for the east side of the North Atlantic - another security blanket gone. Weather fax now seems to be out of Germany but I have been unsuccssful at downloading much of anything yet.
ZZZZZZZ
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