Ships Log 07/04/09

Happy 4th of July everyone. Hope you're enjoying the fireworks. I don't think I'll be seeing any this 4th of July holiday, but its ok, I got fireworks of my own. Electrical that is. Another nice feature is the full moon or near full moon and clear skies. The moon can definitely make the night go by much more pleasant.

Yesterday, I had a great day. Light winds veered from W to S to SE. And I had a pleasant evening tinkering around with few items that required my attention. The first of which was the Ham Radio antenna cable. It has rusted to a point where it was barely holding on to the backstay insulator. So I had to climb on top of the bimini, and trim off the rusted section of the high voltage cable. Its held to the backstay by three stainless u bolts. Those were fun to re-attach. Thank god the seas where fairly calm. South and central FL coast were getting drenched by severe thunderstorms last night. I was glad to be 40 NM offshore, so they dissipated by the time they reached the Atlantic waters. All I was left with is fireworks to the west of me.
NOAA had repeated warnings with the exact locations speed, and direction of movement for every thunderstorm in South and Central Florida. They got me worried for a second, until I realized that I am far enough offshore to not be bothered by it. But it sounded scary on the radio. They gave the wind gusts, rainfall and pretty soon they tell you the coordinates where the lightning is gonna hit. I spent 6 months in Bahamas, and another 4 in Dominican Republic, and there's no warning of any sort. But you get good at predicting when the atmosphere is ripe for severe thunderstorms. And even the locals know it. I doubt that a typical local Florida boater would know, looking at the clouds, weather there are severe thunderstorms on the way. The ones that do, have traveled to far places, where you need to be your own meteorologist. So in the end I am glad I got to learn how mother nature operates.
It was very interesting to hear the thunder. It started around 4PM, the sun was still pretty high and it was very hot, but to the west you see haze, and hear thunder. Sound travels far over water. It was too bright to see the lightning. Later on in the evening, the display of electrical fireworks was magnificent. Especially knowing it will not reach me. And to the east, near full moon showed its fat face. The rest of the sky was clear, indication of a beautiful night to come. I wish the rest of the trip can be this nice. But I know the mighty Cape is coming. And I've been prepping the boat for what's to come.

07/03/09 6:30 PM So far I've traveled 10 hours and covered 72 miles with average speed 7.2 kts, and a max of 10.2 kts. Not bad of a push.

07/04/09 7 AM 23 hours, 163 NM, max speed 12.2kts, average 7.1kts.

Had to swap alternators. The main alternator is overheating after about 1.5-2 hours of runtime. It just shuts off. Looks like the windings and the entire interior needs to be cleaned.
Total engine runtime 4 hours.