Ship's log 07/15/09 8:00AM
I can feel it, there is a New England chill in the air this morning. Even in July. I am close, but no cigar just yet. Last night went by smooth. No thunderstorms, in fact not even a cloud to complete the picture perfect night full of start and the moon that looked like those from Corona commercials. It came up around midnight, and it was red and big at first. It would definitely not fit in the Corona bottle, but it shrank as the night wore off and got that perfect yellow color and then just white. Before the moon came up, Milky way was so bright, that it was actually illuminating the water. Then a bright star appeared around 11PM out of the east. Probably Venus.
Winds picked up from SW, and flattened the lumpy seas. I was finishing up the in-house projects, like cleaning cabinets etc. Music was blasting. If I could, I would have loved to have a beer or a rum drink. But not out here, at least not yet. My safety, and the safety of the boat is in my own hands out here and nobody else's, and I don't what those hands impaired in any way. Imagine an empty boat sails itself right into Ft. Weatherhill, or the way autopilot is programmed, it would probably enter Narragansett Bay all by itself. And the captain is 150NM south swimming in the gulf stream or probably drowned by then. No thanks, beer will have to wait.
Now that the night is passed, it was lovely, starry, dry and calm night. The kind you wish you had more often. But I had to wear layers, and foulies on top of that.
The winds changed again last night, or the forecast was wrong again, ha ha, I sound like a broken record. But at least it was for the better. They said variable and I got 10-15SW. They guessed it for this morning. I hope it stays that way. Perhaps its because I am entering the "South of New England" forecast zone. If they are correct, I will get SW this afternoon, and they will be here to stay for the duration of the trip. That means fast ride the last 100NM or so. But it also mean humid, salty air, dew, clouds, and yeah thunderstorms....
I think I just crossed the shipping lanes. They are very tight. Because I saw two tankers at once, one traveling from Hudson River and one traveling towards Hudson River. I see the shipping lanes on the chart, they start off tight, but widen out like a cone. Its the Hudson Canyon to Embrose traffic lane. Then I have one more. Hudson Canyon to Nantucket traffic lane and that's it. I am about 60NM form that one. That one runs just south of New England.
Yeah there is another tanker. This is good opportunity to test my guard zone on the radar. I set it at 10NM radius 360deg around me. So I will get an alarm if anything is picked up within 10NM. The problem was that even waves can sometimes trigger it. So I was playing with the settings to make sure I get no false alarms.
Winds picked up from SW, and flattened the lumpy seas. I was finishing up the in-house projects, like cleaning cabinets etc. Music was blasting. If I could, I would have loved to have a beer or a rum drink. But not out here, at least not yet. My safety, and the safety of the boat is in my own hands out here and nobody else's, and I don't what those hands impaired in any way. Imagine an empty boat sails itself right into Ft. Weatherhill, or the way autopilot is programmed, it would probably enter Narragansett Bay all by itself. And the captain is 150NM south swimming in the gulf stream or probably drowned by then. No thanks, beer will have to wait.
Now that the night is passed, it was lovely, starry, dry and calm night. The kind you wish you had more often. But I had to wear layers, and foulies on top of that.
The winds changed again last night, or the forecast was wrong again, ha ha, I sound like a broken record. But at least it was for the better. They said variable and I got 10-15SW. They guessed it for this morning. I hope it stays that way. Perhaps its because I am entering the "South of New England" forecast zone. If they are correct, I will get SW this afternoon, and they will be here to stay for the duration of the trip. That means fast ride the last 100NM or so. But it also mean humid, salty air, dew, clouds, and yeah thunderstorms....
I think I just crossed the shipping lanes. They are very tight. Because I saw two tankers at once, one traveling from Hudson River and one traveling towards Hudson River. I see the shipping lanes on the chart, they start off tight, but widen out like a cone. Its the Hudson Canyon to Embrose traffic lane. Then I have one more. Hudson Canyon to Nantucket traffic lane and that's it. I am about 60NM form that one. That one runs just south of New England.
Yeah there is another tanker. This is good opportunity to test my guard zone on the radar. I set it at 10NM radius 360deg around me. So I will get an alarm if anything is picked up within 10NM. The problem was that even waves can sometimes trigger it. So I was playing with the settings to make sure I get no false alarms.
posted by sundowner-cruise at 12:48 PM
1 Comments:
Petar,
your blogs are great! lots of action going on out there. i saw the star at 5am and think it was venus too. hope you get that beer soon!
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