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Location: 34° 11 8 N, 63° 51 W
Friday 12:00, 03.31.2006
Schooner Maggie B’s noon position on Friday 31 March was 34° 11.8 North, 63° 51 West .
We were about 120 miles from St Georges.
We motored from about 0330 to 10am. Wind still light NE, with no sign of backing to NW. About 10am we realized that there was no reason to go fast (we cruise with 70% power or 2500 rpm at about 8 knots)and arrive at St. Georges at 3am Saturday morning. We played with The Bird (the G2 gennaker)until about 5pm in lovely conditions, but Bermuda is right downwind of us so we started a slow motor (2000 rpm or 6.5 knots) to arrive at 8am. Talked to Bermuda Harbor Radio on SSB and they are ready (?) for us.
How the Autopilot got its Name. The Furuno autopilot has been working hard for us. It is adaptive, meaning it learns from experience (unlike we humans), and does a great job. Autopilots have names on many boats. It caused serious discussion among the crew. John Steele voted for George, in honor of a long time friend. Frank favored Oscar, the name of George “Peobo” Gardner’s professional captain, who was skilled at bringing the boat back from far flung places. A standoff ensued until Gail suggested naming it after the mythical “contrabandista” who steered the Spray for Joshua Slocum when he was ill on his famous solo voyage. We whipped out the ship’s copy of “Alone Around the World” and found a picture of the illusion, but, alas, no name was mentioned. So we agreed on Jorge, a reasonable contrabandista helmsman’s name.
How the Storm Staysail got its Name.We tried out the storm staysail today. It was made in the North Sails loft in Lunenburg, as you can see from the photos on the web site. It is always good to try these things before you really need them. I got tired of saying “storm staysail” a lot, so we agreed on calling it “Cathy” after the person who made it. Right now Cathy is flying as a handsome stabilizer. No storms are in sight. The smaller storm trysail is “Susan,” who works with Cathy at North Sails.
We expect to experience Bermuda customs at about 9am tomorrow, April 1st.