Day 8 - Cold front

Blue Note
Marco M.
Wed 13 May 2015 16:39
Date:  Wednesday 13/05/14 - Time:  12:10 EDT
Position 33:57.199N  73:33.647W
COG 339M SOG 4.6kt, Wind 267T 14 kt,
Temperatures: Air 23C, Sea 20.7C, Humidity 96%
Barometer: 1008 mB
Last 24h Sailed Distance: 145 NM
Last 24h Decrease Distance on rhumb line: 140 NM
Sailed distance since departure: 1089 NM
Time since departure: 8d 0h 10m
Average Speed since departure: 5.62  kt
Average VMG since departure:   5.46  kt
Average VMG speed last 24h:   5.81  kt
Intention: sail to Chesapeake Bay
Distance to End on rhumb line: 219 NM
ETA: Friday May 15, 2015

Detailed Track (50 is the maximum number of point, i.e. once the last point reaches 50, the last point always is 50):
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0EIVGO9oiEYLjqAfRxhderm34cEEF9dMP

The cold front past over Blue Note at 11:00 am.
It was strong with preceding winds of 20-22 kts and sustained peak wind of 32 kts when the front hit.
Lots lots of rain and thunder that appeared to be from cloud to cloud.
All the rain flatten the sea and now the wind is still from the west at 15-17 kts.

Blue Note is about 40 NM from the point where she will cross the Gulf stream and forecast is for winds to stay around 17 kts but shift from the North.
I think we will go for it but if conditions turns to be too rough we can always heave-to and wait for winds to calm down.

In the 4 hours preceding to the cold front when wind was 20-22 kts with some 6ft waves, once a while the autopilot was loosing the rudder reference and
disengage, Occasionally this had happen before, especially after Blue Note was sitting idle for a while, and it always went away.
This morning it kept doing it every 15 minutes or so. I have a spare rudder sensor on board but definitely not thinking about changing it now
out here, since it involves crawling under the cockpit floor under the rudder.
I also have an emergency separate autopilot that can be rigged to work with the emergency tiller. Installing this is feasible, but still lots of work
and on the good news is that since the front has past the autopilot has been ok (keep finger crossed).

Another bad news is that the work done yesterday to stop the water leak in the front-cabin while the boat is heeling hard does not seems to have work.
Or at least there is still a leak but perhaps less that before.


coldfront
The cold front with lots of rain (this photo was actually taken not at the worst moment)