LORD'S PRAYER LOG, Part 189:
Thursday, January 31, 2002 (day 3 at sea continued)
Underway bound for the West Indies
2130 We switch to windvane steering and shut down the engine in preparation to swap email over the SSB radio. We are making 2.5-3 kts under mainsail and genoa on a port beam reach.
2145 We sight a merchant ship on the horizon off our starboard stern; by the looks of the ship's target angle it will probably pass fairly close.
2150 We restart the engine and switch back to autopilot steering. We appear to be on a near collision course with the approaching ship (constant bearing, decreasing range). We turn on the spreader lights to illuminate our sails as an added measure to insure that the approaching ship sees us. Since Lord's Prayer is the vessel being overtaken, we are the "hold course" vessel; the overtaking ship isthe "give way" vessel.
2159 The ship's radar tickles our guard zone alarm at about 2 nm. This is the first vessel we have sighted since leaving the vicinity of Bermuda.
2203 The approaching ship turns right to pass up our starboard side.
2205 The estimated Closest Point of Approach (CPA) will be about 1/3 nm just forward of our starboard beam as the overtaking vessel passes ahead of us.
2210 As the ship approaches our abeam position we are able to see in the moonlight that she is a big oiler and she is riding high (light loaded); her bulbous bow is half out of the water and the painted waterline on the side of her hull is half way up the her side.
2213 The ship reaches CPA just at 0.37 nm.
2217 Forward of our bow, the oiler comes left to resume its previous course. From her heading, and from the fact that she is running light, we surmise that she may be enroute to the South Atlantic and to the Cape of Good Hope to pass around the south tip of Africa, thence into the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and finally into the Persian Gulf. As an afterthought we have a look at a shipping routes chart and find we are crossing a depicted shipping route connecting New York and Cape of Good Hope.

Friday, February 1, 2002 (day 4 at sea)
Underway bound for the West Indies
0136 Position: 29 15.635 N 61 29.298 W. The barometer is: 1030 mb hPa.
0630 The wind is ESE 4-5 kts. We continue motorsailing. The barometer is steady at: 1030 mb hPa.
0654 Sunrise.
0715 The wind is E 4-5 kts. The barometer is: 1030 mb hPa. SST is 73.6 F. Air temperature is: 70 F. The sky is clear except for some widely scattered low cumuliform clouds. The sea surface is beginning to show some long-period seas (4-6' high) arriving from the SE - a sign of our approach to the trade wind belt to our south.
0806 Over the past 12 hours, we have tracked 172 T. Speed made good during the period was: 4.9 kts.
0930 We transfer 12 gallons of diesel fuel from deck jugs into the internal tank; this brings the internal fuel to about 33 gallons and the spare fuel in deck jugs to 24 gallons.
1026 The wind is E 8-10 kts. We secure the engine. Engine time on the Hobbs Meter is: 122.0 hrs
1030 On a port beam reach, we are making about 4 kts through the water when the wind is 7 kts, 4.5 kts with the wind at 8 kts, and 5 kts with the wind at 9 kts.
1043 We douse the genoa and set the genaker. We come right 20 degrees to keep it full. With 5 kts of wind we are now making 4.5 kts through the water, with 6 kts of wind we make 5 kts, and with 7 kts of wind we make 5.5 kts through the water.
1100 We deploy the torque line and spinner that turn the rail-mounted generator.  On first deployment the torque line twists itself into several knots; I haul it in; this turns the entire line into a twisted mess. After removing the
spinner,  I straighten out the torque line by streaming it behind the boat, and one knot at a time I work the twisted knots out of the line. After retrieving the torque line a second time, I lay it out in a couple of big bights before reattaching the spinner and re-launching it. This time it deploys properly. This is a piece of  gear that some people seem to be pleased with; I am not one of them. I have found it to have a severely limited operating envelope. E.g., it can be used effectively during long offshore trips, when there is relatively flat water, where
there is not a lot of surface seaweed, and when boatspeed under sail is between about 5-6 kts. If all of these conditions are met, then it can provide a useful charging current.
1200 A tropicbird passes, then circles off our starboard stern quarter
1320 Our towed spinner has slowed and nearly stopped altogether. We slip a cone-shaped device with a slit along its side over the torque line and tie the slit closed; we push this aft along the torque line; the waves catch it and drag it further behind us until it slips into place over the spinner's propeller. This stops the rotation so that the charging gear can be recovered. We haul it in. The spinner is fouled with Sargasso weed and a piece of plastic debris. We clean off the spinner, putting the Sargasso weed back into the sea and placing the plastic in our trash for later disposal ashore. We separate the spinner from the torqueline and re-stream the line to get the twists out of it. With that done we recover it once again, stream the bight, reattach the spinner and then heave the
spinner overboard again. With all that completed the generator resumes its 2 to 5 amps of charging current as the boat speed varies from about 5-6 kts. This power output is about 25% of what I had expected from reading the original advertising literature. I think it was not worth the money I spent on it!
1400 The wind is E 6-9 kts. Under the mainsail and genaker, our speed through the water is varying with the wind from 5 - 6.5 kts. At this speed, we are hoping to stay out ahead of the high-pressure ridge that is behind us and is forecast to move slowly south over the next several days. Whether we will be successful in this remains to be seen. A review of the weather charts suggests that the high-pressure ridge and the area of light southerly winds associated with it will be moving south at about the same speed as Lord's Prayer.
1430 The barometer is: 1028 mb hPa.
1539 A merchant ship, hull-down on the western horizon heaves into view bearing 088 Relative / 4.5 nm; its course appears to be about NNE.
1700 We decide to stow the genaker and replace it with the genoa because we are loosing ground to leeward (to the west). Under mainsail and genoa we will be able to sail closer to the wind than we can with the genaker up, although we will be giving up some speed. 1715 We spot another ship on the horizon off our starboard stern.
1740 We put the boat off the wind to bring the genaker into a lee behind the mainsail; this takes the pressure of the wind off the genaker enabling us to
pull d
own the snuffer, which is a long sleeve-like bag like the wrapper on a straw. With genaker now captured and under control, we ease the halyard and lower the sail into a bag on deck where we secure it for the night.  Chris adds: As Jim is making preparation on the foredeck to lower the genaker I stand by in the cockpit to assist with the tack line and jib sheet.  A call comes over the VHF radio: "West bound sailing vessel on my starboard side, this is east bound tanker, over."  Well of course Jim can't hear this on the bow and I think they must be
calling us.  They call again and I decide to answer.  Before I can however, they say "no answer, Patriot clear."  Darn!  I missed my chance.  When Jim comes back into the cockpit I relay this to him and ask if I should call them back; he says sure.  So using my best power squadron training I hail them on channel 16; they answer and we switch to channel 10.  They are an oil tanker, Patriot, headed to Israel.  It seems they are aware of the missing sailing vessel, Manx, and wondered if we were that vessel (Manx is a sailboat overdue on a trip from the Canary
Islands to Miami).  I assure them we are not.  They ask where we are from and we have a nice chat.  I thanked them for checking on us and we ended our transmission.  Cool!
1746 Sunset.
1750 We bring the boat close-hauled on port tack and set the genoa. We recover the towed charging gear to eliminate its drag.
1755 We switch to vane steering.
1824 The wind is E 8-9 kts. Boat speed is about 4.5 kts
1944 The barometer is: 1029 mb hPa. The wind is ESE 6-7 kts.
2105 Position: 27 40.578 N 61 44.239 W. Our heading is 180 T.
END OF LORD'S PRAYER LOG, Part 189


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