Cheri thought I’d be good at writing today’s blog post.
Today we crossed the Gulf Stream from Fort Lauderdale to West End, Great Abaco
Island in the Bahamas. It’s a 70 mile run and we do an average of 6.5 knots, so
we estimated a 9-10 hour run.
The Gulf Stream itself is an interesting oceanographic item.
It is a northerly running current that runs from the Southern tip of Florida,
all the up to Maine. The current runs 2-4 knots, depending on the location and
time of year. Of our 70 mile run to the Abacos, we would be in the Gulf Stream
for 30-odd miles. We need to compensate for our time and distance in the
current so while our heading might be due east, our actual coarse over the
ground could be 10-12 degrees to the north.
We started our day getting up at 0400 and quickly left our
Fort Lauderdale city mooring behind. We had perfect timing and got the one
bridge we needed to have open, exactly at the 4:30 mark. (the bridge only opens
on the hour and half hour). Within 20 more minutes we were into the open ocean
and setting our course. We started out with easterly winds of 10-15 knots, on
the nose, with bumpy, short interval choppy seas of 2-4 feet. Not exactly a
smooth ride, but not too uncomfortable. This was as foretasted, so we settled
into a 8 hour run, doing 6.5-6.9 knots.
A little more than half way across, the weather turned a
bit, and the Gulf Stream gave us a bit of trouble. The wind picked up to 20-25
knots and the sea state quickly became 4-6 foot short interval choppy waves.
Our course was determined by our end point destination and the northerly
current affects. So we had no choice but to take it on the nose. This meant the
boat was doing a lot of “hobby horsing” meaning pitching up and down at the bow
and stern. With a LOT of bashing and sea spraying.
Nicely our catamaran is a very stable craft and not too
surprisingly, nothing inside was jarred or moved loose. Books, papers, and misc
stuff pretty much stayed in place. However, the motion of the boat was constant
and rather unpredictable and often jarring. Cheri was fortunate to have taken
her UK prescription anti-seasickness medicine when we departed.
The wind and sea conditions were not scary or harmful, but
it made for a very long time in a very rocky boat. Our boat speed dropped to
4.5 knots, so luckily we have two diesel motors, so I turned on the second
engine to get us up to 6.5-7.0 knots. This burns twice as much fuel, but given
the uncomfortable conditions, it was a prudent choice.
As we were settling into the noisy bashing that the Gulf Stream
was giving us, I heard a pop and when I glanced over my shoulder, I saw our
emergency life raft, floating a few yards behind our boat! What had happened is the life raft canister
had come unlodged from it’s holder and deployed itself. This was a brand new
life raft and it did its job, in that it auto inflated and was highly visible. UGH! We opted to try recover it, and circle back
to do a sort of man overboard pick up. We managed to get to the raft, but it
was too heavy (over 70 lbs dry) and we were concerned about getting our props
caught in the life raft ropes. So we abandoned the raft and got back on our
course, watching the bright florescent green canopy slowly fade away from
sight We contacted the Coast Guard to
let them know the raft was adrift and not manned.
We sighted our destination landfall around 1500 and were
docked in the Old Bahama Bay Marina by 1615. We quickly cleared into customs,
tidied up the boat and took a breath. Thankful we made it across and reached
our goal safely. Across from our dock is a sand spit with two hammocks on them
and next to them are several buildings in typical Caribbean mixed colors of
pink, sea foam green and yellow, with white trim.
I’m sure we’ll definitely sleep good tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment