Blundering our way across the Gulf Stream, or, Back in the U S of A...

The weather forecast indicated higher winds that would let us sail at  least some of the way so we left Green Turtle Cay Wednesday morning after spending 3 days there.  To our surprise not everyone left.  We had a nice sail the first 70 miles.  We had planned to stop at Great Sale Cay and then leave first thing Thursday morning on what we figured to be a 48 hour passage to Fernandina Beach, Florida.  This would have been a day-night-day-night trip, timing our arrival for daylight, and giving us the next daylight hours if we needed them.  But since there was wind to sail we kept on going, as the next 2 to 3 day forecast was for very light wind.  Only after we had committed ourselves did it occur to me that we were now on a night-day-night-day schedule, and if we made slower progress our arrival would be after dark.

About 12 miles after passing the potential anchorage the wind went light enough that we had to start motoring.  As a slight consolation we saw a huge sea turtle.  His body looked to be about 3 feet in diameter, with a head about the size of a basketball.  The hunting and trapping of sea turtles was only outlawed in 2009 in the Bahamas.  We had about 40 miles to travel due west across the Little Bahama Banks to clear shoals before we could turn NW to head for Florida.  Once we turned NW we kept expecting to get a boost in speed from the Gulf Stream but it didn't happen.  After a few hours it occurred to me that we were paralleling the Stream and not really crossing it.  What we needed to do was turn away from our destination and go due west to hit the middle of the Stream.  When we changed course our travel time jumped to over 66 hours which was pretty depressing.  It also made we wonder if we would have enough fuel to motor that long.  Eventually we got into the Gulf Stream and turned due north.  Even though our speed through the water was only 4.5 to 5 knots, our ground speed soon indicated 9 to 10 knots!

Now our travel time started to decrease but our new course was taking us through rollers or swells left over from earlier NE winds on the Atlantic.  The motion was bad enough that Sue started to get queasy, even though she hadn't been seasick in almost 25 years.  The motion didn't particularly bother me but it was annoying because the noise from all the rolling made it difficult for me to sleep.  Now that we were finally riding the Stream we had to decide how far we could go north before we would have to turn out of it and head to Florida.  After some calculations, some trial and error route plans, and finally just a wild ass guess we decided we would stay in the Stream for over a hundred miles and then angle out towards Fernandina, which would be another 90 miles.  GPS predictions indicated pretty much the shortest travel time.  Now all we had to do was try to sleep (Sue could, sort of, but I couldn't) and look out for ships.

Once we passed Great Sale Cay we never saw another cruising boat.  But once we got in the Gulf Stream we started seeing freighters.  Since they travel around 20 knots, and we were traveling around 10 knots, the closing time might not be very long, depending on the relative courses.  Our VHF radio has an AIS feature  (Automatic Identification System), which is supposed to show the position of commercial boats and ships.  It shows the ship ID, its course and speed, and how close and when it will pass our boat.  It's kind of like radar (as long as the ship has their AIS activated) and was very reassuring with all the big ship traffic we saw.  (Navy warships don't broadcast an AIS signal - go figure!)  At one point in the middle of the night our AIS indicated a freighter coming up right behind us and passing within a quarter mile of us.  Since we had the whole Atlantic Ocean to play with I figured that was a bit close.  I called him on the radio to ask him which way he would like us to move and he responded that HE would change course (a collision at sea pretty much ruins everybody's day!)  Another cruising boat about 20 miles behind us heard our call and then called us to ask our opinion about whether he could run his diesel without the alternator, as the bracket had broken.  (I told him I thought the diesel would run OK but he would lose the water pump, which was driven by the same belt.)  We then talked about the Gulf Stream and our destination of Fernandina.  As soon as that call ended another cruising boat about 20 miles ahead of us called us to give us information about getting into Fernandina.  So there we were, in the Atlantic Ocean, out of sight of land and other cruising boats, thinking we were the only cruising boat out there, discussing diesels and destinations.  Technology sure can be a wonderful thing.

Sue tells me it's time to take showers - our first stand up, use all the hot water you want, since Marathon, Florida around the end of last year!  I'll tell you "the rest of the story" (remember Paul Harvey?) later.