Journal of November 6th, 2019

With the Gulf Stream behind us we were in for a super chill sail for the next few days….ha. 

Gulf stream behind us you say? We apparently not so much…

There are two different ocean current data sets we looked 1) Mercator and 2) Hycom…one shows the Gulf Stream as this fairly contained and strong warm-water highway moving up the coast. The other shows a weaker, less well defined current with many swirly whirly bits contributing to the main current. Based on our experience this day I feel like we sailed, motored or motor sailed through many of the swirly whirly bits. We weren’t really expecting it and we were all stupidly puzzled by the 2 knot difference between our boat speed (how fast the boat is slipping through the water) and the course over ground speed (how fast are boat is moving relative to the ground a billion feet below us). We spent an unusual amount of time for a group of fairly intelligent sailors to acknowledge that we were in another stream of some kind…I think we were in denial.

Once we accepted what was going on, we tacked south to try and break free of it and maybe, just maybe even get it to work with us. After sailing off course (basically right for the tip of Hatteras) for a bit we tacked back, hopefully out of the current….only to then have the wind shift on us and to find ourselves right back into the effing current. So now we had 10knots directly on our nose and 2 knots of current. Oh ya, and that big system that was coming on Friday was lurking in the back of our minds. So engine back on (blarg) and we motorsailed on course as best we could but I can not express how frustrating it was to see our COG read 4.5 knots despite the efforts we were making to go faster. Our ETA on Friday was now moving further and further away.

Later that night we had a bit more excitement as we were hailed by the US Coast Guard and I got to practice my radio skills (I had also called a couple freighters the last few nights to confirm their course and that they saw us) and that call ended with “When is the last time you were boarded by the US Coast Guard?”…errr…never? Then we saw the lights change from green to white on that boat on the horizon as they seems to change course and head our way. Super. But no they went right on by – apparently they had bigger fish to fry that night! Or maybe they wanted to get out of the electrical storm.

Wait. Electrical storm you say? Yes that is what I said. For the entire night we were surrounded by intense lightening from storms we think about 50 miles away. They were always far enough to not show up on our radar (with a 36 mile radius) but dayam! Lightening is no freaking joke when you know you are the only thing out there with a metal stick 70ft above sea level.

Up to that point I was sleeping here and there for 2 hour intervals, which had been fine…until last night. And needless to say, with all of that lightening it was basically an all-nighter for Greg and I and our 3:00am to 6:00am shift was a for real struggle. Bill got up a bit early so I crashed around 5:30am until 10:00am which was the most consecutive sleep I’d had so far. It was glorious.

So Day 3 saw unexpected current, light winds on the nose, and much much more diesel power than we thought we’d need out on the ocean. Day 4 calls for a bit more wind (up to 20 knots) in the evening so we are hoping to get some miles behind us and still beat that Friday system.

Much love,

M