The Gulf Stream

 We are still in Marathon, in the Florida Keys. It is time for us to get moving north. We have a plan to sail all the way to Acadia National Park in Maine. That is a very long trip and there are many ways to do that in a sailboat. I have been studying our options for a long time. I have also spent a great deal of time asking questions and getting opinions of the many much more experienced captains that I now get to call friends here in Boot Key Harbor. Many of them have been sailing the oceans of the world for many years. 

One option is to run the engine and motor up the Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW) all the way to New York. All of that is protected waters and is fairly safe. It is also slow and boring. The trip on the ICW from Miami to the Chesapeake Bay is over 1000 miles on the ICW. My first plan was to sail along the coast on one to 2 days hops. That is certainly doable, but it is rare to get the right weather, so there would be lots of waiting for the right weather to make the next hop. 

The third option is to take the express lane. The Gulf Stream runs up the east coast of the US from south to north. The current is about 20 miles wide and runs at 3 to 4 knots. We normally go about 5 knots on average, so that would increase our speed by almost double if we sailed inside the Stream for a portion of the trip. The stream is only 10 to 20 miles off shore between Marathon and West Palm Beach. After West Palm the Florida coast line curves west and the stream keeps going due north. As the coast of Georgia, South and North Carolina curves back east, the stream curves back east and gets about 80 miles off shore. It then curves around Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. I want no part of Cape Hatteras. The currents can be crazy and I will opt to go inland on the ICW for that portion of the trip. They don't call Hateras the graveyard of the Atlantic for nothing.

The problem with the Gulf Stream is that you must wait for the right weather. You can not travel in the stream with any kind of a north wind. The wind over the current creates giant waves and very dangerous conditions. I have been studying the weather for months and the windows of good weather are few and far between.

As I write this entry, I have spotted a perfect window to travel north. The first day is this coming Saturday, April 30. If the forecast holds, we will depart Saturday mid morning and head north up the coast. It is 170 miles to West Palm Beach. We should be able to make it there in under 24 hours. It is at that point that we will make a decision. We could duck into the Lake Worth inlet and rest and check the weather to make sure it is smart to continue. We may be able to get weather updates as we approach WPB. If the weather looks good and we are feeling strong, we could keep going. At any point we could divert west and hit one of the other inlets along the Florida coast. If the weather stays good we could sail all the way to North Carolina. With the Gulf Stream pushing us to speeds approaching 10 knots. We could make the 635 mile trip in about 3 days. It will be our longest sail yet, in both miles and time, but not that much longer than our 50 hour sail back in November from Pensacola to Tarpon Springs.  That sail was only 275 miles, so you can see the advantage of using the Stream.

Here is an image of the path and speed of the Gulf Stream off the coast of South Florida

This image shows the path of the stream further north.

We realize that by doing this big jump we will be missing many places that we would like to stop along the coast. Our plan this year is to get north by sailing as much as possible. We would like to be in Maine by July. Then we will take our time coming back south. It is during that trip back south in late summer and then after Hurricane season that we plan to travel in the ICW and see all of the sites along the coast. We will then try to get the boat to a safe place in the Chesapeake Bay or even further south by the first of September to haul her out of the water and have some regular maintenance done and as protected as possible from hurricanes. We will also take advantage of Hurricane season to get back to Missouri to visit the family.  

As I have written in my previous entries about our time in Marathon. This is a great community and we have been having a blast. We had a special treat this past week, when some friends from Houston that we met in Gulfport last year sailed into the Harbor. 

Brian and Gill from Houston on Moosetracks (an Island Packet 45) and Kim and I.

We were at Keys Fisheries, which is a cool bar/restaurant on the gulf side which has a great sunset. 

I also have been doing some fishing. Both Spearfishing and with rod and reel. We took our friend Camie out with us the other day and had a successful day. I speared two fish and we caught three on the rods.

Here I am fishing in the beautiful water. I was able to shoot dinner that evening.

I just thought I would include this shot of us. We do still like each other.

Well that is about it for this entry. Wish us luck and say a prayer for us. I promise to check in as soon as we arrive where ever we stop.