anchorlt wrote:
"Armond Perretta" wrote...
anchorlt wrote:

I have long wondered why some people appear to fear the Gulf
Stream ... ...
I have crossed the Stream, from north of Ft. Lauderdale, to the
Banks south of St. Isaacs Light on the way to Abacos and south, to
Exumas, Long Islaand and even further south, and north, to extreme
NE Bahamas, more than 30 times, all without incident or concern.
...
If you have a reasonably well founded boat with good navigation
gear and good charts, wait for weather window and then "Go,"
keeping a sharp lookout for other boats and ships ...

Sometimes it happens that when you actually _get_ to the Stream,
the "window" is closed. Leaving from Florida in one thing.
Leaving from elsewhere on the East Coast or from the Maritimes,
places that are more than a mere 25 or 50 miles from the West
Wall, is often something else again.

I have been in harbor in Bermuda and encountered "well found"
boats who lost their rig, lost gear, and, worst of all, lost
people in the Stream. I suspect your crossings have given you a
perspective that applies well to the locations and situations
which you have directly experienced, but not so well to the Gulf
Stream in general.

Be careful about encouraging foolhardiness.

Foolhardiness? Please read my entry again.

Please read _my_ post again. I did not limit my discussion to jumping over
to Bimini, since you did not do so with title and tenor of your original
post. While you discussed only having crossed the Florida Straights, your
subject heading "Gulf Stream Myths" as originally posted makes no effort to
limit your analysis to this specific region of ocean. For these reason it
seemed appropriate submit the qualifications I did, based on my own
experiences with this section of ocean.

Florida may own the US Supreme Court and the Electoral College, but the Gulf
Stream is still pretty much in the public domain.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://kerrydeare.home.comcast.net/