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Miami Passage - Day 03
[This message forwarded from their sailmail status report.]
Miami Passage - Day 3, October 4 Hello from the Atlantic Ocean, 35*17'N, 75*19''W. We left you as we were tacking toward Cape Hatteras, the graveyard of the Atlantic. Many correspondents have written after we put up our float plan, urging us to use caution, and Lydia's beside herself about it, nearly "ditchng" the trip (tossing the passage and going on the ICW, derisively named, but appropriately so, "The Ditch"). Our bearing off, and review of our progress and anticipated time of arrival put her in a better frame of mind, however, so she went off to her rest while I kept watch and tacked. But first I had to retrieve the three Mahi-Mahi I hooked in quick succession. Unfortunately for both of us, the first one didn't make it into the boat, but was injured in the process. Ah, well, life goes on, and she'll feed something else in the food chain. The second one was on the hook at virtually the same time as the first, so after I lost the first one, I dealt with her. She came aboard without much fuss, and I tossed out the hook immediately, and was rewarded with a large female, again, but this one put up quite a fight. I got my exercise tonight, but the last two were boated by 6:30, and fileted right after our tack. We'll get 5 meals from those ladies, for which we're immensely grateful and blessed. In addition to supplementing our budget, they're delicious. They're marinating in Mojo, a Cuban spicy marinade, while we finish the last of our steak shown in the pix my brother took aboard. After our tack, wouldn'tcha know, the wind essentially died, but stayed right on our course. As our weather window for Hatteras is relatively short, we reluctantly turned on the engine and motorsailed at the 200 degrees needed to hit our mark. If the forecast holds, we'll have equally light winds, but at our back, until we make it around. For the night, however, the previous afternoon's 3-5' waves have died along with the wind, and it's a smooth ride. Lydia took over at 9:15 and I went down for my sleep. The night was entirely uneventful, with placid waters and little wind. What little there was was between a beat and right on our nose, so we got a little lift, but eventually was so directly ahead of us that Lydia wound in the genoa, as it was luffing and doing no good. However, between the Stugeron (an anti-seasick medication available over the counter everywhere but in the US) she took earlier, and the placid ride, she was entirely over her seasickness, and we enjoyed the eggs on toast breakfast she made as I got up to listen for Chris. The first three tries at hearing Chris were busts, again, but his 8:30 broadcast was loud and clear. He gave us the limits of the Gulf Stream for the remainder of our trip, so later, I plotted them as a "route" on MaxSea, the navigation program we use at the nav station, as it gives much more detail, and in huge scale by comparison (about 8 times the screen area) to our chartplotter. As long as we stay north or west of that "route" we should be able to avoid the contrary effects of the strong current we enjoyed on the way to Maine. Our weather for the next few days looks pretty good, too. The doldrums are forecasted to continue well past Hatteras, which, at our current rate and direction, looks to come just about the time I'll send this out. We should be able to clear our waypoint there before dark, and point off to Frying Pan Shoals. If the winds are good for that, we should be able to do that in a rhumb line, avoiding the Cape Lookout Shoals, but still remaining well clear of the Gulf Stream. Winds are forecast to clock around to North or Northeast, but still be under 10 knots as we start out on that leg. Of course, NOAA, any of my correspondents writing to caution about the no-wind expected, and Chris, all missed the Hanna-quality wind and seas we encountered our first day, so anything can happen, and we remain vigilant. By Sunday afternoon, winds should pick up to about 15 knots at 50-60 degrees, which may make for a spinnaker run. With our boat speed, the apparent wind should remain in the single digits if that materializes. Monday, however, promises to be a bit more boisterous, as showers and squalls, starting as 12-15 knots, may include some 20-30 knot winds. Complicating our Sunday and Monday travels is the expected E to SE 6-7' swells due to a front offshore, but later Monday is expected to see only 2-4' waves. Depending on where we are (room to slide, not immediately offshore one of the shoal areas), we may heave to for a while. Having passed Hatteras in the good time window, we'll be under no particular time pressure, weather or otherwise, so taking a break then would probably be much more comfortable for the crew! Of course, again, everything's subject to change so we may find benign conditions, instead. So far, that little bunch above aside, the weather looks very good for our passage to GA and then down FL. We're hopeful it holds; certainly another bout like we found on our first leg isn't on our wish list :{)) Otto, our autopilot, has been very much happier since I tightened up the steering system, not hunting nearly as much, and rewarded us with about 48 hours of never "falling off" (going into standby). Just about the time we mused on why and how that could be, however, he returned to his old habits and falls off unpredictably. Lydia had one instance, which, depending on the timing, will perhaps show up on our SPOT tracking as a quickie detour to the East. Otherwise, our route is pretty much straight as a die, and, which beats the first leg's experience, boring. Reading and boat chores, including attaching hooks and eyes to the previously launched drawers, were on the schedule today. Well, things remained boring right through when Lydia got up at about 4, when we were joined, sort of, by some porpoises in the distance. One went right under our stern while we were sitting on the back porch, but they didn't want to play. Astern, we saw several doing the Flipper act, as they jumped out of the water, presumably in joy. I'll leave you there, as we're about to get to the dreaded Hatteras shoals. We have been able to see the lighthouse off in the distance, and we've just picked up the red lateral mark with the binoculars. Unless there's something else at work, our passage of the Hatteras intersection should be uneventful. Stay Tuned! L8R Skip Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog "You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it however." (and) "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts." (Richard Bach, in The Reluctant Messiah) |
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