It’s Sunday mid-morning and we are barreling along at double digit speeds over the bottom in the Gulf Stream nearly 200 miles from our departure point in Ft Pierce and about 350 miles from Cape Hatteras. After that point, we will exit the Gulf Stream and head the final 400 miles to Montauk and home up the CT River.
It’s been windier than Chris Parker had predicted and until the early hours of this morning we were motorsailing into a very confused Gulf Stream with 5-7′ waves that hit us about every 4 seconds. With about 15-20kts of wind opposing the current, it made for quite a ride. (Not in a good way)
Actually, it was rough enough that it was tough to get around the boat and spray was flying everywhere with a near constant stream of water heading down the decks.
Actually, the water running everywhere was a good thing as it conveniently washed away the “effluent” from Chris and Dave who spent much of the evening and overnight hours “feeding the fish.”
Fortunately, I wasn’t sick so I was able to stand extra watch and let them lay down, one on the leeward cockpit bench and the other on the cockpit sole. It wasn’t a lot of fun for them, I am sure.
When it comes to seasickness, it’s not a matter of “I don’t get sick;” it’s more a matter of when. It has been said that if you haven’t been seasick, you haven’t spent enough time at sea. And, last night it was plenty rough indeed.
The good news is that it has smoothed out somewhat and we are now off of Georgia, about 100 miles from the coast and making our way north with the Gulf Stream, making between 9-11kts over the bottom. Pandora’s romping along at as much as 8.5kts through the water with about 15kts of wind on the beam so it’s quite a ride.
There is more wind than we had expected, which is good, so we are making better time.
Of course, with about 2/3 of the distance yet to go, there is plenty of time for us to run into adverse conditions so it’s hard to say when we will be home. However, baring a need to stop and wait for weather, I am guessing that we will be home sometime on Thursday or perhaps early Friday.
For now, I hope that the wind holds so we can keep moving and hope that crew is able to say vertical as we make our way north. It’s certainly true that if you haven’t been seasick than you, well you just haven’t been sick yet. So far, so good for me on this trip and I think that Chris and Dave are on the mend. Fingers crossed that the worse is behind us.
Setting aside the fact that I am not a huge fan of passage making, the fact that it’s Mother’s day and I am out here instead with my Mother and Brenda is a bummer. I guess I’ll have to make it up to them when I get home.
And, that’s my report…
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