It\u2019s Tuesday mid-day and we are on our way.\u00a0 We left the dock at 08:00 this morning and are now off of Cape Henry and about 100 miles from the Gulf Stream.\u00a0 We were given our entrance and exit points for the Stream from Chris Parker but when we put them into the plotter they don\u2019t really make a lot of sense.\u00a0 Oh well.\u00a0 \u00a0I checked his messages to us and they are indeed the numbers he provided.\u00a0 Perhaps I\u2019ll check with another SDR boat and see what they have as waypoints.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t sleep much last night as I was constantly mulling over last minute details of what I might have missed.\u00a0 After a week in Hampton, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder if I had missed something, or many somethings, that I needed to do.<\/p>\n
Speaking of \u201csomethings\u201d, I went up the mast yesterday, in the rain, to check and see if I could find out where the cotter pin might have come from that we found on top of the dink that\u2019s lashed on the cabin top.\u00a0 I still don\u2019t know where it came from for sure but there isn\u2019t a pin missing anywhere on the boat, of that I am certain.\u00a0\u00a0 My best guess is that it was tangled up in a bundle of straps that I used to tie down the dink and that it was left on the dink after we were finished tying it down.<\/p>\n
We are moving along fairly well on a beam reach in fairly lumpy seas at between 6-7 kts.\u00a0 Once we are further offshore and in deeper water I expect that the wave period will spread out and we will likely have a bit more wind to steady the boat.\u00a0 Jerking around is a bit unpleasant when the wind fluctuates less.<\/p>\n
There are plenty of boats heading out today and I\u2019d say that at least a dozen are within sight as I write this.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see how our speed compares to others as the fleet spreads out.\u00a0 Those boats that don\u2019t leave today will probably have to wait another week as there is a strong cold front exiting the coast later this week and going through the GS would be quite nasty with near gale force winds out of the NE.\u00a0 Not a good time to be in the Gulf Stream for sure.<\/p>\n
Speaking of \u201cweather\u201d, we will be watching a system that may be developing about half way between Africa and the Caribbean.\u00a0 It may become a late season tropical storm or, more likely, will just dissipate.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to say at this juncture, but if needed we will bail out to Bermuda or perhaps the Bahamas. I really hope that doesn\u2019t happen but it will be a few days till we know more.\u00a0\u00a0 With all the changes in the weather this time of year, I can\u2019t imagine doing a trip like this without regular communication with a weather router.<\/p>\n
Speaking of communication, we have two check in times each day on the SSB radio, once at 08:30 and the other at 17:00 where we are to provide our coordinates as well as the wind speed and wave height.\u00a0 There will be 60 or more boats checking so the boats have been divided into two groups, one at 08:00 and the other at 08:30.\u00a0 I expect that check-ins will take quite a long time.<\/p>\n
I guess that\u2019s about all I have to say for now.\u00a0 I\u2019ll likely post tomorrow after we exit the eastern point of the Gulf Stream.\u00a0 We\u2019ll probably be running the engine after that as I believe that the wind might be a bit light.\u00a0 Not sure though.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll learn more in the morning when we listen to Chris Parker again.<\/p>\n
Nope, we aren\u2019t even close to \u201cthere\u201d but it\u2019s good to be underway.<\/p>\n
Stay tuned and wish us luck.\u00a0\u00a0 Pandora out\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s Tuesday mid-day and we are on our way.\u00a0 We left the dock at 08:00 this morning and are now off of Cape Henry and about 100 miles from the Gulf Stream.\u00a0 We were given our entrance and exit points for the Stream from Chris Parker but when we put them into the plotter they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5055,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5054\/revisions\/5055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}