Saturday, June 13, 2009

Update from the Gulf Stream, sort of

Chris here... if you're watching the SPOT, you've probably seen our path turn at a right angle to head towards Florida.  There's a series of heavy squalls pushing 40kt-50kt (50mph+) winds heading towards northern Florida, and Chris said that we'd have the highest probability of colliding with them overnight tonight and tomorrow morning, with the greatest chance happening in the Gulf Stream.  So... again... we've decided to play it safe and we're heading towards "Ponce De Leon Inlet" and New Myrna Beach in Florida and hope to continue to Charleston tomorrow.

A few other odds and ends... last night was very rolly (the boat was rolling heavily side to side which is uncomfortable but safe).  We've been averaging about 9.5kts over ground in the Gulf Stream which is pretty amazing.  We caught TWO Mahi-Mahi yesterday, both within 4 hours of leaving.  The second one was ginormous - about 4 feet.  I have a picture of Kristen holding it that I'll post.  Shiver got their waterpump and are heading out early afternoon to Charleston.  My guess is they'll probably pass by where we are tomorrow afternoon so we should be able to catch up to them.  We also heard from Sea Gypsy right after Chris Parker's broadcast this morning.  Sea Gypsy is a boat that we met in Vero Beach that has two younger kids on board - a very nice family.  Apparently they finally made it to the Abacos for a month but are now also heading north to Charleston - and they are traveling only about 15nm to our southeast!

So... our first entry back into the US won't be quite where we planned, but this time of year it's better to play it safe.  The squalls up north look really nasty on our Sirius weather so we'll be happy to avoid them.  We'll still have a 3 day/2 night trip.  We'll talk to you when we're all docked up.

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