Life on a Mooring - Part 2
With the solar panels installed, we started to look seriously for a
weather window to go to the Bahamas. To get to the Bahamas from
Florida, you have to cross the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream is a major
river in the ocean running North up the Florida coast at speeds up to
3 knots. So in a sailboat that does 6 knots, you have to head about 20
degrees upstream of your destination with the stream carrying you
northward. The other tricky part is when the wind is against the
current. Wind against the current sets up a square wave pattern (waves
with steep sides) that can range from uncomfortable to downright
dangerous. So the conventional wisdom is to cross the stream only in
winds with no north component. This sounds reasonable, but what it
means is that you have to wait for a cold front to come through. In
advance of the front, the winds clock from the north, to the east,
then south, then west and back to north. When the winds shift to the
east and drop to less than 15 knots, about one day is required for the
Gulf Stream waves to quiet down and then about one day is required for
the crossing with the winds shifting to the south and still below 15
knots. This is classically the "window to cross". On the third
day, the front usually starts to make its presence felt with stronger
winds from the southwest shifting to the north. Unfortunately, fronts
do not always follow this pattern. The "window to cross" can be
less than a day (too short a window) or the winds can be too high,
which mean the waves do not settle down. So listening to weather
reports and watching weather patterns becomes an important exercise
when planning to cross. On Monday, after downloading and listening to
all the weather information, we could not see a window until possibly
later in the week. So after this exercise, an ice cream cone was in
order and we wandered into the "old" district of Stuart in
search of a cone. We successfully found the ice cream, making it a
productive day. We had already decided that if we could not find a
window this week, we would stay in Stuart for Christmas as we did not
want to travel over the Christmas holidays and Stuart was a good spot
to hang out.
After following the weather for most of the week, there looked to be a
short window on Saturday. It was a window that might or might not stay
open and would have been rough on the Bahamas side. So after much
consultation, we decided to relax and enjoy ourselves here for
Christmas and then try for a window in the New Year. With that
decision made, we went out and rented a car for a week to do a bit of
land cruising. Our first trip out we explored the beaches on
Hutchinson Island. The water looked great, a clear turquoise blue. It
was a little cool and rough for swimming but the water did look
inviting. It was just a great day of wandering the beaches. On Sunday,
a front came through with high winds and rain, so we did like other
Floridians and went to the mall. There we picked up Christmas
decorations and now our mast inside the boat is a Christmas tree.