05/09/2019
Hey all,
Here is the link to the Spot Tracker for Sea Witch's passage north this year.
Either should work.
https://tinyurl.com/SeaWitchSpotTracker
https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Bd3URaRriOY257TcAJP9poEZgsPaH8Xg
Sea Witch had a beautiful spinnaker run from St. Thomas to West Palm on the first leg, but now leg two looks like a completely different animal. We'll hopefully catch as many or more fish, but it's doubtful we'll have the spinnaker up as much or if at all.
THE PLAN
We're going to slip our mooring this (Wednesday) morning May 8th and proceed out Lake Worth Inlet for sea.
The Gulf Stream is extremely close to shore, about 0.5nm (nautical miles), and we'll steer 067M (Magnetic) to intercept it. From there well sail in the middle of the Gulf Stream north as it gradually works it's way offshore.
Once we are abeam of the Florida/Georgia Line the Gulf Stream starts it's arc following the Continental Shelf. As we approach Cape Fear the Gulf Stream becomes disorganized and falls apart before reorganizing as we approach Cape Lookout. Just below Cape Lookout is Morehead City, the last safe harbor deep enough for Sea Witch to enter for the next 240nm before reaching Virginia Beach. Between Morehead City and Virginia Beach is Cape Hatteras and the treacherous Diamond Shoals, which extend offshore for over 15nm ESE from the Cape.
Right now there appears to be a "minor" Lo pressure that will exit the coast somewhere around the Chesapeake Bay and stall, which wouldn't be problem if it wasn't for the second IMPULSE/LO following behind it that's going to bring the pain. We're expecting 30-40kts gusting to 50kts, with severe rain and thunder around Cape Hatteras. The wind starts building from the east but eventually backs to the north-northwest which means it's blowing counter to the Gulf Stream, creating true survival conditions.
To knowingly sail into those conditions off Cape Hatteras is nothing short of lunacy, as it's considered a perfect boat trap. If you find yourself sailing north in the Gulf Stream and the wind starts blowing as hard as predicted we'd be facing standing 20' waves only five seconds apart. If you turn west you'll end up on the shoals, if you turn east you'll face days of some of the most horrendous seas imaginable. If you somehow manage to claw your way north of the cape and run for shore you'll risk being driven back onto the shoals, and if you decide to bail out and run south you risk being rundown by huge seas and broaching.
Basically, we have until Sunday dawn to get off the water if we're north of Cape Hatteras and until Sunday sunset if south of Cape Hatteras. So we're probably going to sail past Cape Fear/Frying Pan Shoals and slip into Morehead City south of Cape Lookout to sit this one out for a day or two.
Once the weather abates and we're around Cape Hatteras we'll ride the Gulf Stream further offshore to setup for a wind shift that will allow us to lay New York Harbor. At least that's the plan.
Of course everything can change with the weather, as forecasts more than a couple of days out are usually nothing but best guesses.
SPOT MESSAGE LEGEND
I've been asked numerous times over the years to give more information about the conditions we're experiencing and the funny thing is I do all the time, it's just that most people can't interpret the information, so I'm going to give you a legend so you can follow along at home if you so desire.
There are two types of messages you'll see on the map...
TRACKS -- Which are simply position updates transmitted every 10 minutes automatically.
CHECK-IN/OK -- Which are messages I send out. There are two types, predefined ones that can be up to 110 characters and Type & Send messages that are limited to 45 characters. If you click the plus next to the entry in the list you can expand it and see what I've said.
Some of the messages will be in plain English and easy to understand, but most will be boat status messages sent for the benefit of our shore based weather router Bob. These are the messages that have all kinds of information in them if you just know how to read them.
Sample Message to Bob: 165M AW15.6S120 BSP7.8 SEA2mESE82.8Slpy Spin
165M -- 165 DEGREES MAGNETIC NORTH -- The course we're attempting to sail. (Possible variation is 165T meaning 165 DEGREES TRUE NORTH)
AW15.6S120 -- APPARENT WIND 15.6 KNOTS on our STARBOARD side at 120 DEGREES RELATIVE -- Wind speed and where it is coming from relative to the boats course. (Possible variation is P for PORT instead of S for STARBOARD)
BSP7.8 -- BOAT SPEED 7.8 KNOTS -- How fast we show the boat moving through the water.
SEA2mESE82.8Slpy -- SEAS 2 METERS (6 feet) coming from the EAST-SOUTHEAST 82.8 DEGREES WATER TEMPERATURE and a SLOPPY sea state. (Possible variations are other compass directions from which the waves are coming, and different sea states; Bldg - BUILDING, Dim - DIMINISHING, Cnfd - CONFUSED, Calm - CALM, Brk - Breaking)
Spin -- Spinnaker -- Our current sail configuration. (Possible variations Main - MAINSAIL, Miz - MIZZEN, Gen - GENOA, Jib - JIB. An "R" in front of a sail name means it's reefed such as Rgen - REEFED GENOA
