Day 5 – On the Gulfstream Express

Howdy from somewhere north of Bermuda. Today has brought the arrival of the Gulfstream current and a number of changes come along with it. The best part is we have had a 2-2.5 knot push all morning and that combined with a 15 knot sw’ly is giving us a speed over ground consistently over 10 knots!  For a 40 foot cruising boat with only two people on board that is definitely “hauling the mail”. Yesterday afternoon was quiet and slow with the wind never above 10 knots as the wind slowly transitioned from the NW to the promised SW.
The Gulfstream has also brought us some clouds which is a nice change from the searing sun, although the humidity is higher.  Pointing east, once the sun moves into the west there are few places to hide. We spend a lot of the afternoon up on the bow hiding from the sun behind the mainsail. This was one of my concerns. We haven’t spent very much time outside this year like in years past getting our skin tanned and that means 20 or so days of near constant sun will require gallons of sunscreen.
The water is more blue here. Not like the cold dark Pacific we are used to. This morning I asked Chris if we would see any flying fish. We debated about being so far north, but in the warm waters of the Gulfstream (it’s 82F today). Not one minute later a flying fish went skittering 100 feet across the wave tops right next to the boat. Debate over.
We opened the first of our care packages sent by my parents – we’ll be enjoying the energy bars later today (thank you!).

Current position:  38 31′ 54″N 65 39′ 01″
24 hour run:  127nm
Distance to go:  1736nm

1 comment