Dangers of crossing gulf stream to bahamas

But inevitably during its transit it will be taken beyond its target. The real dangers in crossing the Gulf Stream arent the rough sea conditions that prevail when there is bad weather they are the real day to day man-made menaces.

The first is weather.

Dangers of crossing gulf stream to bahamas. The advice to cross in a south wind rings true. As it was an east wind crossing the current sideways didnt help much either. Another hazard is due to the Gulf Streams warm waters which can create its own weather particularly thunderstorms with lightning heavy rain and strong winds.

The current affects every boat whether power or sail. Crossing the Gulf Stream can be as easy as a day trip on Long Island Sound or Chesapeake Bay but it can also be a challenging undertaking that can have unfortunate consequences. It all depends on your planning preparation and above all patience for the right weather window.

There are two things to consider when contemplating you Cross the Gulf Stream. The first is weather. When it comes to weather the worst part is having a wind from the north pushing against the north bound current.

This can cause the waves to build higher than they would otherwise be and also they will be steeper and almost square in shape. The Gulf Stream is a part of earths climate circulation pattern which pumps excess heat from the sun beating down on the tropicsnorth to the poles and thus it has far reaching effects. For example even though merry old London is about as far north as Hudson Bay Canada it has a much warmer and rainier year round climate courtesy of the Gulf Stream.

The part that gets tricky about the Gulf Stream is that if the wind is flowing in the opposite direction from anywhere north it makes the Gulf Stream act wild and causes waves and rough seas that even the most seasoned sailors dont want to be involved and us rookies sailors clearly have no interest in. But while the stream exerts influence on almost the entire trip tofrom the Bahamas it does not cover the entire Florida Straits between the Keys and Cuba and thus you can get some westing on either side of the stream. For crossing the Gulf Stream as fast as possible your heading should never be any amount south of due east on the way to the Bahamas or south of due west on the.

As we motored through the stream the boat rolled hard. The movement of sailing is so much nicer than motoring. After all our hull wasnt designed to motor and its really quite strenuous with a following sea.

Its hard to hold a tiller steady or on course when the boat is rolling and you are doing all you can just to stay upright. Gulf Stream Crossing to the Bahamas. Decisions are made unmade questioned pondered remade and after a time settled upon when staging for an upcoming Gulf Stream crossing.

Fellow Island Packet owners and full time cruisers Jim and Laurie aboard Their Island Packet 350 Kismet stopped by while both boats were anchored in South Beach. Going Eastward - Crossing the Gulf to the Bahamas Crossing the Gulf Stream from Port Everglades to West End. After all of the preparation we actually left the dock around 1830 on March 31st 2019 for our crossing the Gulf Stream from Port Everglades to West End Bahamas.

Boaters who cruise across the Gulf Stream are treated to a tactically demanding but quick passage from Floridas Atlantic Coast to the nearest of The Bahamas islands. Bimini and Grand Bahama specifically the town of West End. Crossing the Gulf Stream by Boat.

Crossing the Gulf Stream from Florida is not to be underestimated. Both wind and waves were extremely calm all day which made for a safe and uneventful crossing but also required us to motor all day. Thats ok by me.

I consider crossing the Gulf Stream something to get over with so we can enjoy the Bahamas not really a pleasant day of sailing for its own sake. Nowadays with the advantage of technology and taking some very good precautions boats on the smaller side like 21 footers and even PWC are making the crossing successfully with no incidents. Now crossing the gulf stream can be really dangerous and should not be taken lightly.

There is a minimum skill level that you must have. Crossing the Gulf Stream. When we decided to sell the ranch and buy a boat the whole plan was to visit the Bahamas on the boat.

Accordingly we researched boats that would be capable of the venture. Certain appealing models were eliminated because of concerns about whether they could handle crossing the dreaded Gulf Stream. Crossing the Gulf Stream to The Bahamas.

The Explorer Chart Books describe a good weather window for a Gulf Stream crossing as Yesterdays breeze was SE at 15 knots or less and todays forecast is clocking toward S at no more than 15 knots and tomorrows forecast is S-SW at no more than 15-20 knots. Most of the people motor or motorsail anyway. You dont have to feel bad about it.

The goal is to cross and then you can enjoy the sailing. In average it takes about 12 hours to cross from Miami to Bimini but we were trying to go easy on our motor so we left earlier than we initially wanted. We raised our anchor at 330 am Sunday morning.

To make a direct crossing. But inevitably during its transit it will be taken beyond its target. For every hour a vessel is in the Stream it will be pushed about 25 nautical miles to the north.

If a vessel is crossing from a departure point more or less on an equal latitude to its destination its first concern is to minimize the time it will be in the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream located along the east coast of the United States it is a fast current and result of the wind patterns acting on North Atlantic Ocean. The exact location and speed does vary slightly from day to day.

THE Gulf stream is northern current meaning its pushing to the north between Florida and Bahamas that flows at a rate of 25kt to 50 knots. Crossing the Gulf Stream Directly from Boot Key City Marina in Marathon Florida Keys to Bimini The Bahamas - Captains Log 1 Sailing Trip 1. Marathon Florida Keys to Bimini The Bahamas Nautical Miles.

130 NM didnt follow the initial route. The real dangers in crossing the Gulf Stream arent the rough sea conditions that prevail when there is bad weather they are the real day to day man-made menaces. You have to realize that there is a lot of commercial and pleasure boat traffic traveling up and down the coast of Florida at any given time and the odds of you being hit by something big and fast are rather high if you.

After a great six days in Ft. Pierce we left for the Bahamas at 8am on Sunday. The plan was to use a bearing toward a waypoint far ahead of us and about 20 nautical miles below the rhumb line to Great Harbour Cay Bahamas.

The idea being that the Gulf Stream would push us northward and put us on our line just as we left the stream.