MIAMI TO CHARLESTON – WIND, WEATHER & WAVES

MIAMI TO CHARLESTON – WIND, WEATHER & WAVES

We’ve had a fabulous Winter again in Florida. We’re leaving in the morning from our slip in Dinner Key Marina, Coconut Grove, Miami. We’ll will anchor for a few hours near Fisher’s Island, FL. This is adjacent to Miami’s Government Cut – the big channel that the cruise ships use to get in and out of Miami. Greg  has an 11AM work phone call. After that we raise anchor and head out. In the picture below you can see a small white boat to the left (West) of Fisher’s Island. That’ll be us.  It’s only a mile to the channel and another ten miles max to the Gulf Stream. The GS is closest to land at this point, which is great for us, because it will give us a 3-4 knot push North all the way to Charleston. So, being able to enter it so early is excellent.

Below is a picture of our routes this year and the last two years. The green line to the right was a possible route from the Bahamas two years ago, but we used the red route to its’ left that year. The red route further left that you see going through the words “Vero Beach” is the one we used last year, and the one we’ll take this year – tomorrow. It leaves Miami and arrives Charleston – 491 statute miles, or 430 nautical miles.

Dream Catcher's routes

The arrow shaped island below A1A is where cruise ships dock

The best thing about this trip is that waiting for the right weather we can get a push from the South wind and a push from the North flowing Gulf Stream and make 10 – 11 knots most of the way, as opposed to 6 - 7 with no stream push. This means instead of a three-day trip we’ll have a 48-hour trip. Very cool. And riding North in the stream with a South wind from the S) usually means good wave conditions, at least until we exit the stream 100 miles SE of Charleston.

Here's more on the Gulf Stream http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/gulfstreamspeed.html

Heat signature picture. The Gulf Stream is much warmer than the surrounding ocean. See how we can enter close to Miami, and ride it most of the way.

Last year the last 100 miles were awful – three sets of waves from three different directions – the proverbial washing machine. We recently learned about the Charleston Bump! This is a deep-water bottom feature roughly 100 miles southeast of Charleston - our exit position from the Gulf Stream. The Bump rises from the relatively flat and deep Blake Plateau that lies beyond the edge of the continental shelf off of South Carolina and Georgia. This may have been responsible for the washing machine effect last year. However, in 2015 we had a pleasant trip through here. Go figure! More on the Charleston Bump:

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/islands01/background/islands/sup11_bump.html

We’ll hope this year is better. The forecast is for 15-20 kt winds with gusts to 25, building on Sunday morning to 20-24, gusts to high 20’s. Later Sunday the winds get even higher for several days, accompanied by thunderstorms. This is why we have no BD party in Boca! We need to leave by noon tomorrow to get into Charleston by noon Sunday – before the crummy stuff happens. BTW, going in the direction of the wind and waves makes it feel like the wind is 7 knots less that the actual wind. So, our anticipated 25 knot winds entering Charleston ought to feel like 17-18 knot winds coming from behind. Not bad at all, and a great sail if the waves cooperate.

 Just so you know, when the wind is from the North (N, NE, NW, any north component) they will “oppose” the Gulf Stream currents. This makes for high and sharp waves – often 10 feet high and very close together. We’d never get far in these conditions; and we’d be bashed silly.

We’ll have SPOT on the whole way so you can see where we are throughout the trip. Currently we’re the footprint dot on the left in Coconut Grove. You can see Fisher’s Island in the upper right corner.

See our location on SPOT - you may have to hit + or - to get perspective:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=05o1Jrcxl3EcKZvRQOOQMvDfEoygHkLaL

On to Charleston!  :)