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.
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| Dream Catcher's routes |
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| 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
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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:
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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.
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:
On to Charleston! :)
1 comment:
Love seeing your route and photos. Thanks for sharing it. Safe travels.
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