Bahamas to North Carolina Passage, Day Two

Well, that was civilized…

Just after lunch, noticing a glassy patch on the water and a slight rise in the sea temperature, Jordan let out some more fishing line and — fish on! —promptly caught a medium-sized mahimahi. He was able to land it and immediately filleted it on the transom.

Though the wind filled in a bit, our motor-sailing continued until 5 p.m. when we decided to cut the engine and sacrifice some speed for a quieter dinner (also gave us a chance to run the generator/fridge).

We took advantage of the incredibly settled weather (smooth surface seas over long-period 3-4 foot ocean swells) to set up the barbecue and grill the mahi. So far all of our pre-prepared passage meals have been tasty, but this fresh fish, accompanied by new potatoes and coleslaw, was a particularly delicious way to end the day.

After dinner, aided by the Gulf Stream current, we were still doing 6-7 knots over the ground and decided to keep sailing. Unfortunately, that only lasted until around 9 p.m. as the wind eased, clocking around our stern and we fired up the “iron genny” again. It’s been 5-10 true from our port quarter and we motor sailed with the genoa unfurled for the rest of the night.

Those following our track (at http://share.delorme.com/exit) may have noticed some eccentricities around 1 a.m. Jordan and I saw the assist from the current, and the sea temperature, decline together, a sign that we were exiting the Gulf Stream. I decided to try and head east to find it again, thinking that we’d come through the northwestern edge, but we started getting set by the current instead, at times making only 4.5 knots over the ground. During Linda’s 5:00 – 7:00 a.m. watch, after heading back to the course previously plotted by our PredictWind routing software, we returned to the northbound flow and are again getting a nice 1.2 knot push towards our destination.

So far not as much shipping traffic as anticipated, and what we’ve seen has been easily seen and avoided with AIS and radar.

We’re about halfway there, anticipating a Sunday-morning arrival.

All is well.