Morning has Rosen
No big surprise, but, the sun rose today on schedule. We had a good first day with plenty of wind and 6-10 foot waves. Heading out to Hatteras was extremely rolly, and given the conditions the crew is in pretty good shape. We crossed the Hatteras light about 1:30 am and started to turn south. That puts the north east wind on our quarter and Comocean has started to flatten out. The northeast breeze over the Gulf Stream has two already in shorts and everyone starting to strip off clothes. The long johns are probably history…hurrah.
We had a beautiful night with clear skies after a sliver of sunset (photo). There seemed to be a reasonable amount of sleep among the crew given the rocking. Norm just finished the morning VHF call session which he is leading. The five boats close to us all reported in and continue to move south. We are gating our speed to both stay near these vessels but also not arrive at the Gulf Stream tomorrow too early. Too early is designated as we are waiting for the Northeast breeze to clock to the east, as a NE breeze over a north moving current ends up with a look similar to your top loader washing machine after you open it on wash. But, the ride feels like you climbed into the dryer at full cycle.
Seth relayed new GRIB (Weather, Wave, and barometric) data last night and we have the projected south winds filling in Thursday. We want to get south quickly to limit the slowed progress of a south wind in our south bound face.
John Hoffman has started the fishing with new lures Toby bought that guarantee Mahi-Mahi (Dolphin). Animal lovers, that’s Dolphin species…not porpoise. We do have a bet on the first porpoise siting. As we are still fairly enclosed in our full canvas enclosure, I do not expect that bet to be won for another day. Of course, that’s my bet.
We are headed toward Cape Fear (remember the movie) before turning south east to get across the Gulf Stream.