How to find the Gulf Stream Current? Leave it to MANDY
04 May 2010 | Charleston, SC
VC
Does anyone remember a funky movie made in the late sixties called "Journey through my eye"? In it a team of cardiac specialists are shrunk down to micro-cell size in order that they can be injected through the cornea of a patient requiring adjustment in his aorta. Their mission is to travel through the uncharted currents of the poor man's body from his aqueous fluids into his veins and arteries, to the heart and their intended goal. Surgery not an option - can't remember why. On their mind bending journey they suffer attacks from combative white corpuscles and encounter spectacular problems passing between rubbery cell walls as well as navigating through gooey masses of various bodily fluids. It was probably B movie material but good in a "Lost in Space" kind of way.
Our recent journey crossing a small portion of the Atlantic to Charleston from the Bahamas made memories of this movie suddenly appear (odd how the mind works, especially after several days at sea). Finding our way into the illusive Gulf Stream to get a boost of speed north was not as fraught as the movie, but it had its moments. What we knew when we set out with some predicted good weather and wind, over the top of the northern most Bahamas, was that we would be adding 2-4 knots of speed once we found the stream.. Our expected obstacles we had been told would be a counter current, just off the Bahamas and possibly big seas if the wind direction countered the current at any point.
After the first twelve hours, without too much counter current slow down, we began to sail over 5 knots and thought that we had begun to feel the effects of the stream already, as the wind had not noticeably strengthened. However, it lasted for only a couple of hours and then petered out and we were back to a normal average speed and in the succeeding twenty-four hours a messy rolling sea that had us both nauseated and disinclined to get anything but the essentials done. Since her crew had stopped trying very hard, Mandy battled the unpleasant sea and babysat us at the same time. The following night she found her own way into the Gulf Stream and we suddenly awoke from our torpor as her movement changed to a wonderful slip and slide feel. We looked on the chart plotter to find we she was travelling at seven and a half knots with ease. Not bad for a 28 foot boat! We were in the jugular artery of the world and thus came unbidden my movie.
Another of the obstacles on our Atlantic sea journey was a renewed confrontation with other vessels crossing our path. It seems incredible in that vast ocean that inevitably there is a mega-tanker that wants your ocean space and wants it NOW. Even when feeling pukey, we had to keep a sharp watch for traffic, as one minute there is nothing and fifteen minutes later you have a monster eating up the distance between you in a very sobering fashion. They want the Gulf Stream as much as we do, but have the mass to push us out of the way to get it. Actually most of the time our experience has been that the captains on these hulks are very aware, even of something our miniscule size, and they change course around us in a considerate way, but there are always exceptions out there.
When we arrived in Charleston, South Carolina seventy hours later we noticed two things. The first was that as we entered the harbor in rain and fog we were bowled over by the smell of flowers. You can often smell the land intensely after days at sea, but this smell of garden flowers was distinct. We later read that Charleston is famous for its Gardenias and it was those which sent out a sensory welcome to us weary travelers.
The second thing was that our re-entry to the United States is at latitude 32 which is exactly the same as that when we left from San Diego; a completely unplanned co-incidence but interesting nevertheless. So here we are back on U.S. soil. We checked back into the country with very little official "hullabaloo" and are now anchored in the Ashley River enjoying listening to South Carolina National Public Radio and hearing all the well loved voices talking with intelligence and wit.