The Gulf Stream is one of the world’s natural wonders. It’s
a 40 mile wide stream of water that runs northwards from Florida to the
Chesapeake Bay, and then heads out across the Atlantic towards Britain. The
stream has scoured the east coast of the US into an almost straight line and is
one of the main warm water conveyor belt systems in the oceans that keeps the
UK as temperate as we know it while the rest of Europe suffers from much colder
weather.
Imagine being in this body of water that effortlessly pushes
you along at anything between one and five knots depending on where you are in
the stream itself. Then add to that whatever speed you can achieve yourself given
the prevailing weather conditions and you can achieve some pretty amazing speeds
over ground. We managed in excess of 13.5 knots at times and we achieved over
200 nautical miles in a 24 hour stretch which is a record for Tumi.
There is a down side to this natural wonder – if the wind is
in the wrong direction (anything from the North) then you get a conflict
between the elements, commonly known as wind over tide. This kicks up some
rough water and the sea state becomes very confused, with short steep ugly
waves that pound the boat every few seconds as each new wave hits the bow. It
makes for some pretty uncomfortable sailing. Add to that the speed of the water
running against the wind and the higher the speeds, the higher the seas. You
get the picture. Well, we have just come through two days of northerly winds.
QED. On the third day, the weather forecasters promised us easterly winds
blowing at between 10 and 15 knots. Perfect for our trip. Wrong! We had 30 to
45 knots of easterly winds that confused the seas even more and we were tossed
around for another 24 hours, making good speeds, but not smoothly in a way that
encouraged any sleep in between watches as the waves relentlessly attacked the
boat.
Then we needed to round the notorious Cape Hatteras, the
graveyard of many a brave ship. Actually, the Cape was a complete pussycat and we
rounded the shoals without incident, although shortly afterwards, I had my
first radio exchange with a US Navy Warship ( number 75) who hailed us to ask
that we pass port to port. No problem, the rules of the road say that is what
is expected of us, and I was happy to oblige. Always glad to help the armed
forces.
On to the matter of the aliens. Many people know that Debra
is frightened of the dark and if she sees strange lights at night she wonders
if it could be aliens! Well, we can’t
explain what we both saw yesterday. It was going dark, but still twilight and
there was a full moon to light the evening. Up in the sky not too far in front
of us some orange lights appeared in a line 4 across. They were not moving, but
stationary. Then they disappeared to reappear in another part of the sky, still
hovering up there, then they disappeared for a while and came back a few
minutes later. This continued for a while, then the aliens got fed up and went
away. We were perplexed to say the least and Debra probably didn’t let on that
seeing what we had both seen independently, the thought of being whisked away
stopped her from sleeping. The aliens
came back again tonight, but only briefly. If Tumi should arrive at a harbour
looking like the Marie Celeste, you know we have been abducted and are now living
on the planet Zyg.