Underway: Key West Ahead, Cuba to the Right

Friday, April 25, 2003

022-45.000 N
084-26.700 W

Ahoy from the BlueJacket! We're currently underway from Isla Mujeres, Mexico to Key West, FL. We departed yesterday afternoon at around 3 PM and expect to be in Key West sometime early afternoon tomorrow. It's a 330 mile sail, so that translates to flying.

The weather window looked great for a departure; winds out of the SE clocking to the SW over 48 hours. And they were supposed to have been in the 15-20 kt range. Well, the National Weather Service got the wind direction right, but got the velocity wrong. It's blowing 25-30 kts right now! We've had 2 reef in since we left and we're finally on a beam to broad reach.

That point of sail is much nicer than what we had we left. Actually it wasn't bad when we left, but when we got into a 3.5 kt north-bound current that was on our beam, we had to turn big time into the wind to maintain anything that resembled the course that we wanted to hold. I eventually put the motor on for 3 hours just to help get us out of the current. It really didn't subside completely until we were in the lee of the Cuban coast.

Last night certainly wasn't a good night for sleeping with 5-7' seas. But this morning both of us were able to catch some sleep and I feel much more rested. As I said, at our current speed of 8+ kts, we'll be in Key West tomorrow PM and we're looking forward to a good nights rest.

Well, I've got Mom's recipe for tuna burgers in the oven, so I've got to get this sent off. Have a good one!

-- Geoff & Sue
Log ID: 364