Midnight to 3 AM

Latitude 24 52 N
Longitude 88 28 W
4/5/2013 12:18 AM

I thought I’d blog daily while crossing the Gulf of Mexico. Things tend to get in the way.

I’m not complaining, but this has been the roughest Gulf Crossing I’ve ever had. Poseidon and Zeus have been conspiring to keep us from passing west of the 91st Longitude (roughly the mouth of the Mississippi River) by throwing strong SE and E winds at us. For 3 full days the winds we were experiencing winds in excess of 20 knots and for 4 hours right after dark until after midnight (on the 2nd, I think), it blew in excess of 45 knots sustained! Ok, now I’m complaining….

Late yesterday evening the winds moderated and we finally got past 91 and began to gain some ground on Florida. Today we finally had a frontal system pass through, bringing with it 20-30 knot winds from the North/NorthWest. Yippee!! With the winds at our backs, we’re finally able to make between 6 and 8 knots towards the Dry Tortugas!!

We’ve each made guesses as to our arrival day/time:

Tom says Sunday at 9:47 AM (he’s very precise about these things) Michelle thinks we’ll arrive Saturday at Midnight
I’ve suggested that we can keep up this blazing speed and arrive Saturday at Noon (I’m just hoping for a daylight arrival).

It’s amazing what a simple change in wind direction can do for moral!