Gulf Stream update to the Bahamas

Routing to Bahamas looks pretty straight forward and these currents are very similar to what we saw a couple of years ago.  Of course, 2 months from now it will be different.

Basically optimum current routing is to go down the coast to mid lat S.Carolina and cross a weak part of the GS and then sail a line that runs east of the rhumbline to stay in a favorable counter-current.  When we get closer to landfall, we would make a turn to the SW and put another current on our port beam.  Waypoints, if we were leave today are:

33N 075W
27N 076.5W

Weather-wise it is kind of quiet today with prevailing systems Westerlies in northern part of run - shifting through NW and SW depending on passing systems, easterlies and SElies in southern part of run.

The tropics have been quiet along our route, but the season is still young.  There is a low coming off Africa which has all the makings of an event, but GRIB is routing it to go north right now.  None-the-less, it is essential to stay on-top of it.

Gulf Stream analysis

Latest Gulf Steam analysis.

Right now the GS is doing a little wiggle to the east off Cape Fear, which makes routing more complicated than the last time we made this trip. If we were to leave today we would have two major alternatives 1. get across early and then go south or 2. work our way down the east coast and go across further down south.  In this case, we should let weather define our routing.  If the weathers iffy, then the coastal route makes more sense and gives us options to duck into if necessary. 

Usually the GS is a bit more west of its current location off Cape Fear at this time but suspect when we get around to November, that will be the case.  Also looking for a nice southbound eddy like the one we found on the last trip but don't see anything to get excited about just yet.