Avoiding Gulf Stream Current Headed S

[Snore]

Butch

I respect your career but the answer - based on repeated real world experience is hug the shoreline.

If one needs to test the comments, simply compare SOG to log speed at different distances


Sent from my iPhone- please forgive autocorrect errors.

[JayH]

Originally Posted by Snore

Butch

I respect your career but the answer - based on repeated real world experience is hug the shoreline.

If one needs to test the comments, simply compare SOG to log speed at different distances

I think the better answers here are that you hug the shore S of Ft Pierce, but that wasn't the OP's question. Off GA and SC you can be 50-60 miles out. Stay landward of the shelf in 100 feet or less and you should be fine.

My instruments calculate current set and drift automatically, but require the log to calibrated perfectly, which seems to be impossible in my case.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by JayH

I think the better answers here are that you hug the shore S of Ft Pierce, but that wasn't the OP's question. Off GA and SC you can be 50-60 miles out. Stay landward of the shelf in 100 feet or less and you should be fine.

My instruments calculate current set and drift automatically, but require the log to calibrated perfectly, which seems to be impossible in my case.

I agree with the 50-60 and the shelf which is 60+/- ,off Charleston, but err on the safe side I would stay within 45. I have seen some good sized items booking it north as fads past 45. We all know it changes daily.

[Snore]

Jay h

You are right I got diamond shoals confused with another waypoint.

My bad---- I shall perform an appropriate act of contrition.


Sent from my iPhone- please forgive autocorrect errors.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by pete33458

Never had to unsubscribe and ignore one of my own posts before, but I guess you never get too old to experience something new.

You are looking for a fixed answer regarding a variable current...not possible. Ive sailed this coast many times doing local deliveries and cruising and have encountered unexpected and highly variable currents close to shore...sometimes very close.

[adlib2]

Originally Posted by keepondancin

I think the best way to answer it would be to go to the NOAA website and check the Gulfstream charts. The GS is constantly moving, and gets quite close in Florida, sometimes, and really is quite far off as you get further North.

Precisely; So there is no Quickie answer~

[JUNKFLYBOY]

Very rarely do I read an entire thread, but this one was like a course in navagating the area ask about. Thanks to EVERYONE for the input!!!

Very helpful to an old guy that just blunders around in an old ALBERG 30

[trapoc]

Originally Posted by pete33458

While I thank you for your response, this is not the question I was asking. I know how to find the stream, multiple ways, including temperature, drift speed, change in depth, and official ocean current predictions. I am not really interested in finding where the stream is, though. What I am interested in is other peoples' opinions on a rule-of-thumb distance from shore going from Cape Hatteras or thereabouts to Ft. Pierce or thereabouts, that is, from north to south, against the stream. thanks!

I was 45 miles off the Carolinas in June headed south and the stream was no where to be found

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Jon Eisberg

Damn, if the sportfishing charter captains running out of Hatteras and Morehead City knew that, they could save themselves a lot fuel, rather than going all the way out to these notable GS waypoints:

Main destinations out of Beaufort Inlet to GS:

From MHC to Big Rock NE = 46.8 mi; to Big Rock SE = 51.02 mi; to the Rise = 50.7 mi; to Grouper Hole = 56.7 mi; to Swansboro Hole = 59.1; to Scallop Bed = 64.33.

I dunno, the views from space typically tell quite a different story, I've never seen a satellite image that places the Stream anywhere near as close inshore as you've described... Heading south, I have never felt any really noticeable effect of the Stream inside of the lines running from Diamond Shoals to Cape Lookout Shoals, and thence to Frying Pan... And, when riding the Stream northbound to a close rounding of Diamond Shoals, if you're still in the axis of the Stream by the time you're abeam of Cape Lookout, you've probably waited too long to bail out, and shoot straight for "R 2"... Even rounding that bouy, 10 NM SE of Hatteras Light, I doubt I've ever seen more than about 1 knot of NE current, at the most...

Well... I don't know what chart you are looking at , but the one you posted shows orange right off Hatteras!

[Jon Eisberg]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Well... I don't know what chart you are looking at , but the one you posted shows orange right off Hatteras!

Well, "right off Hatteras" looks to be at least 15 NM, increasing to about 30 NM off Cape Lookout...

I suppose you and I simply have a somewhat different impression of what is meant by the Stream being "very close to shore" between Hatteras and south of Morehead City...

;-)

[Cheechako]

Well, I only have experience in the stream off Hatteras once, so there are a lot more experienced people than me in that area! I do know that at the time it was blowing 20+ on a reach and I felt like I was sailing well, knot meter said 8-8.5 knots alot. Seas were lumpy due to wind against the stream. Unfortunately, the GPS was way slower than the knot meter and after getting cold water splashes prior to rounding Hatteras, suddenly the water was deep blue and felt like bath water. My boat was 47 feet but a smaller catamaran passed me fast inside of me closer to the beach and was making a lot better way than I was.

[Jon Eisberg]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Well, I only have experience in the stream off Hatteras once, so there are a lot more experienced people than me in that area! I do know that at the time it was blowing 20+ on a reach and I felt like I was sailing well, knot meter said 8-8.5 knots alot. Seas were lumpy due to wind against the stream. Unfortunately, the GPS was way slower than the knot meter and after getting cold water splashes prior to rounding Hatteras, suddenly the water was deep blue and felt like bath water. My boat was 47 feet but a smaller catamaran passed me fast inside of me closer to the beach and was making a lot better way than I was.

Nah, no worries, your experience only reinforces the one truism about that place:

No 2 roundings of Cape Hatteras are EVER the same...

;-)