Thinkin about making a late april/early may crossing

[Latitude9.5]

Thinking about making a late april crossing (West End), but i understand the north winds pushing against the north bound gulfstream can be ugly. Anyone have any experience here? I know winds usually shift in may sometime.

[Lynx]

Here is the National Data Buoy Center weather
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=41009 CANAVERAL 20 NM East of Cape Canaveral, FL. Go to the history and check wave height and steepenss. Last year I went to Bimini in the last week of May. Very calm.

West End weather -
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=spgf1 west end weather

[Gallivanters]

if heading north, Aye believe it would be best to first do some Easting before turning North... otherwise you run the risk of running aground on the reefs of Disorder.

Where are you departing from? Is Disorder a port on St. Somewhere?

Enjoy your trip!

Kirk

[Latitude9.5]

We'll be leaving out of Stuart and heading to West End as our first stop.

[Sunspot Baby]

It may just be me, because lots of boats leace from Stuart, but with a sail boat I prefer to depart from further south, say Port Everglades, so that I get help, not hinderance from the Stream.

There are better weather windows in April than there are this time of year and lots of people making the crossing.

George

[camaraderie]

Ditto that Sunspot...Leave from no further north than the lake worth inlet which is 54 miles from West End. From Ft. Lauderdale it is about 80 miles but takes about the same time as the stream helps you. Have crossed about 8 times now and never any problem if you just wait for a good forcast AND wait for 24 hours after any strong prior northerly weather has gone by.
BTW...I would NOT go to West End if your destination is Abacos. Go through the Memory Rock passage and keep on until Great sale cay for your first anchorage...from there you can go to Spanish Cay or Green Turtle in a day to check in with customs. Will save you time and money and lots of bug bites.

[GordMay]

Understand & believe two axioms about crossing the Gulf Stream:

• Never start a crossing when any Northern weather component exists or remains.
• Any course with a Southern component will be more difficult than one with a North-Eastern track.

[Latitude9.5]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Understand & believe two axioms about crossing the Gulf Stream:

• Never start a crossing when any Northern weather component exists or remains.
• Any course with a Southern component will be more difficult than one with a North-Eastern track.

Yea north winds are definetely bad, I guess we'll just play it by ear and see when they make their switch. Last year we banging around in the gulf stream in May (fishing) but i don't know that we were out as early as April.

The Great Sale Cay is a good suggestion, i had actually given it some thought in the past. We've made the crossing to Bimini in the past (in a powerboat) and we made a trip to Freeport last year (left out of Palm Beach). Explorer chartbook says best crossing is when yesterdays breeze was SE less then 15 knots, todays is south no more then 15, etc, etc.... Which only leaves me back at my next question mark which can only be answered with "we'll wait and see" as our global weather seems to be repeating it's pattern less and less!