Saturday, March 25, 2017

On the horns of a dilemma

Well I am sitting here in the BVI, frustrated and pondering what to do. Normally the trade winds blow from east to west and then Havana is a 9 day 1000 mile voyage from here all downwind. Right now, there is a low pressure system, NW of here that is blowing headwinds against us all the way west to the Dominican republic. According to Chris Parker, our weather guru, there is a 50% chance that this will develop into a tropical storm. In other words, we are all stuck here in Virgin Gourda. Next Thursday is the first day that I could start sailing. That means that I will not get to Havana until the weekend after next instead of the scheduled Wednesday April 5. Now there is one option I do have and that is to go south of Cuba. Trouble with that, is 1500 miles instead of 1000 and 14 days instead of 9. It is downwind and waters are calm but the one risk I would take is if there is a north east wind blowing, when I enter the gulf stream, west of Havana, that would create steep standing waves and be impossible to sail against.

One other option that we have yet to explore, is the possibility of changing our permission from the USA government to accommodate our new dates.

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