The next big leap is on the horizon. The Bahamas to the USA. We want to travel as far up the East Coast as the winds allow in one leg. Ideally, we will make it as far as New York; worst case, we will make it to one of the southern states.

We set off with the first rays of sunshine. The exact start time had changed several times. Each time we opened the weather app, the forecast was different. With the help of an American weather service provider, we were supposed to avoid the storm front off Florida and still make it north with enough wind before the next storm formed around Cape Hatteras. After some back and forth, we finally raised the anchor.

We pass Grand Bahama. For hours, instead of the fresh, salty air, the island greets us with the distinctive smell of waste incineration plants. For the first time ever, a tanker radios us. It has finished drifting and wants to turn 180 degrees. This ruins our initial collision avoidance plan. However, after exchanging a few sentences and friendly greetings, the matter is resolved, and we avoid getting in each other’s way.

The proximity to Cape Canaveral offers additional entertainment opportunities. SpaceX is hard at work, launching satellites into the sky almost every evening. Whether you watch the glowing rocket or the satellites hanging between the stars like an arched string of pearls, it’s an impressive spectacle. Either way, it’s an impressive spectacle.

As predicted, the thunderstorm passes in front of us. However, the wind is much weaker than promised. We compensate by motor-sailing, but that’s not what we had hoped for. Thankfully, the Gulf Stream comes to our rescue and contributes significantly to our progress. It flows northward off the US coast as a surface current at speeds of up to three knots.

However, finding the current in the first place is not as easy as we thought. We consulted a total of four current models. The Global Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM), the RTOFS (Real-Time Ocean Forecast System), OSCAR (Ocean Surface Current Analysis Real-time) and the European Mercator Ocean Currents model. Almost all of them locate the strongest current in a different place. If you look at all the curves and branches of the main current, it becomes even more complicated.

With the Gulf Stream, we delve into a new topic. Of course, we know the basics. Instead of reading about it in abstract terms, however, we are learning what practically it means for us. That’s part of sailing—and the beauty of it. We never stop learning. What we know about weather systems, ocean currents, tides, and moon phases from our school days is not enough. It’s another thing entirely to deal with them practically. And these things influence our everyday lives and are crucial for planning. After all, we want to arrive safely at our destination. Who would have thought that we would be spending our evenings in remote parts of the world, trying to understand and compare Gulf Stream models?

Our ride on the Gulf Stream takes us to Beaufort, North Carolina. For the infamous Cape Hatteras, we should need a second attempt with better weather prospects.