Hampton, VA to Jolly Harbour, Antigua
We left HAMPTON, in Virginia near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, on Monday November 6th. We were in the last wave of a roughly 50-boat fleet making it’s seasonal exodus from the USA East Coast to the Caribbean. The key thing for the start of this trip is to judge the departure for a smooth (and safe) crossing of the Gulf Stream, which can get pretty ugly if things aren’t ‘just so’ - think along the lines of the PERFECT STORM. The Gulf-stream crossing can take place in an area where the warm currents coming up the US East coast from the equatorial region mix with the cold waters coming down from the Artic areas. Tremendous flows of energy, which are visible in the interactions in, and between, the air and water. Quite incredible to see – this is my third time across, and Leanne’s second. It is said that the Gulf Stream makes its own weather, and we have seen this with various phenomena. Anyway, despite the slightly adverse conditions, as expected, of about 5-8 knots of ‘wind-a