Who would have thought the Gulfstream could be so calm.
We left Beaufort with good local weather predicted, but knowing that there was a hurricane named Olga 900 miles away, east of Bermuda. She was meandering aimlessly, and we thought she would stay out there and die out. After all, hurricane season was over, right?
Clark Beam showed us how fishing should be done.
Meanwhile, Olga's track continued to surprise every forecaster. Two days after we left port, she sprinted SW more than 400 miles in a single day.
All
our course decisions after crossing the Gulfstream were based on trying to avoid
Olga. Alice's track is the red line, the blue is Olga, green is our intended
course. At first we headed south,
hoping to round the less dangerous western side, then east when she was expected
to continue quickly into the Bahamas. Suddenly she turned north, heading directly for
us, so we ran north on Dec 2 to stay away. By then she had been downgraded to a
tropical storm, but still packed winds to 60 knots.
Banging our way north
Talking to Herb, the weather guru.
Finally on Dec 3, we crossed a friendly cold front which bounced Olga south and out of the way, allowing us to resume heading for Antigua. We had some anxious moments when the NOAA forecasters predicted she would penetrate the cold front, but Herb Hilgenberg said "no way", and he turned out to be right on that one.
Eli at the helm. After the autopilot failed on day 8, we did more hand steering than usual.
Next Adventure: Aftermath of Olga
Or get all the Facts about Alice
We even have Design Drawings of Alice
Meet her Captain, Chris Knight