magic carpet ride ................. from P

I had heard a lot about it. I have always wanted to get into it. I even remember dreaming about it. Finally, I have sailed in it. The Gulf Stream, that is. Over the past two days we have been sailing up the coast of Florida on the outside. Ft. Lauderdale to Lake Worth, then Lake Worth to Ft. Pierce. This area is where the "stream" comes closest to the coastline. So for two days we have sailed 4 to 8 miles straight out before turning north, and it was worth it. The water turns a deep, bright cobalt blue - and it is as clear as tap water. Both days I tethered myself to the boat and jumped overboard; it was nice and warm, I could see clearly underwater all the details of Senara's hull, shards of sunlight shooting through the 300 - 400 ft deep water, and my little toenail. Can't do that in the Chesapeake Bay.

As soon as we got out to the deep water, we noticed a big increase in boat speed. At one point, K said that something must be wrong with our instruments, because the boat felt like we were just luffing along at 3 or 4 knots, but the GPS said we were moving at 8.5 knots! When the wind picked up and we started sailing faster, we actually saw speeds regularly between 9 and 10 knots. It reminded me of the scene in "Finding Nemo" when the surfer-dude turtle is catching the stream and everyone is gliding along. In fact, we saw two big surfer-dude turtles out there doing just that. Unfortunately, the stream turns farther and farther out to sea from here (Vero Beach), so we will again have to deal with the normal resistant forces of hydrodynamics. But for two days it was a magic carpet ride.

this is us sailing at 9 knots! I know the telltales are not perfect, but they didn't have to be.