{"id":2245,"date":"2008-05-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/?p=2245"},"modified":"2009-04-15T08:52:36","modified_gmt":"2009-04-15T13:52:36","slug":"s_logs-dashew-dashew492","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/s_logs-dashew-dashew492\/","title":{"rendered":"Towards Lunenberg Day 5 – The North Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"
An extreme water temperature change at the North Wall of the Gulf Stream.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Under 300 nautical miles to Lunenberg. The diesel heater is back in favor, we have our sweats on, the first fishing buoys have appeared, and the wind continues out of the southwest, which is a run. Wind Horse<\/em> and crew are enjoying the ride.<\/p>\n

Small variations in water temperature can have a major impact on local weather. As little as a 3 to 4 degree F (2C) differential can trigger major squalls and lead to increases in gust intensity. This is often the cause of "surprise" changes in weather at sea (the weather forecasters usually do not deal with this and the models do not compute localized effects such as this).<\/p>\n

So imagine what can happen when there is a 15 degree F (8C) differential in water temperature within a few miles. This is why the North Wall of the Gulf Stream is respected by mariners and weather forecasters. Last night, within the space of two-and-a-half hours, we watched sea surface temp drop from mid 70s to 59 degrees F! <\/p>\n

Had there been squalls around, a frontal passage, or worse – a low – this would have been like throwing gasoline on fire. But with our impeccable timing we crossed the North Wall under the benign influence of high pressure (the last time we were at the North Wall there was an intense lightning storm, with bolts hitting the water all around Beowulf<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The weather models are still arguing over the oncoming low pressure system with associated front. Is it a gale or not? And will it arrive Saturday night or Sunday? Since we should be ensconced within the confines of Lunenberg harbor by then, the question has reverted to one of academic interest.<\/p>\n

There is a steepening of a short period SW swell under us as this is being written. Perhaps this portends an increase in the winds and maybe some surfing? We are hopeful. Meanwhile, it is time to use some of the extra fresh water we are carrying to wash off the accumulation of salt (we built up an extra thousand gallons\/3800 liters before leaving the Abacos to replace the fuel burned since the last fill up and bring us back to full displacement for the passage).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An extreme water temperature change at the North Wall of the Gulf Stream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dashew-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}