Agonizing over the Weather

For quite some time we have given thought to our route north from the Caribbean Sea to the Bahamas. By choice we would make one offshore passage from Culebra to Mayaguana (Bahamas), 500 miles, by-passing the Turks and Caicos.

While in Culebra we agonized over the weather. To make Mayaguana we need 4 days of good conditions but unfortunately the cold fronts keep coming off of the U.S. every 3 days, foiling our plan.

Adding extra aggravation to our situation is that our planned passage would take us through 3 different weather forecasting areas thereby requiring us to mesh them together time wise.

Each morning we positioned ourselves beside our static ridden single side band radio and diligently taped, took notes and attempted to decipher the N.O.A.A. reports: Offshore Waters Forecasts for the Tropical North Atlantic and Caribbean Sea, the Southwest North Atlantic south of 3l degrees north, west of 65 degrees west, including the Bahamas; the eastern Caribbean east of 75 degrees west to the Leeward and Windward Islands; and the Eastern Caribbean from 7 degrees north to 22 degrees north, from 55 degrees west to 65 degrees west.

As well, we listened intently to Chris Parker's 4 broadcasts (Bellamy), Herb (Southbound 2), George (KP2G) Caribbean Cocktail Net and Eric (Trinidad).

After literally hours of daily aggravation we would head into shore with our laptop to double-check our information on-line as well as checking other sources - Ugrib, Wind Guru, and local sources.

Once we amassed the vast amount of daily information, ascertained the sections that all sources agreed upon, we considered how it fit our personal situation.

While in Culebra a viable weather window passed as we anticipated a cold front to cross only to have it stall over the Dominican Republic.

We find ourselves wishing we had some of the knowledgeable CPS folks here to help us reach a decision.

Finally, since the cold fronts kept coming with their rain, thunderstorms, high winds and wave swells, we abandoned our plan for Mayaguana and instead decided to make our way further west in the protected waters along Puerto Rico's south coast to the Mona Passage.