Southbound to Florida – The New Plan

We had two options. Cut our mast down 2 or 3 feet or take the “outside” route - out on the Atlantic Ocean. We decided on the ocean route. The biggest hurdle in going outside down the coast was getting around Cape Hatteras. This bit of geography is a challenge for sailors for several reasons...

• Diamond Shoals – the waters up to about 30 miles offshore are not safe due to shallow water and sand bars that shift about so frequently that the Coast Guard won’t bother to chart it. They mark the outer boundary with a light and recommend you keep out of the area.
• Currents – The Gulf Stream passes just off of Diamond Shoals – anywhere from 2 to 12 miles. A vessel passing southward needs to squeeze in between the shoals and the Gulf Stream’s 3-5 knot northbound current. Aside from the problem of fighting a current that’s going a fair percentage of your boat’s max speed, the strong current will produce very, very steep and large waves if the wind is blowing from the north. In addition to the northbound Gulf Stream, there is another less powerful current heading south along the east coast, the Labrador Current. This current of cold water runs down the north east coast of the US until it reaches Cape Hatteras, where it ducks under the warm Gulf Stream. Because of this, care must be taken by a sailboat not to be pushed by the Labrador Current into the Gulf Stream.
• Weather – Cape Hatteras seems to be a favorite place for strong weather systems to roll off of the US into the Atlantic.
• Magnetic Variances – The charts report (and we experienced) variances in the magnetic field around Cape Hatteras of 6 to 8 degrees. While we use a GPS for navigating, we steer by a compass course, so we had to keep a close eye on the GPS to make sure we were pointing in the right direction. With only a few miles of sea room to work with between the Gulf Stream and Diamond Shoals, a few degrees can be a problem.
• Distance – There is no place to pull in if the weather pipes up. The inlets along Cape Hatteras are about the last place you want to be in bad weather, so you’re committed to a minimum of a 250 mile sail to go from Norfolk, VA to Beaufort, NC. Since a Beaufort landfall would take us about 40 miles out of our way (each way -both in and out of the harbor), a more appealing landfall to us is Charleston, SC, which is about 400 miles from Norfolk.