Day 29 -Left or Right

December 16, 2007

Weather

wx - sea and swell confused, 6-8 ft, winds backing to the north and increasing, North swell increasing to 8 ft. visibility unlimited, frequency of squalls diminishing. Occasional rain and strong winds.

Log

Averaging 240 miles per day. Still burning about 380 gal. per day. Observations

Not much to take pictures of along this leg. Yesterday a decision had to be made. Cayman Islands or the Yukatan. The Caymans were a whole day closer and to starboard. Setting a course would put seas on the beam for about 24 hours. Not fun. The to NW was the Yucatan. A course change to port would put us in there in about 48 hours. My two years of experience in weather forecasting comes in handy. A weak cold front from a weather system in the US, well north would be moving through our area. I know that behind it would be one of those dreaded Norther’s. I opted for the Yukatan. the Norther’ did pick up and so did the seas. However, this Sunday morning we were just a few hours out of Isla Mujeres and managed to get into port safely as conditions continued to deteriorate.