The Yucatan Current

About an hour ago we got into the Yucatán current which is a major feeder into the Loop Current, this eventually becomes the Gulf Stream. This current can really help sailors or very much work against us, as in this case it is pushing us north at a speed of 5,3 knots and we need to be going West. This is extremely fast flowing, so to give you some perspective if a boat is doing a speed of between 5-6 knots (this is a fairly normal speed) going south and the current is flowing north, that means the boat would be standing still. The usual currents that we experience is anything from below 1 to 2 knots.

A little update on our 3 hitch hikers. They have been very pleasant to have around and extremely helpful. They have taken charge of washing the dishes, and cleaning the galley, this is great, gives Eric and I a little more free time. They have also been doing shifts with us, as they do have some experience, which has been a real treat, normally we run 3 hours on 3 hours off when Eric and I are alone “a little more flexi than that but more or less“ having them along for the ride gives all 5 of us 12 hours off which really is great in comparison to us only having 3 hours off.

Why are we still at sea? It appears we will make yet another night entrance into a harbour we do not know 😳 we tried to slow down to delay entrance until daybreak, but even with out any sails up, we still arrive at night as the swell is large and pushing us along, also never a great idea not to have sails up as the boat becomes difficult to handle. All Eric’s trip planning was based upon the fact the Mr Oxley would be flying so we would actually have arrived this morning, this was clearly not meant to be for what ever reason, we are always up for the challenge, I got my big girl panties we got this. Oh BTW this anchorage is known to be very challenging