Hurricane Arthur

Arthur the Hurricane
Thursday, July 3, 2014. 0500


Since Tuesday, we have been watching on the grib files a low coming up from Florida with intense cyclonic winds of 50 plus. Now, it is officially Tropical Storm Arthur predicted to grow to Hurricane Arthur as it follows a cold front straight to Marblehead, with arrival late tomorrow. We should beat it in although I am concerned about safety of boats on moorings in Marblehead. I was able to get a 24 hr surface analysis from a weather fax yesterday showing the transition from TS to hurricane as it passes the Carolinas.


We had great sailing yesterday up to a point. As predicted, accurately for a change, the grib files showed excellent wind from the south until we crossed west at 68 degrees west. Although it did not happen precisely on that longitude line, by dinner, the wind faltered and we eventually took down all sails as our boat speed fell into the 2's, far too slow to allow us to beat Arthur with about 175 miles sailing to go (as of dinner last night).

Prior, we had various sail combinations including poled out jib, main, mizzen, and mizzen staysail in increasingly heavy following seas. We were surfing down waves with boat speeds in the mid 9 kt range, and maintaining steady speeds in the high 7's and 8's.

No more. Motored all night at about 5 kts and now have a bit over 100 miles to go. From yesterday, the water temperature has gone from 82 down to low 60's, and we had fog all night with radar on, and fog horn blasting. As we knew, the AIS has far greater utility than the radar.

Now expect arrival Friday morning. And are hoping for sailing winds to resume although diesel fuel should not be a problem, especially with two jerry cans of it on the deck worth an extra 50 miles.