Penny and I are about to embark on passage from Beaufort, NC to Trinidad via St. John. We have been awaiting suitable weather for two weeks, and it now appears that we may depart early-mid next week. We are using Commander's Weather for forecasting, as we cannot hear Herb on SSB from here. We should arrive in St. John 7 days after departure; it is another 3 days to Trinidad unless we stop along the way. This will be the same route we took in 2005 except that last time we entered the Caribbean through the Anegada Passage and made landfall at St. Maarten; this should be more comfortable. Our "rhumbline" consists of three legs in order to avoid eddies and is about 1200 miles. We should, with a fair tide, make 190 miles the first 24 hours and average 170/day thereafter. Although eddies are larger and stronger in the Stream, they are also strong enough in other areas to consider avoiding or taking advantage of. In preparing for this passage, I determined to find out about the eddies which slowed us several hours a day on many days on our 2005 passage. Here is a link to the site from which you can download a gif of sea-surface height anomalies: _http://argo.colorado.edu/~realtime/gsfc_global-real-time_ssh/_ (http://argo.colorado.edu/~realtime/gsfc_global-real-time_ssh/) Since colder water "sinks" a few cm and warmer water "rises," these anomalies are indicative of where the eddies lie. Using this information, it is easy to determine a route that will keep you to the left of warm eddies (CW) and to the right of the cold ones (CCW); you'll avoid head-current and even pick up some speed. These eddies do not change location/size much over the course of a day in the Stream, and less often in the rest of the Western Atlantic, so for a 7-day passage you should be OK. Input the lat/lons you desire, and be sure to choose "show contours" and "annotate contours." Leave all else at the defaults. This information should be helpful when traveling in or near the Stream as well, as we do sometimes from Mayport FL to New York in the spring. I hope some of you will find this information helpful. Regards, John "Seahorse" **************One site has it all. Your email accounts, your social networks, and the things you love. Try the new AOL.com today!(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212962939x1200825291/aol?redir=http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp %26icid=aolcom40vanity%26ncid=emlcntaolcom00000001)