Hey Jon;

I've been thinking of sailing Lucia from Nassau to Newport in early June and am contemplating two options. The first is Nassau to Beaufort, NC for a rest stop with the second leg around Hatteras and on up to RI. The other one is a direct shot, Nassau to Newport, without a stop. If I chose the latter, how far in your judgment, would I need to leave Hatteras to port to have it not be an issue... or at least no more of an issue than any other Gulf Stream crossing? For my previous roundings, I've used a waypoint of N35* W75*, but I am usually leaving from the Norfolk area or from Beaufort, so I have a fairly good idea of what the weather will be and can pick my departure date. (But be assured that I still hold my breath while doing it.) From a look at the charts, it would appear that a waypoint of N35* W74.5* would put me in 1600 fathoms of water and sufficiently east of Hatteras to make the Cape a non-issue. As I will be singlehanding as always for these trips, your thoughts in particular would be very much appreciated.

Regards,
Ron