After over two weeks of unfavorable currents as Silbo fought its way across the shelf, this past weekend we struck gold by finally breaking into the gulf stream.
The Gulf Stream which moves on average at a speed of roughly 6.4km/hr picked up Silbo and launched him bringing the progress up from 10km/day to over 40!
Looking to the currents, both the Copernicus and ROTFS models show the strong serpentining current where Silbo is moving south west along its northern slope.
Copernicus 5/17
However, there is a discrepancy in the models where it appears an eddy has pinched off along the gulf stream. In Copernicus, the eddy looks like it is more to the north of the glider and so wont pose much of a threat to our eastward progress while in RTOFS it appears more to our south meaning if Silbo continues along the current path we will see the currents swing around and push back towards the west
RTOFS 5/17
As we see the current continue to evolve over the next few days the discussion will continue on where we will take this glider on its North Atlantic Crossing.
Force Winds Sea & Honor