29:35.2N  72:46.0W   "Hello" to Mr. Robb Webb and his 3rd Grade Class at Lake Magdalene School in Hillsborough County, Florida….the earlier students in that class followed us in November/December 2012 during our passage across the Atlantic, 2900 miles and 14 1/2 days from Las Palmas, Canary Islands (off North Africa) to St. Lucia, Caribbean.  I just learned that Robb is following us again….so THIS ONES FOR YOU!!  ….  We have had some very stable conditions and some very "Rock and Roll" conditions…."rock" is pitching bow to stern, and "roll" is rolling side to side.  We have "rocked" so much that waves break over the bow, as the bow gets buried in the water, and then the waves come up into our cockpit back aft…and we "roll" so much that the leeward rail and deck are submerged!  That is what made the Captain (me!) sea sick, and weakened two other crew members as well….not fun, but we know that it will pass….so we bear with it.  A simple life lesson….just because you feel sick or get tired, don't give up, keep going and you will be stronger for it….a second lesson, the ocean is so awesome that we accept the "tougher times" because we want to experience the phenomenal "great times".  The pictures are usually in the best of times, since it is hard to even move around the boat, below and topside, when we have "rock and roll" conditions of 25-30 knots and 6-9 foot seas, with swells coming from the east as we sail southerly, so they come a strong 90 degrees to our boat!!  The pictures show a peaceful day aboard…if you "stack" the two mast pictures, you can see what it is like from the deck at the base of our mast which is 82 feet above the water.  Further, you will see on the mast several small antennas, these are for our various navigation and communication instruments….those are two critical functions.  However, we could loose everything that is electric or automatic and still sail to our destination….we maintain a "log and paper chart" plot on the nav desk, and we have a sextant aboard.  In the 1700's, tall ships had not much more; in fact, it was not until about 1735 that John Harrison, a clockmaker, solved "the longitude problem" with the invention of his "sea clock" (it could run accurately despite violent conditions at sea), and the realization that TIME, referenced to a place like Greenwich, England, was the way to measure longitude…..before that, it was no calculable, and sailors could only measure latitude, principally with the North and other Stars.  Further, there is a picture showing our various communication and navigation antennas on the stern….we have lots of stuff!  The last pictures show the aft mast, which, under just the moon light, Ralphs says looks like an "alien"….so meet the "alien aboard Arbella"!  … But, now a word about our experience  with the Gulf Stream….we delayed 2 days from leaving the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay due to the weather over the Gulf Stream…we would have headed into 60 knot winds and 30 foot seas…way too much for comfort or safety!  That occurs when the Gulf Stream (a "river in the ocean" flowing from the bottom of Florida, along the US East Coast, to the Grand Banks off Canada, and then to Europe..basically northeast) has above it winds that blow from the northeast, creating "wind on wave" conditions, that create "elephant waves".  So we waited until the weather changed, and the wind came out of the southwest, settling down the seas.  We entered the Gulf Stream "North Wall" at 36 deg, 20 min North/ 74 deg, 40 min West…and exited the stream at 35 deg 40 min North/73 deg West.   Just before we entered the Stream, the sea water temperature was 64 degrees, within 60 minutes it went up to 81 degrees, so we knew we were in the stream; we also experienced current of 3-4 knots carrying us toward the northeast.  Tonight, quite a while since we left the stream, the sea temperature is 87 degrees;  this is due to the Caribbean waters having heated up all summer and now moving slowly northward.  A couple pictures show the "sargasso weeds" that are carried along by the Stream….there is good fishing near the weeds!  Further, there are 41 major "Ocean Currents", like the Gulf Stream, that circulate in and among all the oceans!  We carry charts that tell us where they are and how they change.  So that's a little lesson on….sailing on the ocean, navigation and longitude, and the Gulf Stream…I hope it was interesting!  There is so much to learn, and learning is fun throughout your life!  Captain Mike