Very good points! And you're right; major hurricanes tend to create and/or modify the environments which they're in. For the moment Ike is a small hurricane, and is likely to be weakened by the shear which is now inhibiting outflow on it's north and west sides. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, Hanna spent a vacation down in the Turks and cooler SSTs should be a given, and God knows after this season why anybody in their right mind would live down there to start with; talk about a few islands with bullseyes painted on them! There are 3 models in the Florida Straits camp and 3 models in the Bahamas camp, and with each successive run the official forecast has been nudged west. Recent satellite loops show Ike now moving just south of due west. There simply isn't enough data at Day 4 plus to know where Ike is going other than there will be a COL between the mid continental ridge and bermuda ridge and Florida and the Florida panhandle in the middle and a shortwave/longwave trough axis to the north. Ike is no doubt certainly to slow down given this type of an environment and time and time again NHC has their track guidance down and I see no reason to question otherwise. Once again, good points! Y'all take care!