well its going to have to start picking up that nw heading relatively soon if its going to match the NHC forecast.... key for the GOM will be where it exits the west coast of Florida... I would have never thought this thing could make it all the way to the GOM... its not there yet, but boy, it sure looks like it has a chance... 10 days ago I picked the space coast, Kennedy Space Center as my impact area... and stuck with it... also said it would be there or areas south of there... so I got real lucky with that call... based mostly on analysis that the ridge would do the job.... boy did it... but I never expected a GOM shot... wow.... bad part part about this, the worse is yet to come from Frances for the east coast as the NE and E quadrants are not onland yet..