Check out RSO GOES-East Water Vapor 7-Minute Sector
http://hadar.cira.colostate.edu/ramsdis/online/RSOgeir3.html

I'm truly a novice, but to me this looks as if a small trof has actually broken thru the ridge to the north of the gulf and Florida. And on other water vapor images, it appears that the ridge between Ivan and the gulf is thinning just north of Cuba - a change in this area can be seen at http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/nwatl-wv-loop.html, where you can also see the flattening of the ULL to the east of Florida that was referenced in an earlier post.

I'm wondering if these two trends in the ridge/trof topography may give Ivan the opportunity to break out and head in a more northerly fashion .

I'm a long-time avid reader of Flhurricane, but rarely post, except for on-the-spot reports from Ormond Beach during a storm.