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 As promised, we left Vero at 0725 ET and said farewell to
Bob and Sally of SV Endaxi, our mooring buddies. We had three plans;
Plan A was a direct passage to Nassau, Plan B was a layover in Miami if
the Gulf seas were too high; and Plan C was a layover at Lake Worth if
A/B were not tenable.
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 At Lake Worth, the seas were
heaping up due to the close proximity of the Gulf Stream and the
northerly wind Though we scratched Plan C as we already passed Lake
Worth, Plan B was looking good. However, we had another 5 hours to make
that decision. The evening was beautiful and it was not too cold yet.
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 At 0100 we approached the entrance to Port Everglades.
This was our Plan A-B decision point. The wind had calmed but we knew
the waves were still out there. What the heck! We went for it and
pointed Jule to a course of 134 M. It did take long before we
questioned our decision. The seas were building and they were short.
As the current built, so did the sea state. The seas rarely exceeded 7
ft. but they were steep!
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 It didn't take too long for us
to get used to the rolling but Ann had trouble sleeping during her off
shift. By sun up, we were mostly out of the Stream and the sea state
had laid down considerably. By 0900, we entered the Banks (near North Rock) with its
turquoise water and the seas were calm. However, the forecast continued
to warn us that the last leg to Nassau could be nasty with strong SE
winds. Maybe we would beat the winds to Nassau?
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 Our next concern was passing Northwest light and entering
the 'Tongue of the Ocean' as it would be dark with many coral heads. No
problems, mon as we had done it before (in the daylight).At 2215, We
were about 3 miles NW of the light when we saw nearly a dozen radar
images and lights up ahead. What the H@ll was all that stuff. We could
see the 3 second flashing of the white Northwest light but what were the
other twinkling lights?
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 Yep, they were boats at anchor
right over the recommended route through this area. Why were so many
boats anchored here? Are we missing something? We reduced speed, and
slowly weaved through all of the yachts anchored around Northwest light
and finally reached the 'Tongue' at 2330. Darn! The winds were already
out of the ESE and the seas were already high and on the nose. Still a
long way to drive to Nassau (11 hours)
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 Yesterday we were rolling, this morning we are pitching.
Poor Jule bravely plowed through the building seas but the occasional
wave train would slow her progress down below 4 kts. But all systems
worked flawlessly, including the crew. We were anticipating the Nassau
Harbor approach early today.
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 As is often the case, the seas seem
to improve with sunlight and today was no exception. As the sun came
up, the seas seemed to settle and we could see the outline of Atlantis
on Paradise Island. As we headed for R "2" which had moved from its
charted position, Ann yelled "Go to Starboard". Dutiful Bob swung the
wheel over just in time to miss a large yellow ball and baby buoy. That
would have been great; get tangled in a nav aid just outside the harbor.
We lucked out!
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 At 0945, we checked in with Nassau Harbor Control and
slowly headed for Nassau Harbour Club where we got a great slip and
great dock line handlers. We are here and we are tired! In a couple of
hours the wind will start really howling and weather windows will
disappear for many days. However, we don't care right now.
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