Crossing the Gulf Stream

Also known as the Florida Current ☺ We actually made it up & out of the marina at 4am, as planned, to take advantage of a perfect weather window for our Gulf Stream Crossing.  Of course, every other boat in the harbor was doing the same thing, so the first hour or so of our passage was quite interesting!  City lights, boat lights, harbor lights, various navigation lights, and the line of boats ahead of and behind us all competed with each other, making our trip out of the Harbor quite a challenge!

Sailboat ahead, leaving West Palm

We had a perfect crossing; wind & seas cooperated nicely and we enjoyed a smooth ride over. If we didn't know better, we'd wonder what all the fuss was about!  This was no horror story; the seas were really like glass...or a lake!

This is the North Atlantic Ocean??

We did see a couple of squalls off in the distance, but nothing ever came close enough to sprinkle on us.  

Squall off to Starboard

 We even "caught" our first fish!

Poor fish!

He must been washed onto the deck by a wave, or taken a bad "bounce" off of one-it was a flying fish, and they are total crack up; they sort of skitter across the surface, flying for an amazing distance without ever touching, and then they just barely tag the top of a wave & get some serious lift off it! . Unfortunately for the fish, we didn't see him until it was too late :( Since he was too small and way too dead for sushi, we tossed him back. Hopefully some other critter was able to make a snack of him...

Can not begin to tell how you how excited we were when we sighted land, and it was finally official: we had reached our first foreign (warm!) port!  West End, Grand Bahama Island, The Bahamas.  

Land Ho!

Clearing customs was a breeze (once I signed my passport-oops!)and we were soon docked & enjoying a celebratory cocktail.

Customs Dock, West End, Grand Bahama

We spent few days at Old Bahama Bay Resort & Marina, waiting for a weather window to open for our next jump to Great Harbour Island, in the Berry Islands.  Bullocks Harbour, here we come....

Tamarind Tree, Old Bahama Bay Resort