in exactly the same conditions as you Jon early January, I've never been as cold then in My-yammy as I was that week before, awful. Anyway the wind was NW at 20 and I was nervous, but we had a delightful ripper of a sail to Bimini, but the wind soon died after that. Anyhow, I won't hesitate to go in a NW again, like you say, the wind is perpendicular to the Stream at that point and we didn't notice any elephants marching out there. The seas were left over and big, but the sailing was as good as it gets.

have fun, see you in March, cheers, John