Hi Mark,

Hoping to get out of here sometime between Christmas and New Years, right now I'm keeping my fingers crossed the current 15 day forecast holds... Fair amount of ice around my boat this morning, but the forecast is indicating more seasonable temps 10 days from now, ice shouldn't be a problem... As always this time of year, the water level in Barnegat Bay is my greater concern...

As usual, I'll just play it by ear, but chances are I'll wind up in the Bahamas again... Earlier this fall, I was thinking this could be the year I finally make it down to the Eastern Caribbean, but I would have had to have left earlier to do that. Plus, I'm likely to return north pretty early again in the spring, so once again a couple of months in the Bahamas is probably all I'll manage again this year...

Sounds like this year may be somewhat of a repeat of last in terms of weather, I'm not too worried about getting down south too late... Last winter I didn't even leave Miami until President's day, when it was finally beginning to moderate a bit in terms of winds and temps in the Bahamas. By the time I had reached the Exumas, everyone was telling me I still hadn't missed much so far that season, boats had been hunkered down in harbors, not moving much, nobody swimming due to the extreme cold, etc - and it's looking like this year could be more of the same...

best regards,

Jon