Hey Dan,

Hell, when I returned to Key West from Belize and Isla Mujeres, I couldn't even find the freakin' Gulf Stream! LOL! Tacked back and forth across the entire width of the Florida Straits, never found the damn thing... Just as well, of course, as it was blowing pretty good out of the ENE, and I suspect the persistent flow had slowed it down somewhat. Same thing happened last fall headed for the islands, we headed due E out of the Chesapeake hoping to hitch a ride on a long easterly diversion of the Stream at that latitude... But we never found much of any boost at all, other than the water temperature, color and some Sargasso weed, it was impossible to tell you were in the Stream, and we never saw much more than perhaps half a knot of current... Again, I suspect TS Sean and all that other weather last October had messed with the Stream, somewhat...

I didn't do the passage Rod is contemplating, however - when I went down there a few years ago, I went thru the Windward Passage to Jamaica, then across to the Bay Islands... I know Jan on WINTERLUDE has done that trip a few times, perhaps there's some info on her blog, I seem to recall her asking about the currents approaching the Yucutan Channel back when they were gonna do it for the first time...

Finally made it to the Bahamas... Left Miami Saturday AM, got into Nassau yesterday afternoon... Got my butt kicked pretty good, blew hard out of the ENE pretty much the entire way, though it did lay down slightly for a couple of hour late Sat might motoring across the Bank.. Thought I was gonna have some nice sailing yesterday, started out beautiful sailing along in the lee of Chub Cay and the Berrys, but by the time I began heading for Nassau, the breeze had come up hard, and almost due East... Lots of squalls, and pinching up as hard as possible every inch of the way... One of those days it pays to have a boat that will go to weather, however - a number of other boats left Chub just behind me, and only one of them were able to fetch Nassau harbor, and he had to motorsail to make it... All the others bailed, and had to fall off to West Bay on the W end of New Providence where, unless they get out of there today, will probably be sitting for the rest of the week... I've never seen anything like the persistent Easterly flow we've had here this winter, the Winter Trades have come to the Bahamas, with virtually no cold fronts at all to break them up...

So, drinks and dinner last night at The Poop Deck at Nassau Yacht Haven tasted EXTRA good (grin)...Headed for the Exumas today, probably first for Allan's Cay to ride out a few days of further increasing E wind, then work my way down the chain as it moderates towards the ene of the week... Hope to see you guys sometime up in the Abacos...

best regards,

Jon