Well, we finally did it. We crossed the gulf Stream and went to the islands MON! We left through Baker's Haulover inlet on Monday morning at 0700. We actually left with two other boats, some Canadian friends we met in Vero Beach in November. They had crossed 7 times and were very inviting for us to join them. We crossed to Gun Cay (Picture) over the Gulf Stream. It took 7 hours to get across. The waves were minor, 1 to 2 feet rollers with maybe some chop on them, they were on the beam so it was a little rolly but overall, it was a perfect day to cross, sunny, warm and a light breeze. We had a 36 hour weather windo to get to Nassau so when we got to Gun Cay, we did an engine room check and then kept on trucking until 8:30 PM so it was a long, long day. We anchored for the night out on the Bahamas Banks, no land in sight (if it were light out) and in 12 feet of water, sandy bottom and the winds picked up, building the waves to two feet and sleeping was a challenge but I did get some sleep. Our friends said, before we tucked in for the night, sleep with your radio on channel 17, the first person who wakes, or simply gets uncomfortable with the waves, call on the radio and we'll leave.Well, I had no trouble going to sleep until some twit started blabbing on the radio at 1130 PM, waking me up (and I learned later everyone else woke up too) so I tried to go back to sleep and then woke up at 1:30 AM and the waves were pounding on the hull, hitting the chines quite hard so I got up and called everyone saying I give up on sleeping, let's leave. Anchors up at 2:05 AM and we cruised the rest of the way to Nassau, arriving at 1130 AM. It was another perfect cruising day, the waves, once we got into the "tongue of the ocean" were 1 to 2 feet and it was sunny, watched the sun rise, it was very cool. I saw my first flying fish, actually about 20 of them popped out of the water together and they fly fast, passing the boat and then after about 100 yards the dive into the water; it was very neat to see.
Entering Nassau harbor I saw the boat that woke us up at 1130 the night before, the boats name, "Cookie Monster", I really wanted to ram the twit but I just waked them with a 3 footer on the side, I was satisfied. We are in Nassau now, today is Wed the 22nd, and we've been running around checking stuff out. We are in a marina (not many safe anchorages here) with all the comforts. We are going to continue cruising with our new friends down the Exuma chain, they know the ropes and the places to tuck away from stuff and are happy to have us along, they are nice people to boot so we will probably leave tomorrow, the 23rd after we call Chris on his 30th Birthday. I have bought my Hawaiian Sling for the BUGS, our friends said they eat so much lobster when they are down here that they get sick of it (NOT), last year they caught 28 one day, one was so big they sliced the tail up like steaks to cook it because it wouldn't fit in any plan, WE ARE GOING TO EAT LOBSTER MON!

Took some pics, enjoy. uploading pics not working, need to figure that out