We made it to the Berrys safe and sound yesterday morning. It was a long two nights, but the weather cooperated and allowed us to sail a good portion of the trip. We departed Stuart around 2am and made a quick uneventful trip to West Palm where we pit stopped for fuel. We had to motor sailed to West Palm since the wind was off our bow quarter. We stopped for diesel around 8 AM and shoved off for the long trip toward the Bahamas. We kept close watch on the satellite weather and opted to head south toward Fort Lauderdale in order to provide the option to tuck into Bimini if the weather turned sooner than anticipated. Once we made the turn toward the east, heading away from the coast of FL, we were able to pull out the sails and give the engines some rest. The first half of the crossing we saw 3-4 ft waves with a 4 second period...took a mild beating due to the close period but it eventually evened out after we crossed the center of the gulf stream and we had smoother sailing with 17 kt winds. With a bunch of uncertainty in the forecast the crew made a decision to bypass the safe and easy option of Bimini and sail through the night to the Berry's. The forecast called for the cold front to push through the Atlantic waters around 10pm and the prediction was for the winds to quickly shift from South to North West. We elected a deep water outer Great Bahama Bank route to give us more course options if the wind and waves got crazy. We reefed the mainsail to the second reef around 9:45...good thing... At 9:50 a freight train of wind hit the boat. Within 15 seconds the wind went from a gentle Southerly 13kts to 30kts out of the WNW. We quickly furled the jib and reefed the main again to the 3rd reefing point (as small as the sail goes). With headlamps and the deck light to guide the crew the boat course was reset, the deck was cleared, lines secured and the boat set for battle. The wind stayed between 22 and 29 kts all night and seas grew as we rounded Little Isaac and set a course for the Berry's. What a ride! Following 7 foot seas and 20+ kts all night, with a sliver of Jib and a fully reefed main, we did 7 controlled kts of boat speed all night, with the autopilot doing all the work. We did not want to go over 7kts in order to navigate the channel at Great Harbor at sunrise. All went as planned, even the course/adjustments that we planned for as the wind shifted to North throughout the night. We all did shifts at the helm dodging cruise ships and freighters with the Radar all night.

At 10AM we arrived safely in the Berry's, shot my BB gun with the Customs agent and then with 3 people on 2 bicycles, we pedaled our way to the best Bacon Cheeseburgers on the island at the Beach Club. Rachel and Hayley wiped out once but luckily there had been drinking beforehand so there were no injuries. We hit the sac around 6:00pm and all woke up at 9am this morning! Let the fun begin!