After a week in North Palm Beach that included great visits with old friends we tired of marinas, freeways and Malls and needed to be on the move. Unfortunately there were no realistic weather windows to cross the Gulf Stream. This is a non-trivial activity. We are getting a lot of northers at the moment and, in opposition to the Gulf Stream current, they produce extremely dangerous seas - short and steep. So we have looked at our plan, talked to a lot of people with more experience than us (not difficult...) and flipped things around. Instead of heading over to the Abacos from Palm Beach we are planning the following vague itinerary: Miami, Bimini, The Berry Islands, The Exumas, Eleuthera, The Abacos, home. This works better for the weather. Gets us clear of the northers sooner and sets up the run home well. The only downside at the moment are all the bridges on the ICW from Palm Beach to Miami ('outside' is ugly at the moment)h. Many of the bridges open on a schedule and our timing is not working great at the moment so it involves a lot of floating around waiting for a bridge to open. My theory is that this will condition our patience to get us ready for 'island time'. We need to work on it.....

Anyway we are on our way south again , three bridges navigated twenty two to go - argh!