Departing Key West Thursday at three pm. Nice to fix the jib car, hatch seals etc.

And nice to depart the USA warjets & excess display of wealth via motor boats.
Sailing over the large offshore platform littered with fish pots in light breeze we make our way to the offshore depths and Gulf Stream.

Crew is happy, fed and watered. I am as well for them, to have done some important emails and communications and to have fixed some things which will make our journey safer and happier.

Winds die to nothing and we motor into the night. My watch begins at midnight and winds have set in to the south. Shut down the motors and begin a perfect night on the sea. Setting moon, star carpet sailing in 12 kts and minimal seas, rounding Florida and beginning to head to Bahamas with a ride on the gulf stream. Plan to cut through the Bahamas via a massive deep water channel banked by the Bahamian plateau.

Winds finally turned southward in approach, they were so easterly and we tacked to much to get here.

Arriving and dousing sails is a simple drill of turning to the wind, taking down mainsail & it turned horrible.

We prop wrapped a fish pot line in mid channel on not one but both props.

Anchor and I scuba to cut loose the lines. This is the worst prop wrap ever, jammed up tight and many times around. And seas are a real mess. I am bouncing and scholishing under the boat cutting away with a bread knife.
Finally I get it all cut loose and get back aboard. Am wrecked, really tired and I suppose traumatized. Take a break, shower, regain composure.

Put on fenders to go to the dock and guess what, one guy can’t tie a knot and a fender goes floating off to France. Another crew jumps in and swims it back. What a show, my show! We pull up the anchor and it brings up a royal mess of lines and a fish pot, this still in the entry channel to a major port. Go USA ! Dock, finally, a crewmember spots that the other prop also has a huge bundle of line around it, so back to scuba I go. Tell you what!

Office job sounds pretty great! Nice here, this Florida place, stinks of money, but also a lot of funky boats and funky dudes and chicks. Diversity, the strength of the USA. Nobody wants to admit that someone not like them makes the nation stronger, but they are wrong.

Embracing the other makes all of us better, wider and more funnily fulfilled..and less bigoted and boring. First Guatemala then Mexicans and now Gringos.. Can Bermuda keep pace!?

Departure from isla Mujeres was crisp, well done by crew.

Watering the yacht and disassembled to folbot before the realized we were on the dock Huge waves on Mias reef put water up onto the cabin top and ran rivers down both decks. Setting sail in 15 kts of breeze we were soon joined by 20+ dolphins and hundreds of flying fish. Ray caught a bluefin tuna within 3 hours of departing and we were eating it within four!

Northern current was quite something, it swept us north at 5 kts adn we motored to make forward progress. As the day and night progressed the winds were persistently easterly causing us to bear more north than planned. If it does bear more to the south Monday it will work well and we will round Florida nicely, if not we tack or motor sail.

Night sail is starry and about perfect, not cold nor to breezy.
Now Monday the winds are light, 10 kts. We shake out the reef and are under full mainsail.
Beautiful out here, very little sea, moving at 6+ kmph. Late morning winds increase and we sail at 7.5 kts Ray catches a perfect barracuda with lines in the water for only 1/2 hour. Made 150 nm on first day, the is on rhum line, actual distance was 172 Hoping current will drive us faster still around Florida. Goal to exit Bahamas in less than three days. Rigging failure, worn shackle on main sheet snapped, preventer line keeps it from moving to much. Replaced and away in ten minutes. Use of preventer at all times is a good thing!

As nightfalls we are sailing very fast 10+ kts. Winds from east so we plan to tack at midnight to gain sea room to round the cayos of Florida. Sailing into the night is rough, confused currents. We are not able to make plentiful headway and decide to reduce sails and motor sail on main only to get more easterly. Early in the morning the winds shifts to the SE and seas become very large and confused, the beginnings of the Gulf Stream. Overnight we blow out our fishnet safety trampoline on starboard, have some leaking, then blow out one of the jib cars while adjusting it. All for big winds and sea conditions.

The day gets much better but winds are not favorable enough to sail by Florida on one tack, then they shift for the less favorable and we are tacking up the coast.

Ray suggest we pull into Key West to try and obtain a new jib car to either replace of bolster the suspect one. He has experience here and we decide to make a quick stop where there are every sort of marine supply store. We are on track for a nine day passage but now will be delayed for a good reason.

It has been nice to be back to Isla Mujeres. Quintana Roo has transformed from a backwater into the largest beach vacation areas in the new world on just 40 years. Back then Bermuda boasted double or more the quality tourist beds as here, now the ratio has shifted to something like 2,000 to 1 in Mexico’s favor.

Despite the influx we found the marine environment to be very nice. Dolphins joined us on every sailing, scuba dives were full of fish, locals still snorkel for lobsters. Seems that Mexican culture has really improved. Back when rude behavior was common, smoking, drinking and despair. Now these have mostly disappeared, at least here, and many Mexicans feel they have a better future than Americans do.

Ana Luna has been at anchor a bit much for her liking. We have sailed around Isla Mujeres several times along with sailing the large bay which separates it from Cancun.

Now in mid March after enjoying visits from family and great shopping for Mexican foods we have a good wind window to depart for Bermuda. Sailing route takes us down the Cuba straight, through or just north of Bahamas and then NE to Bermuda.