Day 80-82

On Tuesday, after taking care of a few last minute details and errands in the morning, we motored off the dock and back through the canal maze of Ft. Lauderdale to pick up the Intracoastal Waterway for the last time. It was tough to leave. Pete's cousin Laila had made life just a bit too comfortable for us and during our two weeks with her, the quicksand of easy living had already started to suck us in. But, we had places to be, friends to meet in Nassau, and couldn't put off our departure any longer.

It was an afternoon of motoring, a slow chug through the mansion-lined canals, every couple of miles waiting for another drawbridge to open, enjoying the sun and making our last goodbyes to the continental U.S. Miami after sunset lit up the night with its glittering skyscrapers and then we put its lights behind us and entered the dark, quiet waters of Biscayne Bay.

At Angelfish Creek near the bay's southern end we made our move, turning east to pick our way through the mangroves. The creek lead us through the barrier islands and then the barrier reef and finally out into Atlantic. There we faced for the first time the mighty Gulfstream, that treacherous oceanic river guarding the green waters of the Caribbean against the unprepared and the undeserving.

The Gulfstream was second only to Cape Hatteras on the list of places we'd been most warned about and cautioned of. Check the weather reports carefully, we'd been told, and never under any circumstance attempt to make the crossing with a north wind. The weather wasn't perfect that night, but the wind wasn't out of the North and the waves weren't too big. Even so, those choppy, confused seas set my insides to churning. It was the first time I've thrown up from seasickness since we left Massachusetts.

We motored all through the night and as the sun rose the next morning were thrilled to discover that the ocean had transformed to a deep, mesmerizing, impossible blue. As I stared spellbound at the ocean waters sliding by, I noticed what looked like the clear plastic top to a soft drink cup floating vertically in the water a little ways off. Then another and another. Soon there were hundreds visible all sizes and on all sides, stretching out to the horizon. When one floated closer by, I realized they were jellyfish-like critters called Portugese Man O'War and the parts I was seeing were the air bladders that kept them afloat and acted like sails to carry them around. Apparently, they can kill you.

We were able to set sail around noon and made landfall in the Bimini Islands at four thirty that evening. We set anchor, hurriedly coiled up our lines, stowed our gear, and generally put the boat back together and then, with whoops of glee, leaped overboard into the warm, dazzlingly clear waters. We were in the Caribbean!