One Particular Harbor so near and yet so far

We made it to the states the other day.  Crossing from Bimini to Fort Lauderdale was wild and wonderful and scary all at once.  We arrived in Bimini after some meandering.  From the Jumentos we sailed up the South side also referred to as  the" Sout"side by Bahamians. This shallow bank is a paradise.  Isolated, but not too far from  large harbors.  The water is opaque , milky turquoise and incredibly beautiful.  We had to anchor almost one and 1/2 miles off the shore because the water was so shallow .  However , we were surrounded by lovely islands and so wonderfully protected from howling winds.  There is a lot of exploration to be done here and we have only begun.  Tom of course was thrilled .  The depth sounder never said more than 5 and 1/2 feet  as we worked out way through rocks and islands and cuts with fast currents.  His instincts are so great, we were in shelter all the time and winds were almost 30 knots.    But, we are ready to get home and started to make our way up the Exuma chain.  We stopped at one harbor and another,  full of memories from past stops and  the joy of new experiences.  I kept thinking of Buffet and "one particular harbor".  But in the Exumas we have a few,  in fact a lot , of harbors which call us for their beauty and for the really good times we have there. If you asked us our favorite, it would change from day to day and memory to memory. From Exumas we ran to Nassau - alway s a weird combination of Bahamas and city and beach and fun and chaos. Then, the run from Nassau to Chub was a fabulous down wind sail . We left Chub at  4am to avoid a night on the banks .  Early rising has its difficulties but sailing under the dark sky with dancing stars and a half moon: that was great.  The sun rose amid clouds and rain but it was still spectacular.  It is about 80 miles from Chub to Bimini and despite the early start we were negotiating the harbor entrance at sunset.   It is an interesting harbor entrance.  You parallel the beach about 15 yards out with breakers on the other side . It would be a really scary thing at night but we made it just at sunset.  The weather had not been cooperative.  Sunset was through gloom, squalls and rain but we got into the dock in time to hoist a glass to the glowing red skies. Bimini is just under 50 miles from FLA but it is worlds away.  The gulf stream is a natural barrier between Florida and the Bahamas.  We were looking a a narrowing weather window to get across and decided,   after careful listening to weather, and assurances that squalls were compressed East of us, to make the trip.  Many people at the dock were waiting for a window about 4 or 5 days in the future.  I find weather is not too accurate that far out and it looked pretty good so we set out for Ft Lauderdale at around 9:30 am.  Wild slog out of the harbor .  The predictions were for SW at about 10 knots and 3 foot seas.  We were seeing NW winds (course is NW) and seas about 5 feet.  Yuck! We seriously entertained heading back.  After all 9 hours of this nonsense would be too much. Additionally the winds from the north tend to increase the seas in the Gulf Stream.  But  the waves settled and we altered course a bit hoping for a little help north from the Gulf Stream later on.  The seas were big but well spaced and things looked pretty good.  Hours passed  while we were motorsailing and enjoying flattening seas. Then, the Coast Guard radioed a warning for severe thunder storms with water spouts and hail and 50 knot winds headed directly on our path.  NOT what we hoped for.  We altered course but outrunning weather is an iffy thing.    Before our eyes, the clouds gathered, stacked and grew.  The grey just obliterated sunny skies.  For a little while, the margins of the bad weather were clear and ominous.  Tails of clouds reached for the ocean trying to form waterspouts.  We battened down all hatches.  As we watched,  the clouds became more spread out and indefinite.  Then, they brightened and spread out  Finally , the Coast Guard  announced that the severe  thunder storm warning was over .  Relief! I  had actually readied our lifejackets! We made Fort Lauderdale with a low dark sky full of distant but bright lightening.  It was wonderful to throw the hook out.  We'll take advantage of the shelter of the Intracostal Waterway for the next few days as the forecast is awful.  Good to be in the states!