We got up at 0500 when the alarm went off. Rechecked the weather, Jorge had some doubts about it, but two other boats decided to leave and so did we. One guy had left already at 0230 (a 26' boat). We weighed anchor and set out with the two other boats. The fourth boat decided not to go. The 2' - 4' seas with occasional seas to 5' ended up being more like 4' - 6' seas with occasional seas to 7+'. The forecasted winds were blowing 20 kts instead of 15 kts with gusts to 22 kts. The winds were also blowing more ESE and hadn't clocked around to the S and SW as expected which would have been a much better point of sail. We persevered for two hours. The general concensus amongst the three of us was to turn back. It took us two hours to get to the point of turning back and only one hour to get back to harbour! At times we were only going 3.5 kts and when we hit a wave the speed dropped to 2.5 kts. At that rate we were going to get to Bimini in the dark, not a good situation!

We set anchor by 0930, had breakfast and then had a snooze. We got an invite to a fellow cruiser's boat for happy hour at 1630. There were six sailing couples and one trawler couple (from Britt, Ontario) there. The next weather window was set for tonight (tomorrow morning) at 0200 which most cruisers were going to do. Dave and Rose from Cloud 9 (who left with us this morning) decided they wanted to leave earlier and us, being the smallest boat in the pack, figured we needed more time to make the crossing so agreed to leave with Cloud Nine at midnight tonight. That gives us a 10 hour window before some light northerlies (forecast to be 9 kts) blow in and we need 10 hours we figure to make the crossing.

I got some laundry done this afternoon, had outdoor showers and again got the boat ready for the crossing (ie putting the dinghy back up on the davits).

Hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate this time.