Bahamas

The Gulf Stream flows north between Florida and the Bahamas at around 5 knots. If the wind is opposing that current there will be very high waves and bumpy waters. So a "weather window" is when the wind has eased enough to let waves flatten and moved around to the south in conjunction with the current.
Chris Parker, the noted maritime "router" called Monday's window "small and marginal" because wind was predicted to move around to the north after midnight at 5-10 knots.  That meant we had to be across the current by midnight.  So we left at 1700 (5:00) before the winds had really laid down but within an hour we had the weather we anticipated and made good time.
Night time passages are not preferred  You're steering a course in the pitch black and watching out for big freighters and cruise ships.
We made good time and had to wait for the sunrise before entering Bell Channel.

The anchor was down at 0700, the quarantine flag was up and we were down and out.  14 hours at the helm with neither of us getting real sleep.

I take back any derogatory comments I might have made about our BMW D150.  After months of fretting over him, Mr. Beemer was a beast.  2600 rpms giving us 6.5-7 knots when not in the current.  Just awesome.

We were rousted by customs after a 2 hour nap and moved Rosie to the gas dock.  After way too much paperwork, the quarantine flag came down and the courtesy flag went up.

The Grand Bahama Yacht Club is a great place.  We were here 9 years ago.  It shows the scars of Dorian and the number of boats here is way down because people are avoiding Abaco and Grand Bahama Island.  So they made us a sweet deal and we're going to stay here until we head back in mid-February.  Lots of work to do on the boat.  A great pool that makes Kathleen very happy and we want a break from travel, travel, travel.

Much more to follow.  Happy New Year to everyone.  Thanks for tuning in.