We departed the marina at 10:30 AM after the radar was installed.  First need was to fuel the boat.  A quick trip to the fuel dock at Bahia Mar Marina was no issue.  Berthed, fueled and departed without issue.  Then a quick motor to the 17th Street bridge and request the next opening.  The bridge has a clearance of 55 feet which handles most boats but with our mast at 80 feet we needed the bridge to open.  Fort Lauderdale several years ago improved this bridge to keep the area available to the mega yachts and bigger sailboats.  Around 60,000 people are employed in the county working on boats so it is a big issue to keep the traffic flowing.

We caught the 11:30 AM opening and motored out to the ocean via Port Everglades.  Winds were out of the south, unusual except when a cold front descends into Florida which it did.  Just east of Fort Lauderdale is the Gulf Stream that flows north at 2-3 knots.  This huge "river" flows up the east coast and eventually reaches the British Isles keeping their winters mild.  When crossing the Gulf Stream around Florida it is usually fine except when the winds are from the North.  North winds flow against the stream and create very sharp steep waves that are a bear to handle.  So the south wind was okay but not great as the seas were still choppy. 

Once out into the ocean we set sails, well we tried the new staysail and it did not deploy.  Seemed to be an electrical failure.  So we set the main genoa and mainsail, no big deal as the boat is well founded.

Off we went heading a bit north of due east to get through the Providence Channel in the Bahamas.  Crossing to the Bahamas is about 60 miles then through the channel to pop out on the east side and into the Atlantic.  We covered 167 miles in the first 24 hours, not bad in a chop and winds around 3-5 in the Beaufort Scale.

Watch schedule was already set with 3 hours on and six off.  Normal practice but at first it is tiring.  After a while it is routine and lots of times you rather be on watch than slamming around in the bunk in hot weather!

Oh we did fix the staysail issue by simply shutting off the power and turning it back on.  Brilliant, Tim gets all the credit.