02:45- I woke to a down pour of rain pounding on the deck aboveA dripping sound caught my attention and I discovered that for some unknown reason the gasket on the main hatch was dripping waterI got up and put a bucket under it.

Why not seize the moment? I stripped down butt naked, grabbed the Ivory soup and ran out on deck and took a showerWhat a way to conserve water! I covered the hatch on the outside with a small tarp and stopped the leaking.

At 03:30, I made coffee and ate cerealAll systems had been checked prior to the morningThe radar looked like the rain was breaking upThe wind had a Southeast component to itI was ready to goI pulled up the anchor and at 04:00, I was underway for the passage in the reef.

Once through the reef, it felt good to be in the oceanI had activated my SPOT to leave a track via satelliteThen, I worked my way out into the edge of the streamThe rain began to pourIt rained so hard that I couldn't hear the motor of the boat.

The wind screamed as the squall slowly progressed by meThe radar was black all around because of the hard rainWithin an hour, the gentle roll of the sea turned to confused waves, meters not feet high, and on the bow.

My speed reduced from 5.8 kts to 3 ktsAs I continued on and inched further out to catch more speed from the Gulf Stream, it became apparent that this would never happenMt ETA in Bimini a was slowly changing from 17:00 to 22:00 hours and then into the next day.

That would never work and I did not want to fight the seas for that many hoursI elected to work my way closer to the reef line, within 3 nm, and continue to the next passage in the reef about 15 nm away.

It took quite some time to get there and the seas only got worseFinally, I picked up my track from the day before that I left a trail on