If this was Facebook, I would give this a like. It drives me crazy to have people come to South Florida, and never even go to the Bahamas which is only 48 miles due east. I don't understand it, How can one not like crystal clear water, and no buildings cluttering up the shore? We run across and back in single engined runabouts (I've passed pontoon boats carrying refrigerators!) With no electronics, yet guys with serious passagemakers with enough electronics to fly a plane tell me "we don't like getting out of sight of land". A couple of years ago I had this giant lumberjack type guy come here from Indiana who bought a Maxum 46' because it had a dive compressor, and he was "into diving". Wow' great, you'll love keeping her down here because clear water is so close. Did he even go to the Keys? NO, he ran it across the Gulf back to Indiana! The plane tickets from Allegiant Air were only $19.00 dollars (not a misprint) yet the trip back to muddy water in Indiana cost how much in fuel alone? Likes to dive, but never saw the Bahamas only 2 hours away. Happens 99% of the time even for people who came here all the way from Australia and New Zealand. On the other hand I had guy from Holland buy a 43' Wellcraft Portifino sight unseen (no survey-nada!) off of Ebay -then ran it direct on it's bottom to Curacao (look that up in your charts!)-in Hurricane season, with no problem. THAT was NOT a passagemaker, nor fall anywhere into the realm of a good idea, but by god, make passage it did!
