Boating in Florida and the Bahamas: the best day to go

Two different problems share one forecast. Inshore, on the banks and through the Keys, it is depth and tide: the state of the tide decides whether a shortcut is really a shortcut. Offshore, the Gulf Stream crossing turns any north in the wind into a short, stacked sea running against the current, and through the summer the thunderstorms build over the peninsula on schedule most afternoons.

Bonasea scores the crossing in half-hour steps at your boat’s cruising speed, so the run to Bimini is judged on the sea in the middle of it rather than on the one outside the inlet. Steepness is penalised, which is what makes a wind-against-current chop score badly even when the wave height itself looks modest, and the HRRR model carries the afternoon convection. Tide height on arrival and the corrected depth at the anchorage come with it. Tidal currents are not modelled yet, so the Stream is weather to plan around rather than a number the app hands you.

Depth figures are modelled averages rather than a survey of your bay, and the comfort score is an estimate from weather models rather than a promise. Bonasea does not replace official charts, publications, regulations or the skipper’s judgement. Read the warnings for these waters before you leave, and trust your echo sounder over the app.