I never quite got the I-65 route, at least from south
Florida which is where I was based for many years. Once you are in south Florida, more or less Daytona and south from there, you are already in the
trade winds so will see winds from the NE to SE 90% of the time. So leaving from Palm Beach, Ft Lauderdale or Miami you will be beating into it all the way east to longitude 65.
So what's the benefit? I would rather beat through the Bahamas where I can stop and rest, enjoy the trip than beat straight out into the open ocean.
Now if starting from farther north the I-65 route makes more sense to me. You can usually get a better angle on the wind, often even get some westerlies and make much better time east before turning south.
Am I missing something here?
By the way, I completely agree with MarkJ about the gentlemen's route. That whole thing of playing land/sea breezes and such never really
work well for me. The only time I ever saw a benefit was an early
winter delivery from
Panama to the VI. The trades were really strong and the beat more or less N-NNE against NE trades was nasty. Finally got close enough to the south side of Hispaniola that it blocked the wind and we motored due east the reast of the way. Never did see any land/sea breeze at all on that leg.