Hey Mark,
Palmetto, FL here.
June and part of July in the Bahamas will be toasty and always holds the potential for an early-season hurricane. April through June might be nicer, if you can swing it.
Weather windows can sometimes align perfectly but can also be fickle. Let's say you leave St Pete on June 1. If you're targeting the northern Bahamas, you'll probably stage somewhere around Biscayne Bay, if you're in a sailboat, and maybe as far north as Ft Lauderdale or Stuart or maybe even West Palm, if you're in a
power boat. Figure, it could take you as much as a week, depending upon your travel speed, to get to your staging location. If the weather window is perfect and you can leave the next day, you can bounce across to the Bahamas for check-in and then
head out to wherever you like. Northern Bahamas...
Bimini, Abacos, the Berries, etc... would be good destinations. (Some destinations took some hard hits in recent storms so you might want to call ahead to make sure facilities are available where you want to go) By the time you reach your targeted
destination, you could easily be ten days into June.
Getting back across the
Gulf Stream is also weather-dependent. That time of year, we would probably choose to go North but that's just our preference. Stage in
Bimini and wait for acceptable conditions, bounce across to West Palm, clear
Customs and turn right. If you're crossing back west in mid-July, you may not have the time to make it to Nova Scotia before the weather starts turning cold unless you hustle. You could easily make Chesapeake, maybe even
Long Island Sound, at a most relaxed pace. All depends upon what you want.
And welcome to the forum.
John