Lucaya to the Exuma's

We decided to continue on down the Bahama island chain to the Exumas even though the auto pilot isn't working correctly.  We will probably regret it later but there are not any over nighters that we will be doing until we return back the the U.S.

We left Lucaya on the 29th of December at 7:30 AM.  The winds were blowing 10-15 knots out of the east and our course is to the southeast so we wouldn't really get much sailing in.  We decided to go almost straight south and take the route that goes west of the Berry Islands instead of east of them.  This allowed us to sail with the east wind.  We were able to sail all the way down until we had to turn southeast to go through the Northwest Channel into the tongue of the ocean on the south side of the Berry's.  When we went through the Northwest Channel we couldn't find the light that guides the way until we were within about 150 feet from it.  The light was not lit and it was dark and scary out.  So much for the Bahamians keeping up with the navigational aids.  I'm sure someone will eventually hit the post the light is on and do some major damage to their boat.

We came out of Northwest Channel at 7:30 PM and went by the west end of New Providence island around midnight.  We continued southeast to a point just south of two shoaling areas and turned more east onto the great Bahama banks.  We picked this area to cross the banks because there were no coral heads around to hit.  The sun came up just as we got far enough east where we could head more south down the Exuma chain of islands.  We ended this leg of the trip at Warderick Wells island which is part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park.  We did 183 nautical miles in 29 hours hand steering all the way.  Which is really exhausting by the way.

We will stay here on a mooring buoy and head 10 miles further southeast to Cambridge island tomorrow.  There is great snorkeling around Cambridge and we missed it last year so we plan to stay there a week or so.

Everyone have a Happy New Year.  I will write more when we have internet connectivity.