So we made it into Exuma sound with no problem last nigth, a bit freeky coming into a new country at night for the first time. Don’s Garmin and my Navionics charts where not exactly in agreement but we used them both. We droped anchor in about 10 ft of water of a pretty deserted piece of land at about midnight. It was officially an anchorage but we could not see any other boats. We had a celebratory rum before bed and a great nights rest.
Don was up at 630 or so and we got underway right away. We got a nice sunrise and super calm conditions. Night and day from 24 hours ago. We motor sailed down to a cut into the northern part of the sound and confirmed the charts seem to be pretty on here. no nav aids of course and very few boats. we both expected the bahamas to be full of boats but we only saw a few.
once in the northern exuma sound we got the main and jib up and are now blasting along at 6.5 kts. it took me a while to get dons autopilot to work under sail. needed to over trip the jib and under trim the main and select a course about 20 deg off desired but now i am out of the sun.
of course after the sail hoisting we wated no time having a celebatory beer. it looks like we may even have extra at the end of the trip. we still have a bit of propane so hopefully this will last otherwise we will be experimenting with raman in cold water!
we are going to head out the northern pass here this evenign just before sunset and then sail 65 nm up to abaco. hopefully we will have decent weather and get in after dawn. right now the sailing is absolutly amazing!! it is kind of like a massive san francisco bay with torqouse water and about 20feet of depth every where.
We may just spend summer vacation here as it is cold at night and i am a bit worried about the temp once we get further north!
cheers,
Roger
