Well, we made it back to the Exumas. { insert applause here}

It was a long, but benign (you know, 4 plus 5, be nine) trip from Bimini in which we had at least one engine running most of the way. The weather was flat calm for the most part and the trip over would have been one of the best on record had it not been for the autopilot crapping out on us two hours after leaving Bimini.

Shitty Death! I kid you not.

With the exception of sewage, hand steering sucks worse than anything else in cruising and hand steering for thirty six hours is just cruel and unusual punishment. I hate you Otto the Autopilot, I hate you so much.

As an aside, I always suspected with a name like Otto that our autopilot was a member of some sort of satanic cult (The Evil Ottoman Empire perhaps?) that sacrificed comfortable foot rest furniture (you know, Ottomans), but until now I had no proof. Rest assured dear reader that his heresy will be dealt with swiftly and harshly.

Anyhow, around sunrise on Saturday, we were 8 miles off of New Providence. The sun rose right into our faces and we had a lot of problems picking our way into the western entrance to Nassau harbour. It didn't help that we had 5 cruise ships (1 departing, 4 arriving), 3 tankers and 2 passenger ferries all jockeying for position in the narrow confines of the harbour entrance. Despite all this, we eventually made it through and continued on our way.

We passed by downtown Nassau and slipped out the eastern side onto the banks to find the wind had showed up. We raised the sails and continued on towards Norman's Cay, some 40 miles away. The trip drug on and on and by the time we finally reached Norman's we were both exhausted.

As soon as we arrived, we set the anchor carefully as always, but after that protocol went right out the window. We shut down everything that looked like it was running and went to bed. We can put the rest of the boat to bed tomorrow.

Welcome back to the Exumas. More to follow, end of line ....