We left Highbourne Cay at the crack of dawn for what would be a 24 hour sail up to the Abacos chain.

The seas were calm and we had very little wind so we just put up the main sail and motored for a couple hours.

We entered an area of treacherous coral reefs, identifiable as black areas in the clear aquamarine waters. Since the tide was rising, though, we had enough water under us so they wouldn’t pose a hazard.

After an hour or so navigating around the coral, we ran into a big blanket of fog that got heavier as we moved north. We could only see a couple hundred feet around us so we put on the running lights despite it being only 11:00 am.

As we approached Fleeming Cut, where you pass Eleuthera and enter the open seas, the fog lifted and all was well again.

We had 64 miles to go, it was 2pm. Figuring we needed to slow down so we wouldn’t get to Little Harbor before daybreak, Ed turned off one motor and cut our speed.

We can tell by the GPS what time our ETA is, based on our speed, so we will sail tonight or slow the motors to keep our arrival around 6 am.

A counterintuitive strategy since we usually want more speed! But the right one.

Now it’s almost 5 pm, just 13 more hours to go. We will do one-hour shifts at the helm and take naps. If the seas remain calm we hope to use Auto-Annie, our trusty autopilot, to steer the boat some of the time.

She’s so good that she lulls you into false confidence. Hope I don’t fall asleep at the wheel.