Abacos, Tilloo Cay

Early morning at Spanish Wells

We are out at 7:00 for our long day north to the Abacos over deep water in the Providence Channel. We will be crossing a busy shipping lane to keep us entertained. But first we have to pass through the Ridley Head Channel, just north of Eleuthera, which is a narrow passage through the shallow reef. We have done this passage before and it is well plotted on our navigation software. The depths are very good in the actual channel to you can actually navigate by bottom depths, if you loose visibility and all your gps navigation. Many cruisers avoid this area all together and head north about 8 miles to the west at Royal Island. Once we clear the reef we have well space swells coming from the southeast, not enough to cause problems with the autopilot. 
 

Another hard day on the high seas

We motor sail north all day, because I am too lazy to put up the main sail in these swells. We have good wind all day, contrary to the forecast (should of put up the main) I have the engine idled back to keep our speed down. Sea Vu Play was under sail most of the trip north. Since we made good time on this crossing we head further north than our usually anchoring spot, to Tilloo Cay. We are anchored by 5:15pm.