How can I Construct this Linked Teardrop Pattern?

Question

I'm trying to replicate the way these circles are connected for use in a new design. I've gotten so close, but aligning everything exactly is incredibly frustrating.
At first I tried constructing this with the use of a white outline around the circles. But this isn't a solution, as the white pace around each linked circle obviously isn't a perfect circle itself.
The problem is achieving a perfectly aligned, flowing "s" curve. The connecting points that are giving me trouble are in the red circles.
I can approximate the connection points, but this leaves a "kink" in what should be a perfectly flowing "s" curve. I thought smart guides/snap to point would help me here, but to no avail.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Just for further clarification... I've achieved this.
But if you look closely, you can see the "kink" in the curve. I know it might seem a little nit picky, but this is for a final logo design.

Answer 1

I think it’s really quite simple if you don’t let the wood spoil your view of the trees.
Here’s the way I did it:
Start off by adding anchor points to a circle so that it now has 8 anchors.
Snap them together as here and draw a square (diamond) between their centres with the Pen tool.
Colour the top and bottom circles with a fill colour and a white stroke.
Colour the side circles white with white strokes
Colour the diamond with the same fill colour as the top and bottom circles but leave out the stroke.
The coloured circles should be at the bottom of the stack, then the diamond, ten the white circles.
Adjust the stroke weight on the circles until you’re happy with the look of things.
Make a copy of one of the coloured circles for safe keeping.
Now expand everything and use Pathfinder > Minus Front to remove the white strokes where you do not need them.
This requires several operations.
You now should have something like this:
All you need is the single circle and the double circle. (The triple circle is made from 2 doubles overlapping.)
You can see that I used ruler guides for accurate spacing.