Aug 1. Day 107. On to Chaffey’s Lock. 6 Nm. Total miles 2100

Leaving Jones Falls, we headed through The Quarters , a few tight turns and twists in the channel that connects Whitefish Lake to Sandy Lake and then up 9 feet to Davis Lock #38.

Through the channel, we headed into Opinicon Lake. We strayed out of the channel to explore this beautiful forested lake as our travel day was short.

After our side trip, we negotiated narrow Murthy’s Bay and the channel leading to Lock#37, Chaffey’s Lock. Pulling up to the lock wall below the lock, we tied up taking the last spot. The docks are filled to capacity. The lock is named for the Chaffey’s brothers who ran a gristmill, saw mill and carding mill in this town.

We settled in and walked the lock area and visited the Chaffey’s Lock Art Museum. The proprietor Rick and Bill got to talking and he offered to give us a tour of the building which used to house a grist mill. The Chaffey’s brothers rented out this mill to a local town person. A small dam directed water to a channel where two steel horizontal turbines transferred the energy from the water through a set of gears and pulleys to the second story where the grain was milled into flour. The basement area of the mill still has water flowing through it today. Much of the existing structure is original, There are two outer walls which together are quite thick, the outer wall supporting the roof and the inner wall supporting the floors. Along with huge wooden beams. Currently the building first floor is a local artist gallery and the second floor is where Rick and his wife Celine live. Rick has taken much time and care and restoring the building.

If you look closely, Bill is in the first floor middle window. The stone area is the basement of the mill.

We also took a tour of the Lockmaster’s Home and Museum which explained the history of Chaffey’s and its lock. Was interesting to note how the waterway supported the local economy of logging, farming and milling- flour, lumber milling and wool carding. The advent of the steam boats brought fishermen to the area to take advantage of the excellent fishing and then cottages and hotels sprang up to cater to the fishermen. There are still several of these inns, cottages and hotels that survive today.

We ate lunch in part of the old Opinicon Hotel. Of course we had to try there homemade ice cream. It was delicious!

After lunch, we did a short walking tour of the old inn/hotels/ cottages in Chaffey’s- Simmons Lodge, Dorothy’s Lodge and Canalman’s house.

Returning to the boat I frantically typed all the entries I could as we “borrowed” an internet connection and then spent a lovely evening sharing drinks and travel stories, good books and movies, etc. with Rick and Celine.

Reflections on the Bahamas

Reflections on the Bahamas Over the past 10 weeks, we have traveled through Abaco, Eleuthera and Exuma Islands and enjoyed the hospitality of the Bahamian people. We have learned all about the islands, its unique geography - limestone, caves, blue holes and chalk cliffs; and colorful history-pirates and rum running, salt ponds and cotton plantations, boat building and wrecking/salvage. Traveling over 1300 miles through narrow cuts and wide bays to vast depths of ocean, we negotiated the islands and found safe harbors, calm coves for anchoring, bays filled with moorings and marinas large and small. This trip required us to pay close attention to the weather, the tides and currents as we traveled between and through the islands. The Bahamian people are warm and friendly, willing to give us rides, advice and directions, as well as some secret recipes!! We enjoyed hiking trails, walking the beaches, snorkeling the coral rocks and reefs, discovering ruins and ol...

June 4-5. Day 63-64. On to Cape May New Jersey. 53.4nm. Total 1534 miles.

Left Delaware City at 5:35am to be able to take advantage of the strong currents going with us while traversing Delaware River and Delaware Bay. The Delaware River goes south about 15 miles and flows into the Delaware Bay. As we travel south, New Jersey is to the east and Delaware is to our west. We are traveling just outside the shipping channel and are really moving at 10.9 knots. That is three knots faster than we normally travel, as the outgoing tides are pushing us along. Nice to have Mother Nature helps us save on fuel. The Delaware River is about 8 miles wide so there is plenty of room for the freighters and the pleasure boats. So far, we have not encountered any commercial traffic, but there is a large freighter behind us that will eventually pass us as they travel at 14 knots. The Delaware Bay proper varies from 23-29 miles wide and 26 miles long. There are five lighthouses on the Delaware marking the shipping channel. We went by Ship J...

Day 98. 2nd year. August 27. On to Manistee. Miles 25 Total miles. 3910.

We weighed anchor on a sunny 50 degree morning. So we put on our sweatshirts and drove from below as we left Frankfort. Going through Frankfort’s channel and breakwater we encountered a few intrepid fisherman and further along as we cleared the breakwater there must have been over a hundred fishing boats. Almost like playing bumper cars, but with boats. Had to negotiate a path between them as the fishing boats were all trolling fishing lines behind them. We were still seeing fishermen 4 miles south of Frankfort. These guys sure take their fishing tournaments seriously! The shoreline that we pass heading south are still sand dunes bluffs some as tall as 200 feet. As we travel, we pass the small town of Arcadia and Portage Lake, each situated on an inland lake which is connected to Lake Michigan by a dredged channel. Interesting to note that the dredged channels were originally small rivers connecting the inland lakes to Lake Michigan. As we passe...

Crustacean Travels

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