September 19-20. Getting ready to leave Crustacean for the winter

We’ve got Crustacean clean and stowed away for the winter.

Taking in all the cushions, flags and stowing fenders, as well as defrosting the refrigerator, cleaning the bathroom and kitchen and emptying the water tanks and polishing the stainless. Been busy.

Took time to go to lunch and poked around the small town of Brewerton. Found a replica blockhouse that originally built in 1742 and stood not far from the marina on the canal.

Walked in a park and discovered this church made of river stones.

We picked up the rental car and loaded it with all that needs to be carted back to Florida. Had to work around a few raindrops while loading. Also had some last minute chores to do.

We met a couple who came in the marina that live on Georgian Bay (a bay off Lake Huron in Ontario Province, Canada) and invited them over to our boat to share their knowledge. In return, we shared all the places we stopped on our voyage, as they are doing the loop and heading to Florida and the Bahamas this winter. Georgian Bay is one of the highlights of the Americas Great Loop. Was wonderful to get local knowledge. Will get to experience Georgian Bay in the next year of our cruise.

Thought you’d enjoy the lengths Bill will go to get grilled corn on the cob. He even grills on the rain!

We packed the car and it was full! Driving home will entail three stops. Our first is Roanoke,VA to visit Gary Hiler. We enjoyed the evening and had a nice dinner out.

The next day we took off and stopped in Greenville, SC to have lunch with my sister, Sue and then continued on to Atlanta to visit with my daughter, Cori and her family. We spent three days getting our grandkid fix.

We headed home September 25 and arrived around dinner time and unpacked the rental car just in time for hurricane Ian to head to the West Coast of Florida. The next day we returned the rental car and finished a few hurricane prep items at our house and went to our son’s house in town to help him get his home ready for the storm.

In the afternoon it was confirmed that we were to evacuate by 6:00 pm due to the storm. Once we finished at Kyle’s house we headed to Duane’s house in Deland to wait out the storm.

We returned home on September 29th and found our home in good shape except for downed palm fronds and small oak branches. Took us two hours of collecting debris- filled up 6 trash cans! Glad to have this storm behind us.

It is good to be home and have enjoyed catching up with friends and neighbors.

This will be my last entry in the blog for this cruising season. I will contact you towards the end of May, 2023 as we begin the next leg of our trip.

Enjoyed sharing our experiences with you as we traveled the waterways of our country and those of Canada. So much history and beauty in this country. So many wonderful people.

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...

Reflections on the Great Loop -

Over the 5 and half months last year and the almost 7 months this year for a total of 351 days, we travelled 6348 miles, through two countries 19 states, traversed over 200 locks to find large cities, small towns, farmland, and vast natural waterways and bays. Our route took us through sites of the Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War, as well as the history of how America grew along her waterways. Beginning with canoes, rafts and barges people and goods moved through these waters. The sailing sloops and steamships changed these rivers, requiring locks and canals to be built to facilitate travel and commerce. Today it is amazing how much commerce moves through these waters. We developed a healthy respect for the freighter and tow captains and lock masters and harbor masters that keep the system working. We have lasting impressions of early morning sunrises, beautiful sunsets, and moonlit bays, the hospitality in all the towns...

April 2 2022. We cast off our lines!

Day 1. April 2 We cast off our lines at 9:00am on out Great Loop adventure. Our friends, Phil and Aggie helped record our departure. The weather was overcast as we traveled out our canal and into Tampa Bay. As we approached the Skyway bridge a dolphin twice leaped completely out of the water, playing in our bow wake. An omen of good fortune for our adventure! As we ended our Tampa Bay crossing, the sun began to peek out and as we traversed past Longboat Key/Bradenton and entered Sarasota we had ourselves a sunny day. We traveled 34.4 nautical miles in four hours and anchored behind Otter Key, a mangrove Island near Lido Key in Sarasota. There we joined another boat from St Petersburg, FL. The owners were for many years sailors from the Caribbean down to Panama. What adventures they shared! The anchorage sports lots of manatees, dolphin and of course, the osprey who lords over Otter Key. Once settled properly, we took a nap, Wi...

Crustacean Travels

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