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.

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 121-122. 2nd year. September 21-22. On to Chicago and returning to Hammond Harbor. Miles 26. Total miles 4116

Woke to prepare for a short trip to a mooring can in Monroe Harbor, Chicago. Will meet up with Bill’s cousins to take them on a boat ride down the Chicago River. As we leave Hammond, the Chicago skyline is very visible on the horizon on this hazy morning. The seas are calm and winds light as we traveled with only a few tugs as our company on Lake Michigan. The closer we get to Chicago, you could recognize some of the more unique skyscrapers along the skyline. We hooked up to a mooring can in Monroe Harbor with the help of Capt Val from her Harbor tender. Soon afterward, Bill’s cousin Mike and his wife Karen, and cousin Ron were ferried to the boat and we made ready to take the boat ride down the Chicago River. We left the harbor, past the lighthouse and turned north to get to the lock at the entrance to the Chicago River. Had to wait for a boat to lock through ahead of us, then we proceeded into the lock to lock down about 3-4 feet i...

Crustacean Travels

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