Day 10-11 year. May 30-31 On to Kingston, ONT. Trip 15.8 miles. Total miles 2909

Weighing anchor, we left Beau Rivage and the Ten Thousand Islands to head west in the Bateau Channel. This channel is like our Intracoastal, but on Lake Ontario- barrier islands separate us from the lake.

On our way to Kingston, we had to watch for ferries that cross the channel, taking cottagers to their island homes on Howe and Wolfe Islands. Both of these islands are quite large and with many homes and even some farms.

We enjoyed another bright sunny day! Started out at 58 degrees but will warm to 78 today. All the Canadians are in shorts and tee shirts and those on boats are wearing swim suits, Bill and I are not quite acclimated. We still are wearing windbreakers and long pants, especially in the mornings.

We were greeted by Wolfe Islands wind turbines as we completed the loop around the Ten Thousand Islands. We now can see the first of the Martello Towers which were built to fortify Kingston’s harbor from us Americans. These towers vary in size, some big enough to house a garrison of 50-75 soldiers.

The tower is in front of the old Fort Henry which was built 1841 and used til 1880 during this time the US and Canada were again disputing their border.

This is the view as we approach Kingston, ONT

We entered Confederation Basin Marina to a slip in downtown Kingston. After we checked in and got the boat situated we had lunch and took a walk around town.

Bill could not resist more pictures of the locomotive engine in the downtown waterfront park and of course we had to get a shot in the Kingston sign.

We did boat chores for part of the afternoon. Yeah, we now have fresh groceries and clean sheets!!

Day 11 2nd year May 31 Lay day in Kingston

Decided we would relax today and cross of a few items on our To Do list. I got the boat cleaned inside and researched our next stops through the Bay of Quinte up to Trenton, ONT. Also caught up on reading and did a few crossword puzzles.

Bill checked engines, added water to our tanks, and made calls to get another mechanic to help us with our dinghy, recalibrated the inverter and helped me confirm our next stops. We were not very interesting today, sorry!

In the afternoon, we walked into town to do some more sight seeing. Kingston was the first capitol of Canada, but fear of the town being so close to America, made the young nation move the capitol to Ottawa. Here are some shots of the First Capitol Building in Kingston.

The town also boasts Queen’s University

and the Royal Military Academy, which trains cadets for all the military services.

We enjoyed the waterfront parks with its fountain, 1800's Railroad Station and all the ferries and sight seeing boats.

Our stay in Kingston was half sight seeing and half chores, but those chores have to be done. sometime. Thus ends another day for Margie and Bill!!

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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