Day 12 2nd year. June 1. On to Ram Island anchorage in Hay Bay 36.4. Miles. Total 2945

Leaving Kingston, we now travel in territories new to us. Last year we visited the Ten Thousand Islands and stayed in Kingston, then traveled north up the Rideau Waterway to Ottawa and Montreal, then south on the Lake Champlain Waterway. This year, we head west to Trenton, where we will travel up the Trent Severn Waterway. We are excited to be discovering new places!

We left Kingston, after we gave the boat a short bath! It is another bright sunny day, with temperatures rising into the 80’s. So we will brave the elements without our sweat shirts and windbreakers today. Almost dressed like the Canadians!

In our travels west, we continued behind Wolfe Island and then behind Amherst Island- these islands separated us from the Lake Ontario. We cruised through the Lake Ontario North Channel which is about 2 miles wide and ranges in depth from 30-160 feet deep. A bit different from our local Intracoastal.

As we moved past the city and it’s airport, the waterfront changed to homes all along the mainland shore. On Amherst Island there are scattered homes, forests and farmland. The island also sports the wind turbines which harness the winds off the lake. A ferry provides the only link from Amherst to the mainland.

Passing Amherst Island, we cruised behind a Prince Edward Island into the Bay of Quinte. Now our view on both mainland and island is forest and farmland. Again the only connection to the mainland is by ferry.

We pulled into Hay Bay and anchored by Ram Island for the evening. Seems a bit odd to us to be anchored with a view of farms, but the farms mixed in with the forest provides a beautiful panorama to view this evening from our boat. Will also be a great night for star gazing.

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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