Day 22 2nd year. June 11. On to Lovesick, Lock 30. Miles 16 Total miles 3073

Had a lazy morning and untied from the wall around 11:00 and headed past Lakefield.

The winding channel lead us to Lake Katchewanooka, Obijwa for lake with swift rapids. We are now officially in the Kawartha Lakes, a series of nine lakes, each created by a dam. The Canadians call this cottage country where many a summer cottage can be seen on the forested shoreline.

As we cruise through Katchewanooka Lake the terrain became hilly and rocky and I finally got a photo of the elusive loon whose calls are so distinctive in the evenings and mornings.

At the end of the lake we came to Lock 27, Young’s Point and rose 7 feet.

Then we entered Clear Lake and travel its length of about 5 miles. This lake has even more cottages dotting it’s shore.

At the end of Clear Lake there are several islands which we negotiated around and we start to see more granite shoreline and small granite islands. One channel in this area is called Hell’s Gate with its narrow channels and granite outcroppings. We made sure we stayed in the channel!

From here we took a short side trip into Stoney Lake- aptly named for its many rocky islands and submerged rocks. Apparently all the well to-do from Toronto have very large summer cottages here.

We wound our way back out of Stoney Lake and into the channel for Burleigh Falls Lock, which raised us 24 feet. this is a picture of the rapids and falls.

After the lock we entered Lovesick Lake and traveled between its small islands. We crossed the lake to Lovesick Lock #30 and rose 3.5 feet. Will tie up to their lock wall for the night. Since Lock 30 is on an island, the lock workers must travel to and from work in a boat.

This is the Anglican Church of the Lake which parishioners attend during the summer. It is only accessible by boat.

The picture below is our view from our boat.

Lock 30 on Lovesick island is connected via the dam walkway to the Provincial Park on Wolfe Island. We decided to check out the park and hike on its trails. Bill was in his glory with all the rocks!

Since the Lockmaster left, we are the only ones left on the island.

I bet you are wondering about the name of this island -Lovesick. Well, according to legend Lovesick Lake got its name when beautiful Polly Cow, the daughter of handsome Jack Cow, a charismatic Chippewa chief of the 1800’s, fell in love. But she was rejected and heartbroken, fled to a deserted island on the lake where she nearly died of lovesickness. Another version of the story is that Richard Fawn, a local young man, who fell in love with an Irish girl, Katherine O’Donahue. When he was rejected, he paddled to the Island and pined away until his friends discovered him and took him home. Take your pick, either way a man or woman ended up with a broken heart.

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 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...

Day 64-65. May 25-26. On to Peck Lake, Jupiter, FL and then on to Indiantown/ Okeechobee Waterway. Miles 63.5/ 29.1 Total Miles 1122.1/1142.0

Day 64 We started early to get ahead of the holiday boat traffic. Weighing anchor at Lake Sylvia in Fort Lauderdale, we traveled on the Intracoastal Waterway past the iconic Pier 66 Tower and Bahia Mar Marina. We then turned north and passed the older sections of the city - Las Olas( older homes), Galt Ocean Mile (one mile of condominiums on the beach), and the famous miles of beaches on the Atlantic. I used to live here in the early 70's and the biggest change I see is the older smaller homes on the water are being replaced with larger versions and a few more condo towers have been built. As we go further north towards Commercial Blvd, North Fort Lauderdale, and Pompano Beach and its Lighthouse at the cut, there is less reconstruction. The next town we traveled through was Boca Raton with its Spanish architecture, Camino Real and its landmark tower. The sand bar at the cut was just beginning to fill up with Memorial Day revelers as we went by. Next were t...

Crustacean Travels

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