Day 66 2nd year July 26. On to Collins Inlet. Miles 29. Total miles 3623

Drizzled on us as we weighed anchor, but then it stopped as we were traveling out of the harbor. Yeah!! We continued out into the Bad River channel and out into Georgian Bay.

We have a long run outside today, about 9.5 miles to get to Beaverstone Bay- thus we left early to get ahead of the weather and wind which will pick up this afternoon.

Our course took us 1.5 mile offshore past Fort Channel and Voyager Channel, where there is a large tract of Indian Reservation land. Then we passed The Chickens - a collection of over 300 islands and rocks just off shore. As it was cloudy my pictures did not turn out. Sorry!

We then turned north to enter the channel to Beaverstone Bay, past its low rock islands and then its forested islands and into the bay proper. And the sun came out so I have pictures!

We will travel Beaverstone Bay its entire length of 4 miles. The bay has about 25 islands in the middle of the bay and we skirt between the islands on the east side and the mainland as we travel north.

Here is the chart of Beaverstone Bay and the beginning of Collins Inlet.

As Beaverstone Bay ends, the navigational marks turn us into Collins Inlet which is a narrow rocky gorge with walls up to 30 feet tall and depths of 12-30 feet of water.

After 2.5 miles Collins Inlet opens up to Mill Lake, which we cross to reenter the continuation of Collins Inlet. On this portion of Collins Inlet the granite is more pink. Think the color is due to the pink gneiss in these rocks.

We also past a few hunting and fishing lodges along the channel.

And a few beavers lodges, but no beavers, yet. I have high hopes to find some!!

We anchored behind Key Hole Island just off the Collins Inlet with No Agenda, who traveled with us today.

After lunch, we launched the dinghy and joined Jody and Mike exploring the area. We climbed up several rocky areas and even conquered a mountain!?!

This was a view of Collins Inlet from one of the rock climbs.

Upon returning we shared some delicious appetizers with Jody and Mike aboard No Agenda.

Thanks for the great food and conversation and the free medical advice!!!

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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