Day 75-76 2nd year. August 4-5. Lay Morning at Croker and on to Fox Island. Miles 6. Total miles 3688

We woke to a cloudy 60 degree morning. It's windbreaker weather!! Took it easy and relaxed, waiting for the sun to come out.

Bill then took some drone shots of the anchorage at Croker island.

You can really get a better perspective of these islands from these drone shots.

About mid morning we launched the dinghy to explore the island in the center of Croker Bay. More rock climbing!!!

This is the typical walking terrain on the islands.

On our hike we disturbed a few chipmunks, birds and a frog. The frog even posed for us.

We came back to the boat for lunch and checked out the weather. Looking at our options, we decided to weigh anchor and head to Fox Island, which forms the top of the spiral of these archipelago islands called the Benjamins.

Cruising out of the bay, we headed south and then turned east

past The Sow and Pigs, which are pinkish. There were lots of smaller rock formations, so I guess the sow had lots of piglets.

and around South and North Benjamin.

A little further east, we turned into Fox Harbor, a long narrow harbor, and joined 4 sailboats in the anchorage.

Obviously more rock climbing is in order! Enjoyed watching a family anchored with us as they took turns jumping off the rocks and swimming. Too cool for us today. Maybe tomorrow.

Sunset shot at Fox Harbor

Day 76 August 5. Fox Island

A beautiful morning greeted us in Fox Harbor.

Bill also took drone shots of the anchorage.

We set off to explore the island by dinghy and on foot. We found lots of birds and chipmunks, frogs and even a small water snake. Scaling the rocks with our walking sticks has become old hat and we easily pick out the best routes up to the great views.

Fox Island is bigger and has less elevation than The Benjamins, but still had spectacular views, especially to the west. You can also see the La Cloche mountains in the background, in the picture below.

We met Marjorie and Dave from Kentucky while they were kayaking. They trailer their small sailboat up to Canada each year for 2-3 weeks in the summer. They were kind and offered us the use of their kayak so we could explore some areas we could not get the dinghy into. Here are the shots we took while kayaking.

On our way back to return the kayak, we saw Gordon and Jen, whom we had met in the Croker Island anchorage, as they were dinghying in the area. They followed us back to our boat and we invited both Marjorie and Dave and Gordon and Jen aboard to share docktails. We enjoyed sharing boating tales and stories.

Note: Was unusual for me to say good-bye to someone who shares my name-Marjorie. There are not too many of us around.

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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