On to Cayo Costa. March 24 Miles 45.6. Total Miles 77.1

Day 2

Woke to a gorgeous day and tackled our morning routine, so we could head further south to Cayo Costa, an island south of Boca Grande Pass.

Will travel through Sarasota's Bays - Roberts and Little Sarasota, which are filled with mangrove islands and have shores lined with homes.

We came upon a marker that an osprey had called home.

Leaving Sarasota behind, we went through an old swing bridge (the only original one left on the west coast) and entered Blackburn Bay.

At the end of Blackburn Bay we went under the Albee Road Bridge where a number of pelicans decided to congregate and visit!

We then cruised past the beautiful Venice Inlet and into the city of Venice.

Once past most of the city we travel through what we affectionately call "The Ditch". Essentially it is a canal dug through Venice to allow the Intracoastal Waterway to continue south and connect to Lemon Bay.

As the ditch ends we make a turn and we could see how the hurricanes of last season ravaged the coast. In the shot you can see the Gulf of Mexico through the vegetation left on the land.

Next we travel through Lemon Bay and past Manasota Key and the towns of Englewood Beach and Knights and Palm Islands. Lots of vacation homes now cover these barrier islands.

Above is a picture of Bill with his Gumby navigational assistant. Gumby helps keep Bill straight as to which side of the boat he takes the red marker. Gumby has helped him numerous times to keep us in the channel!

As we leave Lemon Bay, the Intracoastal narrows and then opens up into Gasparilla Sound and its barrier islands Little Gasparilla and Gasparilla. Fun information about Gasparilla Island - There is an old lodge for those who fish these waters. It is quite unique with a big wooden bar and pictures of men and women dressed in slacks and long skirts proudly displaying their tarpon catch of the day!! Also there used to be lots of stilted ice house in the bay for those fishing to keep their catches on ice while they continued fishing. Today, all that is left of the ice houses a few support poles standing upright in the water. Below is a chart of the area.

Gasparilla Sound empties into Charlotte Harbor which reaches up into the mainland where the cities of Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte are located. We will stay near the coast and cross Boca Grand Pass at the entrance to Charlotte Harbor and continue a bit further south to tuck in behind Cayo Costa Island to anchor for the night.

Here is a shot of our anchorage which we are sharing with 16 other boats.

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 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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