Day 25 leftover shots and Day 26. On to Man-o-War Cay. April 17. Miles 6.5 Total miles. 467.1

As promised the leftover shots from friends cameras of our day at Hope Town

Pretty good swinging for old folks!!

Sharing a Goombay Smash!

Mike saving our mooring ball for us as we come into the mooring field.

Day 26

Spent a leisurely sunny morning catching up with blog and boat duties. Bill also did a few drone shots.

We left Hope Town and retraced our route back east about 7 miles to Man-o-War Cay. This cay is known for its long time boat building business.

We entered Man-o-War Cay to scope out Eastern Harbor and its mooring field.

We decided to forgo the mooring field as the moorings did not look secure and there were many boats anchored within the mooring field. So we opted to anchor off the island with about 15 other boats.

After lunch, we splashed the dinghy and went into town, but did stop along the way to say hi to Anne on SV Meherio who at our age is single handed sailing through the Bahamas for her 6th year!

Landed the dinghy at Albury's Sail Shop that specialized in canvas totes and bags. Enjoyed talking with the two teens who were manning the store and hearing what life is like on a small island. Apparently getting to high school and returning home is the biggest challenge for them to overcome. Ferry ride and bus ride very early in the morning!!! We enjoyed perusing the wares and of course helped the local economy.

We then walked around the town with its cottages,

Museums and churches and Ligumvitae trees (National Tree of Bahama)

and the town's businesses- the largest, Albury's fiberglass boats. The Albury family used to make the fishing skiffs and sloops for Bahamian waters. Today they make 18-33 foot fiberglass fishing boats.

There is also sailmaking and wood working - especially the half ship models made by another Albury!

We found a street that was named after a friend's Grandfather- Chester Bethel.

We enjoyed finding the quirky and fun around town.

Returning to our boat we had to dinghy a different way as the tide had gone out and we no longer had enough water for the dinghy. Always something to keep us on our toes.

We stopped at the "best"beach on the island- called the Backbone. Really is is a small crescent beach at the narrowest part of the island. We walked across the sandy beach, up the stairs and across the limestone and concrete"road"- more like a path- to the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean side is very rocky.

When we got back to the boat we realized our anchor was not really dug in well. Not enough sand and too much rock. So we pulled anchor and tried 2 more times before we got set well. Winds are to pick up tonight so want to be good and set with the anchor.

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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