Day 41. May 2. On to Governor's Harbor, Eleuthera. Miles 42.7. Total Miles. 606.6

Day 41

Woke to a cloudy morning which quickly cleared.

After double checking our plans for the day and buying some drinking water, we set to ready the boat to leave. Today we have to time our trip, leaving to arrive at Current Cut at slack tide, about 10 miles into our trip. Hopefully we calculated correctly.

Our plans for the next two days is to travel down the Bight of Eleuthera to stage for crossing to the Exumas.

We left the dock in stiff breeze that pushed the boat away from the dock. Bill had to get back on the boat quickly as he released the lines. I did not want to leave him behind!!

We traveled out of the canal in Spanish Wells and headed south past Meeks Patch Islands to make a turn to the southeast toward Current Cut. This cut shaves off about 1.5 hours of travel, but using it requires much consideration of wind and tides.

Close to the cut we saw that SV Jubilee was on course to go through the cut. We hailed her and they shared that they had gone thru the cut three times and would check out the conditions and let us know their thoughts about crossing. After favorable conditions were confirmed, we followed them through. We cut our engine to idle speed, and proceeded. We clocked 7.9 knots going at idle speed. That's quite a current! Thanks SV Jubilee for the guided tour!

Leaving the cut we were greeted with beautiful turquoise waters and a bit of chop as we entered the Bight of Eleuthera.

This water color continued for the 30 mile trip to Governor's Harbor, a town halfway down South Eleuthera. As we traveled south, we could see the shore of South Eleuthera pass by. Along the coast of Eleuthera are several small settlements with names of - Gregory Town, James Cistern and Alice Town. Each of the settlements has homes up on the "hills", but between the settlements is undeveloped bluffs and sand dunes and beaches.

Bill was having trouble with his hat in the wind!!

As we neared Governor's Harbor 5 smaller dolphin swam to us for a ride. It is always fun to see them!

Governor's Harbor is a working harbor with enough room for larger freighter to enter and deliver goods. As we entered the harbor a 90 meter freighter was unloading semi trailers. The harbor has caves along the entrance and after the working dock area, the harbor is lined with homes. We anchored with 6 other sailboats.

I forgot to mention two things from Tuesdays road trip on Eleuthera. The were ponds which were used to harvest salt that dot the Eleuthera Island. We saw many of these ponds on our road trip two days ago.

Also the silos that dot part of Eleuthera, remnants of the dairy business that was is now gone. Though we did see cows wandering around just off the road.

Here is our sunset!

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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