Day 56 May 17. On to Little Hall's Pond/O'Brien Cay. Miles. 2.9. Total Miles 772.1

Day 56

Spent a lazy morning enjoying the view and beautiful weather. Will actually move only a short distance to be closer to more snorkeling.

Leaving Cambridge Cay behind, we wandered our way thru to O'Brien Cut and around Pasture Island to take a mooring between O'Brien and Little Hall Pond Cays.

Some very pretty water color today!!

There are a few scattered homes on all the cays in this area so no going ashore, but boaters come here to snorkel the Sea Aquarium - two large rocks with their adjacent coral reefs which attract lots of reef fish.

This area is also famous as one of the island used to be owned by Johnny Depp, but is now owned by JK Rowlings of Harry Potter fame.

We took a mooring and settled in to enjoy this new anchorage.

During lunch we had a persistent gull come begging for food. We though he would join us on the fly bridge as he kept trying to find a way so he could share in our lunch,

Later in the afternoon when it was low tide, we launched the dinghy to snorkel the Sea Aquarium. Luckily two boats were leaving so we had the whole area to ourselves to explore.

We dove in and were greeted by lots of fish. The fish here are larger than the previous sites. We saw Queen Angelfish, colorful Parrot Fish, and White and Yellow Striped Grunts all 8-10 inches long.

New fish at this site were, Bermuda Chub, Scamp and Damsel Fish, along with the regulars - wrasses, Surgeon, Squirrel and lots and lots of Sergeant Majors.

This reef also has a lot more colorful corals, sea fans and sponges.

Bill went nuts taking pictures, so here goes!!

Next are the movies that Bill took. Never thought he'd finish filming. It was always just one more shot!!

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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