TWIN SPIRITS

The Travel Journal of Tom and Sheila as they cruise from Northern Lake Huron, through Georgia Bay, the Trent/Severn Canal system the Erie Canal system and south to Florida on the Intercoastal Waterway.

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Jun 29/30, 2010: Hello from Bell Cove, North Channel of Lake Huron
June 27-July 4: Cruising the North Channel
July 6-12 in the 30 Thousand Islands of Georgian Bay and Midland
July 12-19 The Severn River and Locks 45-39
July 28: Peterborough
Aug 16: Bay of Quinte
Sep 10: Waterford, NY
Oct 1: The Hudson River
October 13, 2010 in Chesapeake Bay
October 27, Chesapeake Bay
November 18, Charleston
December 12, Stuart Florida
January 11, 2011, Stuart Florida
March 21, Marathon to Hollywood

Jun 29/30, 2010: Hello from Bell Cove, North Channel of Lake Huron

It hardly seems possible that a week ago today we left Vancouver on the 7:00 a.m. flight to Toronto and then on to Sudbury, arriving at 5:30.  We discovered that the airport is about 40 minutes north of the city, so that was the first airporter/taxi ride.   However, Bruno was a source of interesting facts about Sudbury (population 185,000), one of which was that the heaps of blackened rock created by the early nickel smelting process have been neutralized so that trees and other vegetation are now growing on them.  The barren ground that once was used to simulate the moon for the Apollo Missions is barely visible amongst the green.  We did not see the huge nickel that marks the city but learned that if all the underground tunnels were laid end-to-end, they would reach Vancouver.  Inco has been taken over by Valle and their 1500 union workers have been on strike for a year!

We decided to stay the night in the Radisson in Sudbury and caught the Greyhound bus at 7:15 a.m. to Espanola, a one hour trip.  We were deposited on the street in front of the City Hall in Espanola (population 55,000) which is a pulp and paper town with Domtar as the major employer.  We had the number for Jeff’s Taxi who would take us for a flat rate of $72.00 to Little Current on Manitoulin Island, another 40 minute ride.  Harbor Vue Marina is 2 kilometres from “town” (population 1500) and as Bruno had warned us, everything operated at a slower pace, not unlike Galiano!

“Twin Spirits” awaited us in the yard, looking very dusty and a bit forlorn with a broken front window, port side, which had been taken out by a large rock en route on the truck.  It was the first time in 20 years that Andrew’s Trucking had had a broken window. Thus began a series of highs and lows as we inspected the boat and prepared to get her ready for the water.  Scott, the trucker had cleaned up a great deal of the tempered glass, but there were still many small shards as well as pellets which we had to pick up, resulting in a few cuts in hands and feet.  The table, floor and chart area were all damaged by flying glass with the wood and laminate having a number of dents and scratches.  We called the local glazier, Lloyd, of Mardon Glass who arrived in good time and measured up the window for replacement with laminated glass as is in car windows.  We couldn’t pin him down on a delivery time, so boarded up the window when we saw the thunder heads building.  When the boat was blocked before we arrived, they tilted it down at the bow, so that water did not drain from the upper deck or the aft lower deck.  With the recent heavy rains, the upper lockers were full and water had drained into the bilge, in front of the bilge pump.  The worst result was that water ran into the main cabin from the upper locker and we have damage to the overhead cabinet behind the steering station.  It seemed that we were bailing and pumping by hand every day, so our priority was to get back into the water as soon as possible.  We needed help to remove the dinghy from the aft lower deck and had to wait until the yard workers finished lunch and launched another boat.  Once we could get into the aft locker, we could plug in to power and then use the vacuum to clean up the glass. We draped tarps up top to prevent more water from coming in.

We were offered the use of the yard truck after they closed at 5:00 so drove into town to food shop and visit the LCBO and Rona.  Now we could camp out on the boat and plan our tasks for the next day, which started early when a tremendous thunder and lightning storm awoke us at 4:30.  By 8:30 the sun was out in a clear sky and the west wind was up.  We got the props back on the shafts and our window arrived at noon.  We were able to wash the hull and prep the water line for a coat of bottom paint which dried in short order in the strong winds.  We were put into the water on Friday afternoon with lots more cleaning yet to do to remove the black streaks from the diesel and road dirt.  On Saturday we installed the bimini and continued with the cleaning topsides so that the cushions and covers could go back on.  We were offered the use of a car to go back into town for more errands and then hosted the owners for happy hour topsides.  Joan and Marylou were a wealth of information about cruising in this area as well as the stretch from here to Midland.  They kindly loaned us their charts which we will leave at the marina in Midland.
We will sign off now but look for the second installment giving our adventures in the wind, waves and rocks of the North Channel over the last four days. No mishaps and we are now back in Little Current for a short interval, at an internet cafe because our Bell Turbo Stick has not performed as we had hoped. 

June 27-July 4: Cruising the North Channel

Hello again, this time from Killarrney at the north end of Georgian Bay.  Last Sunday we were anxious to get started on some cruising, having bought the Ports Cruising Guide to read up on some of the sights to see.  We did not want to wear out our welcome at Harbor Vue Marina as moorage in these parts is almost $2.00 per foot per night, twice what we pay on the west coast, and we had said we would leave on Sunday.  (A pump out is $12.00 and diesel is $1.05 plus HST.)  We still had cleaning to do but filled our water tanks and headed off under cloudy skies to make the Little Current swing bridge opening on the hour.  As we navigated the channel buoys, the skies leadened up and within a short time it was raining.  Not an auspicious start as we had to negotiate a rock-strewn channel to get into an anchorage at Croker Island.  Tom was drenched as we set the anchor, but the night was quiet.  We awoke to fog!  The pink granite rock on the island is very impressive and we understand that the blueberries are plentiful a little later in the season.

Tom did his regular check of the engines and discovered the bilge was full of water and antifreeze!  What now?  We went through a number of options as Tom sponged up the liquid and decided to recycle it back into the radiator for the freshwater cooling of the starboard engine.  As he poured from the top, it poured out the bottom.  A plug had come loose and fallen out.  Whew – it was the simplest solution to a potentially expensive problem and once the plug was firmly in place, the antifreeze was back in its rightful place.  We needed to re-anchor, so decided to move when the fog lifted and headed for Cutknife Cove under bright sunny skies, sparkling waters and a 20 knot westerly behind us.  The anchorage there was not as protected as we liked so we moved to Bell Cove as the wind increased to 30 knots.  We needed to return to Little Current to give back the borrowed charts and to pick up a part for our Hurricane Heater that we use to get hot water.  However, we weren’t going anywhere with the winds so strong and the waves reputed to be 6 feet, so we sat for two days and did chores down below.  Not only was it windy, it was cool, too, so the outdoor tasks were on hold.  We watched a black bear cub or teenager amble along on the shore, tipping up the shale stones to look for grubs and ripping up a dead birch tree for the same reason.  We decided we wouldn’t take a walk ashore!

The winds were calmer, only 15 knots, at 6:30 the next morning so we headed out for the hour’s run to Little Current and ran smack dab (not literally) into a cruise ship entering the narrow channel just as we got there!  There really is a current here and it isn’t little, running up to 4 knots when the wind is blowing.  This is a 100 foot wide channel where Lake Huron squeezes into Georgian Bay, and we are told that the current can change direction a number of times in the day, just like our tidal currents but without the same predictability.  We spent a productive day at the dock, completing our errands and contributing to the economy of the community.  We pulled out the folding bikes and rode the 2 kilometres to Harbor Vue Marina to pick up our part and return the charts.  We decided to spend the night at the dock as the wind was still brisk.  We gleaned some more tips for good moorages en route to Killarney, where we had arranged to have the electronic chip for our GPS couriered from Midland.  This chip is for the chart plotter and gives up-to-date details of the thousands of rocks in this area of Georgian Bay.  It isn’t called the 30,000 Islands for nothing!

Canada Day dawned clear and calm so we headed out as the bridge opened and motored to Heywood Island for the night.  We were able to reattach the venturi (windscreen) topsides and actually sat and read in the sunshine for part of the afternoon.  We moved over to Baie Fine, a sort of fiord channel which is lined with the white quartz found in the area.  After travelling to the end, to The Pool, we turned around because it is choked with weeds and very shallow.  We passed the Evinrude cottage which was closed up, and returned to Mary Ann Cove to spend a pleasant evening with 13 other boats in the protected cove.  We picked wild iris on the shore for a bouquet on board. Moving to Covered Portage Cove, we found a beautiful anchorage with jade-hued water, quartz outcroppings and 7 foot depths - there aren’t too many sailboats in this section of the cove.

The weather is now sunny and 26 degrees, dropping to 20 at night, and the breeze during the day keeps the flies at bay.  There are some blackflies and mosquitoes, as well as the ubiquitous horse flies and house flies, but they are manageable if we keep the screen door closed.  The only annoyance was from a beautiful 70 foot traditional motor cruiser registered in Florida, which anchored very close to us and ran the generator for most of the night, so that they could play cards by the light of the Tiffany lamps in the covered aft salon.  Their anchoring technique was unique to us, too, since they first took a bow line ashore and then threw out a small stern anchor which hardly seemed to be properly set, even though they had a good-sized anchor up forward.  Luckily the winds were calm overnight and they left after breakfast.  We climbed to the top of the hill overlooking the cove for a spectacular view of the area and found enough of the small wild blueberries for our cereal the next morning.  With the water temperature at 21 degrees we went for a refreshing swim before joining a group of yachties from Wiarton for happy hour.

We can understand why this is the favoured cruising area in Ontario, and could easily spend longer here.  Some aspects are similar to our cruising grounds in Desolation Sound and north and we have many miles to go.  So, as soon as we can pick up our package, and if the weather is calm, we will head to Byng Inlet, a run of 4 or 5 hours.  Our general plan is to be in Midland around July 9 or 10th, and the advice we have been given is to start into the Trent Severn during the week rather than a weekend when it is very busy with small boats, so our target will be the 13th or 14th.  We will find a place to leave the boat around the 29th of July so that we can get to Toronto for a five day interlude in Halifax to celebrate Aunt Joy’s 90th birthday.

July 6-12 in the 30 Thousand Islands of Georgian Bay and Midland

It’s been great to hear from you and to finally have consistent internet connection now that we are in the populated part of the cruising grounds.  As I write this, I can hear a loon calling and the southerly wind is lapping the waves against the hull in the anchorage at Beausoleil Island.  It is overcast but still 24 degrees, with risk of thunderstorms – a common occurrence at this time of the year.  The days get progressively more humid and then the air clears with the rain and there are 2 or 3 days of sunshine with a drying breeze.  Tom is checking the new charts we have purchased for the Trent/Severn Canal system and he  has just discovered that we are 517 feet above sea level.

You might ask what we do with the time we have on our hands.  It seems to go quickly enough!  Each day that we are moving, Tom checks the engines and plans out our route using the charts.  We have to consider when and where we will refuel, get more water, pump the holding tank and stock up on food and liquor.  Laundry usually gets done somewhere in there, either by hand if there is a good wind for drying, or in the laundromat which are in most marinas.  We can  go for a week without having to make a stop, but often do less if we aren’t sure where the next opportunity will be.  We like to anchor out in the evening, but many places allow you to stay for a few hours during the day to get the chores done so it is a matter of figuring out where to go later in the day for a quiet night on the hook.  The weather reports so far have been very accurate, right down to the time of the mist that comes in the morning.

They were bang on last Tuesday morning with the mist forecast when we planned to leave Killarney with electronic charts, but the chip did not fit!   We waited until noon to set off with our paper charts and Tom’s navigational skills to go on the outside under calm conditions to Byng Inlet.  There is a well-marked small craft route through the islands but we decided to make the 4 hour run outside, which is much like running from Lasqueti to Vancouver.  We then used the buoy system to wend our way into the inlet which is very picturesque, with cottages lining both sides.  We found a spot to anchor and had just finished a late dinner topsides when we decided it was time to go below – not a moment too soon as thousands of mosquitoes descended on us and buzzed around the screens until we turned off  the lights.

Thick fog again the next morning at the mouth of the inlet kept us holed up until 1:00 when it lifted enough for us to do another 3 hour run to Snug Harbour in the mouth of Parry Sound.  We were rewarded with a quiet spot behind Franklin Island where we jumped into the brownish-coloured water for a refreshing swim.  We have decided that 4 hours at one time is enough for us as the thrumming of the engines gives us a thick head after a while.  It is better if we can sit topsides and of course the visibility is much better.  We elected for the small craft route on the third day and were rewarded with the rugged scenery of the Georgian Bay coast (think of the Group of Seven or Toni Onley) – low rocky outcroppings, reefs with pine trees bent at the top by the prevailing winter winds, small islands with cottages and docks seemingly in the middle of  nowhere, narrow channels with depths of less than 10 feet in some places, but all very well-buoyed and easy to follow, kind of like driving on a winding country road!  There really is nothing to compare with it in our west coast cruising grounds, except maybe Pender Harbour with its nooks and crannies.  This coast here, though, is wide open to the full 120 miles of Georgian Bay with no real protection if the wind pipes up.  We had a similar run on Friday with sunshine and calm winds before we booked into Bay Port Yacht Centre in Midland to have the engines serviced.  We returned the chip to West Marine and found a great restaurant, The Explorers Cafe, for dinner.

As boats left for their weekend getaway, Earl, the mechanic and Tom spent Saturday head down in the engine room while I did the chores mentioned above.  We were able to spend some time on Sunday using our folding bikes to cycle a portion of the Trans Canada Trail in front of waterfront homes and colourful gardens to the Martyrs’ Shrine and Sainte-Marie among the Hurons.  We left Midland with all our chores accomplished as the weekend crowd returned and it felt like we were going the wrong way on a one way street!  We are enjoying two or three days in the area before we start into the canal system on Wednesday or Thursday, again to avoid the weekend crowd of speedboats, sea-dos, powerboats and sailboats that buzz around the channels, heading for cottages or favourite anchorages.  We’ll try to find time to read the Saturday paper or our novels, do crosswords, check e-mails, swim or explore ashore in the dinghy and chat to other boaters who are interested in our plans when they see that Vancouver is our home port.  We are planning to buy kayaks but haven’t done so yet, and we also did not bring our dinghy motor with us, so that is something on the list, too.  So far, we haven’t missed the motor, although many boaters seem to leave their big boat in an anchorage for a few days and explore the inlets with their dinghy, so perhaps we should have brought ours with us.

Look for our next report as we experience the most difficult lock on the canal as our first one!  We hope you are in good health and having a happy summer.

July 12-19th  The Severn River and Locks 45-39

Hi there – here’s letter 4 of our adventures.  Before we leave Midland (population 16,000) entirely, I wanted to mention that it is known for its collection of 34 outdoor murals, including the largest historic mural in North America on the old grain silos.  The mural project was inspired by the one in Chemainus and was largely created by artist Fred Lenz.  Bay Port Marina, where we had our work done is a 600 boat marina where most of the owners come from southern Ontario to use their boats in the summer and to store them on dry land or in heated storage for the winter.  We had earlier remarked that we hadn’t seen many European cars, but when we arrived at Bay Port, there they were - mostly black Mercedes, BMWs, Porches and Lexus, with the odd collector car thrown in.  We returned to Bay Port to pick up a new Raymarine chart plotter with charts for all of Canada and the United States, since we could not get the chip for our 5 year old (too old) Garmin.  We also found a good deal on a new Yamaha 4 stroke, 6 horse power dinghy motor so that was delivered to the boat before we headed out. We certainly contributed to the economy of Midland!

We had hoped to visit Christian Island of Gordon Lightfoot’s song:

“She’s a good old boat and she’ll stay afloat through the toughest gales and keep smilin’

But for one more day she would like to stay in the lee of Christian Island.”

However, the canal was calling and we were ready to tackle Lock 45.  After navigating the very shallow Potato Channel we rounded the corner into the Severn River and saw white water to rival anything that we see in BC.   We had been told that there was a lot of runoff and there were a number of minutes of dry mouth while Tom steered into the relative calm along the blue line to wait for the go ahead. I have to be ready with fenders on both sides in case we have to tie to the other side.  On the bow I pick up one of the black holding cables that run from the top to the bottom of the lock wall while Tom quickly turns off the engine and grabs the cable at the stern.  Some locks have a bit of turbulence as the water comes in, but others are much calmer.  The next hurdle is leaving the lock because there is often a cross wind that you don’t know is there until you are at the top.  We decided to carry on to Big Chute, Lock 44 which is actually a marine railway.  Again there was a current but not quite as daunting to deal with.  The boats are driven on to a flat-bed rail car which moves up the track, lifting the boat out of the water.   Smaller boats are secured in slings but our boat was able to sit on the keel as we were hauled up the hill, over a road and gently driven back into the water on the other side!

This stretch of the canal has much more current than we thought, (think of Dodd Narrows against a 3 knot ebb) especially in narrow places like Little Chute where the river passes through high granite cliffs.  This is quintessential cottage country with Muskoka chairs sitting out front on pink and grey granite outcroppings, boat houses with sleeping quarters above (bunkies), docks with all the water-based toys available, water-skiers,  fishers in Lund runabouts, and one or two float planes moored outside palatial homes.   We purchased a pass so that we could stay overnight at the locks where there are a few mooring spots both above and below the lock.  The pretty (and quiet) ones are popular so they fill up early and since many of the boats are in the 50 foot range, it doesn’t take long for the space to be gone.  There are a few places where you can anchor, but the alternative is a marina of which there are many.

We spent three nights at the Port of Orillia (population 30,000) to enjoy some biking and to restock the larder, after having the generator looked at because it was not running properly – there is always something on a boat.  There was a Scottish Festival with over 20 pipe bands marching in the parade, in 30 degree heat, in honour of 100 years for the Canadian Navy.  Our nephew, Steve and his wife, Samantha drove up from Sharon to spend Sunday with us and we had a good visit with them. We are meeting a number of  “loopers”, members of the American Great Lakes Cruising Association, who either have or will make the loop from Florida to the North Channel, down Lake Michigan and into the Mississippi, the Tennessee, out through Alabama and back to Florida, a trip of 6000 miles.  We stayed until after dark one night chatting on the dock and when we returned to the boat, we were aghast at the mass of moths, flies and other flying objects that clung to the screens and cabin walls because we had left the outside “porch” lights on.  We dived inside, turned off all the lights and by morning there was no sign of them.  However, there are other times when the little shad flies build up and nothing seems to dislodge them until they die.

We crossed Lake Simcoe today to enter the Trent Canal and the scenery has changed to more open farmland with trees lining the banks.  It is quite bucolic and very reminiscent of the canals of France, minus the wineries.  We plan to do about 20 miles or 3 hours travelling each day and will stay at locks if possible over the next week.   We will make our way to Peterborough where we plan to leave the boat for the five days that we will be visiting family in Halifax over the August long weekend.

Time to get Tom to stop working and to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.  We both wish you all the best,

July 28: Peterborough

Hello from Peterborough on July 29 with only 20 locks to go.  This week we have cruised more slowly, enjoying the parks at the locks or anchoring out in one of the many lakes that the system passes through.  The lakes here are very shallow and weed-choked, which is not as pleasant for swimming and when we pull up the anchor it is positively clogged with three to four foot long weeds.  The weeds send the depth sounder off considerably, too, so there are moments when it looks like we should be aground, even though we only need 3 feet, 8 inches of water. When the sounder reads 2 feet, it is heart stopping stuff until we remember the weeds.

These same weeds seem to harbour a number of fish which the locals angle for at all hours of the day, trolling in their small runabouts or mooching quietly in the shallows.  There are smallmouth and largemouth bass, muskie and northern pike or pickerel, as well as the little sunfish that are fun for the kids to catch and release.  We have seen up to 5 people, standing in a small boat, casting lines, no life jackets and bouncing crazily when the speedboats zoom past.  No wonder Ontario has a number of drownings each year during the summer.

We are now in houseboat territory, too and the cube-shaped craft on pontoons skitter over the lakes like a unique form of water bug.  They often go right to the shore, bow in, and tie to a tree, so that the shoreline looks like a row of motor homes plugged into the land.  They do not have much control in a crosswind and there have been some near misses in the canals as they exit or enter in a current and the wind which is often at the top of the canal.

We are meeting many kinds of boaters as we go.  The transients are friendly and we have something in common to talk about.  Just last week a couple from San Francisco on a 50 footer who have been travelling/leaving their boat/travelling again for 7 years came over to give us a raft of charts and travel books for Lake Ontario, the Erie Canal and the Hudson River, all of which are very expensive.  We did not have as much to trade so paid them some money and a bottle of wine, but their generosity has really helped us along.  We have had lots of tips about the Erie Canal and the rest of the trip because most of these boats are going in the opposite direction from us.  One boat caught our attention as we were moored at the lock in Bobcaygeon.  It was a French sailboat with a family on aboard who had been on the go for 5 years, leaving from Paris, cruising in South America, the Caribbean, up the east coast of the US and now going through the canal system on their way to Lake Michigan before heading back down the loop.  The deck of the boat was piled high with bikes, a dinghy, cushions, boxes and bags, and the mast which was nestled in a wooden cradle for transiting the locks.  We couldn’t imagine what it looked like down below!

The summer crowd are usually younger with families and in go-fast boats, so we have less in common, although they often are interested in our plans and ask questions about the boat and our trip as we go through the locks with them.  Three of them have had a connection to Waterdown, where I grew up.  One was a teenager who goes to Waterdown High, another was Ernie Holmes, the cousin of my elementary school friend, Gloria Holmes, and the third was Fred who had worked in Waterdown.  He and Tracie are a friendly couple from Bobcaygeon with whom we spent one night at the Couchiching lock and found that they are inveterate travellers who meet people easily wherever they go.  They gave us lots of tips about places to stay on the canal.  Our niece, Jennifer, and her family were able to stop at one of them for a short visit on their way to the cottage in Haliburton, so it was really great to see them and have a picnic lunch in the lock park.

I am enjoying the proliferation of wild flowers that we see on our bike trips or along the locks – Queen Anne’s lace, goldenrod, campanula, cornflower (chicory), purple loosestrife, daisies, rudbeckia, wild phlox,  and Joe Pye weed, all provide bright flashes amongst the greenery.  The homes along the waterfronts are also colourful with flower boxes and gardens, notably many colours of day lilies which grow abundantly here.  Osprey nests adorn the hydro poles and the young can be heard with their high-pitched squeals while the adults are soaring above the water looking for food.  We had a loon family with us in one of the anchorages with the brown-feathered baby learning to dive for food as the parents kept a watchful eye.

We came through seven locks yesterday but only covered 8 miles – it was a hot, slow, meandering process.  We passed Trent University which is very impressive in its setting along the canal, and we offered to tow two canoes alongside our boat on the long stretch to the Peterborough Lift Lock.  They were four Boy Scouts working on their Duke of Edinburgh award and had completed the required canoeing but they wanted to experience the lift lock in a canoe.  They were dwarfed by the big cruisers in with them.  The lift lock is on minimal lockages because of a maintenance problem, so we were lucky that we got through before it was shut down for repairs.  Today we rode our bikes the 7 km along the Trans-Canada Trail back to Trent University to have a look around, returning just in time to the boat before a downpour hit us.

We are still struggling to include some pictures for you, so it will have to wait until the next time.  Bye for now,

August 16: Bay of Quinte

Hello again.  It is Monday, August 16  and two weekends ago we left “Twin Spirits” in the Peterborough Marina and flew from Toronto to Halifax for a short visit with cousins on my Mum’s side.  The occasion was my Aunt Joy’s 90^th birthday and how marvellous it was to join her and her family of four children, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren who gathered for a number of celebratory events over the five days.  Aunt Joy is still very much able to enjoy all her family and friends of which there were close to 150 at the Sunday reception for her.  The weather cooperated and we were able to spend time in Halifax, in Hubbards and at Martin’s River at Jane and Lorway’s new cottage.

Upon our return, we completed the last 19 locks of the canal over the next four days and exited at Trenton on Monday, August 9, just as the trip meter recorded 500 nautical miles! This stretch of the system was much quieter, with very few boats passing by and none of the busyness of the cottage country farther north.  We also entered the humidity of Lake Ontario with thunder squalls hitting by the afternoon on three of the days.  When we stopped for lunch at Lock 1, we remarked that the start into the canal at Port Severn had been like a lion and the exit three weeks later like a lamb. It was an Ontario summer day of 24 degrees, high humidity, with a slight cooling breeze, the cicadas buzzing in the trees and the thunderheads building.  We thought we had come through unscathed until we docked in Belleville later that day and discovered to our dismay that we had a significant scratch on the starboard side.  The most upsetting part is that we have no idea how we did it although it was done on the last day because we had cleaned the hull on the previous day and it was not there then.  It was a dispiriting end to the trip after all.

This week we have explored the Bay of Quinte and had two days in Picton in Prince Edward County, a large peninsula south of Belleville, which is a destination tourist area known for its farm products, specialty cheeses, vineyards and restaurants.  The county was originally settled by the United Empire Loyalists and Picton has some stately homes, many of which are now inns or B&Bs.  Our sister-in-law, Sue, and Jim drove from Brighton for the day to have lunch aboard and we caught up on family news with them.  They brought with them the set of cruising earphones that we had seen being used by other boaters and had ordered on the internet.  They allow us to communicate quietly when we are anchoring or docking and save all the “yelling” above the engine noise.

We will spend this week exploring Kingston, Gananoque and some of the Thousand Islands.   We still plan another short jaunt away from the boat next weekend to meet up with Aunt Gladys and her family (my Dad's side) at their reunion in Haliburton and to visit the family cottage on Haliburton Lake.  After that, we will enter the US at Clayton, New York, and make our way around the south eastern tip of Lake Ontario to Oswego.  From Oswego we have another 30 or so locks before we enter the Hudson River.  Our long-term goal is to be in Florida by December, about 2500 miles to go, but the timing of the trip from New York down is still to be worked out, so stay tuned!  In March, we will look for a good marina to leave the boat in Florida for the summer months and will come home around the first of April, returning again next November or December to continue cruising in Florida and the Bahamas.  We have finally worked out how to send a few pictures, so you can see how we are spending our days.  That's all for now,

September 10, Waterford, New York

Hello again from Waterford, New York.  It is September 7 and the first day of school in BC! We have had a busy two and a half weeks since our last letter from Canada.  In preparing to enter the US, we tried to get accurate information on what we could bring in, what permits we needed and where and how we could call Customs and Border Services to report in.  The variety of answers was sending us into a tizzy.  There are fewer pay phones around and it is expected that everyone has a cell phone.  We planned to arrange for an American phone once we were in the States, so were searching out pay phones until then.  We were able to phone and get a clearance number with the proviso that we had to check in again within 72 hours for an inspection number.  We never actually saw a real person, so guess we are safely in compliance.

Our experiences in the eastern part of Lake Ontario can be described as windy, weedy and not as wonderful as we imagined!  The Thousand Islands which lie at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River are actually 1865 islands with Canada and the US having an equal area.  The border winds its way through the river from side to side to accommodate this equality. There are some very large islands such as Wolfe and Howe (Canadian) and Wellesley and Grindstone (American) with ferry service across the river, but an island is defined as having two trees and more than an acre, so many of the granite outcroppings don't qualify!  The water is very clear, but shallow and weedy in many places and we did not find comfortable anchorages, even on the 20 islands of the National Park because most of the areas seemed set up for smaller boats.  In fact we dragged one night much to our chagrin and were awakened by the people whose boat we had bumped.  No damage done except to our pride.  We waited out the 30 knot winds for 2 days at the marina in Gananoque, and took a day cruise on the St. Lawrence through the rest of the islands aboard a river boat.  The cruise leader was very informative about the history of the islands and as we passed Millionaires' Row on the American side, we heard about the Astors, Irving Berlin, McNally (of Rand McNally) and many others who spent summers in sumptuous surroundings on the islands.

Our destination was Boldt Castle on Heart Island opposite Alexandria Bay, New York.  George Boldt was a Prussian immigrant who came to America at age 15 and rose to manager of a number of hotels, including the Waldorf-Astoria.  He set up a profit-sharing plan, so that he became very wealthy as the hotels prospered.  He built the 127 room, 6-storey castle for his wife, Louise, but when she died suddenly in 1904, all work stopped before it could be completed.  It fell into disrepair until The Thousand Islands Bridge Authority acquired it in 1977 and began a restoration program.  Later, when we were in Clayton, New York, we visited the Antique Boat Museum there and toured the house boat, "La Duchesseâ",  that George Boldt  had built for his friends and associates to experience the ambience of the river.

We returned to Kingston, where I was born, and took a week's moorage so that we could explore the city, have the scratch repaired and take a three-day jaunt north to cottage country in Haliburton to visit with family.  We had a good day cycling around Kingston and seeing where we lived while Dad attended Queen's University for his Engineering degree after the war.  We had a good visit with all my cousins in Aunt Glady' family and also with Sue's family at the cottage.  The weather was cooler and very wet when we returned to the boat, but it cleared up as we left for Clayton.  We continued around the eastern end of Lake Ontario to Cape Vincent and Henderson Harbor, where we waited a day for the winds to decrease before making the run to Oswego.  Even with calm winds, the 300 miles of Lake Ontario can set up a nasty roll which rocked us for the last 30 minutes into the harbour - not pleasant.  We were on schedule to meet up with John and Eleanor Coulthard, our friends from Galiano, only to discover that the locks were closed because of heavy rains the previous week!

Fortunately, they reopened the next day and after a visit to Fort Ontario and some biking through Oswego, we set off to do the 7 locks of the Oswego Canal in two days, so that we could make our rendezvous at Winter Harbor in Brewerton. The weather was heating up to 30 degrees in the day and each lock seemed to present its challenges.  We thought we were experienced after 44 locks in the Trent/ Severn, but it is amazing what can go wrong, nasty cross winds, strong current, no ropes to grab on to and once the engine was not quite out of reverse when it should have been.  Lock 2 has a low, 5 foot bridge when the water comes up, so we had to be sure to be well ahead of it when we entered.  We are sure that the lockkeepers were having a good laugh at our expense, but when you are 30 feet down at the bottom of the lock, it is hard to see what is going on up above.  Because of the heavy rains, the canal was high with a lot of debris.  The weed was caught on the buoys, completely obliterating the colour and fanning out for 6 feet or so, so that it was a bit of guess and by gosh to keep in the channel and to know what number buoy you had passed.  As well, we were told that some of the buoys had shifted because of the flooding water and uprooted trees, which added to the confusion.

Out of the Oswego Canal and at Lock 23 of the Erie Canal, we were enjoying a break and Tom decided to take a quick dip.  When the lockmaster came down the dock, we realized that it said "No Swimming", so we thought we were in trouble.  That was not the problem; instead we learned that a 250 foot long, 40 foot wide, 43 passenger cruise ship was coming through the lock and he was worried that we were in the way!  We moved to the very end of the dock and then watched as the lock door opened and the ship completely filled the space.  From that angle, it looked menacing, rather like "Jaws" bearing down on us sitting ducks.  It didn't help our ease of mind that the skipper announced on the VHF radio that his bowthruster wasn't working properly! "The Grande Mariner" slid by us with plenty of space, the passengers waved and we cheered them on.

Along the canal you meet boats coming and going in your direction, so there is a lot of information to be traded.  It makes your head swim as you pick up tips for good places to stop and must-do activities.  Winter Harbor Marina in Brewerton was well-recommended and we pulled in to fuel up, clean up, say "hi" from Lou and Joan, and borrow the loaner Mercedes to go to Wal-Mart for our American $20.00 pre-pay phone.  John and Eleanor arrived, thanks to Kathy (Eleanor's sister) and Brian driving for 8 hours from Sarnia in steamy hot weather to meet up with us.  While E & J cruised with us, K & B travelled along in their camper, sometimes staying at lock side and other times finding a campground.  It made all the difference to have help in the locks and over the next 6 days, we negotiated the 21 locks of the Erie with relative ease.  At times you are in the confines of the canal and other times you are in the Mohawk River, but much of the scenery is the same with treed low banks, a lot of marshland and little habitation.  The two constants are the New York Thruway and the rail lines that go up each side of the valley, so that one of the factors in stopping for the night was how close/far away the tracks were.  There are trains every 30-40 minutes, some having 3 engines and over a hundred cars.  If you are near a town, they blow their whistle, too, so our sleep was interrupted on a few nights, between the noise and the heat.

The towns along the way that were highlights for us were Little Falls, Canajoharie and Waterford.  It was so hot that no one felt like visiting Fort Stanwix in Rome, but it was highly recommended by Lisa and Scott and their three teenagers on "Messenger", a Beneteau First 38, who moored next to us in Little Falls and who are on their way to the Bahamas for a year.  We had a sing-along that night with John, Tom, Reg and Scott playing guitar and trading songs.  In Canajoharie, we hooked up the hose to the on-shore water and had a cold shower on the dock, following the example of the kids we watched doing the same thing in Little Falls.  Eleanor and I really enjoyed the Arkell Museum and chatting to the lady in the Tourist Booth who told us about the massive stone school, now boarded up, where Susan B. Anthony once taught.  We made it from Lock 8 to Lock 2 in 4 hours and squeezed into the last spot on the free dock at Waterford, with the "help" of the dockmaster who was very good at shouting, but didn't lift a finger to help with the lines. "Messenger" was here and we had everyone for drinks topsides to celebrate.  Again, we were able to trade our charts and guides of the canals for much-needed charts and guides for the Hudson and Atlantic Coast, and to pick up valuable tips about the next leg of the trip down the Hudson and out past Cape May and into Delaware Bay.  The weather was cooler and we enjoyed walking through town as we did the normal chores: laundry and shopping for food and alcohol!

Our plan is still to return to Vancouver around the 18th of this month, so we are under pressure to find a good place to leave the boat while we come home.  We are off tomorrow morning down the Hudson and may go directly to Philadelphia if the weather is favourable.  We did not have any ill effects from Earl here although the wind has been gusty for the past three days.  Once safely in the Delaware, we can take the train to New York City for some sightseeing.

We hope that you have had a great summer and that your Labour Day weekend was fun.  This letter is longer than it should be;  we have seen and done so much, that it is hard to stop but I will!  Pictures next time as I have a lot of editing to do first.

Hugs from both of us,

October 1, 2010 - The Hudson River

Our last letter left you with the idea that we might make it to Delaware Bay but we are still in the Hudson River, 25 miles north of NYC.  We have made the trip home to Vancouver and Galiano to clear up mail and put the garden and house to bed for the winter and will return tomorrow to resume our trip.  To date we have covered 1100 nautical miles, which is more than 1/3 of the trip and we have been travelling for 3 months.  We intended to be gone for 6 months now, but have decided that it is a good idea to return again in January to check the house and catch up on mail as well as to keep medical appointments.  We expect to be in Florida by then and will explore that state in the last 2 ½ months before we return for the summer here at the beginning of April.

When we entered the Hudson River at Waterford, we had one last huge lock to transit and then we were in the tidal river.  The current can flow as much as two knots as far as Albany so we were using our BC experience with tides to travel when the flow is with us.  This is Adirondack country and the Catskills are part of that chain, so there are “mountains” along the shore with large homes high up the hills.  The Hudson is a commercial river with large freighters and barges going as far as Albany and it is also an commercial area of the state. We passed Rhinebeck, where Chelsea Clinton was married, but there was little to see except trees and hedges.  There are not many quiet anchorages on the river although we stayed one night at a deserted dock near Catskill and had a comfortable sleep.    Our second and third nights were spent on a mooring buoy right in the river at Hyde Park, noted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s home as well as the mansion of Frederick Vanderbilt and the Culinary Institute of America.  It was a very uncomfortable spot in the boat as the wash from passing boats, large and small, rocked us unmercifully.  We decamped ashore with our bicycles and toured both of the sites above, with an entertaining tour guide who gave us a window into the life of the rich and famous in the early 20th century.  We treated ourselves to dinner at the “other CIA” and ate in the Italian restaurant where the chefs-in-training take turns working as waiters.  The food was good but not memorable and we in Vancouver have many restaurants with more innovative menus and presentation.

The next day was one of the cooler, cloudier days we experienced as we continued on our way under some of the high bridges over the Hudson which is still about a mile wide in some places, past Westpoint Academy.  At Westpoint we watched some sky divers who landed efficiently on the field, and rowers who had a long haul upcurrent to return to the school.  We were using the cruising guides to determine where we might find a spot for the night that wasn’t going to cost us $3.00 a foot for moorage and called Patsy Bay Marina at Stony Pt., just north of Nyack.  They had space at $2.00 a foot, and mentioned that we should stay in the channel as we entered.  We did, but still pushed mud with our keel as it was a minus tide just as we arrived! We landed on the dock with the muddied water swirling around us, but we were still floating.  We had been trying to find a marina in New York or New Jersey where we could leave the boat for a reasonable rate for 3 weeks, but were not having much success, when we were given a very reasonable rate at Patsy Bay, so we decided to stay.  What we saved on money is balanced by the fact that there is not much wave protection in this marina and there have been some uncomfortable moments when the wash has rocked us and sent us scurrying to grab onto the wine bottle.  However, the owners are very accommodating and loaned us a truck for some shopping and in return we have provisioned at their marine store.

We learned that we could catch the New Jersey transit and transfer to NYC, so we set off on Sunday for the city.  We bee-lined for the Metropolitan Museum of Art which is an amazing place with an incredible collection that we could only taste in the few hours that we had.  The negative part is that it was almost 3 hours each way so it meant a long day.  We rented a car for the next three days and headed for Long Island to explore the Sound and the Hamptons on the Atlantic shore.  We had some interesting interactions at the Three Village Inn where we stayed for two nights, and enjoyed an entertaining Italian dinner the second night in Stony Brook.  We tried two of the wineries at the north end, but were not impressed.  Our return route took us across Long Island Sound on a ferry to Bridgeport, Connecticutt before we returned to the boat.  The next morning as we took the car back to the rental place in Monsey we encountered a community of Hasidic Jews in their traditional dress walking to the schools in the area or to one of the many school buses that clogged the road – very interesting!

Our second day in the city was a full one, with a hop-on, hop-off tour of the southern part to the Battery and back to Times Square.  We had a fabulous, funny and informative guide who had so many anecdotes to tell that it made us realize how much of our culture is wrapped up with New York.  After a quick lunch, we wandered through some of the sights we had seen on the bus – Chrysler Building, Grand Central Station, Bloomingdales – before starting off on the northern tour.  The clouds were thickening and our time was running out, so we left the tour early and walked across Central Park on 72nd Street to keep our dinner date with Sue and Larry Kopel, former Galiano residents.  A few blocks short of our goal, the thunder and lightning crashed and flashed overhead and the rain came in a deluge, so quickly that the streets were running with water.  We were able to take shelter under a quintessential canopy of one of the apartment buildings until the bulk of the storm, later called a tornado that passed through Queens, had eased. We made our way from canopy to canopy along 72nd to their lovely apartment on the 43rd floor with breathtaking views north up the East River and south to the tip of Manhattan!  What a treat to see and hear how one lives in luxury in New York.

That’s it for now – happy Canadian Thanksgiving to you.

October 13, 2010 in Chesapeake Bay

Hello again!  We now have completed one of the trip’s major hurdles but not without a stumble or two.  When we returned to the boat, the weather was wet and windy so we waited a day to make the run down the Hudson, through New York Harbour past the skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty dodging ferries, tugs and freighters in the busiest harbour on the east coast, to Atlantic Highlands on the New Jersey shore.  It was an overcast day so not so great for picture taking, but we had the current with us and gained at least 3 knots over our normal cruising speed of 9 knots.  Atlantic Highlands is the place to wait for decent weather to make the trip down the unforgiving New Jersey coast, a distance of about 120 miles to Cape May.  We had a good forecast for the next day so headed out with a number of others, some of whom had been waiting a week to make the jump.

The choice for a power boat is to either go on the outside in 2 hops with a stop in Atlantic City or to go in after 20 miles to the first passable inlet at Manasquan and pick up the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway which is a marked channel behind the barrier islands, requiring three days to make the full trip.  We elected to go in and had a roller coaster ride at the entrance as the swell met the outgoing tide – a heart stopper for a few seconds as Tom managed to keep the boat steady on the breaking wave.  The inland route is very picturesque through grassy channels with white egrets on one side and impressive waterfront homes with docks along the shore so we were glad we had made the choice.  That afternoon the wind piped up and we settled for a somewhat protected anchorage on the lee shore of wide open Barnegat Bay.  The morning dawned bright and blue but the wind was still up so we continued on to Atlantic City, with some tense minutes when we met strong currents at Little Egg Inlet and were being swept out of the channel into the shallows.

Atlantic City is expensive for moorage, but we were able to get into the Aquarium Marina at a reasonable rate and took the afternoon to walk on the famed boardwalk.  It gave us the opportunity to check the seas on the outside and it looked quite calm with a south westerly wind.  Did you know that Monopoly was invented here and that many of the references in the game are to places in or around the city?  We had a front row seat for the light show that evening on the Harrah’s building along with the reflections of the setting sun in the Trump Tower, one of a number with his name on it.

Next morning we decided to continue on the inside as some of the sailboats who had made the overnight passage to Atlantic City had been beaten up pretty badly by the wind and seas the day before.  We soon regretted this decision!  Our progress was slowed by having to wait for four lift bridges in this section and then we met the dredge in the middle of a narrow channel.  We went to the right to avoid him and smacked up on the shoal, hard aground at 5 knots with a 2 knot current pushing us on farther and a fast dropping tide!  We couldn’t back off as the starboard prop was stuck in the mud.  Fortunately we had taken the advice of other cruisers to join Boat US for $165.00 membership fee which includes towing as well as other deals on fuel and moorage at some marinas.  We called and he was there in 25 minutes, which seemed interminable as we felt the boat start to heel over and could see the grasses in the mud getting visibly taller as we watched the mud bank appear.  He was very professional and first flushed the mud from the stern of the boat with his prop wash and then was able to pull us off at the bow, keeping in mind that 2 knot current that was flowing toward the dredge!  By the time we had checked that the engines were fine and had completed the paperwork, the 1-1/2 hours of his time billed out at $672.00 – free with Boat US membership!  We had more than recouped our investment.  With his help we made it successfully past the dredge and were again on our way, but the tide was now getting very low and his advice was for us to go out to the sea at Townsend’s Inlet, which is not one that is recommended because of shoals off the mouth.  What to do?  We took the risk and made it out to sea for the 13 mile run to Cape May.  We were there safely with only our pride damaged.  On meeting others at Utsch’s Marina we learned that we were one of three who had been aground in the lower ICW that day – lots of stories to share.

What else could happen?  It was 8:30 and we were finishing a glass of wine after dinner when we saw a flashlight coming down the dock and thought, “Oh, good, the marina has a guard on duty.”  Nope, it was a Customs and Border Patrol Officer checking for paperwork.  Now, we have had a worry since entering the US that we did not have the proper documentation, albeit not for want of trying.  We had a decal and had all of our clearance numbers, but we did not have a cruising license because the officer in Clayton where we checked in by phone said that we didn’t need one if we had the decal.  Wrong – we need one!  Thank goodness we met an accommodating officer who was willing to issue us a permit on Tuesday after the Columbus Day holiday, if we met him in Delaware at the Summit North Marina.  We could and he did and now we are legal.  What a relief not to have to worry every time we see a Coast Guard vessel or a CBP official.

We spent a day biking through the town of Cape May, one of the oldest seashore resorts in the US with its Victorian architecture and beautiful sand beach.  It was Saturday and the town was jammed with tourists from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware who were enjoying the 25 degree weather for the Columbus Day weekend.  The Halloween decorations were up and we even saw Frosty the Snowman on one door.  The next day we set off up Delaware Bay which can be another hurdle as it is shallow, 48 miles long and a major shipping route for freighters using the C & D Canal.  We had an hour of lumpy seas which soon smoothed out and we completed the 63 miles to Chesapeake City in 6 hours because of a favourable tide with us.  We watched many of the boats we had seen in Cape May arrive during the afternoon and the anchorage basin soon filled up with Canadian and American sailboats and powerboats all heading for Florida, while Monarch butterflies fluttered by on their way to Mexico.

We are now looking forward to meeting Marilyn and Jerry Heddinger who are flying in to Baltimore to join us for a week or so of boating and some time in Washington, DC.  We’ll leave you now and report in after our adventures on the Chesapeake.  It’s always great to hear from you and to know what is happening in your world.  Our big frustration now is that our Bell Turbo Stick is not working well for us so internet is spotty.  However, we will answer whenever we have a good connection at a marina, usually every two or three days.

October 27, Chesapeake Bay

Hello from Solomons, Maryland, where the strong southwest winds have kept us here for 5 days along with 7 other boats at the dock and a few on the mooring buoys in the harbour.  There are even tornado warnings issued for this area – yikes.  On October 14, Marilyn and Jerry met us south of Baltimore in Bodkin Creek, in the pouring rain, one of only two days of rain that we had while they were with us for 10 days.  We did, however, have lots of wind so we decided to leave the boat for three days and to go to Washington, DC by train.  We had wonderful sunshine and warm, windy weather while we visited a number of the free museums of the Smithsonian Institute, took the hop-on, hop-off bus tour for lunch on the Potomac and walked the miles of the National Mall.  Marilyn and I explored the Museum of Art exhibits and the sculpture gardens while Tom and Jerry spent the day at the Museum of Air and Space.  We all enjoyed the Spy Museum and dinner at Zola’s with “bring your own wine” – such a deal! We howled at the Kennedy Centre where we saw “Shear Madness”, a whodunit with all of its Washington allusions.

With calm seas and sunshine we headed for Annapolis, dodging the ubiquitous crab traps, and enjoying the start of the fall colours on the shore - brilliant red and orange mingled with various hues of green.  It was easy to mistake the large black-backed gulls drifting on the water for the crab pot markers, but a dip of the head confirmed that they were indeed birds!  A walking tour of the Annapolis included the Naval Academy  with its impressive chapel and crypt with John Paul Jones.  Our next port of call was to be St. Michaels where we elected to go in the “back door” through San Domingo Creek.  Unfortunately, this was our second rainy day and we decided not to get soaked.  The weather report for the next day had us heading for the protection of Cambridge so that Jerry and Marilyn could arrange to get back to Washington.  We missed St. Michaels but had two interesting days in Cambridge because the schooner regatta was there that weekend.  We did all of the boat necessities of provisioning and laundry and had a delicious farewell dinner at the Canvasback Restaurant.  We have been enjoying the local crab, rockfish, prawns and oysters whenever we have the chance.  Jerry and Marilyn left by car and we headed out into lumpy seas at the mouth of the Choptank River on our way to Solomons.

Here at the Calvert Marina  we are able to borrow the old Mercedes for short trips to the stores, and we spent one afternoon exploring on our bikes.  We enjoyed the Calvert Maritime Museum and Lighthouse, making up for the one we missed in St. Michaels.  We also have met other southbound travellers who have lots of suggestions for places to visit between here and Florida.  It gives us time to catch up with boat maintenance, too.  We hope to leave tomorrow and will be in Norfolk, Virginia by November 1, ready to start on the next leg of the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway).  We have probably completed ½ of the trip at this point, 1400 nautical miles so far.  The weather is 25 degrees c with lots of humidity today, but the forecast is for a cooler trend when the northwest winds blow. We hope you are well and enjoying the last of the fall weather wherever you may be.

Happy Halloween to you from Tom and Sheila

November 18, Charleston

Good evening on November 18 from Charleston, South Carolina. We hope that you are well as we are. 

We enjoyed the Calvert Maritime Museum and Lighthouse in Solomons and when the winds and tornado warning passed, we high-tailed it for the Rappahonnnock River, south of the Potomac.  The Chesapeake can serve up some nasty seas because it is so shallow, with no real protection for much of its 250 mile length.  We took time to stop in the York River and to visit Williamsburg and Yorktown, two of America’s historical sites from the revolutionary days.  Williamsburg is called a living museum and it is indeed well worth a visit to see how colonial Americans lived and to see some re-enactments of the history at the time of the revolution in 1776, with guides in period dress.   Then it was on to Norfolk and Portsmouth, VA and the start of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) with night time temperatures dipping below 10 degrees by November 1.  We teamed up with two cruisers from New Hampshire who were moving about the same speed as we are and had opportunities for happy hours and potluck dinners with them for the next week or so.

We elected to take the Dismal Swamp Canal route from Virginia into North Carolina and received a warm welcome at Elizabeth City after our two day trip at an average of 6 knots, watching constantly for submerged logs and debris.  We had fifteen boats with us in the “convoy” all heading south for the winter. 

While waiting for the winds to ease before heading across Albemarle Sound, another shallow body of water, we took a day trip to the Wright Brothers Museum at Kitty Hawk on the North Carolina Outer Banks. We had a lovely sunny but windy day and the site of their early experiments with manned flight is impressive to see. 

The marina at River Dunes in Oriental was also impressive with southern-style homes, a clubhouse and beautiful floating docks in a man-made inlet that is filled with spotted seatrout. The marina offers a courtesy car which allowed us to visit Oriental and restock food and boat supplies.

We started to move more quickly, doing six to seven hour runs for the next four days and covering the 166 nautical miles from Oriental to Morehead City, through Carolina Beach, the Cape Fear River, Myrtle Beach and into Georgetown, SC.  This is sports fishing country with all sizes of boats going in and out the inlets to the Atlantic for tuna and marlin.  The small boats on the inside compete with the brown pelicans and the bottle-nosed dolphins for mullet, mackerel, grouper and blues.  We met a family of dolphins, leaping and arcing by the bow of our boat, visible in the clean greenish-blue waters.  With the weather warming up, we had lovely sunny days, except for fog one morning that lifted by 10:00 a.m., and light winds which meant that we could steer from topsides and enjoy the scenery as it changed to palm trees, live oaks and myrtle. 

There are many gracious homes along the ICW near Wilmington and again in the Myrtle Beach area, many with docks that stretch far across the shallows into the channel.  South of Myrtle Beach we started to see Spanish moss hanging from the cypress in the swamp areas and the brown tannic water was back. We were fortunate to have calm winds and a 2 knot current helping us down the Cape Fear River, but not so lucky the next day when we hit the south wind against us in the Waccamaw River, giving us a wet ride into two foot seas as we ran the last hour to Georgetown.

We visited the Rice Museum to learn about early Georgetown’s cultivation of rice in man-made paddies built from the cypress swamps.  The agriculture depended completely on slave labour and so declined after the abolition of slavery, helped by a number of hurricanes which wiped out the fields. 

We now have completed more than 1900 nautical miles, with about 300 to go to the Florida border, and another 400 or so along the east and west coasts.  We will spend the next few days in Charleston and expect to be in Florida by early December. 

In the spirit of our hosts, happy American Thanksgiving to you!

December 12, Stuart Florida

Hello again on December 12 from Stuart, Florida.  We have booked into Loggerhead Club and Marina here on the St. Lucie River until the end of January so that we can return to Vancouver in January from Miami.  It will give us a rest from moving constantly to another spot and time to do some needed maintenance such as waxing the boat and cleaning the hull and bottom.  There are a number of winter cruisers staying here so we have a chance to meet and mingle at the pool, in the exercise room and the clubhouse.  We arrived in time for the Christmas party and met a number of others from Canada who have lots of information for us to digest.  The weather turned cold for the past week and there were frost warnings for the night-time hours.  We are warm with our diesel heating system, designed for west coast cruising, and the saving grace is that the sun shines daily in a bright blue sky. 

Three weeks ago, we really enjoyed our visit to Charleston.  It is a great walking city and so we did!  We also rode our bicycles around the historic streets, marvelling at the grand old homes and stately government buildings, as well as the College of Charleston in the centre of town.  We found Thomas Bennett House, the home of a former mayor of the city. We rode the city bus  - we were the only white faces - across the impressive Ravenel bridge which looks like the Arthur Lang bridge in Delta but is built to withstand 300 mile an hour winds.  Our goal was Patriot’s Point Naval and Maritime Museum where we toured a 1950-70 vintage US submarine and an aircraft carrier, the Yorktown.  Tom marvelled at the submarine’s mechanical and electrical systems, even though 40 years out of date.  The thought of being in such confined quarters for long periods of time gave both of us the heebie-jeebies.

Charleston is known for its many restaurants so we ate well for lunch and dinner.  We enjoyed a musical presentation called “Sounds of Charleston” at the Circular Congregational Church, learning many facts; for example, the son of Johann Pachelbel (who wrote “Canon in D Major”) was an organist and choir leader in Charleston.  George Gershwin also had a connection there and the story of Porgy and Bess was based on Charleston.  Many well-known jazz players came from the city and did you know that “Amazing Grace” was written by an American, John Newton?  We didn’t!

While we were enjoying sunshine and warm weather, we learned that Vancouver, Victoria and the Gulf Islands were covered in snow.  It was off to Beaufort, SC and some shallow sections of the ICW.  At one point, we should have been aground according to the depth sounder, but we escaped.  We began to plan our travels to correspond to the high tides, as this area of Georgia has 7 foot tides.  We docked in Thunderbolt, south of Savannah, where the marina delivered free Krsipy Kreme donuts every morning to the boat.  We took the bus the next day into the city and had an informative, entertaining guide on the trolley tour of the historic town.  I found a copy of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” at a cruisers’ book exchange and am re-reading it now.  It is so much more meaningful after just being in Savannah.  Next day we passed Moon River, named after the song by Johnny Mercer.

Thanksgiving saw us on Jekyll Island where we met up with American friends on “Saraday” and “Alliance”, so we joined them for turkey dinner at Latitude 31.  They are moving ahead of us and will be Marathon (in the Keys) before Christmas.  We hope to meet up with them again in February.  We have not been able to anchor as often as we would have liked to during the trip from the Chesapeake to Florida because most of the recommended spots are unprotected from wind and current.  With fear of dragging, we have had a few uncomfortable and sleepless nights. Our night on the mooring ball in Fernandina Beach was very noisy and uncomfortable as the wind piped up from the northwest to 20 knots against a strong ebb tide.  We decided to miss out on a shore visit and moved on to the free dock in Jacksonville for the next 4 days. 

We arrived in time for the Light Parade and Fireworks where we had a front row seat.  The effort that goes into preparing the boats is amazing and what a show they put on!  There were over 80 decorated boats, large and small, most of which put Vancouver’s carol ships to shame.  Try as we did we couldn’t capture the effect on camera because the boats, including ours, were moving too much. The fireworks took place from three barges anchored between two of Jacksonville’s five bridges and the most impressive display was the waterfall effect from both bridges, a height of sixty or more feet into the St. John River below.

Then it was on to St. Augustine, where “Twin Spirits” was built.  The yard is closed now but we did meet one of the employees who was a wealth of information about parts and other details.  We spent a morning in the town, but have to say that we were disappointed by the “tacky tourism” that assaulted us wherever we went.  We had heard such good things about the place but didn’t feel that we wanted to stay.  The history of St. Augustine is long and detailed, being established for over 400 years and governed by Spanish, French, English and Americans but somehow what we saw did not measure up to the past.  Perhaps we were spoiled by our good experiences in Charleston and Savannah?

The next 200 miles had us traversing three rivers in the protection of the barrier islands of the Florida coast:  the Matanzas, the Halifax where we stayed in Daytona Beach and the Indian River which brought us 140 miles, past Cape Canaveral and down to Fort Pierce Inlet where we turned into the St. Lucie River.  The Indian River is wide and shallow and there is only a narrow dredged channel, so it is really like driving a car across the Prairies, long and straight for miles and miles.  The porpoises played in our quartering wave, leaping and diving as we sped along. We spent three nights in Titusville so that we could visit the Kennedy Space Center for one day, which was well-worth it.  Our earthly adventures seem so small when compared to those of the astronauts who work in and outside of the space station.  Their level of expertise and risk-taking is humbling and awe-inspiring.  We now have a much appreciation of the effort that goes into a launch and when the next one goes in February we will watch with greater understanding.

We’d love to hear your news and we now have consistent internet so can keep in touch more easily.  You probably won’t hear much from us again until we move on to the Keys at the end of January, but we are thinking of you and wish you the happiest of times with family and friends at Christmas.

Hello again!  Where does the time go?  I thought that I had sent this last Sunday but apparently it didn't go, so here it is a little later than I planned.

We spent a relaxing but event-filled month in the marina in Stuart, Florida before returning to Vancouver for two weeks in mid-January.  The snow, rain and grey days were a shock but we accomplished a number of tasks, including a clean bill of health for Tom after some medical tests.  We returned with our friend, Lynne Blair, to find the boat in good condition and left two days later for the trek to the Keys.

But first, here is a flavour of life in the marina.  Most notable is the number of people we met who are doing more or less the same as we are, whether they are from the US or Canada.  We became an instant “club” with various people taking the lead to organize events, from potluck dinners, bridge games, and golfing to aquasize and painting groups.  The marina was very good about allowing the boaters to use the pool area on the nights that the bar was closed (Monday/Tuesday) so that’s when the dinners and games took place.  After a Christmas hot tub, we joined 20 others for dinner, turkey and all, around the pool;  a recent potluck had 70 people in attendance! The other nights there was half-price happy hour from 3 to 7 p.m. so that encouraged more socializing.  As well, a number of boaters had a car driven down from their home base so we were able to go farther afield for special shopping and provisioning and golf.   Of course, we explored a great deal on our folding bikes which were easy to ride on the flat land of the area.  There are many malls with stores of all descriptions to entice the buyer.  We found Total Wine with such a selection at cheap prices that there is fear of us becoming true alcoholics!

Stuart is on the St. Lucie River about 7 miles off the Intracoastal Waterway and on the Okeechobee Waterway.  We rented a car for four days before Christmas and drove the 150 miles across to the west coast, skimming the north side of Lake Okeechobee before coming in to Fort Myers.  Our purpose was to check out the possibility of taking the boat across the lake and through the canal system to the west coast of Florida, either before or after going to the Keys.  Lake Okeechobee is very shallow (6 feet) but is the largest fresh water lake in the US after Lake Michigan.  The landscape is very flat with scrubby grassland and a smattering of palms and cypress.  Dairy and beef cattle are raised and there is a sugar cane industry on the south side of the lake.  When they burn the remains of the sugar cane and there is a west wind, a black ash covers the boat – not pleasant!  As we approached Fort Myers, the lush palms, crotons and bougainvillea became more plentiful.

We stayed in Fort Myers Beach which is actually on Estero Island and is very much a tourist destination.  We explored Sanibel Island the next morning, seeking out possible anchorages (not many, as it is again very shallow) and marvelling at the gated communities and private beach accesses that make it expensive to enjoy the area.  We drove the length of Estero Island, Black Island and Long Key past Naples to Marco Island where we spent the second night in a pleasant motel and enjoyed a French dinner at a nearby restaurant.  Our third day had us driving through Port Everglades for a quick look at possible anchorages there and then east through the Everglades to Miami.  We stopped in the park to view our first alligators  and spotted many anhingas, vultures, ospreys and kingfishers on the wires, but no roseate spoonbills.  The drive through Miami was a bit hair-raising after being on empty roads or in a slow-moving boat for so long, but we made it unscathed back to Stuart.

We were able to wax some of the boat after giving it a thorough cleaning, but the black ash blew in and meant that we had to clean all over again before we finished the waxing.  It’s no surprise that we still have some waxing to do!  Tom was able to golf three times with both success and disappointment, while I learned to make perogies with Susan. We enjoyed seeing Judy Collins at the local theatre as well as the film, “It’s A Wonderful Life”.  We visited the extensive flea market on Sunday mornings and listened to music on the waterfront on Sunday afternoons.  In the museum we learned that Stuart had a large pineapple industry early in the 20th century but it was wiped out by cold winters and the competition from Cuba before Castro came to power.  The area then grew cut flowers for many years until the crops from South America undercut the growers, and the land was sold to developers for the string of malls in sight everywhere.  Now Stuart is known as the sailfish capital of the world and there are many sports fishing boats lining the St. Lucie River.  Just as we were getting to know our way around, it was time to say good-bye to the friendly folks and continue on our way south – it is easy to see how cruisers delay the start of their next leg.  We will meet up with Maureen and Glen on “Sevilla” in  Marathon, and hope to see Karen and John on “Felicity” either in Florida or back in Canada.

We had arranged for reciprocal dockage at Loggerhead Clubs in Palm Beach, South Lantana and Hollywood because we had paid at Stuart until the end of January.  The waterway through the Palm Beaches, Fort Lauderdale and Miami is lined with palatial homes and megayachts, both power and sail.  We saw our first manatees as they came up for air and flapped their tails before diving again in the clear waters.  They are gentle creatures about the size of a sea lion or large seal, but related to the hippopotamus.  They are vegetarians, eating the sea grass in the shallow waters of the waterway and many die each year when the cold weather hits.  They also are wounded by the props of the boats and there are go-slow restrictions in many areas, particularly under the bridges.  On the leg from Lantana to Hollywood we passed under 21 bridges, 6 of which had restricted openings.  We spent two nights in Hollywood, arriving on Friday night in time for happy hour in the lounge area and exploring the boardwalk on bikes the next day.  The day time temperatures are a warm 22 degrees, but the nights drop to 10 or 12 degrees still.

We have decided to ship the boat back in late March from Fort Lauderdale and it will arrive in Victoria in early April.  We were running into difficulties with renewing the cruising permit and decided that a summer in the Florida sun would be very hard on the boat.  We also have issues with our insurance during the hurricane season.  We will have seen a lot of Florida by the end of March and do not want to go to the Bahamas, so it made sense to bring the boat home this year instead of next year.  We will have accomplished our goal of cruising the east coast and will have more time to work on our bucket list!

That’s it for now. We’ll send another update from Marathon in the Keys, so stay tuned!

March 21, Marathon to Hollywood

As we conclude our 10 month odyssey on the east coast, perhaps it is best to give you some of our lasting images of south Florida: palms, Publix, pelicans, pellucid green waters and Portuguese man o’war, their blue jelly bodies sailing like oval balloons on top of the water and their vicious tendrils streaming out six or more feet below the water.

Our resident green heron, its toes dipping in the water, walks the tightrope dock line; an anoles turns from green to brown on the white picket fence, puffing out his bright orange dewlap to attract a mate; laughing gulls cause us to chuckle with them.  The pastel-coloured houses vie for attention amid the riot of flowering shrubs and trees: bougainvillea, hibiscus, oleander, crotons, bottlebrush and flame trees; tree orchids grace the trunks of the palms.  Conch horns sound as the sun drops quickly in the western sky.

Mangroves (and mosquitoes), Mainships, Monarch butterflies and manatees: we met these gentle creatures along the southern ICW and finally had some good views of them as they surfaced for air.  They are grey, West Indian mammals about the size of a sea lion and are sometimes referred to as sea cows because they are vegetarian and eat the sea grass in the shallow warm waters of these latitudes. They have a snub-nose which usually comes up first for air, a round body and a flat, paddle-shaped tail.  Because they are slow-moving, they are often maimed or killed by fast-moving boats and there are signs everywhere reminding boaters that it is a “Manatee Zone – Idle Speed”.  Of course, there are many boaters who ignore the signs and cause aggravation for other boaters as well as the sea life.

One day we flew the skies in a helicopter from Marathon over Pigeon Key to Bahia Honda and back.  We had previously visited Pigeon Key and learned more about Henry Flagler’s amazing achievement of completing the railway from Homestead (south of Miami) to Key West in 1912.  Marathon was named because of the massive challenge of building the section over the 7 mile stretch of water from Vaca Key to Little Duck Key. When the railway was wiped out during the hurricane of 1935, the structures were repaired and used by vehicles until the new bridge was built in 1982.

We waited for a cold weather front with strong winds to abate before setting off from Marathon to spend three days at our favourite of all the keys, Boca Chita.  It is a little piece of paradise, reminiscent of many a tropical isle. We arrived at Sunset Harbour Yacht Club in South Beach, Miami, half an hour before a torrential rainstorm with thunder and lightning directly overhead.   Thank goodness we were tied up and not still out on the water.  Winds whipped up to 40 knots and the fuel barge in front of us chose that time to exit the tight quarters of the marina.  Tom was very worried and not at all impressed with the driver’s seamanship.  Almost an inch of rain fell in an hour, which at least saved us from having to hose down the boat!

Three days in South Beach jolted us back to civilization with an informative and entertaining walking tour of the Art Deco buildings which are so well-preserved.  We missed the tour of the Frank Gehry-designed New World Symphony Hall by one hour – zut.  The bling of Lincoln Road mall, both in the stores and on the locals who strolled in groups or sat at one of the many outdoor eateries was a real eye-opener.  Bathing suits, short shorts and skirts, lime green or orange running shoes and lots of skin seemed to be de rigeur for the beach, the boardwalk, the sidewalks and the restaurants of South Beach.  The restaurants are legendary and we enjoyed memorable Italian dinners at Alta Mare and Sardinia before retreating to the boat for a typical Canadian barbecue.

We are still waiting in Hollywood Marina for a final date for shipping the boat – it looks like the 25th or 26th, so we will be back on Galiano shortly after that and the boat will be making its way by freighter through the Panama Canal, arriving in Victoria about the middle of April.  It has been an awesome adventure with memories to last a lifetime and many new friends with whom to keep in touch.  Our final hurdle is to get the boat home safely.

I have taken the liberty of borrowing from a friend’s blog this quote by Mark Twain:  “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour.  Catch the trade wind in your sails.  Explore. Dream. Discover.”  And so we did!  However, it is true that there is no place like home and we are both looking forward to a summer in the Gulf Islands.

We're thinking of you and hope to catch up with you.  Let us know your summer plans!

Cheers,

Tom and Sheila