Bruce and Esther's Sailabout

2009-11-25T15:29:00.003-05:00

Lets face it, a blog filled with good news is boring. No one wants to read about the great weather we are having, the fresh seafood we are eating, or the wonderful time that we are having with our friends here. If that is all I ever put down, no one would be anxious to log on and check out our blog!I In fact you may decide that you don't even like us much anymore.

I finally have something exciting to tell you about....... We survived our first direct hit by a waterspout/tornado! When you are on a dock and don't plan on travelling any time soon, you really don't pay much attention to weather forecasts or listen to any marine weather on the VHF. We had just finished quite a few days of record breaking temperatures and did know that we would have our first real rainfall since we have been here on Wednesday and then a cold front was suppose to move through on Thursday (American Thanksgiving) which would bring us cooler temperatures by Friday. Since we were having such nice weather, Bruce and I had put up the sails on Tuesday and the bimini and dodger on Wednesday. We luckily decided not to put any of the side panels on as the weather had not turned cold enough to want shelter from the cooler breezes. As is the case most nights, we went to bed with the companion way wide open and the deck covered with various boating paraphernalia. We had the air conditioning on so all of our other hatches were closed and thankfully locked shut. This is not always the case but for some reason, Bruce had checked them all before he went to bed. I woke up about 2 in the morning and there was lightning everywhere. I love a good storm so decided that I would sit in the cockpit and watch the storm for a while. The lightning was so intense, I quickly changed my mind, unplugged the computer and went back to bed. Because our mast is so high, I am always worried about a lightning strike. About an hour later Bruce and I were both up as the rain had started pounding and the thunder and lightning were much closer together. We closed the companionway door as the rain was now blowing in the entrance way, checked for any leaks and once again went back to bed. We hadn't been back in bed very long when we both head a very loud crash. Bruce thought that we had been hit by another boat. We both sprang out of bed. Bruce was just getting his foul weather jacket on to go out on deck when we felt this incredible gust of wind. It felt like the wind was trying to suck Con El Viento right out of the water. We were watching out our windows trying to see if any of our lines have come loose or the poles that we were tied to were strong enough to hold a 18 ton boat, in hurricane force winds, without breaking. What seemed an eternity, but was probably only a couple of minutes, and then the worst was over. Bruce went out on deck and I turned on the VHF and tuned into the local Boot key Harbor station to see what else was happening in the harbor. The chatter was unbelievable. Boats had been knocked over on their sides, losing everything off their counters and out of their cupboards. One boat had come off their mooring ball and was heading toward a cement seawall, bouncing off numerous boats along the way, dinghies were overturned, gas cans. cockpit cushions, kayaks and hatch covers blown off boats. One trimaran in the mooring field flipped completely upside down and still sits that way in the harbor. Luckily no one was on it. On shore, trees were uprooted, lawn furniture tossed into neighboring yards, our shed was completely destroyed and our neighbor's window blew out. The local drinking establishment, Dockside, was completely destroyed except for the bar and many of the pilings that had boats tied to them snapped. This must have been very scary for the people living on boats there. Our boat did not sustain any damage, even the canvas that we had just put up the day before came through it without a tear. The only thing we lost but later recovered was the cushion off of our back bench. Chuck, the owner of the boat beside us, plucked it out of the water for us. We lost all power for a couple of hours but by daybreak it was back on again. The rains lasted all through Wednesday and there are areas still flooded 3 days after the storm. The next morning there were dinghies everywhere picking up debris from the water to return to their owners. We also found out that the winds had hit 102 knots which is about 117 mph, and there were 2 reported waterspouts that hit the area.

Wednesday's weather was really not great for cleanup but everyone pitched in and by Thursday, Dockside was open for it's annual Turkey dinner for cruisers. We had planned a dinner party in the backyard on Wednesday evening as our friend's daughter and boyfriend, who had been visiting for the previous week, were leaving the next morning to go back home. We had ordered a big bag of fresh stone crab, shrimp and steak so instead of having it in the backyard, we moved it onto the boat. It was a bit crowded but we're boaters so we are used to doing things in small spaces! By Thursday we had a lot to be thankful for and we celebrated the American Thanksgiving with 2 of our Canadian friends from Penetang who we met last year around this time. We went to the Island Restaurant where they served us a whole turkey, carved at our table with all the trimmings and then bagged all the leftovers to take home with us for Turkey sandwiches the next day.

Now for all the boring stuff! I can't believe that we have been gone for almost a month. Soon we will be thinking of flying home for Christmas. We still have lots of work to do but it is slowly getting done and we are really not that interested in working everyday, all day. We have a new water heater on order and it should be here by next week so have removed the old one in the meantime so we are back to heating water on the stove for dishes. We are lucky to have the small apartment where we can have hot showers so we are really not roughing it while we wait. Bruce has golfed a couple of times and gone out fishing once. We are walking or riding our bikes everyday and enjoying the warm weather and reconnecting with friends. In the next week or so we will head to Ft. Lauderdale to visit with another friend who is here from New Zealand and hopefully get some Christmas shopping done. It is hard to get in the Christmas spirit here but will still have time to shop when we come home. That's all for now, will blog again when I have more bad news!!

On the water again

2009-11-05T15:53:00.005-05:00

We arrived back in Marathon on Monday evening, November the 2nd. We had a long day as we stopped in Ft. Lauderdale to pick up our bottom paint from a friend of Bruce's who drove it down, stopped for dinner and then did a bit of shopping at the Outlet Mall! Our friends Pat and Addison from Three Penny Opera where here to meet us so they came up to the apartment for a visit and we did a lot of catching up!

The boat looked good when we did a quick check on it the next day and after a good washing and a coat of bottom paint, it was ready to splash once again for another year. I wish I could say that the launch was uneventful but as luck would have it, that was not the case! Actually the launch went well but the trip back to our slip did not. Pat and Addison were waiting for us to arrive to catch some lines and help us in, thank goodness, as we usually are on our own! On the trip over, Bruce noticed that the engine was not running well, not a good thing when you do not have any sails on yet! As we were limping along, we called Addison and Pat to come out in their dinghy to assist us if needed. It wasn't long after that, that the engine conked out completely and Bruce was unable to restart it! Now the wind had picked up considerably and we immediately began to drift towards some other pilings close to shore. Just our luck that there is a late hurricane approaching and that was giving us very windy conditions. Pat and Addison managed to make it in just in time before we were on top of them and grabbed our bow line to pull us away. Now imagine this, they are in a little dinghy with a 9.9 engine and we are in a 22 ton sailing vessel, not an easy task for them! Needless to say after a lot of scrambling and much discussion and yelling of directions, we managed to pick up a mooring ball, just in time we were fast approaching a navigational marker! This also attracted the attention of another small boat who also came to our assistance!
Once we were safely secured on the ball, Bruce went to investigate and realized that the bleed screw to the engine was loose. This was allowing too much air to get into the engine. He tight ed the screw, ran the engine for 5 minutes and we continued on to our dock, whew, definitely tooo much excitement for one day!

We are now safely on our dock and have stopped all work for the day. Tomorrow we will get an early start as Bruce did try to start the air conditioners and the pump had seized once again! We thought we had this problem solved this year. We will spend another night in the apartment and hopefully will be on the boat tomorrow night. Never a dull moment in the land of Bruce and Esther's sailabout! Oh yeah forgot to mention between all of this, Lindsay called to say that our new furnace that we had installed right before we left, had stopped working! She managed to handle that one and the house is warm once again. Apparently it was a loose wire!

2009-03-29T14:11:00.002-04:00

We are now back in Nassau and planning our return trip to Florida. We knew when we arrived here that we would be here for at least a week as the long range forecast called for 5 days of strong winds and high seas. We could have stayed in the Exumas to ride it out but knew that we would be stuck in an anchorage with very little to do whereas being stuck in Nassau offered much more in the form of entertainment. On the Southbound trip, we stopped in Nassau but only for 2 nights and really did not get much time to see the sights and explore the area.

My last blog had us leaving the Exuma land and Sea Park and heading towards Staniel Cay where we would meet up with Brad and Anita Taylor for a few days. We decided to stop in Sampson Cay as we needed to do some laundry, get fuel and fill up the water. It was a great spot to stop as the anchorage was close to the marina, the island was beautiful and it had a great restaurant. One on the hardest things for me on this trip is finding a place to get the laundry done. Most islands do not have any facilities unless you stay in an expensive marina and then you still have to pay for the laundry. Staniel Cay does not even have laundry so that was not even an option. Some islands have laundromats but they are few and far between. It was great to be able to do the laundry at Sampson Marina as most marinas will not let you use the laundry or even walk around the island if you are not a guest at the marina. Not only could I get the laundry done, but I could have lunch out at the same time which was an added bonus. We enjoyed it so much we booked dinner reservations as well. What a great day! This was also the first time we would see nurse sharks close to shore as well as Stingrays. When we returned for dinner, some fishermen were cleaning their fish and throwing the guts and heads into the water. This attracted close to 15 nurse sharks! (pictures to follow)

Staniel Cay was our next stop and we got there only one day ahead of Brad and Anita. It was great to have some company on the boat especially since they stuck to our 5 day maximum stay rule! The weather was of course windy the day they arrived and it didn't take us too long to realize that getting them and all their gear back to the boat was not going to be pretty! Brad took control and before we knew it, he had commandeered a bigger boat to take them to our anchorage for $20.00. What a deal as he guaranteed that all of their gear would be dry when they got there! It was like having Christmas all over again as they managed to bring us treats, steaks, pork tenderloins as well as vitamins and batteries that were hard to find down here. They certainly went home with a lot less stuff than when they came! We ate, drank and had fun for 4 days. We won't mention the Euchre tournaments that Anita and I let the guys win! The highlight, for us anyway, was snorkeling the Thunder ball Grotto, a spectacular sky lit underwater cave featured in several Hollywood films. This was one of the best places we had ever snorkeled and we managed to go twice with Brad and Anita and Bruce and I went again on our return trip. I think being on the boat for a few days also gave our company some insight into the life of live aboard cruisers and dispelled the myths that life on board is all sugar and spice!

The weather improved as the week wore on and the day that Brad and Anita left was probably the nicest day we had since they came, of course! We managed to get all the gear in our dinghy and because the weather was calmer, everything arrived on shore dry. Another weak cold front was supposed to move in the next day so we decided to stay one more day at Staniel and then head straight to Georgetown as we only had a short window after that to get there as you have to go out to the Exuma Sound a deeper more exposed side of the Exumas. In order to get out to the sound side, you have to go through a cut. Many of these cuts are narrow and treacherous with lots of current running through them. They can also be quite rough if you try to go out with the tide against the current. Ideally the weather should be calm and you should try passing through them at slack tide. We decided to go out Big Rock Cut just North of Staniel Cay and take the Sound side all the way to Georgetown in one day as our weather window was short and if we missed it, we would have to forget about going to Georgetown as it would be just too rough for the next week.

Georgetown is a place most cruisers love or hate. We weren't sure what to expect as we had heard so many conflicting opinions. We happened to arrive in Georgetown at the beginning of March Cruising Regatta This is 10 days of various events in which 300 to 400 boats participate! It is all organized by the cruisers and if you wish to get involved is tons of fun. Each morning at 0800 there is an organized cruisers net on Channel 68 on your VHF giving you news, weather and announcements on all the upcoming events. Since it was Regatta week, there were more events than usual. The anchorage is long and narrow and has numerous areas where these events take place. Since it was our first time visiting, it was a bit confusing as to where each event would be. The weather was terrible, winds over 25 knots each day which made getting in and out of the dinghy difficult, and each trip in the dinghy very very wet! Di spite the awful conditions, we managed to get involved in a few activities and had lots of fun. Many of our friends were there which made it even more enjoyable. We were busy from morning til night and decided that it was even more exhausting than having company! The Regatta started out with a boat parade, which was quite comical as 4 boats actually grounded during the parade and had to be towed off. There was a day of registration where you could team up with other crew members and register for things such as dinghy scavenger hunts, dinghy coconut harvest, tennis, golf, beach volleyball, Texas holdim tournament, bridge and trivial pursuit tournaments as well as baseball with the cruisers against the locals. This was a great way of meeting other cruisers and have fun at the same time! We registered for some activities, had fun watching some others (especially the baseball game) and Bruce even came in first in the Golf turnament and won himself a bottle of rum and a regatta burgie. We decided we really liked Georgetown as long as we didn't stay too long as it could become very exhausting!

We left Georgetown before the end of Regatta and before we were totally burnt out and started to head North again after many months of heading South! It turned out to be a good thing as we have been sailing instead of motoring ever since! The cold fronts have been getting fewer and further apart and the days have been getting warmer and longer. We decided as we headed North to stop in some spots that we missed when we made a beeline for Georgetown. Our first stop was Little Farmers Cay. We had heard from other Cruisers that there was a great restaurant there that you should not miss. The entrance is really shallow and as we approached the island, we started to wonder if we were crazy as we were sometimes in less than 6 feet of water and we need 5 feet. We managed to squeak in after hitting only one speed bump! We had radioed the restaurant earlier in the day to make a reservation and at that time had to pick our meal without seeing a menu! Bruce chose the Grouper and I the Lobster and both of us did have the best meal we have had since coming to the Exumas. (in a restaurant that is as we always have great meals on board!)

We also really enjoyed the Land and Sea Park so decided to stop at another Island in the Park and stay for a couple of days. We chose Cambridge Cay as we heard that the snorkeling was good with many different areas to explore by dinghy. We were now travelling with our friends from New Zealand on Sequel 2 and other friends from Burlington, Ontario on Muskoka Moon. There are mooring balls here also and when Sequel went to pick one up, the line got caught in their bow thruster. Bruce grabbed his snorkel equipment and went over to help. As with most problems on the water, other boaters are always ready to assist in any way they can so this problem attracted many other dinghies ready to help. One person on their dinghy recognized Bruce from Nettles Island where we had stayed last year for 6 weeks. It was Mike and Karen from the boat
Exodus. It was great to see them and get caught up with what was happening in their life. Once again, it is a small world! The snorkeling was again wonderful but a bit further from the anchorage and with our 2.5 horsepower engine, it tends to take us a while to get anywhere. We may be looking for a bigger engine and dinghy next year!

We were running out of time with our friends from New Zealand so decided to leave for Norman's Cay as they had a restaurant where we could all go to for a farewell dinner with them before they left to sail back to Florida and then fly back to New Zealand. What we didn't know until we got there was that they were closed on Mondays and guess what day it was! We are boaters however and that means that we have to be flexible as every plan is subject to change. We spent our last night on Sequel and watched them leave the anchorage the next day at 0700. We will miss them but are sure that our paths will cross again in the near future.

We had one last stop before Nassau that we wanted to make so after exploring Norman's Cay and Norman's Pond with Muskoka Moon, we headed to Highbourne Cay. Highbourne is a private island with only one marina on it and only guests staying at the marina are allowed to walk around the island or use any of the facilities of the marina. We anchored off a beautiful beach and dropped the dingy to do some snorkeling and lobster hunting. To find out how successful we were, you will have to look at the pictures to follow! As we were heading in from our snorkel trip, a very large (over 100 ft.) yacht by the name of "Bad Girl" was motoring into the anchorage right behind us. The next thing we knew their dinghies were landing on the beach setting up tents, lawn chairs, lights and barbecues for a beach party they were planning that night for their "guests" on board. We also had "guests" on board for dinner that night as it was going to be our last evening with "Muskoka Moon" before we would head back to Nassau and they would head back to the Exuma Land and Sea Park again. After we had eaten and were sitting in the cockpit, fireworks started going off on the beach for about 15 minutes! What a great show and very unexpected on a deserted beach in the Exumas! We later radioed the Skipper thanking him for the light show and after talking to him and telling him we were the Canadian boat in front of him, he informed us that his "guests" were also from Canada, of course he failed to mention their names. I informed our guests not to expect fireworks each time they came for dinner or a visit!

We are now anchored right across from Atlantis and in front on a restaurant called the "Green Parrot". The anchorage has been great except that they have live music every Friday night and it goes on until the wee hours of the morning which is not so great but hopefully we will be gone before next Friday night, In the meantime, we have been busy playing tourist and visiting again with Heather, her husband Mark and their family. We have walked all around Paradise Island and the beautiful Atlantis Resort, eaten at numerous restaurants and plan to explore the downtown area where all he Cruise Ships dock. Everyday there are at least 2 cruise ships in and many times as many as 4 or 5. Nassau has been quite the change from the relatively quiet, uninhabited Exuma Island Chain! Heather and Mark have been great hosts and have opened their home to us to do such dreaded chores as laundry. They are here if we need anything at all and more than happy to chauffeur us around so we can get the things we need that are too hard to do without a car. We are still planning on leaving on Friday or Saturday. Each day has been very windy so may have to wait for the seas to calm down a bit. There are many people hear waiting to do the same trip as us so we should have lots of "buddy boats"!

We are now in Cat Cay waiting to cross the Gulf stream to Miami. I never did get to post this blog before we left Nassau as the Internet was down the last couple of days at the Green Parrot. A bit disappointing but that is just how it is in the islands. On our last day in Nassau, I went to Bruce's cousin Heather's house to have lunch with a few of her friends, get a pedicure, do some laundry and get a few groceries. We had a great day and then we were to meet up with Mark and Bruce for dinner later. Heather brought me back to the boat with the groceries and we were sitting having a drink and deciding where we were going to go for dinner. Mark was too busy to join us as he had a work proposal to finish before Friday and it was not yet finished. We usually like to be on the boat around 4 to 5 p.m. as the current changes about then and the boats all seem to swing differently and sometimes get very close together. We had been anchored in the same spot for a week and felt fairly secure that we would not move as we felt the anchor had been well set with all the high winds that we had all week. This was not in fact the case as this time we seemed to be getting quite close to the boat behind us. This had never happened before so we were paying close attention to it. At first we thought it had to be the other boat that was coming towards us. Before we knew it, we were fending the boat off and trying to put fenders between us. There was no one on the other boat so we were not too sure what to do. As we were contemplating our choices, a man showed up to let us know that the people on the boat were not in town and that he was watching the boat for them. We realized that it was in fact our boat that had drifted towards them and not the other way around. Thank goodness we were on the boat at the time and not out for dinner! We raised the anchor with some help from another boat who had dinghed over and moved to the other side of the channel for the night. Heather had a little bit more excitement then she bargained for, we decided that it would now be impossible to leave the boat to go for dinner so Heather and I went and got Sushi to bring back to the boat. What a mixed up night!

Our crossing of the Tongue of the Ocean was not great. The winds were, of course, higher than forecasted and the waves were over 6 feet with every 5th or 6th wave 10 to 12 feet. We again anchored on the Banks, something we said we would never do again, and once again had a very uncomfortable night! Never say never! As uncomfortable as the Banks are to overnight, we have had two of our best sails crossing them and had a lovely sail to Cat Cay in 15 to 20 knot winds right on the beam. Today is a down day here as the winds are still high and are expected to be lighter tomorrow so will cross then. Today, hopefully I can get this blog posted at the Marina. This is the prettiest island yet but it is all private so cannot walk around or go to the beach. We can however take the dinghy into the Marina, eat at the restaurant and use their Internet (hopefully it is working) . Hopefully this time tomorrow. we will be back in the States!

2009-02-21T09:59:00.003-05:00

We are now on Warderick Wells Cay which is home to the headquarters of the Exuma Land and Sea Park. The Park is 22 miles long and 8 miles wide. It includes 15 large islands and many more tiny ones and its purpose is to provide a safe haven and replenishment area for the wildlife native to the Bahamas and to educate the public in saving this beautiful environment. The water here is pristine and has numerous reefs to explore and snorkel or dive on. Fishing is not permitted in the park and if you hike anywhere, you must remain on the trails. Yesterday we hiked up to the infamous Boo Boo Hill where boaters go and leave mementos from their boats. We placed our homemade boat plaque amongst the hundreds of others that were there. There is also a spectacular blow hole nearby which provided much entertainment to the children hiking with us as well as the adults. We have been following the same route of many other same boats, thus we have gotten to know quite a few of them. We have been busy snorkelling, hiking, visiting during potluck dinners at the Park Headquarters and enjoying happy hours on different boats. We will probably leave tomorrow and head to Staniel Cay where our friends Brad and Anita Taylor will join us for a few days on the boat.

We left Frazer Hog Cay for our last really deep water crossing of the Tongue of the Ocean. After that we would be in the relatively shallow waters of the Bahamas Banks. We headed for Nassau where we would visit with Bruce's cousin Heather, her husband Mark and their 3 children. We stayed at the Nassau Harbor Club as we needed to get fuel, refill our water, do some laundry and re provision the boat. Heather and Mark helped us with all of this as well as having us for dinner one night at their place. Thanks for all the chauffeuring around and all your help! We hope to see them again on the way back and have them all on the boat for a sail and a night on the water. Nassau was certainly a change of pace from the quiet nearly deserted islands that we have visited in the Bahamas so far. We couldn't get over how busy it was. The Bahamas has really suffered the effects of the slowing economy as everywhere we go we have noticed resorts that have closed their doors and the ones that are open, have very little visitors which is a shame as they are so beautiful.

We finally got a weather forecast that gave us at least 3 days of warm weather and light winds so we left Nassau on a beautiful day to cross the Great Bahamas Banks and start our exploration of the Exuma Island Chain. Our first stop would be Allan Cay. We had to pass over the Yellow Banks which is a shallow bit of water with numerous coral heads. When we got there, I went to the bow and watched for coral heads so that I could direct Bruce around them. Before we left Marathon, Addison and Pat Chan on Three Penny Opera had given us a pair of headsets to use to communicate to each other when we were anchoring or needed to communicate with each other when one of us was on the bow and the other driving. This has been the best gift ever as we have used them many times and don't know how we ever managed without them! Thank you, thank you Pat and Addison!

When we dropped the anchor in front of Allan's Cay, we really felt we had arrived. This was our first experience of the inviting clear waters of the Exumas. People have told us how beautiful it is and we have seen pictures of it but nothing compares to actually seeing it. Allans Cay is also home to intriguing prehistoric iguanas. They are protected here and you can go to shore and feed them. As soon as you approach with your dinghy, they come out to meet you. Once or twice each day a fast boat arrives from Nassau filled with tourists who want to come and see the iguanas. You can put food on a stick and they will eat it right off the stick. We spent 3 nights on Allan's Cay before heading to Normans Cay where we would meet up with friends that we had crossed the Gulf Stream with and spent time in Bimini with.

Norman's Cay was very interesting as it had once been under the control of a drug lord by the name of Carlos (Joe) Lehder. Now most of the island is privately owned and it has its own airstrip. It has one restaurant and bar by the name of MacDuffs and to get there you must cross the airstrip making sure to look both ways for landing or departing airplanes! We took a long walk to the top of a hill where there is an abandoned houseboat. Legend has it that this boat used to come and anchor off Norman's Cay and had been warned by the drug lord not to do so. The owner ignored this advice and upon returning to his boat one day discovered it to be gone from its anchorage.

It was later found on the top of a hill!

2009-02-11T13:16:00.006-05:00

After 10 days of waiting and hanging out in Bimini, we finally got what we thought was a small weather window to leave. We left Bimini around 11 a.m. with 3 other boats with a plan to stop half way to Chub Key and anchor on the Bahama Banks. We knew that the first 6 miles would be rough but then we would be in much smoother water once we turned onto the Banks. We had one of our best sails ever on Con El Viento as we sailed for about 9 hours straight without ever having to turn on the engine! The winds were behind us which helped to push us towards our destination. The only disappointment was that we never did see the bottom of the ocean. The depth of the water over the banks is only between 14 and 20 feet and because of the clear blue water, people have told us how spectacular it is to be sailing over the banks and be able to spot starfish and other marine life on the ocean floor. Since we were all having such a great sail, we decided to keep going after dark and anchor further than we had planned when we left Bimini, this way we would have a shorter sail the next day to our destination. The winds were also expected to pick up the next day so we figured we could get to our protected anchorage before that happened. Because the banks are so shallow, you can pretty much drop the hook anywhere you choose. You are out in the middle of nowhere and cannot see any land no matter which direction you look. It is a very strange feeling and I was glad that we were with the other boats. The only mistake we made was anchoring on the banks as the waves never settled down and it was quite rough for sleeping. Next time we would probably plan to leave later and sail all night without stopping. This was an option for us but because I hate nighters and had heard how great it was to sail during the daylight hours over the banks, we decided to anchor halfway and sail during the day. We won't do that again as we didn't really get any sleep at night anyway as we were rocking and rolling all night. One of the boats with us broke their anchor chain at 0300 and had to circle around until 0600 when we planned to leave again. Our chain also broke shortly after we went to bed and we had to get up and throw out our secondary anchor. Thank goodness we had a trip line on the anchor and were able to retrieve our brand new anchor once the sun came up the next day and we could see it. Bruce had a heck of a time trying to bring up both anchors.

Our trip from our anchorage on the shallow banks took us through a narrow channel called the Northwest Passage and into the Tongue of the Ocean. The Tongue of the Ocean is a very very deep body of water and we went from clear blue water that was around 30 feet deep to water that was over 1000 feet deep in a matter of seconds. You could actually see the line where the water changes colour to a deep blue and the depth drops off like falling over a cliff. Some areas in the Tongue are over 10,000 feet deep!

By the time we were turning up to where we were going to anchor, the winds had really picked up so we were glad that we had pushed and went further than we planned the first day. We picked up a mooring ball in Frazer Hog Key which is part of the Berry Island Marina. The Marina is about the only thing there is on Frazer Hog. It is run by a young lad named Herbie and a cook by the name of Hilda. On the other side of the Island is Chub Island Resort. A very exclusive, expensive resort and marina. It is too far to walk over to the resort and have not been able to bum a ride over but did talk to one man who got a ride over to get fuel and he told us that it was very dead with very few boats. I have yet to see one boat at the dock in this marina even though we were told when we came in that they had a special on for $1.00 a foot. After a couple of days, we knew why. There is a very strong current running up this channel which makes things a bit uncomfortable at times as the boat doesn't always point into the wind and waves because of the current. The waves hit you from the side causing an annoying rocking from side to side. At night the mooring ball hits the side of the boat for a couple of hours which keeps us awake. I have gotten into the habit of going to bed early, reading for a couple of hours in the night when this happen and then going back to bed again. The first night we were here, on of the boats was anchored and realized in the middle of the night that his rode was wrapped all around the boat and that he was dragging his anchor. He was afraid to start his engine as he wasn't sure if the rode would wrap around his prop. He tried everything to wake the boat beside him as he was slowly drifting his way. By the time they woke us, he was dangerously close to hitting them. He decided to tie a fender on the anchor, cut the anchor loose and pick it up the next day. Luckily this worked and he was able to start his engine without the rode getting caught on his prop. By this time his floodlight had died and he had to try to find the only empty mooring ball in the dark without hitting our boat which he couldn't see too well as our anchor light had burnt out. He has only a 30 foot boat and his girlfriend has only been sailing for 2 months. She had to try to pick up this ball and hold on for dear life as the boat was rocking back and forth. They managed to pick it up only to realize that with all the rocking and rolling, the gas tank had somehow gotten under the plug for their dingy and pulled it out. The dingy was full of water and their engine was almost under water! Joel had to now deal with this emergency! What a night they had, I think Jackie was ready to take the next flight out!

We decided to head into the marina and have lunch. When we got there we were told that there wasn't any power and if we wanted lunch, we had to order it the day before! We ordered lunch for the next day and it was great. The marina has a washer and dryer but we found out that the power is out everyday until 5 p.m. when they start the generator and the place is lit up like a Christmas tree all night. This can't be good for business as most people we see come over during the day and are back at their boats at night. This also means that we have no power for our computers so have to make sure that the battery is fully charged before we bring the computer up to get the Internet. The Internet is not great but we have managed to get our e-mail, check weather and make a couple of calls on Skype. The rest of the day is quite relaxing as it is too rough for fishing and too cold for swimming or snorkeling. I have been reading lots of books and will soon run out of reading material so hopefully we will get out of here soon.

It looks like a nice window is opening up to leave on Thursday and then it should be nice right thru the weekend. We will try to leave then and head to Nassau. We are both looking forward to being in a bigger city, visiting with relatives and other friends we know are there and restocking our fresh food. We have not had bread for a week! Hopefully the next blog will be from Nassau.

2009-01-27T11:07:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone, we are now in the Bahamas! Bimini actually and it is as beautiful as everyone said it is. The water colour is an amazing shade of turquoise in the shallower water to a navy blue as the water gets deeper. We left Marathon on Thursday, January 22nd for Rodriques Key. We were not sure when we left if we would cross from there or go further North to a place called Angelfish Creek. It just felt great to be off the dock and moving once again. Once on the hook again, we decided that we would in fact cross from Rodriques, thus taking full advantage of the Gulf Stream and had a very pleasant relaxing day on anchor. Two other boats came in and after talking to them decided that we would all cross together early the next day. We started out at 04:30 happy to have the company of someone else to cross with. We hadn't got very far before we realized that it was going to be an uncomfortable crossing if we continued forward. We decided to turn around and head to No Name Harbor outside of Miami along with one of the other boats instead and wait for better weather. We knew that Rick and Carla from Euphoria were in No Name and we could cross with them when the weather improved. The forecast was indeed better the next day with a lighter NE wind changing to a light East wind. We decided to try it once more with the option again of turning around. The next window would not be until Wednesday of that week so plan B was to head into South Beach and spend a few days there. I quite liked that idea also. We left at 0600 this time which was a bit of a mistake as every fishing boat in Miami also goes out at that time and the wake they create is much worse than anything we could experience in the Gulf Stream!
The first 2 hours were a bit rough but as the winds clocked around to the East, the seas actually became quite flat with waves only about 1 to 2 feet. All in all it was a very uneventful enjoyable crossing except for a small mechanical problem we had about 6 miles out of Bimini. We have always had trouble getting a fan belt for our engine that fits properly and all of a sudden an engine overheat alarm went off. Our fan belt had come off, thus causing the engine to overheat. Bruce changed the belt, let the engine cool down again and we were on our way. We did hear one boat turning around as they were taking on water so we felt lucky that our problem was one that could be easily fixed and that it happened when it did instead of in the small channel coming into Bimini!
We pulled into a dock at Blue Water Resort and Marina, cleared customs without a hitch and now we have begun our Bahamas adventure! There are as many Canadian boats here as there are American boats and we have been busy meeting lots of new friends and catching up with some old friends! Last night we had a big potluck dinner that boaters are famous for having. One of the boats had caught a Mahi Mahi coming over and gave us some to eat and some other boats bought some fresh lobster from a local who also stayed and prepared it for them!
We will probably leave here tomorrow as the weather is suppose to improve for the next couple of days and then another cold front is coming on Friday. We hope to make it to the Berry Islands before that and hide out there before heading to Nassau. We really don't want to be in Nassau over a weekend anyway. We hope to visit with Bruce's cousin Heather, her husband Mark and their 3 children for a couple of days before heading on to the Exuma chain of islands. Not sure when we will have the Internet again, probably not before Nassau. It is better in the Bahamas Dave, and we are having a great time. Talk to you all soon.

2009-01-20T16:33:00.007-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! It has been over a month since I have updated this blog but what can I say, time sure flies when you are in the Keys! Hope everyone had a great time over the Christmas holidays. We had a very quiet Christmas and although we had Christmas dinner with friends, Pat and Dave, we missed not being at home (even the snow) and swore that we would never do that again. New Years was a different story as all of the kids drove down to spend a week with us. The gang arrived at 0130 on the 29th of December and we didn't stop until they left on the 4th of January! We had a lot to cram in in a weeks time and wanted to make sure we did as much as we could possibly do! Trevor celebrated his 30th birthday on December 20th and since we missed it at home, we decided to celebrate it one more time in the Keys. We all went to a great restaurant and had a fun night on the 29th of December. The next night we celebrated our Christmas on the boat and then the next night was New Years Eve! We are definitely getting too old for this many celebrations in a row! In between the night celebrations, we managed to fit in snorkeling trips, dive trips, golf games, beach volleyball games, pool time and a day in Key West. Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time they left but happy to have all the great memories of a wonderful time!

After the kids left, we had a visit from Dave and Judy Burns. They have a place rented in Ft. Lauderdale for 3 months but couldn't get it until the 7th of January so they came the 5th and stayed 2 nights. It is always great to see friends from home and we took the opportunity to have Dave and Pat over for dinner so we could all catch up on the news from home and the happenings at PCYC .

We are now planning our trip to the Bahamas and hope to leave in the next couple of days. We had hoped to leave last week after a short trip back to Mississauga, but the weather window was too short and we were not comfortable with it, so we signed up for another week at the resort. It has turned unseasonably cold here with temperatures at night dipping into the low 40's . Very unusual for Florida and the folks around here really don't like it much! The weather is suppose to improve as the week goes by and the winds are suppose to turn around and be from the South on Sunday and Monday. We will probably leave here on Friday to head North for a couple of days to position ourselves for an easy crossing to Bimini. We stopped at Costco on our way back from Mississauga and now have a well stocked pantry. Bruce has been busy getting the boat ready for the Bahamas. There is a lot to think about as it will not be as easy to get thinks fixed or to get spare parts once we leave Florida for the Bahamas. Once we start travelling again, I hope to post blogs move often to keep all of our friends and family up to date especially since we will not be able to call home as often as we have. We are also getting really spoiled but being on a dock for so long. We will have to get used to conserving water, fuel and power once we are in the Bahamas. Things are about to change but we look forward to the next adventure and hope to have lots of pictures and stories to share with all of you in the near future. We will miss all of our new friends here in Marathon but know that we will hopefully see them all again in the Spring or next Fall.

2008-12-08T15:35:00.010-05:00

Blair and Lorie's new Morgan, they will be heading to Cuba next weekend.

Friends around the dock!

After being away from the boat for 6 months, there is always a transition period where you have to readjust to once again living aboard a boat and spending most of the day with your spouse. This is not always easy but eventually you do and you get used to the bad habits (and sometimes annoying habits) you have picked up by being a landlubber for the last 6 months. I am happy to report that I think we have finally done so (although I still haven't gotten Bruce to hang up his wet towel yet!) He is not writing this or I am sure he would be adding his two cents also, but I am not going to let him!
When we first arrived, most of the other boaters were live-a-boards that either worked in town or spent most of their day at the local pub with their dog and a cigarette in their hands. We really didn't have much in common and had a difficult time meeting new boaters. One day while listening to the Cruiser's Net, Bruce heard a gentleman by the name of Tom looking for other people to join him and go diving. He thought this sounded like a good idea as our boat was not ready to take out yet and he was anxious to get diving again. We tried to meet up with him before going out, but that didn't work out (big mistake), Tom said he didn't mind picking us up as we also had not got our dinghy in the water yet. We hadn't gotten very far in the dinghy when he started to tell us that he was short on cash and had to find a way of making some money as he had lost his check book (we found out later that his check book was his last girlfriend). He then told us that he would like to charter his boat but was having a hard time getting the appropriate licences as he was bipolar and on medication. This was looking more and more like a bad idea! As we were getting out of the dinghy and onto his boat, he told us that we would have to take our shoes off, which we didn't mind until we got on to the boat and saw that the boat was filthy! At this time I was glad that I told him we would bring lunch instead of taking him up on the offer of pea soup that he had made the day before and was still sitting on the stove and remained there all day. He started the engines and told Bruce to throw off the bow line. When he put the boat in gear, I heard him say "that doesn't sound good" and when he tried to put move forward, we didn't move at all except to drift toward another boat. We fended off the other boat and picked up another mooring ball. Tom jumped into the water to check out the problem only to return to say that he would have to put on his scuba gear as the prop was covered in barnacles. We finally got off again and decided to go out Sister's Creek as it would save us some time and it was high tide so we wouldn't have a problem getting out that way. Both Bruce and I told Tom at different times that he could not head straight to the entrance of the Creek as there was a very shallow shoal that we would have to go around first but he assured us he had the depth sounder on and he was in lots of water. I guess you already know what happened as our day just kept getting better and better. We were now hard aground and could not get off by ourselves, we had to call Boat U.S. to come and tow us off. Our day did manage to get better and Bruce did get out diving but we will certainly think twice again before we commit to a day on the water with a stranger!
By the end of November many of the Snowbirds started to arrive along with some friends that we had met last year. It was nice to meet other sailors that were on their boats because they wanted to be, were anxious to meet other sailors and were interested in travelling to other areas. Soon all the docks will be full here with the arrival of our friends Kent and Linda from Ottawa and Pat and Addison from PCYC. The meet and greets have started over at the city marina and we have met other Canadians from Penetanguishene and Manitoba. We have finally got the boat ready to sail and will probably go out for the first time this week as the weather is supposed to hit 80 degrees again by midweek but then turn cooler again by Thursday. We have again been having trouble with our dinghy engine and Bruce has spent many hours working on it with lots of advice from the local inflatable boat dealer. The salt air along with the ethanol in the fuel causes the carburetor to gum up and then the engine will not run. The latest piece of advice from the mechanic at inflatable boats was to boil our carburetor for 20 minutes every three months (seriously). We tried this and it has been running better than it ever has!
The fisherman next door is back finally so we now have a constant supply of freshly cleaned Mangrove Snapper anytime we want. This makes Bruce really happy! Many of the restaurants here are feeling the effects of the poor economy and are offering $5.00 lunches which are just great as you can't even eat at McDonalds for that! This really makes me happy as it means less cooking yeah!
There is less than 3 weeks left before Christmas and we are really having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. It just doesn't seem right to have warm weather and palm trees at Christmas. We have not even started to decorate our boat and have not gotten a tree yet. We did go to see Four Christmases this weekend so that helped get me motivated a bit . One thing that I am not missing however is the crowded shopping malls. We move over to Sombrero Resort next week so am looking forward to using the pool and tennis courts. All of the kids are coming down for a week over New Years and we are really excited about having everyone together for a whole week. Not sure what our plans are over Christmas yet but this will probably be the last blog until after New Years. We are anxious to get on the move again and it is looking more and more like the Bahamas in January but like all of our plans this is subject to change at any time!
Bruce and I would like to wish all of our family. friends and anyone else that follows our blog a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

On the boat again

2008-11-16T07:56:00.007-05:00

As most of you already know, we are once again continuing our voyage on Con El Viento. We left home on November 3rd for a much easier and quicker trip by plane to Ft. Lauderdale. After a brief stop in Ft. Lauderdale to pick up our bottom paint which arrived by car courtesy of a friend of Bruce's who drives down each year and spends the winter there, we were once again on our way to Marathon. As we headed South to the Keys, we both felt that it seemed like only yesterday that we had put the boat away for the summer. We were never more acutely aware of how quickly time really does pass by!

We spent the first 4 nights staying with Gale and Mary, friends that we rent our dock from in Marathon, and after spending so much time in their spacious brand new house, I wasn't sure how I was going to adjust to the confines of the boat again!

When we summerized the boat in April, we left it thinking that we would probably return once or twice during the summer to check on it but those plans never materialized therefore we were very anxious to get on board and to see how it had summered! There were a few surprises but all in all the boat did not look too worse for wear. We have already started a list of things to do differently when we put the boat away for next summer. The real test would be done once it was put in the water and we could check all of the systems that couldn't be started until then. Since we were not allowed to do any work on our boat in the yard, we had a fairly easy first few days as the bottom was painted and then dropped in the water by Marathon Boat Yard. We were happy with their service but found their prices a bit high so will probably check out a couple of other yards next year, especially those that let you do your own work on your boat. Once the boat was in the water, our work began and we had a very busy week ahead of us.

Once the batteries were charged, the engine started the first time and we left for our dock at Gale and Mary's. The first order of business was to start up the air conditioning as it was stinking hot and anyone that knows us, knows how much we love our air conditioning! Without it, we would be miserable . Unfortunately, it didn't work. The pump had seized and had to be taken out and fixed. As it was an old style pump, it weighed a ton. Bruce was not doing any heavy lifting as he had hernia surgery before coming down, so it was up to me to help him get it out and fixed. We lubricated the pump and got it working again but had to put it in twice as the first time we reinstalled it, we screwed up the electrical. This job took all day to fix but we now have air conditioning, yeah!

The first few days flew by as we plugged away at all the chores that had to be done, the boat had to be cleaned, inside and out, the new enclosure put on, the sails brought in for repair, everything had to be unpacked again and put away, beds had to be make up, suitcases unpacked, food had to be purchased, barbecue and instruments had to be reinstalled, systems had to be checked and the list goes on and on! We were so overwhelmed at first we didn't know where to start but eventually you get through it. Each task seemed to take longer than planned, not one thing seemed to go off without a hitch and everything cost more than we planned. Some would say "that's boating", but it can be very frustrating at times. There is still work to be done but we are not feeling so overwhelmed anymore and we are now working at a slower pace.

Talk about costing more than we planned, since we had to have our sails checked over and a few minor repairs done, we called around to a couple of different places. Most had gone out of business and there was only one place that would do work on sails. After telling us that she charges $100.00 an hour and if we didn't like that we would have to take them to Ft. Lauderdale, we had no other choice but to leave them with her. The bill was $500.00 dollars for work that would have cost us at the most $200.00 at home! I also decided to have our comforter dry cleaned as according to the tag, it could not be washed. I sent it with Bruce when he was out doing some errands and asked him to drop it off at the cleaners on his way. He returned with the comforter as apparently they wanted $95.00 to clean it! Even to him that seemed a bit steep! I threw it in the washing machine as I didn't really have anything to loose and it came out beautifully! We also had to purchase a new starting battery, ours was 8 years old so it was due, and the pump to our forward head had to be replaced. We were glad to have the car for a week with all the running around that had to be done.

We are now settling back into our routine of coffee and a bike ride in the morning. It feels good to be back and hope to start up our social life again after a week or so of solid work! We still haven't put the sails on as Bruce should not be doing any heavy lifting for another week or so, but once they are up, we look forward to getting out on the water for the first time. We are just about ready for company, any takers?? our plans are to stay here until around the 15th of January and then who knows...

2008-04-17T21:25:00.008-04:00

We are now in our final week of our 11 month adventure and it is hard to believe that it is coming to an end. It seems really strange to be preparing the boat for summer storage instead of winter storage. We are newbies at this so we have been trying to gather as much information that we can on the best things to do to prepare your boat for the summer sun, high heat, and hurricane season! The last thing we want is to come back in the fall to a real mess. The sails are now down, the dinghy is out of the water and we continue each day doing a few things towards getting the boat ready for Monday's haul out. This will also be my final blog entry for this season. I have never been a journal keeper or enjoyed writing much so I have to say that I am glad to stop for the next few months! I am proud of myself to have kept it up all year and hope that you all have enjoyed sharing the adventure with us.

We have really enjoyed our time in Marathon and have made some great new friends with whom we have shared some wonderful times with. We had been out to Sombrero Reef 3 different times snorkeling and diving. Once on Euphoria with Rick and Carla and twice on our boat when Leanne came to visit. We had quite the exciting day with Rick and Carla. We had decided to go diving early so that we would be sure to get a mooring ball and also because Rick rented his equipment so we wanted to make sure we had lots of time as the equipment had to be returned by 6 p.m. Rob and Susan from Mandate were also joining us so the boat was very full with 6 people, 3 who had all of their diving equipment and the rest of us with all of our snorkel gear and food etc. We managed to get it all loaded by shortly after 9 a.m. and quickly got off our mooring ball. As we were motoring very slowly out of the harbor and picking our way around all of the other boats, we somehow got into shallow water and you guessed it, grounded ourselves. This was really quite funny as we had often joked about the first time we had talked to Rick and Carla was when they were hard aground along the ICW. After that first day, it seemed everyday that we talked to them or saw them, they were once again on the bottom or had been on the bottom at some point in that day. It got to be a daily ritual and we often joked about it with them so it only seemed right that the first time we went out with them that we were stuck in the muck so to speak. They knew just what to do and there were lots of other boats around to help us out, but no matter what we did or how hard we tried, we just couldn't get free. We had resigned ourselves into thinking that we would have to wait for the next high tide which was about 4 hours away and started to get the cards out when all of a sudden we looked like we were moving and sure enough, we were free at last. Our diving day was not ruined after all and we had a fantastic day even though it was shorter than we hoped for!

Here we all are trying everything we possibly could to get the boat off the bottom!

Bruce (the heaviest) on the boom!

Susan hanging off the side

Highlights of the last month have been a visit for a long weekend by Bruce's daughter Leanne, lunch with some old friends from Naples Stefanie and Jim Curland (Bruce and I worked with Stefanie at Nordair and Canadian and they are now living in Naples Florida), a visit from Bob and Mardi (Salty Lady) who drove down from Nettles Island for a visit and stayed overnight, many potluck dinners with our friends Rob and Susan (Mandate), Norm and Paula (Madame) and Rick and Carla (Euphoria), bocce ball tournaments, baseball games (apparently I was the best 2nd base player they ever had, maybe the years of playing catch with my now brother-in-law finally paid off, who would have guessed!) and last but not least eating lots and lots of fresh fish caught by the owners of the boat beside us, Chuck and Barbara.

As much as we have enjoyed the last year, I am really looking forward to becoming a landlubber again for a few months. Bruce is looking forward to improving his golf game in the coming months and I am looking forward to long, hot showers, a toilet that never has to be pumped out, doing laundry whenever I want and only one load at a time, a dishwasher and spending time with my friends and family again. I am not looking forward however to driving again in traffic, yard work, having to wear makeup and do my hair every day and just generally the rat race of city life again! I am sure that when November comes around, we will be ready to continue our life as cruisers once again.

Out for a day of diving with Leanne and Bruce

Visit with Bob and Marty (Salty Lady)

A great catch of Tuna

Chuck and Barbara (boat next to ours)

Dolphin

Bruce was washing the boat one day and left the hose over the side while scrubbing off some dirt, you can image his surprise when he went to pick it up and a manatee was beside the boat having a drink of fresh water!

Big smile for the camera! I think he was pretty happy to have gotten some fresh water.

Some pictures of our last week in Marathon, lots of get togethers to say goodbye to all of our new friends!!

Mary and Gale's new house on Sister's Creek. Picture is of Mary and Dave though, don't know where Gale was at the time.

A very fun evening of dinner and dancing at a great Italian Restaurant! Ken and Angela won the prize for being the best dancers. Bruce and I realized after seeing all of the great dancers that we should probably take some dance lessons before next year. This place was like dancing with the stars there were so many great dance couples.

2008-03-22T18:32:00.013-04:00

Time sure has a way of flying by! I can't believe that we have already been in Marathon for over a month. I thought that by now we would have been getting a little bored with sitting in one place and that the time would seem to go a little bit slower but so far that has not happened. It is hard to believe that in a little over a month, we Will be putting the boat away for 6 months. It really seems surreal looking back at how quickly the year has gone by, but then I think of how much we have done in the last year and it seems we have done sooo much in only one year!
When I was home at the end of February, I talked to our neighbors Casy and Nancy and they told me that they were heading to Marco Island in Florida in March. I mentioned that if they had a chance, they should drive down for a visit. Sure enough, we received a phone call that they were going to take a drive down and have lunch with us! It was great to see them along with their friends who they were visiting in Florida. I only wish they could have stayed a little longer with us. It was a long day for them as the drive here from Marco Island is over 3 hours! Lindsay however missed them at home as Casy has been helping her keep our driveway shovelled and there was quite a bit of snow while they were gone so........ she actually had to do it herself! (Can't believe that I forgot to take a picture of them on the boat!!)

Bruce joined the golf course here for a couple of weeks (thanks to our friends Dave and Pat who are members) and has golfed a few times. We have seen Pat and Dave a couple of times since we have been here and look forward to spending more time with them before we leave but with their busy social life and our busy boating life, it can be difficult to schedule a time!

Great dinner at Dave and Pat's!!

Our friends from Ottawa, Kent and Linda, took possession of their new 41 foot PDQ power cat and called to say they were heading to the Keys for the March break along with their daughter Sophie. Bruce's sister and brother-in-law also arrived the day after Kent and Linda so we all got to spend some time together. We had a great time and a very busy few days! Kent and Linda had us all for dinner and invited us out for a day of snorkeling on the Sombrero Reef. It was Bettyann's first time snorkeling and we were all amazed at how well she did! It is never too late to try new things and she had lots of fun and was quite proud of herself. It was a treat to be on a catamaran as it is a lot easier to get in and out of the water with all your gear. Thanks Kent, Linda and Sophie for a great day!

Bruce's school of snorkeling

Tons of yellow tail snapper
The proud skipper and his crew!
First and second mate (Linda and Sophie)

They say that it never rains but it pours and it was very true this week. For months we have been following Rick and Carla on a boat called Eurphoria. We have talked to them on the VHF many times, followed them while travelling in the ICW and talked to them often by phone, but as Bruce puts it, have never touched them! We have been trying to meet up and have a chance to meet them in person and you guessed it, this week they pulled into Boot Key Harbor and we finally got the chance to meet them. It felt like we already knew them and since we had already been planning a fish fry on our boat with Kent, Linda, Sophie, Ray and Bettyann, we invited Rick and Carla to join us. Bruce ordered 5 lbs of fresh mangrove snapper from the fisherman next door, who catches it in the morning, cleans it when he gets back and hands it over the fence to us. It doesn't get much fresher than that! Rick and Carla will be staying here for a month so we should have lots of time to get to know them better.

Kent, Linda and Sophie
Bettyann and Ray
Rick and Carla (Euphoria)

We had a great week with Bettyann and Ray. Bruce and Ray golfed at Sombrero Golf Course, we spent a day in Key West, visited the beach, ate at a few restaurants in town and of course shopped a bit! Bruce, Ray and Bettyann also golfed at a par 3 course in Key Colony which I think was the first time that Bruce ever golfed with his sister! Not sure if she beat him or not??

My sister and her husband were suppose to come from Denver for Easter but unfortunately had to cancel at the last minute. Neil was coming to Miami on business and they hoped to stay for the weekend and drive to the Keys. Neil's meeting in Miami ended up getting cancelled and so did the rest of the weekend. We were quite disappointed but there is always next year!

Jim and Karen left yesterday morning so we are once again on our own. We have been travelling with them for almost 6 months so it seems quite strange to look out and not see their boat close by. They too will be by themselves for a couple of weeks until they meet up with the other 2 boats in Georgia.

We are now in the final weeks of our trip and I am sure that they will fly by. We are looking for a couple of boats that will be visiting us in April. One from Naples, Florida who we have not seen for quite a few years but all worked together at Nordair and then Canadian. They hope to be hear around the 2nd or 3rd of April. Our friends, Bob and Mardi, hope to be here around the second week in April when they get back from the Bahamas. It will be great to hear all about the Bahamas from them. Bruce's daughter, Leanne, is coming the weekend of the 4th of April to do some diving with her dad, so before you know it, the month will be over, the boat put away and we will be back home once again for the summer.

Happy Easter everyone!

2008-02-27T09:21:00.012-05:00

We have made it to Marathon, Fl. It was somewhat of a milestone when we set our anchor just outside of Boot Key Harbor on the West side of Boot Key. We had always said when we left home in June that we hoped to make it as far as Marathon so when we actually arrived we felt like we had accomplished what we set out to do this year and if we never went any further, we would be happy!
We left our anchorage in Biscayne Bay after a nice week not only weather wise but also fun spending time around the South Beach area of Miami and visiting with Dave and Judy and Kent and Linda. By the time we left our anchorage the boat was in need of a good wash, the water tanks needed refilling and the head needed to be pumped out. We found out that you could go into Miamarina at Bayside and pay a flat fee of $25.00 for a 3 to 4 hour stay. We decided to do that and spent a good part of the morning working at cleaning the boat and getting it ready again for our next leg of the the trip. Bruce and I also fit in a trip to Starbucks to get on the Internet and check out mail, pay a few bills and make a few skype calls to family and friends. We then treated ourselves to lunch and some shopping before heading back to the boat for a short trip to No Name Harbor in Bill Baggs Park. For some reason right now, I can receive e-mails but neither Karen and I have been able to send any mail. We are working on the problem and hope we can get it fixed soon. In the meantime, we are receiving your e-mails but unfortunately cannot send back a reply!
While heading over to No Name Harbor, we started getting worried that we wouldn't be able to find any room in the Harbor to anchor for the night as we had stayed longer at Bayside than we had planned and it would be getting dark by the time we made it to our anchorage thus leaving us little time to get to another find another before dark. We looked at our charts and found another anchorage close by so decided to stop sooner and avoid the danger of not finding another anchorage before dark. I think it was a smart decision as the next morning when we arrived in No Name Harbor, we found it to be a lot smaller than we pictured it to be and already fairly crowded with boats. By late afternoon, we were all crammed in like sardines and any late comers were out of luck when it came to finding a spot to anchor. It ended up to be a beautiful spot and we decided to get our bikes out and do some exploring. The park takes up 494 acres at the southern tip of Key Biscayne, has a working 19th century lighthouse and one of the top 10 beaches in the U.S. It was a beautiful sunny, hot day and after a great lunch in the harbor we decided to check out the beach. It truly was one of the nicest ones we have been on so far. Because of the natural reef in front of the beach, the water is really calm and there were no pebbles, rocks or seaweed, just a beautiful hard sand bottom! We probably should have stayed a few more days, but we were anxious to make it to the Keys. We weren't sure how we were going to get out early in the morning as the harbor was so crowded that we were sure another boat had to be on top of our anchor. We did however manage to leave without hitting anyone on the way out (mostly due to my good driving abilities).
By that evening, we were anchored beside Key Largo just in front of Rodrigues Key and enjoyed a swim in the blue, clear, warm (27 degrees) water. We decided to stay there an extra day to take advantage of the nice weather and water so Bruce could get his tanks on and clean the bottom of ours and Jim and Karen's boat. As the water gets warmer, we get more and more growth on the bottom of our boat and Bruce could notice that it was slowing us down when motoring or sailing. Jim put on his snorkel and cleaned along the waterline and Karen and I helped from the dinghy. With all of us working, it didn't take long to get the job done and Bruce said it really came off easy just using a brush. We finished just in time for lunch and of course an afternoon nap for Bruce!
We had a great sail the next day on our way to Marathon. It was an easy 50 miles and the wind was from the Northwest. We probably sailed for about 5 hours, which is a record for the last few months!! We were unable to get a mooring ball inside Boot Key Harbor so we anchored on the West side of the island for the night. The next day we took the dinghy into the city marina and put our name on a waiting list for a mooring ball. Unfortunately before we were assigned a ball, the weather turned very windy and it was out of a direction which made it quite uncomfortable on anchor. Since there was no where else to go, we just toughed it out and ended up spending 2 fairly uncomfortable nights with high winds and thunder storms. We got in touch with Dave and Pat (Dragon Wick) and they told us about a friend of theirs that had a couple of docks to rent. She got in touch with them for us and to make a long story short (as Lilliane would say) we are now in front of their house on their dock which is only about 2 doors down from Dockside (the dock we had originally booked for January and February) and have all the amenities we would have in a Marina. The place is fantastic. We have taken our bikes out again and plan to call this home for a couple of months. We were sure glad to get this place but unfortunately not before we lost our anchor again for the second time since we bought the boat, Bruce fell overboard while climbing onto the boat from the dinghy (just a few bruises) and we broke our davits while trying to raise the dingy. It was definitely not one of our better days!
We realized once we were finally settled that Bruce had let his health insurance lapse and the only way to get insurance again was to return to Canada. I was planning on coming home for a few days anyway, as Bruce and a few of the guys were planning a trip to Miami for golf, so we moved our trip up a few days and we both flew home together. I immediately went up to Sault Ste. Marie to see my mom ( who is turning 80 years young on the 28th of February) and we had a good visit and I was able to spend a nice couple of days with her and my sister and take my mom out for her birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!!!
I came back to Mississauga in time to do spend some time with Lindsay and take her shopping for her 20th birthday on March 8! Can't believe my baby is getting so old! I was not able to see too many people as my car broke down and was in the shop for the entire week. They still have it and no word yet on when we will get it back. There is no rush now that we are back on the boat. I met up with Bruce in Ft. Lauderdale on Monday night and we drove back to Marathon together. As I was saying, we will be here now until we put the boat away some time in the second or third week of April. We had planned on leaving for the Bahamas but decided that it would just be too rushed and we didn't think we wanted to do that. We will probably plan 2 to 3 months in the Bahamas next year when we have more time to enjoy it. That decision made, we were able to have some company here. Bruce's sister and her husband are coming for a week in March as well as my sister and her husband are planning on coming for Easter weekend. Leanne hopes to come for a couple of days of diving with her dad and we hope to meet up with friends that are planning on coming to the Keys in March and April. It should be busy and the time will pass quickly. It is hard to believe that we have been on the boat for 9 months already and that we are quickly coming to the end of this adventure. We have pretty much decided to leave the boat here in Marathon for the summer at the Marathon Boat Yard. We now have to figure out how to summerize the boat as opposed to winterizing the boat! Any suggestions or helpful tips are always appreciated! Any visitors are also welcome, just make sure to reserve early as we are already getting booked up!

South Beach, here we come!

Heading into Miami.

Sailing in the Keys!

Need your boat moved to Europe, this is the boat that it will be loaded onto and moved for you!

Private boat docked at someones house, makes ours look really small!

Salty Lady, our friend's boat registered in Sault Ste. Marie. They are in the Bahamas now but hope to meet up with them again in the Keys in April.

Visit with Steve, Shirley, Mark and Carol just before leaving Nettles Island

2008-02-03T08:33:00.000-05:00

We are on the move again! We finally left our comfortable slip at Nettles Island Marina and all the new friends that we had met during our six week stay and headed back to the high seas. It was a bit tough to get back into the travelling mode after such a long time in one place but we were glad to be back on the water. We left the marina with Jim and Karen as well as another Canadian couple, Bob and Mardi on Salty Lady, that we had spent some time with during our time on Nettles Island. Their boat was registered in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario but they were from Sudbury and were headed to the Bahamas. Since most of you know that Sault Ste. Marie is my hometown, it was nice to get to know another couple from Northern Ontario! They truly are a great bunch of people. It is a small world as they are now living on Manitoulin Island and Bob knows my cousin Garnet Behnke as he plays hockey with him during the summer. There had been quite a bit of wind prior to us leaving and the waves in the Atlantic were still 5 to 6 feet high so we decided to stay in the ICW and although it would take us longer as we had 7 or 8 bridges to go through, it would be a lot more comfortable for us. We went as far as West Palm Beach and all anchored in the same area after some confusion as to where that was and a grounding by Captain Bruce (managed to motor off the bottom without any assistance). Bob and Mardi invited as all over for a movie and popcorn night after dinner and after finally deciding on a movie that no one had seen before, we all enjoyed the movie! After going to bed before Bruce I was awakened by the sound of the engine starting and I got up out of bed to see what was going on. Bruce said that he though we were getting too close to Jim and Karen's boat and that we would have to raise our anchor, move further away and set it again. At this point, we could not find our anchor ball anywhere and realized that it was under the boat but did not realize this before Bruce had put the boat in gear and what we didn't know was we had wrapped the line from the ball around our prop as we decided that maybe we didn't need to move after all. The next morning we were sitting in the cockpit having our coffee when Jim and Karen's boat seem like it was moving past us, when in fact we were the ones moving past them. Our anchor had been pulled off the bottom by the trip line that was wrapped around our prop when the wind changed and we were moving quite fast. Thank goodness there were only a few boats in the anchorage and we didn't get to close to any other boats, although there were a few tense moments while we tried to figure out what had happened! We managed to reset the anchor but knew that there was still line wrapped around the prop and Bruce would have to dive down and cut it off. This time there was no Lillianne to do it for him! Jim came over and helped him get all his gear on and we were thankful for the new sharp knife we had bought the last time this happened to cut the line! The water temperature was also 26 degrees so he didn't even need a wet suit. Things could have been a lot worse it this had happened in the middle of the night when we were sleeping. Who knows where we would have ended up. We had only been on the water again for two days and two bad things had happened already. This is when we realized that we had not thrown any money into the sea when we left again and although we are not usually superstitious, we did not leave again without throwing a few coins overboard!
Bob and Mardi were leaving the next day but we stayed an extra day as we need to go into customs and get a new cruising permit. When we had talked to customs on the phone, we were told that the permit that we were given in Bar Harbor was an old one that is no longer being used and it would be better for us to have the new one so we wanted to get that taken care of before we left for the Bahamas so it wouldn't be a problem for us when we tried to get back into the United States. We found the customs officer in West Palm to be one of the nicest officers we had ever met and wanted to get it from here rather than take our chances with someone else!
We left West Palm onTuesday, January 29th and thankfully this time were able to go out the Lake Worth inlet into the Atlantic and head to Ft. Lauderdale. The only bad thing was that there was that the wind was from the South which was the direction we were travelling so we motor sailed again but at least there were no bridge schedules to worry about! Ft. Lauderdale was about a 50 mile run from West Palm and we pulled into the Port Everglades Inlet around 2 p.m. We anchored in Lake Sylvie and dropped the dingy to go exploring. Within about 30 minutes of anchoring a police boat came up to the boat to inform us that there was a 24 hour anchoring rule in Ft. Lauderdale. We had hoped to spend a few days in the area to visit Dave and Judy and see a few others that spend the winter in Ft. Lauderdale from P.C.Y.C but we were unable to pick up a mooring ball and since we could only anchor for one day, we decided to head to Miami the next morning. We did manage to do a bit of exploring by dinghy and see Dave and Judy for about 1/2 hour before we left.
We are now anchored on the Biscayne Bay side of South Beach and have been enjoying an amazing stretch of hot, sunny weather! It has been great spending time in South Beach people watching, sitting in cafe's for happy hours and enjoying the beautiful beach. We can take the dinghy up the canal, park it in front of the Publix and then walk to the beach from there. Dave and Judy drove down for lunch and spent the day with us as well as another couple from Ottawa who were in Ft. Lauderdale to inspect a 41 foot PDQ that they have an offer pending on. Some of you may remember the dock we used in Gan on our way through the Thousand Islands that belonged to some friends of my friend Joanne from Ottawa. Their names are Kent and Linda and they are the ones that are here looking at the boat. They heard through Joanne that we were in the area, so they looked us up and we finally got to meet each other. We had heard so much about them through the years but had never met. Everyone ended up coming back to the boat for dinner and a swim. It is so great to get together with friends along the way and we look forward to these times! Dave and Judy have been to visit us at least 4 times and Bruce says that they have almost caught up to the number of times we have seen his sister and brother-in-law on this trip!
We hope to leave here perhaps on Tuesday if the weather holds. I have been having problems with my hearing aids and may have to send them to Toronto but have to wait until at least Monday to talk to the girl in the office. I was supposed to talk to her on Friday but with the snow storm in Toronto, no one was in. There are worse places to be stuck and today is Super Bowl Sunday so it should be a zoo in South Beach. Not sure if Kent and Linda will come back again today to spend the day at the beach with us. Again it is going to be another hot, sunny day! I am not going to be able to post any pictures this time as the internet is very slow and very intermittent so will have to wait for better internet, but thought everyone could use an update on our whereabouts. Talk to you from the Keys!

2008-01-17T10:36:00.000-05:00

Boxing Day Dinner set up in the livingroom and the diningroom as we where having 18 people!

Leanne, Lindsay and Alison all decked out in their holiday hats!

Trevor, Bruce's brother Earl here from Ottawa to spend Christmas with us and his son Morgan from England! It was great to see them.

Happy New Year everyone! We arrived back at the boat on the 28th of December after sitting through a few flights and finally getting on an Orlando flight. Jim and Karen were nice enough to make the 2 1/2 hour trip to come and pick us up in Orlando, unfortunately our luggage was not so lucky and had to be delivered to us 2 days later. I was not surprised that it was not on the flight with us as we had changed destinations 3 times! The surprise would have been if it had actually arrived with us. From the airport we only went home to quickly change our clothes as we were invited out to dinner on Choices (John and Mary's boat who used to belong to P.C.Y.C and who we had met the first year we were member's.) Although we were a bit tired, we had a great evening with them and a delicious dinner! We had probably not seen them for 3 years so we had quite a bit of catching up to do and Bruce and Jim helped them out by picking up John in Indian Town where they were to leave there car while they headed over to the Bahamas.
It was great to be back on the boat after a hectic schedule at home. We decided to take a few days of R and R and enjoy the beautiful weather as we had heard that a cold front would be moving in after the New Year and bringing with it, cool temperatures. We had temperatures in the 80's and spent a couple of days on the beach, went for dinner with Jim and Karen who had company visiting again from P.C.Y.C and decided what we would do for New Year's. We had been invited to a New Year's Eve party in this area by a former member of this Marina, but when we got back to the boat and started asking around, no one planned on attending the party. Since we didn't know the person hosting the party, we decided that if no one else that we did know was going, maybe we should just stay home too. The guys left it up to Karen and I to decide what we would do so we decided to pick up some mussels, shrimp and lobster and have our own New Year's party on the boat. We had a great time together but had a hard time staying up past 11:00 and I am embarrassed to say but this was the first New Year's Eve in a long time that we did not make it to midnight. At 11:30 we called it a night, said "Happy New Year" to Jim and Karen and went right to bed. We are really getting into the boating life as all boaters seem to go to bed early and get up even earlier! We made up for it the next morning as we took our champagne and orange juice to the beach and celebrated New Year's Day together. In the afternoon we attended our first low country boil which consisted of every type of seafood imaginable but together in a pot along with potatoes, sausage and corn and boiled and then dumped on a piece of newspaper on the table for all to enjoy. What a feast!

This is the tiki hut where all the boater's can get together and socialize.

Low Country Boil. What a feast!

We have started to get into a routine here and try to start each day with a bike ride or a walk and have been finally getting some exercise after about 6 months of inactivity on the boat. It has felt good to finally stop travelling for a bit and take some time out for ourselves. We have also been kept busy with company. Dave and Judy Burns stopped by on their way to Ft. Lauderdale and we had dinner with them and Jim and Karen on our boat and they stayed overnight with us. Amy and Ken (Mary T) visited us as they were having transmission trouble and had to bring the transmission into Stuart to have it fixed so they stopped by on the way home and invited us to their marina for Sunday brunch on the weekend before they left for the Bahamas . Brunch was delicious and it was great to see them one last time before they left. Don't know when we will see them again so we will miss not having them around. We are going to try to get some work done on our boat as well. The wood needs to be done again and we have some caulking to do around the windows as there has been a few leaks sometimes when it rains and we have yet to find where the water is coming it. We have enough to keep us busy for the next couple of weeks but still have time to enjoy the weather.

We have rented our car for another 3 weeks and will stay here until the 24th or 25th of January. Bruce is going home for a couple of days for a doctor's appointment. Jim is going home for a week to renew his passport and Karen's mom is coming for a week to visit so we will also be kept busy driving to the airport and back a few times! We hope to leave for the Florida Keys next and then possibly to the Bahamas in April or the end of March.

2007-12-14T17:45:00.000-05:00

I love Florida! The weather has been in the upper 70's to lower 80's and we are now finally using the air conditioning instead of heaters. We had a great time in Fernandina Beach as Amy, Bruce and I rented bikes to do a bit of sightseeing and go to the beach. We left Fernandina Beach for a long day all the way to St. Augustine, Fl. We were again travelling with the Mary T and Northern Reach. We all anchored just in front of the town, before the bridge and found it to be a quite scenic as the waterfront was all lit up for Christmas. The Mary T and Northern Reach left early the next day to get a dock in St. Augustine as they felt more comfortable leaving the boat for a day of sightseeing on a dock instead of on anchor, especially Jim and Karen as they have the cat to think about. We arranged to meet in town for lunch and sightseeing. Again as the time was short, we chose a narrated open air bus tour. We had met another Canadian couple from Alberta along the route as they were having some engine troubles and asked if we had some oil. Karen and Jim had some and they passed it over to them and later we met up in St. Augustine. We arranged to meet them for happy hour and then to go and watch another lighted boat parade put on by the town of St. Augustine. We watched it from shore with a thousand other people only to see that the parade kept circling our boat on anchor all by itself!
We enjoyed St. Augustine but were anxious to leave and get to Tittusville where we were finally planning on stopping for a month and just relax and enjoy the sunshine. We were still 2 days away so we stopped and anchored in Daytona Beach but didn't get off the boat and then left the next day for Tittusville. The entrance to the Marina was well marked but quite shallow and Jim and Karen kept bouncing off the bottom. Luckily it was just soft mud. This was just the beginning of the bad feeling we were starting to have about this marina. When we finally got into the marina, the docks were a wreck and the marina was dirty and in need of a major face lift. We thought Bucksport was not the greatest but this marina made Bucksport look like a five star resort!! Even the other boats in the marina looked like they were all ready to sink. We then saw the "For Sale" sign in front of the marina and thought to ourselves "this can't be good!" The only good thing about the place was that there was a fresh water creek running into the ocean and because Manatees like the fresh water, there were quite a few Manatees at the docks. Because of the Manatee, the marina has been unable to get any permits to dredge or renovate. Luckily we had not put any money down as we decided that this was not going to work out for us and Jim and Karen were definitely NOT spending Christmas there. We quickly got out the books and started looking for other marinas and making phone calls to see if there were any slips available. We were by this time a bit gun shy and we were afraid to put down a credit card sight unseen. It was not easy finding another marina but we eventually found one another 2 days away on Nettle's Island. It sounded nice and you could walk to the ocean so we booked a couple of slips, took a cab out to dinner and left as soon as we could the next day. We had over a hundred miles to cover and stopped the first night in an anchorage about 50 miles from Tittusville in a anchorage just off the ICW, called Rock Point. There were 2 small islands in front of our anchorage that we could dinghy too which had sand beaches. Two other Canadian Catamarans followed us in and beached themselves on one of the islands. Bruce and Karen went for their first swim off the boat since we met up with them and then we took the dinghy to shore to take a walk and to see the sunset. We met up with the other 2 Canadian boats and got talking to them for quite a while, when we started to here a horn going off from one of the boats anchored in the bay. Ken did not come to the beach with us so we figured that he was getting lonely or wondering what was taking us so long as the sun had been set for quite some time and it was now dark. We decided it was time to head back anyway so we hopped in the dinghy and headed towards the Mary T. When we arrived, Ken was shining the light on the bow for us and told us that he had picked up too swimmers in the water. A young couple had been out for a canoe ride, when their canoe sank and they had to start swimming. Of course they had no life jackets with them! It was a bit of a distance to shore and with no lights on our dinghy and only a 2.5 horsepower engine (that is a bit unreliable at the best of times), we didn't want to take on the responsibility of taking them to shore when we had no idea where we were going. We told Ken to call the coast guard and have them come and pick up the kids as that was what they were paid to do (so we thought). The coast guard refused to pick them up so Ken took it upon himself to blow up his dinghy and put his engine on and take them to shore. Only in the good ole USA!!
We finally arrived at Nettle's Island to find that the marina was exactly what we had been looking for! The people are very friendly, there is a nice tikki hut that all the boaters can get together for happy hour and dinners, it is only 5 minutes to the beach and it is a nice island and area to ride your bikes around. The only setback is that the grocery store is a bit far away and the marina is renovating the washrooms and laundry room so there is no laundry here until the middle of January! Not really a big problem for us as we have rented a car for a few weeks. We don't even have to take our own garbage to the bin as we have Andrew who does it for us for $.25 a day! There is a small grocery here as well as a bakery, restaurant and hair dresser. Bruce even got a $10.00 hair cut that looks good! We ate at the restaurant the first night we were here and it was fantastic. There are a lot of live-a-boards here so there is already a planned Christmas Day Brunch and a New Year's Day potluck dinner. We have done a bit of exploring by car and hit 2 flea markets and farmers markets today that had some great stuff. Lots to see and do in the area so Karen and Jim shouldn't get too bored sitting around the beach all day (poor guys) while we go home to the snow and the cold! The Mary T has also booked in for 2 weeks so will probably spend Christmas here also.
This will be my last blog until the new year so Bruce and I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a very happy and prosperous New Year. Talk to yo' all next year!

dolphins swimming beside the boat

Jim and Karen on our sightseeing bus in St. Augustine.

Brusther's bikers getting ready to head to the beach in Fernandina Beach!

Giving the Manatee some fresh water at the dock in Titusville. It was the only way we could entice them to come up.

2007-12-06T09:30:00.000-05:00

We're back! It was a great trip home and the wedding was beautiful, of course we are a little prejudice! Everything went off without a hitch, the bride and groom looked estatic as did everyone! (pictures to follow). Our good luck seems to be staying with us as our flight, bags and rent-a-car went off without a hitch and we were soon on or way back to the boat again. It was also nice to again be back in the warmer weather.(79 degrees the day we arrived) I wish could say the same about the weather the week we were home. Toronto had their first cold weather alert and ice and snow storm of the season! Some people at home were mentioning that our blog is getting a bit boring now that we have not had any real adventurous happenings! Hopefully it will stay boring, but you never know, you will just have to keep reading all the boring crap in the mean time. We will probably be heading back out to the Atlantic and out of the calm waters of the ICW in the next few days so you never know.......!!

The boat was just the way we left it and since we had fueled up before we left all that was left to do was reprovisions, fill of the water and return the rental car. We left the dock about 10:00 on Tuesday morning for a relatively short day to an anchorage south of Georgetown, SC in the South Santee River. For the first time in a while, we were by ourselves in the anchorage. It seems that we are at the tail end of the snowbirds heading south. I think I prefer this as now we don't have to rush to anchorages to get a good spot! We are starting to get a lot more current and even when the boat is stopped on anchor, our knot meter is reading that we are still moving, very strange feeling. At night we can hear the water on the stern of the boat rushing by. We left just after 0630 on Wednesday as we wanted to meet up with Jim and Karen on Northern Reach just past Charleston so we had 2 bridges to time and about 50 miles to do. Karen had booked us into a marina called Ross Marina. It was a great spot to meet up with them, talk about our plans over the next few days and our plans for Florida. We decided to book a marina in Titusville where Jim and Karen could spend Christmas, we could leave the boat while we went home for Christmas and have a couple of weeks just to relax, take a break from travelling and do some sightseeing! We hope to be in Titusville around the 8th or 9th of December and then fly home around the 17th or 18th of December again. The marina sounds great as it has a pool, tennis court etc. and it is cheap enough that we can rent a car for the time that we are there for sightseeing.

Today, Thursday the 29th of November, we are travelling with Jim and Karen again and heading to Beaufort, SC. We were a little dissapointed about missing Charleston but it will definately be a stop for a few days on our way back to the Chesapeake, when travelling will be a lot less rushed. Steve, Shirley, Mark and Carol are in Beaufort and we are not too sure yet but they may be staying in Beaufort until after Christmas I have started trying to write a little bit everyday when we are underway instead of spending time on shore trying to remember where we have been and what we have been doing for the last week or so. This also makes it easier to post it once we get to the internet somewhere. (my mind can't remember too far back!) We have been seeing tons of dolphins in the ICW which surprises us for some reason but we are not complaining as it is one of the most enjoyable things in our otherwise boring days of motoring thru the ICW.

We anchored just outside of Beaufort in Factory Creek and just as we finished anchoring, Jim called to tell us there was some dolphins beside our boat. It turned out to be a mother and baby swimming by, they were really cute! We left in time to catch the 0900 opening of the Lady's Island Bridge and after clearing the bridge, we passed by the city marina where Steve, Shirley, Mark and Carol have booked a slip for a month and will spend Christmas there before heading further south. They were all on the dock to wave to us and it was sort of a sad feeling leaving them behind and knowing that we will not meet up with them again for a while. We headed to another anchorage in yet another creek called the Bull Creek. Bruce and I have been travelling again for 4 days straight and were happy to arrive early in the day just to relax and enjoy the sunshine. We were just outside Savannah. GA and had a hard time finding a dock for a couple of nights as it is a very busy weekend with pre-Christmas activities going on as well as a decorated boat parade. Karen did eventually get us booked in a town called Thunderbolt that is right on the ICW and a cab or bus ride away from Savannah. Most sailers stay around here and tour Savannah by car as Savannah is about 8 miles up a river off the ICW. We are on our way now and will most likely have internet to post this blog. Our frends Ken and Amy (Mary T) are at another marina in the area and have the use of a van/car. They are planning on picking us up and doing some sightseeing this afternoon. I have really not been off the boat since Tuesdayand it is now Saturday so as you can imagine, I am very anxious to finally get off for a walk!

We had a great time in Savannah, the weather couldn't have been more perfect for sightseeing. Ken, Amy and Amy's friend Dietra (nicknamed do do) met us in the afternoon and we visited on our boat until dark as there was a boat parade scheduled for 1800. We were really glad we waited to go for dinner to see the parade as the boats were all beautifully lit up and as they all passed by our boat we blew our airhorns and sung (or at least tried to sing) Christmas Carols. It really helped to get us in the Christmas spirit! We went out to Tubby's Tankhouse for dinner and arranged to meet the gang in Savannah the next day. Jim, Karen, Bruce and I took a tour of the city by sightseeing bus in the morning which is a great way to see everything and them decide what you would like to go back and look at again. We then met Amy, Ken and do do and walked and walked and walked for the rest of the day. What a great city to explore and it is small enough to see most things in a day as long as you don't visit any museums!

As much as we hated to leave, we really had to keep on moving. We didn't have as long a day leaving Savannah as usual so we could start a little later and as we were taking the inside route (the Atlantic was too nasty to try that day),and we wanted to wait for high tide to make sure we would have enough water below our keels! Fields Cut, which we had to take, was reporting only 3 1/2 feet in places! We made out just great and only went about 30 miles to Walburg Creek and anchored for the night. The weather forcast for the next day looked good so we got an early start and took the Atlantic route out the St. Catherines Sound and back in at St. Simons Sound. Although we didn't get to just sail the whole trip, we did motorsail it and did shut the engines off for an hour or so! The main thing is that we avoided all the shallow water in Georgia and had a nice relaxing day. I don't know if we are getting smarter or just having better luck as we seem to be avoiding any horror stories! Sorry if I am boring you all, but we like it better this way! Since it was still early enough and it was high tide when we came back in at St. Simons, we decided to continue inside for a bit to get over some shallow water spots the needed to be passed at high tide. We anchored in Umbrella Creek for the night and again the sunset was amazing.

We are finally in Florida, Fernadina Beach to be exact. We arrived fairly early yesterday, Wednesday, December 5th and are on a mooring ball at the Fernandino Harbor Marina. Ken (from the Mary T) is fighting a cold and we are all a bit tired from travelling the last few days, so we decided to take a day down. We went in for lunch yesterday and it is a charming town which could use more exploring time. We had a potluck dinner last night on our boat and today we plan to go for a long walk and find the beach. We were also able to pay for a day on the internet so I can finally get this blog posted in the comfort of our own boat and it allows us to make lots of skype calls today too!! From here we plan to head to St. Augustine tomorrow and then we are only 2 days away from Titusville where we can finally rest up a bit. We will probably take a day down to see St. Augustine so we should be in Titusville by Monday if all goes well.

Nuclear sub at a dock in the St. Mary's River, can't see it very well cause we need a new camera with a zoom on it. Again a gun boat in the water making sure you did not get too close.

Pirate House in Savannah, where all the staff are dressed like pirates and you can go and try some of their famous pirate punch!

Savannah waterfront all decked out for Christmas

The gang in Savannah

Parade boats

Northern Reach on anchor in Factory Creek, we have had beautiful sunsets the last few days!

Leanne and Bruce

bride and groom with cousin Amy

Lindsay and her Grandma Havlin

2007-11-16T20:57:00.000-05:00

While, we are now in Conway, SC, mile 377.3 on the ICW, at the Bucksport Plantation Marina (definitely not as nice as it sounds, but it is cheap) and getting ready to leave the boat for a week while we go home for the wedding. We have rented a car and will leave on Sunday bright and early to drive for over 3 1/2 hours to Raleigh, NC to fly home, so this will be the last blog before we return again at the end of November.

We have been travelling everyday as we wanted to get as far South as possible before leaving again. Travelling down the ICW has probably been the most interesting (for lack of a better word) part of this trip. For my none boating friends, the ICW is basically a dredged channel that runs down the eastern coast of the United States that gives boaters the option of staying in calmer waters, or going out into the Atlantic Ocean. This part of the ICW runs from Norfolk, Virginia (mile one) to Key West Florida (mile 1243. ) We are planning on going to Marathon, mile 1195, so we still have a way to go! It is very shallow in parts, especially where there are inlets from the Atlantic, due to shoaling. It also has a ton of bridges to go under, some that we can pass under, and some that have to be opened in order for us to pass. Everyday we must plan our trip around the opening schedules of the bridges that need to be opened. Some only open once an hour, some twice an hour, and some will not open in strong winds. There can also be current in the ICW and we never really know how fast we will be going as sometimes we will have a current with us and be doing 8 knots and sometimes it will be against us and we will only be doing 5 to 6 knots. There are also buoys that have to be spotted, keeping the greens to port and the reds to starboard and then there are the buoys that are subject to shoaling that you must read about in our Skipper Bob book and follow his advice as to how to get safely around them in the deepest water. Everyday, we spot boats that have gone aground and must call a tow service to get them off the bottom. So far we have been lucky enough not to have used their services, yet! We have been on bottom twice but have managed to get off on our own and have touched bottom a couple of times too. We have met one couple that have a deeper draft boat who seem to be grounded at least once a day. It is getting to be quite comical. The scenery has also been a lot different. The houses along the ICW are beautiful with amazing landscaping and huge docks. There are always large power boats calling you on the radio asking you if they can give you a slow pass to you port or starboard. With all of this activity, each day passes quite quickly. We have been trying to start out each day between 0630 and 0700 so that we can get to an anchorage by about 1500 as they become quite crowded if you wait too long and you don't want to be having to find another anchorage too late in the day as it gets dark not long after 5 p.m. Bruce and I have been going to bed earlier and earlier each night. We can now hardly make it to 9 p.m. (are we getting old or what!)

To keep things short and sweet (for my brother-in-law John), we left Beauford, NC and our friends on the Mary T, and went and anchored in Hammock Bay, Wrightsville Beach, then onto Little River and once again anchored, in what was probably one of our tightest anchorages since we left home, and then onto Bucksport, SC. Looking forward to a few days off at home in Mississauga. We just received a call from the Mary T and they will be here tomorrow and also from Northern Reach, At Last and Steve and Shirley and all three Canadian boats will also be here by tomorrow. Looks like our car will be busy taking people to the grocery store!!

2007-11-10T18:30:00.000-05:00

Baltimore waterfront

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Sitting in a huge lineup of boats heading South in the ICW waiting for the bridge to open

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U.S. Aircraft carrier with helicopter escort

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The White House, this is as close as we could get!

Hurricane Noel held us up a couple of days in Deltaville as winds were stronger than the predicted 40 knots and lasted right into Saturday night. We made the best of things and borrowed a car and went to the Oyster Festival in Urbanna. If wasn't as great as we thought and it looked more like a food festival with tons of vendors selling everything from funnel cakes, turkey legs, shrimp, beef, pork, ice cream to seafood and of course, lots of oysters. I don't really know what we expected and although we did enjoy all the food stuff, I don't think we would go back a second time!

We finally left early Sunday morning and headed to Norfolk. Westie and Northern Reach took a dock right downtown Norfolk to do a bit of sightseeing and get a few boat repairs done but Bruce and I anchored in Willoughby Bay. The guidebooks said it was a good anchorage but it could get noisy as it is right in front of the huge navel base. It turned out to be a great anchorage and maybe because it was a Sunday, there were not very many planes in the air. Our friends Amy and Ken from the Mary T decided to join us in the anchorage so we had them over for dinner and made plans for our trip further south the next morning. The other 2 Canadian boats were staying in Norfolk but we didn't want to pass up any good travelling days in case we got stuck again. We really have to keep moving as we have to try to get as far south as possible before we come home for Bruce's daughter, Leanne's wedding.

The next leg of our trip required a lot more planning as we had numerous bridges to cross and one set of locks to go through, all with different operating hours and times when they would not open due to rush hour traffic. We had hoped to be at the first bridge in time for a 0830 opening but it was a lot further than we thought and we were also held up by a military aircraft carrier pulling out just as we were about to sail by. Regulations prohibited us from coming within 100 yards of the carrier. With helicopters and gun boats circling around us, we decided to give them lots of room and cross to the other side of the channel! It was really cool to see the aircraft carrier up close and as we passed the navel base to see many other warships and carriers at the docks. We really didn't have to wait long for the 3 bridges to open as we went along but the further we went, the more boats it seemed we picked up that were going the same way as us. When we finally got to the locks, we had to wait for 2 1/2 hours to get through as by this time there were lots of boats ahead of us and the lock only operated once every hour. Once you got through the lock, there was a swing bridge to go under that again only operated once an hour. There were some spots between the lock and the bridge where you could tie up to some posts on one side and stay for free or go to the other side and tie up to some trees! Of course the post side was full so we pulled up to the other side and tied the boat to 3 trees. It was now after 2 o'clock and with the time change we knew that we would only have 3 more hours of daylight. We had hoped to make it 50 miles to Coinjock, NC but by this time we had only made it to mile 12 and we had 2 more bridges to get under. We were never going to make it and as there were really no other anchorages that we knew about to go to along the way and we figured even if there were any, they would probably be full, we decided to stay tied to a tree for the night. It didn't turn out too badly as there was a great grocery store close by as well as restaurants, laundromat and propane.

We had planned to leave our tree the next morning but another front passed through earlier than expected and it was windy and rainy. We decided to spend another day with the trees and leave for Coinjock on Wednesday. Hopefully after this we will get a few more good days as we really have to get moving. Tonight due to the Canadian cold front, the temperatures are suppose to fall into the 30's and we are not looking forward to that.

While we finally left Great Bridge in time for the 0800 opening and headed to Coinjock, NC, thus leaving Virginia behind. We decided to stay in the Coinjock Marina as there really wasn't a suitable anchorage around. We have been travelling with the Mary T as the other Canadian boats are about a day behind us. From Coinjock we went to the Alligator River where we anchored for the night as we had to go through the Alligator River- Pungo Canal and didn't want to start going though as it would be dark before we finished. The nights have been really cold and the daytime temperatures have only been in the low 50's. From the Alligator River, we went to Belhaven and anchored again in front of the town. We have been starting our days really early in order to take advantage of the daylight hours as it is dark by shortly after 5 o'clock, but light by 0630 so we left Belhaven before 0700 and as they were forecasting yet another cold front moving through with strong winds, we didn't know how far we would make it. We had hoped to make Beaufort, NC but the winds by the mid afternoon were up to 30 knots and even though we were having a great sail, it was going to be too late in the day to make it into Beaufort so we stopped in Oriental, NC and decided once again to get a dock instead of anchoring. Oriental is supposedly the sailing capitol of America, but after taking a walk through town, we really aren't sure why! It is only 20 miles to Beaufort, so will try to make it tomorrow and spend the day there. We are expecting warmer weather in the next few days and hope to make some headway again over the next few days. We are both looking forward to getting home for a week or so for the wedding and once again seeing family and friends.

2007-11-01T16:45:00.000-04:00

I am sure most of you are wondering where the heck we are as it has been ages since I had a chance to post a new blog! We didn't have any Internet in Baltimore so when I checked the e-mail today, we had 131 new messages to read!

Bruce and I went home for a few days, me to Sault Ste. Marie to see my mom, who is doing much better and in now in a convalescent home and receiving physiotherapy for her hip and getting 3 square meals a day, and Bruce to Mississauga for a couple of days. He returned to Baltimore a few days ahead of me to do some work on the boat and I went back on the 22nd of October just in time to help him celebrate his birthday. Only Jim and Karen were left at the dock so we all went out for great Indian food! We had hoped to leave on the 24th but as I have said a million times, everything is subject to change. This time the forecast was for 3 or 4 days of solid rain and we decided that we would rather spend it on a dock than on an anchor. Bruce's sister Bettyanne and her husband Ray were also planning to visit us on their way to Florida for the month so we thought it better for them also to be on a dock. It turned out to be a good decision as the weather was horrible! The last day of their visit did turn out to be in fact sunny by the late morning and this was the day we went into Washington for the entire day of sightseeing. We also managed a visit to the aquarium, dinner again at the great Indian restaurant in Baltimore and just had a great visit with them.

We finally left Baltimore on the 27th of October and went to Annapolis where we met up with Steve and Shirley and Mark and Carol. We also got a chance to see our friends that we met in Nova Scotia, Amy and Ken from the Mary T. We only stayed in Annapolis one night as the forecast was good and we wanted to keep moving while the weather was good. It had turned cold, but sunny and we needed to keep heading South as this was a reminder that winter was not far enough behind us. We went 50 miles or so to the Solomon Islands and anchored in the river. Heading into the anchorage we were treated to a mini airshow with military fighters and helicopters landing and taking off at a nearby airport. All 5 of the Canadian boats made it to the Solomon's but only 3 left for Jackson's Creek early the next day. Steve and Shirley and Mark and Carol needed a few days on a dock to get some work done. We are now in Jackson's Creek at the beautiful Jackson's Creek Yacht Club where the first night is free. We had planned to leave again this morning for Norfolk but changed our minds after listening to the forecast for the area for the next couple of days as they are calling for gale force winds as high as 40 knots and waves up to 8 feet. We will probably be stuck here for a couple of days and are now planning on leaving on Saturday. We had hoped to be stuck in Norfolk as it is a much larger city to explore but it is very beautiful and peaceful here. We finally got out the bikes for the first time today and rode around the town of Deltaville. Tomorrow we are hoping to get a car and go to the oyster festival in another nearby town. Hope it works out. Tonight we are all getting together for a potluck dinner in the clubhouse here. It has a kitchen and barbecue area and it seems that we have the whole place to ourselves. We can sleep well knowing that we are tied to a dock if the forecast is right. Hopefully we can get moving again soon. The nights have warmed up a bit and daytime temperatures are in the mid to high 60's.

2007-10-13T15:33:00.000-04:00

Today is Thanksgiving Monday and Karen is cooking a turkey and all the trimmings. She was up early this morning as she wanted to cook it before it got too hot. The temperatures have been in the high 80's and we are enjoying every minute of it!

We left Atlantic City for Cape May in fog. Karen and Jim had not travelled in fog before and were a bit aprehensive but we convinced them to go out and have a look as we could always turn around and come back if we didn't like it or they were uncomfortable. It turned out to be not too bad and we continued on to Cape May. We anchored by the coastguard station and decided to stay in Cape May the next day to do laundry and groceries as we were both desperate to get some laundry done. It is a real chore to try to find a place with laundry and if you are at a marina with laundry, they usually only have one washer and one dryer so laundry becomes a whole day affair. Since we both had 3 or 4 loads each, we decided to try to find a laundrymat so we could get it done quick and meet the guys for lunch at the Lobster House. The toughest part was trying to find a place that would let us tie up the dinghy. This is sure not the East Coast of Canada where everyone is willing to give you the shirt off their back! We managed to get it done and then went for lunch and then walked to the grocery store ( which was awful). We were going to plan a night crossing up the Delaware to the C & D Canal but changed our minds and decided to leave really early in the morning and stop short of the canal for the night. We would have a bit of current against us but we found that a lot more enticing than staying up all night! We planned a 06:30 departure but when we woke up it was really foggy so we delayed the trip until the sun came up. We really didn't want to travel in fog and darkness. The fog was supposed to clear by 0900 but it did persist well into the afternoon. The trip was great otherwise with calm seas but it seemed like a long day as we didn't get anchored until after 6 that night, but it was a great anchorage behind Reedy Island and we could wait for an ebb tide the next day to go thru the Canal.

We decided to only go as far as Chesapeake City as we wanted to take a down day and celebrate Thanks giving with Jim and Karen. We had hoped to be with all of the other Canadian boats, but they were stuck in Great Kills Bay due to weather and had only left on Saturday to head down the New Jersey Coast. We did however get a nice surprise as Dave and Judy Burns had called us and said that they were coming back from the Annapolis Boat Show and wanted to meet up with us for a night. When we arrived in Chesapeake City, they were waving to us from the dock. We anchored in the bay in Chesapeake City, dropped the dinghy and went in to pick up Dave and Judy. Karen and Jim stayed bedhind on the boat. We were rafted together and when we got back it looked like a small powerboat was rafted along side of us until we noticed Karen and Jim with the boat hooks in their hands on our bow pushing the boat away. The small powerboat had anchored in the bay and then went for lunch. Their anchor was dragging and thankgoodness Jim and Karen had stayed behind as I am sure that there would have been damage done on our boat! Bruce took the dinghy to shore and went into the restaurant to find the people. He got lucky and the second people he asked belonged to the boat. They had to leave their lunch and come get their boat. I really didn't feel too sorry for them. We had a great time with Dave and Judy. They took us for groceries, propane and out for dinner of steamed shrimp and calamari. We had hoped that they would be able to stay another night to help us celebrate Thanksgiving but Judy had volunteer to work the election so they had to get back.

After Thanksgiving, we left Chesapeake City for a short trip to the Sassafras River. We did not go up the Sassafras as far as the town but anchored just inside the bay. Bruce and I did take the dinghy in to make a few phone calls and it took an hour each way by dinghy, but it was a beautiful day and the scenery was great! That night we got a bad thunderstorm but it still did not cool things off too much.

We left the Sassafras for Baltimore where we are now at a dock for a couple of weeks. Steve and Shirley and Mark and Carol arrived the next day so we are now all together again and all beside each other on the docks. We all plan to do a little sightseeing and get some work done on the boats. We rented a 15 passenger van yesterday to take us to the boatshow in Annapolis as we all needed to get charts etc. before continuing on. It looks like a great city with lots to see and do so it shouldn't be too hard to pass the time. Bruce and I are headed home for a few days, me to the Sault and Bruce to Toronto and then he will come back before me to get things ready again to leave. The winds have picked up and the weather has turned a bit cooler so this reminds us that winter is on it's way and we should get going again before it arrives!

Dave and Judy visit

Transiting the C and D Canal

Allister making himself at home on Con El Viento href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_Rb8aTFTpnqI/RxEetLIIFYI/AAAAAAAAAK0/JyHa4M2GtK4/s1600-h/DSC00861.JPG">

Jim and Karen and Northern Reach

2007-10-03T16:49:00.000-04:00

We have always known that when you are sailing, you really can't make any firm plans. All plans are subject to change and are often changed due to weather conditions, but we have never changed our plans as often as we have in the last 2 days and for reasons not often encountered in an average sailing day!

We decided to leave for Great Kills Bay on the 25 of September and then due a day of shopping in New York from there. The weather conditions were perfect for going through Hells Gate and a cold front was due in on Wednesday so we figured we would be down a day anyway. We left City Island around 9 a.m. and were really excited about going through New York City on Con El Viento! We passed by LaGuardia Airport with planes zooming right over our mast and as we were approaching the last bridge before Hells Gate, a large freighter radioed us to tell us he would be passing us on our starboard. We acknowledged and then he informed us that East River Traffic had notified him that the East River was closed on both sides of Roosevelt Island was closed due to the fact that the President of Iran was in town for U.N. week. What a bad week to be in New York City as it goes until October 3rd! They were only allowing commercial boats through with a police escort. We had to turn around again and go against the current back again. We decided to go back to City Island and head into New York and go shopping. I won't say much about that as I didn't really have a very successful day. I don't know if it was because I was shopping with Bruce or maybe it was too hot to be walking around downtown, or it could have been the fact that I cut my hand when I was picking up a mooring ball back at City Island and my hand was was sore and swollen in the heat. the temperatures this week have been on average about 14 degrees above the norm for this time of year. It has been in the high 80's and not really cooling down at night as the water temperature is about 23 degrees. We are not complaining as we have finally been getting a stretch of great weather!

When we got back to the boat, we called the coastguard and he assured us that East side of Roosevelt would be open, with the bridge operating on a demand basis. Normally if you wanted to go down this side, you would have to give 6 hours notice. The UN if on the west side, so it would be closed to all traffic. We again planned our departure for favorable tides and left about 0930. As we were coming around the Brother Islands (where we had to turn around the last time) we heard on the radio that the bridge was broken and would not open. At this point we met up with another Canadian boat and decided to circle for a bit to see if they could get the bridge fixed. We could only wail about an hour or so and then there would be too much current at Hells Gate to go around it. We also didn't want to get in an area that we couldn't get turned around in due to currents. We had already head that there were a pile of boats stuck in the West Channel of Roosevelt Island and they were starting to panic that they would not be able to get turned around if the current got much stronger. What a mess and no one was talking to anyone! We finally thought we heard that the bridge was now working so we decided to continue in. When we got to the top of the island a police boat stopped us to ask how high our mast was. We told him 60 feet and he told us he would escort us through the side of the channel that the UN was on but we should stay close to the other side. We passed by in strong currents and our boat was doing 12 and 13 knots. I was afraid to take any pictures in case they mistook my camera for a gun!! Talk about stressful. We were told earlier in the day that there would be another closure further down Manhattan at Battery Park at 12:45. We made it to just under the Brooklyn Bridge when we were again stopped by the police (with guns) and told that this area had been closed earlier than planned! A large barge just in front of us tried to tell them that it would be impossible for them to turn and they told him to turn or else! They were right next to him with both guns manned and pointed at him. He turned! We were now stuck between 2 bridges for over an hour with police boats circling on the water and planes circling in the air. I sure hope nothing does happen or we will be right in the middle of it! Who ever said that retirement was boring. We did manage to finally get past New York and headed to Great Kills Bay on Staten Island where all 4 of the other Canadian boats had already arrived earlier in the day from 79th Street in New York. As you can imagine, we were very very glad to see everyone from home and we all got together on Steve and Shirley's boat for a reunion with everyone, which turned into ordering pizza for dinner. Spirits were high and there was an awful lot of talking to do and stories to tell! We really had a great time together.

We knew that we were going to be in Great Kills for a couple of days before starting down the New Jersey Coast so at 0630 in the morning, I made a decision to leave and fly to Sault Ste. Marie to see my mother before she had a hip replacement which was scheduled for Oct. 2nd. I knew that I would not be able to make it home for the surgery which was the original plan, but like I said earlier, all plans are subject to change on a boat. My sister from Denver was a bit more flexible and she flew in for the surgery to be with my mom and help my other sister Ruth out. I stayed just 2 nights before I had to get back to help Bruce move the boat. I will try to get home for a longer period of time later in the month when my mom gets home.

When I returned all of the boats headed out together on Monday the 1st of October with a destination of Barnegat Inlet. It was quite impressive to see a line of 5 Canadian flags heading out together. The forecast was not the greatest however as they were calling for SE winds and waves of 2 to 3 feet in the Atlantic. We were all doing fine until we got around Sandy Hook where the wind was more like 15 to 20 and the waves were very short. Steve and Shirley were ahead of the pack and decided that they would only go as far as Shark River, but after taking a few more large waves, they decided to head to Sandy Hook and wait there. Rick and Eidy's dinghy davit snapped so they decided to turn back also as when they were trying to fix the dinghy, they ran into a buoy and damaged the boat. In the end everyone tuned back except for Karen and Jim and us. It was fine for the sailboats as we could put our sails up and stabilize the boat. They could not find an anchorage in Sandy Hook so returned to Great Kills where they remain waiting for better winds. We will meet up again in the Chesapeake.

We anchored in Barnegat Inlet with Jim and Karen. We were the first to go in and scout out an anchorage or a mooring ball. As we were heading towards a mooring ball, or what we thought was one, we ran aground. We figured this was not too bad as it was the first time in 4 months! We were able to motor forward and get in deeper water without any help and decided to anchor in the first place we looked at that Bruce wanted to go. He didn't say "I told you so." Jim and Karen anchored beside us and we had dinner together and made plans to leave for Atlantic City the next day.

We left Barnegat Inlet about 8 in the morning and had a good day of sailing even though the waves were 3 to 5 feet, they were long and we didn't notice the swells too much. Karen on the other hand suffers from seasickness and was not feeling too well both days. We got a dock in Atlantic City, the first one we have had since Nova Scotia so it is a real treat. We went into Atlantic City for dinner and then took a cab home as about 4 people had told us not to walk home in the dark. No one won big at the casino however so we though we would try again the next day!

My mother had her hip replacement on the 2nd and came through it fine at first. The doctor said her knee was a mess and it wouldn't have been long before she would have been in a wheelchair. Just as we were getting ready to head into town, I received another call from home saying that my mother had suffered a heart attack and we would have to wait until the next day to see how severe it was. Thankfully it appears to have been a mild one but none the less I am really concerned and do wish I could be there but know that she is in good hands at home and in the hospital. I plan to head up once we get to the Chesapeake.

Today, we went into Atlantic City and shopped at the outlets and Bruce gambled a bit. We hope to leave tomorrow, but it may be foggy again there may be a small craft warning so if so we will stay put. We are right beside Jim and Karen on a dock so it is great company and a great city. The temperatures have been in ghe 80's and this should continue right into the long weekend. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We will try to celebrate here with all the Canadians. Don't have time to post my pictures but will try to do so soon.

2007-09-24T16:50:00.000-04:00

Bridges going through the Cape Cod Canal

We are back on the boat after a great visit in Toronto and I hate to say it, but things have turned around and our luck has changed. We have been travelling everyday for the last 5 days and nothing has gone wrong, we are finally getting the summer that we never had and instead of seeing about 1000 lobster traps a day, we are only seeing about 10 or so. Bruce is even getting his naps in and that makes for a happy skipper.

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Drew, Vicky, Bruce and I at Cape Elizabeth for lunch

We left the boat in Gloucester after leaving Rockport and seeing Mike and Lilianne for the last time this trip as they are on their way back to Toronto. We had considered a few places to leave the boat but many were either too expensive or did not want us to leave the boat unattended for 7 days. The harbormaster in Gloucester gave us a good deal and didn't mind us leaving. Gloucester also had train service right into Boston and then it was just a short cab ride to the airport so all in all it worked out fine. The only problem was that there was no launch service to take us to shore and the harbor master would not take us either so we had to leave the dingy on a dock for 7 days. Bruce was worried that it would get stolen or damaged but the harbor master assured us that it was safe parked at the coastguard station as there was always someone there as well as cameras. As we were getting ready to leave the boat another boat that was anchored in front of us started to drag his anchor and come very close to our boat. At one time he touched us and we had to push him off. We called that harbormaster and he assigned us another ball that was not behind the anchored boats. Thank goodness we were on the boat when it happened! The dinghy was also fine when we got back and it mustn't have rained much as it was dry too.

We arrived back in Boston on the 18th of September and spent the rest of the day getting the boat ready for an early morning departure. We needed fuel, water and groceries so it was a busy day and since we were up at 4 a.m. it wastn't hard to get to bed early. We left for Plymouth the next morning and anchored in a bay outside of Plymouth as it was a long motor into the town and we wanted to leave again the next day. We had been to Plymouth once before so we didn't mind missing it this time. We again had to get up very early as we were planning on going thru the Cape Cod Canal and because of the currents, you must go thru the canal on an ebb tide or wait outside the canal for the next ebb. We made it through with not much time to spare as we did get a bit of current against us as we left the canal. We were now out of Cape Cod Bay and in Buzzards Bay. This was like heaven as the wind was perfect for sailing and there were virtually NO lobster pots! We sailed as far as Mattapoisett and as if the day couldn't;t get any better, we were given a FREE transient mooring ball from Brownell Boatyard!

From Mattapoisett we left Massachusetts behind and went on to Newport, Rhode Island. We managed to get a town mooring in Newport and there was a launch service that would pick you up on your boat and take you into town. We spent the afternoon wandering around town and went to a great restaurant where I had the best pizza ever. It was a calamari pizza and was so big it could have fed 3 of us. Which it did as I took most of it back to the boat for Bruce and I to have for lunch the next day. We keep forgetting that we are now in the States and every meal is supersized! We considered staying in Newport for an extra day but the weather has been so great for travelling and we would still like to make it to New York in time to meet up with the 3 other boats from PCYC so we decided to travel while the weather was good and wait for a bad weather day to stay put.

Our next stop was Stonington, Connecticut and from there we could head into the Long Island Sound. We again fueled the boat, topped up the water and got some great fresh shrimp for our dinner. This was probably the nicest evening of this entire trip. We anchored in front of the town on a beautiful warm sunny afternoon and just enjoyed the rest of the day. The sunset was amazing and so was the shrimp. We watched boats sail by with people in shorts and t'shirts or no shirts at all. Hard to believe that this is the end of September not the end of July. I am sure it won't last but it is very nice to have. The water temperature is between 20 and 22 degrees insteat of 9 to 12 degrees so the evenings and days on the water are much warmer.

We are now in the Long Island Sound on our way to New Haven where we will stay for the night. This is where Yale University is and they claim to have invented the hamburger and the pizza here. There is a cold front approaching tonight but it is supposed to be a weak one so the weather should not get too bad. We just heard from the Yacht Club in New Haven and they are giving us a free mooring for the night. The wind has started to pick up as the cold front approaches so it will be nice to be on a ball for the night. From here we will plan our trip into New York City. We will probably get close tomorrow if the weather stays good and then wait for good weather to go through Hell Gate. I am not looking forward to this as everything I read makes it sound quite hellish! We are looking forward to seeing our friends from PCYC and I am looking forward to shopping in N.Y.

We were saddened to hear of the passing of our friend Brad Taylor's mother and the brother of our other friends Don and Arlene who spent some time with us at the beginning of this trip. It is always hard to be away from family and friends but it is especially hard at times like these. Our thoughts and prayers are with you guys and we wish we could be there with you.

Happy Birthday to me! Today is the last birthday that I plan on celebrating and it really just feels like another day on the water. Not quite the same when you have to get up and make your own breakfast and then make lunch for the skipper because he is busy sailing the boat! We have now arrived in City Island, New York and it is a great place to spend your birthday. There is one main drag with about 1000 restaurants on it. We are moored at the City Island Yacht Club and they have a 24 hour a day launch service so we didn't even have to be back by 8 p.m. We asked a few people where they would suggest we get dinner and everyone told us Arties, so that's where we went and we had a great dinner, so all in all it wasn't my worst birthday ever. Today, we finally got to do some laundry and get a few groceries. Bruce met a new friend here and he drove us to the laundromat and picked us up again. While I was doing the laundry, there was a salon next door that had a special on a manicure and pedicure for $23.00, so I said what the heck so between the washing and the drying, I got both sets of nails done too! You got to love New York! Tomorrow, we go shopping!!!!!

2007-09-07T09:59:00.000-04:00

Well we have now logged over 2000 nautical miles and have had quite the adventure, sometimes more of an adventure than we want! When we left Toronto in June we were pretty naive and thought this would be an easy trip. We have found that it is a lot harder than we imaged and even though there has been great days, there have been more bad days than we want!

Bruce raising the American Courtesy flag

We are now in the United States, having left Yarmouth in the evening for a night crossing into Bar Harbor, Maine. Mike and Liliane(Zero Gravity) had left early in the morning to go to Gran Manan. We decided to skip Gran Manan and meet up with them in Bar Harbor. The night started out with great clear weather and a beautiful full moon. About 7 hours into the trip, the fog began to appear again. We were hoping once we left Nova Scotia we would also leave the fog behind. We arrived close to Bar Harbor in the early morning. Bruce was asleep in the cockpit and I was at the wheel when I saw a lobster trap floating in the water. The next thing I knew they were everywhere! I quickly woke Bruce up and he drove while I directed him around all the lobster traps. This was not an easy job as it was still very foggy and I had to open up the enclosure to see all the traps. This meant that not only was I tired, but I was cold and wet! We managed to get into the harbor around all the traps and tied up at the town dock to wait for customs to clear the boat. It was at first frustrating trying to get ahold of them but once we did it took about 2 hours for them to get to the boat. The customs officer was great and issued us a cruising permit on the spot and was gone in now time. We went out to a mooring ball and decide to go for a walk around Bar Harbor and have a rest in the afternoon. The city of Bar Harbor is on Great Desert Island and most of the island is a park that has all sorts of biking and hiking trails. J.J. Bean (sporting goods store) provides a free bus called the Island Explorer all over the island and it is a great way to get around and see everything. We returned to the boat after our walk and thought we would sleep and then have a nice quiet dinner. The next thing we knew it was 8:30 at night and we had slept right thru dinner! Mike and Liliane arrived that same evening a day earlier than we thought. They were on a ball when we got up having arrived at about 8 p.m.

We spent the next day exploring Mount Desert Island by bus. We took the bus to Northeast Harbour. Mike and Liliane had to wait out most of the day on their boat waiting for customs to clear them as there was a cruise ship in and customs was busy with them so they were unable to come with us. We were all staying another day so we took the bus into Southwest Harbor. We had lunch together and went to a couple of Marine stores as there always seems to be something we need.

We left with Mike and Liliane the next day and went to a beautiful anchorage on Marshall Island. We had hoped to visit Isle Au Haut but the anchorages there were not good for the winds that were forecast. Marshall Island in uninhabited but had a nice beach to dinghy over to and take a short walk.

Zero Gravity at anchor in Marshall Harbor

We left Marshall Harbor early the next morning for Rockland, Maine and this was by far the worst day we have had since leaving Toronto! Rather than head out to open water, we took a couple of thorofares thru some beautiful islands but also thousands of lobster pots. A book I am reading "Sailing Away from Winter" calls this coast the confetti coast. The lobster pots are so plentiful that it looks like someone thru a bunch of confetti into the water. Sailing around these pots makes for a very stressful passage. We both have to be on the lookout constantly for pots as well as other boats and buoys as well as navigate to our destination! Bruce is definitely not getting his morning and afternoon naps in anymore and that makes him a bit testy! We finally got the perfect wind to sail and we were afraid to put our sails up as that would give us one more thing to think about and we were already on overload. Many boats were passing us under full sail and plowing thru the pots. We couldn't believe how they didn't pick up the pots.

This did however build up our confidence and we decided when we passed through all the thorofare that we would put the sails up and sail the rest of the way to Rockland! It was a great sail the rest of the way until we took the sails down and realized that we must have a pot wrapped around our rudder as we had no steerage. When we put the boat in gear, it also made a horrible noise so we also figured that we had a pot around our prop! So much for the $200.00 blade we installed before leaving to cut any ropes that got caught on the prop. Luckily we were in open water and not in any danger of grounding. We called Boat U.S. which we joined before leaving home as they over free towing to members, but there was not a Boat U.S. operating out of Rockport. We got ahold of Zero Gravity and they sail that they would come back and tow us into the Rockport Harbor. Just inside the harbor was a safe place to drop the anchor and take a look at the problem. As they were swing around to put us into the wind to drop the anchor, their engine quite and they had picked up a pot also. They quickly dropped the anchor beside us and now we both had big problems. We felt terrible as they were helping us when it happened. Liliane and Mike are experienced divers and Liliane offered to suit up and go have a look at both boats. Bruce was very happy about this as the other option was for him to go into the water. Once in the water, she realized that she would also need tanks as the ropes were wrapped tightly around and she would have to spend some time under water to cut them. She manages to free Zero Gravity in about 15 minutes, which seemed a lot longer, and then swam over to our boat. It took much longer for her to free our boat and by this time she had been in the water for about 45 minutes. Even with a wet suit on it is a lot of time to be in water that was only 18 degrees. By the time she surfaced she was freezing and a bit hypodermic! We quickly brought her onto our boat and she got into a hot shower and then we wrapped her up in blankets and made some hot coffee! She was shivering so much, she could hardly talk.

Liliane in the water off Zero Gravity!

Our friends from the Mary T, Amy and Ken, were also in Rockland so we moved the boats over closer to them after we were free and we all went out for dinner together. This was the day that I was ready to come home and feeling quite homesick as I was missing a family get together for Bruce's mom's 85th birthday as well as, another friend's mother's 80th and Lindsay's first day back at school! Everything that could go wrong, was going wrong and we were both getting fed up about this time and feeling exhausted from it all! However, once we thought about it, we realized how much worse it must of been for Liliane as she was the one that had to do all the work freeing us! If she was still willing to keep going after all she had been through, we certainly could too! After a nice meal with friends and a good nights sleep we felt better. We stayed in Rockland for an extra day and took some time to get groceries, fuel and clean up the boat a bit.

From Rockland we motored over to Boothbay Harbor and anchored off the town. It was a really cute touristy town with lots of shops etc. We travelled with Mike and Liliane again and we all went out to dinner.

We left early the next day for Falmouth Foreside, which is just 5 miles outside of Portland. Our friends Brad and Anita have a good friend here that set us up at the Portland Yacht Club for the night. We had a drink with Drew on the boat and then went out to dinner with Drew and his wife Vicky. Drew and Vicky lent us their car for the next day and we went into Portland's Old Port to browse and go to another Marine Store! It was Drew's birthday during the week and Vicky was planning a surprise birthday dinner at the yacht club for him on Friday night. I sort of blew it by asking them to join us for dinner on Friday night and Vicky was forced to tell him about the surprise in order to explain why they were busy and not able to have dinner with us! They invited us to join in the birthday celebration at the club for dinner. What we didn't realize is that they also invited about 20 other members of their family also. We had a great time and enjoyed meeting so many new people. We then went over to Drew and Vicky's for cake. I must say, I have never seen a bigger carrot cake in my life! All I can say is Drew better get ready for next year's celebration if this year is any indication of the party's Vicky puts on for a non milestone birthday!

We will probably leave tomorrow with the Mary T, as Zero Gravity went a bit further than us the last couple of days. We will likely catch up with them again hopefully. We are working our way to Marblehead where we will leave the boat and fly home from Boston. Drew thinks that this would be our best bet and we agree. He has also given us tons of other advise and contacts which will come in handy as we continue our trip South. Will probably be home next Wednesday or Thursday if the weather forecast is right.

2007-08-28T14:57:00.000-04:00

We left Oak Island on Wednesday morning for Port Mouton which turned out to be one of the nicest anchorages we have been in. The beach was beautiful hard sand and we dropped the dinghy and went in for a walk. It seemed like every boat in the harbor was heading South and we talked to a french couple who had left France about 7 years ago on their boat and were still sailing. I thought we were doing something adventurous until you talk to others who have done so much more. We also met a couple in Shelburne who have been sailing for 11 years. They started off in Hawaii and have been sailing ever since. They work about 6 months of the year and sail the rest. He is a RN and likes to get a job in an emergency room if possible. We also met another couple from the States on the beach and they were heading to Shelburne. We later met up with them there.

On Thursday we were not in too much of a rush to get going as we had only about 35 miles to put in. We left about 1100 as we were also enjoying some beautiful sunny weather. The sun had been shining for a record 5 days in a row and although the nights were cool the days were warm with no humidity. We knew that the sunshine was only forecast to last another day so we fiqured we would get to Shelburne while we could as we would rather be stuck in a town than in the middle of nowhere! It was a wise decision as we have been here since but plan to leave tomorrow morning for a long day to Yarmouth. This crossing can be very difficult so we have waited to get a perfect forcast to do it in. When we picked up our mooring ball at the Shelburne Yacht Club, Bruce looked around and said "Look who's here". Right in front of us was Zero Gravity again. We had hoped to run into them again soon but thought that they would be on their way to Yarmouth. They had a couple of long days so decided to stay here. We also moored beside the Mary T, Amy and Ken's boat, the couple who we had met on the beach in Port Mouton. When we went up to the clubhouse to register, we ran into Liliane and Mike from Zero Gravity and they too had just met Amy and Ken so we all decided to go for dinner. During dinner, Amy and Ken mentioned that every Friday on their boat was pirate Friday and they would dress up and talk like pirates. We thought it sounded like fun and invited ourselves over for drinks the next day which just happened to be pirate Friday.

On Friday morning Liliane, Mike, Bruce and I set off into town in search of piratewear We lucked in at a discount store and got everything we would need for our pirate night along with some water ballons to use as amunition. We commenced our night with a water assault and then boarded the vessel for drinks and appetizers. We had a lot of fun but decided if the kids could see us, they would probably tell us to grow up!

On Saturday, the club was having their annual Chili Cookoff and potluck dinner so we decided to participate in the judging and eating. They had 12 different chili's to try and we tried them all! You had to vote for the best chili, the hottest chili, and the best dressed chili chef. Another great evening of meeting other boaters and having a good time over a great dinner.

Today we are getting ready for our departure to Yarmouth

I didn't get this edition posted so will just add to the old one before posting it. We got away from our mooring about 0730 along with Mike and Liliane and had a great day for crossing over to Yarmouth and going around Cape Sable, which seems to be notorious for giving people a hard time. The trip took longer than we anticipated and we didn't pull into Yarmouth until about 2030 that evening. It was getting a little tight for us as our navigation lights were not working so we didn't want to travel at night. We had a safety net in Mike and Liliane as we could follow them in if it got too late. We just made it and there was a beautiful full moon. The crossing was uneventful except it was cold as the water temperature is only 9 degrees! We had to take a mooring ball as the docks were too small for us. We called it a night and would get together again with Mike and Liliane in the morning as they invited us for brunch. We were able to move over to a dock in the morning as a large boat left early and that was the only spot we could take so we moved over so we could get power and charge up everything. We had a great brunch on Zero Gravity and then Liliane and Bruce went for a message and I went for a much needed pedicure. Bruce hurt his back the last time I sent him up the mast and has been having pain ever since. We will leave Mike and Liliane here as they are going to Gran Manan and we are going to do a night crossing to Bar Harbor tomorrow night. The weather is supposed to be good and the moon is full so it should go well. We fixed our nav lights today so we are all good to go. I can't seem to be able to comment on the pictures. The first one is a picture of Selbourne Yacht Club and then there are our assault pictures on the pirate boat and some full moon pictures. One isn't very good but it has Zero Gravity in the background.
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2007-08-21T19:29:00.000-04:00

Mike and Lillian on
Zero Gravity. Notice the PCYC Burgee

Sue's brother Tim and his wife Monica outside their bar foc'sle

The adventure continues. Bruce's friend Mark from Halifax (the guy we went out to watch the fireworks with) came for a visit on Friday. We took the dinghy into town to meet him and of course everyone was talking about the storm the night before. Many people had lost power due to lightning strikes and Tim and Monica had lost a lot of their electronic equipment at the bar so Tim was busy getting new stuff set up so people could again use their credit and debit cards at the bar. We met up with Mark and decided to go back to the boat for a late lunch. Mark had brought enough food for a week but again failed to bring his wife with him. He does assure me that she does exist but I have yet to meet her. After lunch we decided to take the dinghy over to another of Mark's friend's boat who was anchored in the back harbor of Chester. We had a great time with them and then went into town to check out what was happening there. By this time it was getting too late to return to the boat for dinner so we decided to go to Tim's bar and have a drink. We ended up eating there and decided to wait there until 10 p.m. when the band was supposed to start playing. The weather was cloudy all day and we had brought a flashlight with us to get back to the boat after dark so we weren't worried until Bruce and Mark noticed that the fog had again rolled in. We decided that we should go back to the dinghy and get to the boat before it got too bad. By the time we left and arrived at the marina the fog was even worse then we had ever seen it. It was too late to make it back to the boat even though it was just in the next bay as we would have become too disoriented in the fog. We were contemplating our next more which was possibly getting a hotel when a boat came into the dock and offered to tow our dinghy and bring us back to the boat. They had a much bigger flashlight and also had a boat over in the next bay so we took him up on the offer. We would never have found the boat on our own and were very happy when we were all on board Con El Viento again. It was only after the other boat left that we realized the both Mark and Bruce had slipped the guys some money for bringing us over. The 10 minute trip resulted in a $70.00 tip. This was one of more expensive lessons!
Saturday of course was beautiful and sunny because it was the day Trevor and Allison were to go home. We borrowed Tim's car again and drove them to the airport. The flights were pretty full but Allison was booked and Trevor was flying standby. Poor guy waited thru about 5 flights and would have made the last flight if they didn't load restrict it as they were short 1 flight attendant. Lindsay ended up picking up Allison at the airport and Trevor went to Mark's house for the night. He tried the next day on one of Mark's guest pass as Mark was going to Toronto to work so Trevor would have better seniority but he still did not make it so he returned to Chester in Mark's truck. Bruce would again have to borrow Tim's car and go back to the airport and fly home with Trevor s Trevor would never make it home otherwise. We decided to move the boat over to Oak Island Marina first so that I could be on a dock while Bruce went home. I really needed to do laundry and it would be easier to do from a dock. Bruce and Trevor finally made the last flight out of Halifax on Sunday night. Bruce got home and 0100 and had to be back to the airport at 0700. As everything happens at once, Sunday night we finally caught up with Lillian and Mike off off Zero Gravity who we have been trying to see for the last couple of weeks. They just arrived about one hour before Bruce had to leave but it was great to see them and I did get to have a good visit with them. They left the next day before Bruce got back but hopefully we will catch them again along the way.
On Monday afternoon we returned Tim and Monica's car and invited them out to the boat for dinner and a sleepover. I think they enjoyed getting away even if it was for a short time as they had just had an incredibly busy week at the bar as it was Chester Race Week. We decided to take today off and enjoy the Oak Island Resort. They have a indoor and outdoor pool, hot tub and spa. The weather has been sunny since Saturday and there is no rain in the forecast until Friday. It has been cool at night but great for sleeping. Tomorrow we will start out again early and take 2 days to get to Shelburne. We will probably go to Mouton Cove tomorrow as Richard and Susan told us it is a great place to anchor as it is in front of a beautiful sand beach. We haven't decided where we will cross over to the States or when we will cross yet. We will make that decision in Shelburne.

2007-08-17T09:37:00.000-04:00

We are back in Halifax and arrived again to rain and fog! We had a great time at home and finally experienced some summer weather. We are beginning to think that it may be the only summer we get. We had a great time at home and saw quite a few friends and family. I made it up to Sault Ste. Marie to see my mom for a couple of days which was great as it has been a while since I have seen her.
We brought Bruce's son Trevor and his girlfriend back to Halifax with us as he was on holidays and Allison had just finished university and really needed a break after a couple years of solid school! As I mentioned, we arrived to rain and fog but since we had not planned on going out until the next day, we didn't let it bother us too much. We rented a car at the airport and on the way back to the boat we stopped in Sackville to pick up our brand new 2.5 horsepower engine. I didn't know I could get so excited about a new toy but we now had wheels so to speak to get from our boat to shore again. This would make anchoring out enjoyable again especially since we now had a working generator. Before we left for home Bruce had washed all the boat and left it all clean for our return, so clean that the birds fell in love with it and must have spent many hours crapping all over it. The boat was just covered in bird poop so the first thing was to wash it all over again. Of course that chore went to the newest crew member, Trevor. The captain just loves delegating chores. Thank goodness it had been raining for a while and it wasn't too baked on. I think you get the picture. Bruce had gone to a sail maker and found someone who would sail our ripped sail cover in a couple of hours so we dropped off the sail cover and went for groceries and picked it up on our way home. We were feeling good that we now had everything fixed that we wanted fixed before we started out again when we found our anemometer lying on the deck of the boat . How it didn't fall in the water we will never know! Bruce will have to go up the mast again unless he can find another mast monkey to do it for him, so everything is not fixed yet. We decided to drive the car into Halifax and drop it off downtown as the Busters were on in Halifax. We would then take the ferry back and a cab to the boat. The weather was so bad however that when we got downtown wearing all our rain gear, the Busters had been cancelled due to bad weather. We walked around, had dinner and went back to the boat fairly early as we were all tired as we had gotten up at 4 a.m. to catch the flight and Trevor and Allison had gone to bed at 2 a.m. Even the young people need more than 2 hours sleep at night.
We woke up the next morning to you guessed it, fog and rain. We were not in a hurry to leave as we were only going about 40 miles to Chester and the weather forecast called for the fog to lift about noon. We pulled out of the harbor about noon and it didn't look too bad till we passed the first bridge and we couldn't see much. There was a boat following us and we called them to see where they were going and they were going the same place as us. They were from Halifax and used to navigating the harbor in fog so we thought we would take advantage of the local knowledge and follow them! Poor Allison, her first time sailing the Atlantic and we had fog the whole way. We had hoped to take the Sambro Channel which would have cut some and is supposed to be a good channel to spot some whales, but the fog was too thick to see all the markers so we went the long way around. As we approached shore we expected to come out of the fog as this was what usually happened to us but this time we had fog all the way in. It was really ere approaching an anchorage when you can't see any boats around you. Again we were very thankful for our chart plotter as Bruce, Trevor and Allison watched for other boats and I drove into the anchorage! What an initiation cruise for Allison. We may stop getting company if these things keep happening! We now have a new first to add to our list of firsts - first time anchoring in fog! Since it was too foggy to take the dinghy to shore or even find shore, we had a great dinner and went to bed early to finally catch up on our sleep.
We finally woke up to sunshine on Wednesday morning and to a beautiful view of the area. We decided to stay put for the day and explore Chester. It is a very busy town this week as it is Chester Race Week and I think everyone with a sailboat is here his week. We met up with Scott and Marie Sterling from PCYC (Texas Belle) who are here with their kids helping out with race week. We also went to the bar in town that my cousin Byron's brother-in-law Tim (Sue's brother) and his wife Monica owns and met up with him and his wife and family. It is the second oldest bar in Nova Scotia and the oldest in a rural town (Picture to follow.) Chester is a cute little town and we enjoyed spending the day. We had hoped to go back for some nightlife later but the winds picked up and we changed our minds as we thought we would get too wet going back and forth in the dinghy. When we got back to the boat we tried to fire up our GPS and for some reason it would only bring up the first page and then shut itself down. We tried it a couple more times and nothing. This is the worst possible piece of equipment to have not working! It is almost impossible to try to navigate thou fog without it and a good day can turn foggy in an instant here. It is also bad timing as we have company and would like to travel around the Bay. Why do these things always seem to happen to us at the worst possible time???
Thursday was another great sunny day but we couldn't go anywhere till we made arrangements to have the GPS fixed. The company telephone support is in California and did not open until 0800 which is 1200 here. We called and they told us that they have never heard of this problem before and we should pack it up and send it back. This was kind of what we were expecting as there are very few authorized service dealers around. The closes one is in Vancouver. We went to Tim's bar and talked to Tim about using his car for the day and possibly going into Fedex in Halifax to send it back. While there, Bruce met up with someone who knew someone in Halifax who sold the same GPS system that we had and gave Bruce his phone number. Bruce called the guy and he said he would bring us a new GPS on Friday and send the old one back to California for us to be fixed. This meant that we would now own 2 GPS's but we figured it was better than waiting for one and we would always have a spare which we probably will never need if we have it. The GPS problem solved, we decided to take Tim and Monica up on the offer of their car and drive to Lunenburg and Mahone Bay. We had a great day exploring the area by car and again were very happy that we have met such great people who are always willing to help out when you need it. We dropped the car off and went in to have a drink. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. By the time we finished our drink, the fog had rolled in. It is impossible to imagine how quickly the weather changes here. We made a beeline for the dinghy and headed back to the boat while we could still find it. I forgot to mention that while going to shore to call around about our GPS, we ran out of gas in the dinghy. Of course the spare gas was on the boat as the guy we bought the dinghy from told us a tank of gas would last about 4 or 5 hours and we had only used the dinghy for under 2 hours. I do have to mention that I did suggest we take it with us the first day and was told we wouldn't need it. I do hate to say I told you so!! We got a tow into the club and things could have been a lot worse if we had brought the dinghy in the night before, we would have been stuck in the dark and wind trying to row ashore. We have really initiated Allison into the world of boating! She has been a great sport as this is the first time she has spent any time on a boat.
We were all snuggled in our beds on Thursday evening when a huge thunderstorm struck. It was the biggest storm I have ever been in. I got up and wanted to go to the cockpit to watch the storm but it was so severe, I couldn't get past the companionway! You could feel the electricity in the air and the lightning was so bright it hurt your eyes. The thunder and lightning were right on top of each other. The surprising part was that Trevor slept thou it! The storm lasted for at least an hour and a half!
Today, Bruce went to shore to meet the guy who was bring us the new GPS and it works!! Yes. We are back in business.

Lunch in Lunenburg at a great little pub and a picture of the Bluenose coming into port in Lunenburg.

Trevor is the only brave one to go swimming. The water temperature is 18 degrees!

Halifax harbor in the rain

2007-08-05T08:16:00.000-04:00

Halifax Harbor and bridge

We have been having a great time in Halifax visiting old friends and family that we have not seen in a long time. Everyone has been so generous offering cars, inviting us for dinner and just making us feel so welcome. Thanks so much to everyone!

Bill Graham picked us up at the club on Sunday and we had a great night with them. Their home is right on a lake and although the fog just wouldn't go away, we could see some of the lake once and a while. Sharon cooked us dinner which was delicious and we spent the night at their place. They have 2 yellow labs and they invited neighbors over who have 2 black labs. Lindsay would have been in heaven had she been there as one of the black labs was only 7 weeks old. On Monday, Bruce made a few phone calls and set up an appointment with the mechanic to come and fix our generator (finally) . Bill and Sharon then took us for a drive to check out the Dartmouth Yacht Club and make arrangements to move the boat there. They did not have a dock for us so we would be on a mooring ball. We decided not to move the boat yet as we needed to be on a dock for the mechanic. They then took us to a beautiful old Officer's Mess for drinks and lunch. It is the oldest mess in Canada and used to be a stable for horses. After lunch we went back to the club and had dinner with our friends from Denver as they were leaving the next day for the South Shore. On Tuesday we said goodbye to our new best friends twice as just as they were leaving the docks, 2 customs officers came running down the dock and asked they to return to the dock as they had no record of their boat entering Canada. The boat had been here for 3 years and they had cleared in Summerside so once they showed them their documentation, they were once allowed once again to leave the docks! Nothing like a little excitement on the docks to start your day!

Here is a picture of our friend from Denver rowing over to have dinner with us.

Bruce and I were to meet Bill again in Dartmouth and drive him to the airport so we could use his car for a couple of days. We managed to take a city bus all the way from the Royal Nova Scotia to the ferry dock in Dartmouth without getting lost or on the wrong bus so we thought we were doing well. We drove Bill to the airport and then went onto visit my Uncle Frank and Aunt Rita who I haven't seen in about 19 years when we had our last family reunion. They also invited their daughter and her husband and son over for dinner. I had never met her son and husband before so it was a great night of getting reacquainted with family. Dinner was also wonderful Aunt Rita!

On Wednesday morning the mechanic arrived at 0900 and by about 1030 her thought that he had the problem fixed as he had found a faulty bleed screw and a couple of leaks in the lines. He started the generator and let it run for about a half an hour and declared it fixed. Bruce walked him to his van to fill out the paper work and I decided to do the dishes. As I was putting the water in the sink, the generator started to die again. I quickly yelled to Bruce and he chased the van yelling to the mechanic to come back. He managed to get his attention and he returned to work the rest of the day on the generator. By the end of the day, he was still trying to find the problem and decided to take the lift pump off and take it back to the shop and test it. He told us he would be back the next day again. This put a wrench in our plans as we wanted to move the boat over to Dartmouth and go to Mahone Bay on Friday. The mechanic was back on Thursday and he said the pump was working so he was back to square one. The only thing left to check was another bleed pump that we never use. This ended up being the problem so he bypassed this pump and everything has been working fine since. The generator is now running better than it ever did. It only took 9 hours of labor to fix it. So much for a $50.00 fix in St. Peter 's.

We decided to run the dinghy engine into Sackville to a Mercury Dealer and leave it there to be fixed while we had the car. We talked to him about trading it in for a 2.5 horse power engine when he fixes it as we are finding the 9.9 to be too heavy and a bit of a pain to put on and off the dinghy. A 2.5 we could leave on the dinghy and davits which would make things a lot easier. Hopefully we can work a deal out with him when we get back. We came back for lunch and let the generator run for over an hour and everything was great so we decided to leave for Dartmouth while the weather was good and leave Mahone Bay for Saturday. The sail thru Halifax harbor was great and we met up with Sharon and Rudy (neighbor of Bill and Sharon's who also has a boat in Dartmouth) Rudy lent us a bridle for the mooring ball and Jeremy (the dock hand) helped us secure it to a mooring ball. We kept Sharon overnight on the boat and had a quiet dinner with her as Bill was still at work.

On Friday Rudy gave us a ride back to the Royal Nova Scotia to pick up Bill's car and then came back to Dartmouth in time for Bruce to have lunch with another old friend of his from Pem Air, Bill Wingfield. Bill's wife had a cold so I opted out of lunch and had a relaxing lunch on the boat by myself. We then left the club in time to pick up Bill at the airport again as he had a layover in Halifax. We went back to his house again for the night and dinner. This time Bruce and I did the shopping and made dinner for them. It was still foggy and I still have not seen the view from their deck! Bill jokes that every time he comes home the fog or rain move in and once he leave that the sun shines, I am beginning to believe that he isn't really joking!

Bill's check-in was at 0720 on Saturday so we had to get up early to drive him and then go on to Mahone Bay to visit other friends and return their charts finally. We had all had showers when the phone rang and Bill's flight was delayed until 0945! Some things never change when you are flying and we sure don't miss those days. We were all up so decided to leave a little early and have breakfast on the way. We finally make it to Mahone Bay about 1100, just in time for lunch with our friends! No, we didn't eat again, we actually turned a meal down for a change. Blair and his wife Laurie are renting a place for 2 weeks in Mahone Bay and also keep a boat in the bay on a mooring ball too so they have the best of two worlds there. Laurie's daughter and her friend who are 15 had entered in a cardboard boat building contest in town as the wooden Boat Show was on for the weekend so after lunch we all went into town to the show. The girls were given Styrofoam, cardboard and duck tape only and they had to design a boat and then launch it later and race the other homemade cardboard boats. The girls did a great job and came in second in the second race and also got the Titanic trophy! Good job girls. Last year's competition only had one boat sink but this year only one boat did NOT sink. The girls boat at least made it back to the dock in one piece and it was very nicely decorated.

Lunch with Blair and Laurie

Card Board Boat Race

Don and the girls, Don was a skipper on the Bluenose for 20 years.

One of the best parts of the day is that we also ran into our friends from Denver who we had said goodbye to a few days earlier. They were having so much fun in Mahone Bay that they were spending more time there than they planned. It was great to see them again. We also ran into Eric off of Mad Dash. I forgot to mention that when we were at the Royal Halifax, Mad Dash was on our dock and we recognized it from our club in Port Credit. I had forgotten until Bruce reminded me that we had bought his cradle for our boat from him when he left the club for Bermuda. It was great to see Eric and his wife again also. We left Mahone Bay and arrived back at the club about 1900. We met up with another friend w ho has a boat here and worked with Bruce, Mark Dinan. He invited us out on his boat to watch the fireworks off the Halifax Bridge. The fireworks were great and really different as we had never seen fireworks off a bridge before.

Today, we are heading back to Toronto for a week to 10 days. I hope to fly to Sault Ste. Marie for a couple of days to see my mom and sister and then back to Toronto for a few days. We probably won't return before the 13th of August and then will pick up our dinghy engine and head to the Mahone Bay area. It looks really beautiful and we would like to spend at least a week there.

2007-07-28T18:06:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, we are finally in civilization again with cell phone coverage and internet! We made it to Halifax today (July, 28) at about 4 p.m. and are quite happy to be on a dock again after 5 nights on anchor. The last few days have thrown everything from fog to wind and waves to sunshine, from cold to hot temperatures, just about everything except good sailing winds. Bruce is getting a little frustrated and he actually mentioned to me that he can see why some people end up buying a trawler as we seem to motor more that we sail these days! We are at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Club and it has a pool and a nice clubhouse so we plan to stay a few days, do a few repairs to the boat and see some friends and family.

We left St. Peter's on Monday and we were disappointed that we did not have more time to sail the lakes but we did see a lot by car and the weather did not really co-operate and with our generator and dinghy engine in need of repair, we did not want to anchor out but wanted to get to Halifax where we could get the work done. We also met a couple from Denver who were headed to Halifax and then to Maine and we liked the idea of travelling for a bit with another boat. We have really enjoyed their company and will miss them when we go our separate ways in Halifax. We forgot how fun it is to travel with another boat and it is comforting to know that you are not alone out on the water in fog and heavy weather! Our first stop after leaving St. Peters was an anchorage past the town of Canso in Whitehead Harbor. The weather had finally turned sunny and we had an uneventful, enjoyable trip. We have decided that we much prefer shorter days with lots of time left in the day to enjoy once we have arrived somewhere. We have been having dinner back and forth with Susan and Richard (our new friends from Colorado ) and are using their 2 horse power engine on our dinghy and it is working great! Unfortunately they don't want to sell it or trade it for our 9.9! The next day we left for Liscomb Harbour but we ran into quite a bit of coastal fog so decided to go into Country Harbour and anchor for the night. We left the next day and did make it into Liscomb but had a ruff trip with wind, waves and fog. Once inside the bay and then up the river, your would never know how bad it was on the water. We anchored in front of Liscomb Lodge in the river that has about a 2 knot current and is very narrow. Not something we ever would have done before this trip or believed we would have done. The lodge was beautiful with a pool, hot tub and great restaurant, which we made reservations for the next night as we decided that we could use a down day out of the wind and fog. It was an excellent decision as it was a beautiful, hot sunny day and we took full advantage of the use of the facilities. Chester, the marina manager, lent us his car and we drove into the small town of Sherbrook for lunch and some groceries. The one thing that has really made this trip has been the kindness and generosity of the people everywhere we go. We have been offered cars and rides by complete strangers who let us use their vehicles without even knowing our names! In St. Peter's the 2 guys who run the marina made us feel completely at home and invited us for fish chowder at the club one night and a pancake breakfast the next day.

We hated to leave but knew we probably only had one more nice day before the rain was back so we lifted the anchor early and set out for our next port, which was a small bay in Popes Harbour that a charter skipper had told us about as we would not have thought there was enough water in the bay by looking at the charts. It turned out to be a beautiful spot and it was also Susan's birthday so we had a bit of a birthday party that evening on their boat! We decided to try to leave by about 7 a.m. as the winds seem to be calmer in the morning and by midday pick up and make things uncomfortable as now you are in fog and waves. It was a good decision as by the time we turned into the Halifax Harbour it was getting rough again. The fog just sits off the coast so we are constantly in it as the wind has been from the Southwest and the water temperature is about 12 to 14 degrees, so it doesn't take much warm wind to create a fog bank. It does tend to stay just off the coast which makes it a lot easier to get into a harbour that is clear. The radar has been working great and we are getting fairly comfortable sailing in fog now. The locals say that around the 15th of August the winds will change and be out of the North so we should have better sailing and no fog by the time we start the South shore of the Island.

We have not decided how long we will stay here before heading on towards Mahone Bay but will soon make those plans as well as plans to go home for a week. Today Bruce's friend Billy Graham (not the preacher)is picking us up and bringing us to his house for the night. We are looking forward to a night off the boat as it is really damp here today.

2007-07-21T12:34:00.000-04:00

We had a change of plans in St. Peters, as often happens when you are sailing, and we decided to leave the boat here and drive to Baddeck with Bettyann and Ray. We had got the boat fixed in St. Peter's and thought that instead of wasting a day for Bettyann and Ray, we would get started on our road trip right away. It was a beautiful day and we made it to Baddeck by lunch. We found a really cute hotel called the Telegraph Inn, had lunch there and made our plans for the day. We booked a lobster dinner at a nearby hotel and bought tickets for a ceilidh, which is evening of Cape Breton fiddle music, piano music and traditional dancing. That afternoon we visited the Alexander Graham Bell Museum as well as a few shops in town .

Our lobster dinner was great and they even had entertainment during dinner so we had a very long dinner as we wanted to stay and listen to the singer. (see photo above) After dinner we went across the street to our first, Bettyann and Rays second celidh. The music was really great but there wasn't any singing or joke telling and Bettyann and Ray said that the first one they went to was a lot better, but since we didn't have anything to compare it too, we thought it was good. We will have to try to get to another one again.

We left Baddeck early the next day as the guys had tee off times at 2 p.m. to golf at Highland Links, a course that had been highly recommended by everyone they had talked to so they were quite excited to try it. Unfortunately it poured rain all the way on the drive to Ingonish and we were really afraid that their game would get rained out. Neither Bruce or Ray had brought any rain gear with them so we stopped at a store and found a pair of rain pants for Bruce. He figured if he went there prepared, he wouldn't need to use it! After finding a cute 2 bedroom cottage to rent for the night, Bettyann and I drove the guys to the golf course, and yes by then the rain had stopped and the sun was actually in and out of the clouds. Talk about lucky!

Bettyann and I were left with nothing to do so we decided to check out the spa at the Keltic Lodge and was it nice! We booked a pedicure and they told us to come back in time to use the whirl pool and the sauna! They didn't have to tell us twice. We quickly got our chores done which included getting groceries to cook dinner at the cabin and beer and wine for apres golf and headed back to the spa for an afternoon of relaxation. It was great!

The guys loved the golf course and Ray played exceptionally well and beat Bruce. They are now tied at a game a piece with no time for a tie breaker.

We left our cabin on Friday for a very busy day. We finished driving the Cabot Trail, which was disappointing as the weather was rainy and foggy so we were not able to see a lot but we didn't have much choice but to leave when we did. We got to Louisbourg in the afternoon and went on a hour and a half tour and then browsed around for a couple of hours but it was a bit cool and damp. It would have been much better if the weather was nicer. We then drove back to the boat and ordered pizza for dinner as we were all exhausted!

Today is rainy and foggy (again) and the forecast is for rain for the next few days. We had planned on taking Bettyanne and Ray out on the lakes for a couple of days but have now changed our plans again as the weather is just too bad. They will now leave in the morning and we are just taking it easy today. Ray got an oil change and we will get groceries as we will loose our car after today. Our generator problems have returned and we now realize it is not the easy fix we thought it would be and may need a part from Halifax. We will decide on Monday where we will go from here. Hope the weather gets better.

2007-07-18T07:21:00.000-04:00

Entering the Bras D'or Lakes via the St. Peter's Canal

Bridge in the Canso Strait between the mainland and Burnt Island

sunset at our anchorage behind Caribou Island

Bridge from P.E.I to New Brunswick

2007-07-17T21:00:00.000-04:00

We are now in the beautiful Bras d'or Lakes. We left Summerside and had a good crossing to Nova Scotia and we anchored behind Caribou Island. It was a long day but we set the anchor about 7 p.m. and had a very peaceful night and a gorgeous sunset. The next day we left early to go to Ballantynes Cove as we couldn't make it all the way to Port Hawkesbury as St. Georges Bay was too rough. We had 20 knot winds all the way but they were offshore so even though they were strong with gusts sometimes to 25 knots they were no waves so we had a great sail with a reef in the main and headsail. This was the first day that we were able to sail the whole way! We arrived at Port Hawkesbury and had to pay $18.00 for a dock for the night. What a steal, however we did not have power or water. Bruce's sister and her husband met us here and brought us some groceries etc. It really is great having a chase car with us! We left Ballantynes Cove with plans to meet up with Bruce's sister and her husband again in a Port Hawkesbury. When we arrived in Port Hawkesbury we decided to anchor as we would only be staying one night and then heading out again. We had the dinghy engine on the bow of the boat and when we dropped the dinghy and put the engine on, the engine would not start! We were in a bit of a pickle as we needed a dinghy to pick up Bettyann and Ray so we had to make arrangements with another boat that we travelled over with to pick them up. This is also where our generator started giving us problems as it died and we could not re-start it. We were not having a good day and neither did Bettyann and Ray as the golf course that they chose was horrible and they got lost getting back to the boat. None of us were in a very good mood by the time the sunset that night.

The next day we decided to continue on for 2 more days to Baddeck where we could get a mechanic to look at the generator but first had to go to St. Peter's. Before we had even arrived here Bettyann and Rae had secured a slip at the marina and even found a mechanic that could look at the engine here. We were by this time in a lot better mood. The mechanic who was 71 years young stopped by but had to go to the dentist and said he would be back later in the afternoon. When he returned, he was not on the boat 5 minutes when he had located and fixed the problem. He charges us $50.00 and now we were in a really good mood and decided we should all go out to dinner.

Tomorrow we will sail to Baddeck and our chase car will follow us there. We will decide tomorrow after checking the weather if we will sail for a few days or take the car around the Cabot Trail and then sail for a few days when we get back. Bettyann and Rae do not have to leave until next Monday or Tuesday so we can enjoy having a car and a boat for a while longer.

The weather has finally started getting warmer so this a good thing. We are really surprised by the lack of other boats travelling in this area. Bruce is having trouble meeting his quota of 10 new friends every day but I'm sure as we get further into the lakes, he will meet some. Talk to you soon!

2007-07-13T20:58:00.000-04:00

We are back on the boat and now in P.E.I. We had a great time at home as we were able to see friends, family, and a few new boats at the club that we had not seen yet. Everything worked out at the doctor so we were able to leave again on Thursday. Nancy drove us to the airport as Lindsay couldn't and Danny picked us up in Moncton and drove us to Buctouche. Thanks also to Nancy for supplying us with groceries and dinner for our return to Mississauga!
We left Buctouche at 0700 and had a short day for a change to Summerside. When we got here, we decided to do a bit of went to the historical district and took a tour of a couple of homes that were built in the 1800's and left to the city when the last family member passed away. After getting a few groceries, we returned to the boat and I did laundry and Bruce canged the oil and filter on the engine. We then took a port apart and re-calked it as it had been leaking. What a way to spend you Friday night!!
Tomorrow we will leave again for a longer day and try to make it to Pictou if the weather co-operates. We are trying to meet up again with Bruce's sister Bettyann and her husband Ray and spend a few days in Cape Breton Island with them. Will keep you posted!

2007-07-08T15:54:00.001-04:00

2007-07-08T15:00:00.000-04:00

Sand dunes of Buctouche right before a huge hailstorm hit!

La Pays de la Segouine

Perce Rock is on of Canada's most famous and most photographed landmarks. It is 290 feet high and has a large hole at the eastern end.

Cap de Gaspe. One thousand foot high cliffs with a lighthouse on top that was built in 1858 and is the tallest in Canada at 112 feet. The walls are 7 feet thick at the base and taper to 3 feet at the top.

First time tying to a fixed wall, not an easy task, especially in high winds

We made it to New Brunswick! Our 90 mile crossing was uneventful and we anchored in behind Portage Island in Miramichi Bay in a nice sand bay and the books told us that this spot was good holding and protection from current and wind however this was not the case as we had just gotten into bed when the boat started rocking and rolling. The tide was coming from one direction and the wind from another which makes for a "tempest in a teapot." This continued all night so needless to say neither of us got a lot of sleep that night. We got up early for what was suppose to be a short day to Shediac. The weather ended up turning on us and we decided to stop in Buctouche for the night which was 15 miles from Shediac as it was getting late and we would not make it to Shediac before dark. The marina ended up being a beautiful spot with an amazing clubhouse with a complete kitchen and gas fireplace and wrap around deck! We decided we liked it here so much that we didn't feel like moving the boat the next day as it felt too much like work and we were ready for some relaxation!

We called our friends Danny and Pat who live in Moncton and made arrangements for Danny to pick us up on Friday and take us to their house for dinner and the night. What a dinner it turned out to be. In true Danny fashion, he had picked up lobster, scallops, steak, salmon and halibut! What a feast it turned out to be. You may be thinking that they invited the whole town of Moncton for dinner but no, just one other couple were invited also with their children but the kids had pizza! Luckily Bruce's sister and her husband ended up coming over for dinner too and we still had no shortage of food. By the way Bettyann ate 2 lobsters! It was great to see everyone and especially Lauren who is growing up to be a beautiful girl who reminds me a lot of Lindsay at her age!

We left Danny and Pat's on Saturday morning and picked up Ray and Bettyann at their hotel (they had taken a cab back as Bettyann was too full to drive.) We visited Magnetic Mountain in Moncton and then continued back to Buctouche and went to the Acadian villiage of La Pays de la Sagouine built on a winding boardwalk over the marshland and to the farmer's market in town. Sunday the guys had booked a game of golf in the morning and Bettyann and I went to the Irving Memorial Church for Sunday morning service. We thought that would make our mothers happy! It was a beautiful church built in 2004 and our mothers would have really enjoyed the service. We had lunch and then picked the guys up at the golf course and went to the Buctouche Dunes and the Irving Eco-Centre.

Tomorrow Ray and Bettyann leave for P.E.I. for a few days and they will take us to the airport so we can fly home for a few days. Hope we can see some friends and family. We will be home for at least 4 days. Hopefully when we get back we will also go to P.E.I. and then the Bras d'Or lakes!

2007-07-03T18:34:00.000-04:00

The last 2 days have been the best we have had so far! We are now heading south and are in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and tomorrow we will cross Chaleur Bay and enter New Brunswick.

We left St. Anne des Mont at about 0530 to do a 90 mile trip to Grand Riviere. The winds were finally calm and we actually were looking forward to a full day of motoring! Yes, even Bruce! We had just settled into the trip and were in the cockpit having our breakfast and happily listening to he hum of the engine when we heard a huge swooshing sound. We both immediately perked up and looked outside just in time to see a huge whale surface right beside the boat! It startled us and unfortunately we did not think about getting our camera as we were too intent watching him roll and spout beside our boat. We saw many other porpoises and whales along the way but none as close as this one. We need to get a better camera as ours just cannot capture them in the water as the water is just so dark and so are the whales. We arrived in Riviere au Renard at 1830 and anchored in the large harbor for the night so we could again get an early start to take advantage of the currents.

We left Riviere au Renard at 630 this time as we had a hard time getting our anchor up as it was buried in mud and weeds. Again this was a very smooth trip with some of the best scenery yet! The Gaspe is just beautiful and again I would love to travel it by car and spend more time in the little villages and try some of the great seafood restaurants. We didn`t see as much sea life but did see a bunch of seals sitting on a rock. The lighthouse at Cap des Rosier was great. It is the tallest in Canada and I will post a picture when I can load the pictures on my computer. Right now I am using the computer at the marina we are in. The caps on the Forillon Peninsula were breathtaking. From here we went on to Perce Rock which is one of Canada`s most famous and most photographed landmarks. It is 290 feet height with red cliffs and a large hole at the eastern end. What a sight! We continued our trip and went into Grande Riviere but could not find a place to stay so we went an extra 8 miles to Chandler which is a great little marina.

Tomorrow we will cross the bay and again have a 90 mile day which will take us to New Brunswick. We haven`t decided where we will keep the boat while we go home but will make a few phone calls to a couple of places outside of Moncton. Hope the weather continues to co-operate! I also hope we can get some pictures out soon too. Muriel, we should be around your area by the 5th of July and leave after we get back which will be about the 13 of July. Is your friend in the yacht club or the marina? Hope to see you there if you come back.

2007-07-01T17:02:00.000-04:00

Since the last blog posting, we have experienced 3 days of highs and lows. All I can say is thank goodness we did not have the Internet available yesterday as the tone of this blog would be a lot different!

In Ramouski we said goodbye to our friends, restocked our groceries, Bruce got a much needed haircut and I did a bit of shopping at a real mall! We left Ramouski on Thursday morning and headed to Matane. This was probably one of our best sailing days yet. By the time we got anchored in the main harbor the wind had started to pick up and it continued to blow all night long. The next day we determined that it was far too windy to start out and decided to stay put. We dropped the dinghy in the water and decided to row to shore as it wasn't too far away. We walked into town and were pleasantly surprised to see that it was a lot larger town than it looked. They even had a Walmart store. There was a great fresh seafood store along the route so we bought some fish, shrimp and scallops and headed back to the boat for a late lunch. The wind was still howling and we were glad we had decided to stay. We loaded our stuff in the dinghy and thought that the boat looked a lot further from shore than it looked when you were on the boat looking to the shore. We knew we were going to have a hard time rowing the dinghy back to the boat as we had to row directly into the wind! It seemed to take forever and we were afraid to stop rowing as we would immediately be pushed back or sideways by the wind. We did eventually make it but we will not be doing that again any time soon! We had a great lunch and dinner of fresh seafood.

The next day was again quite windy but we foolishly decided to start out and when it got too bad we would stop. We were hoping to make it to Ste. Anne des Monts but after about 25 miles we realized that it again was just getting too ruff. We decided to go into Les Mechins and stay for the night. We thought that we could anchor just outside the harbor but the anchor kept dragging. I think that the bottom was really rocky and hard. There was a pier that was empty so pulled up the anchor and decided to try the pier. It was low tide,the pier was really high and there was no one around to catch a line so we had to try to grasp hold of a tire that was hanging over the edge . We made one approach but I missed the tire. The second attempt was successful and we managed to secure the boat, however the barbecue that was hanging over the aft rail kind of collided with the cement pier and we almost lost the barbecue lid over the side! I managed to grasp it at the last minute, but when Bruce tried to fix it, he dropped a piece from the bottom of the barbecue overboard so now we can't attach it to the mount on the boat. We will have to wait till we can get to a marine store again to try to fix it. We were stuck here for another night and we were afraid to go for a walk as we weren't too sure how our fenders and lines would work as the tides went up and down. Neither of us slept much that night as we kept getting up to check on the boat. This whole trip Bruce had been wishing for more wind so that we could get more sailing in and now we had 3 days of so much wind we couldn't go out in it! By this time I am now getting homesick and am starting to wonder what we are doing here anyway, so far away from our family and friends so I have a good cry and can't even call anyone as we haven't had cell phone coverage for 3 days. I do know that these feelings will pass and there will be better days ahead. We haven't made much progress in 3 days and this alone is frustrating.

Today, we woke up to rain and wind again, but decided to try to make it another 22 miles to Ste. Anne des Monts. The weather picked up as the morning progressed and we actually lost most of the wind and had to motor the last half of the trip. The sun is now shining but the wind has picked up again but we are at a dock and have made reservations to eat out tonight. I think Bruce is trying to pick up my spirits. This place is lovely and it is the last larger town we will come to before Gaspe and we do not plan on going into the Bay, so we again stocked up on some groceries and went for a long walk. We were able to call home, but as it is a long weekend could not reach everyone that we wanted to.

We hope to leave very early tomorrow and do 90 miles, if possible, to try to make up for some lost time as we would really like to be in New Brunswick by next weekend so that we can fly home from Moncton for a few days. I hope the weather starts to turn and we will have better travelling days. We have almost turned the corner and will start heading South again so that is a good thing! We will also be coming home for a break in 9 days! Things are looking up again.

2007-06-27T19:04:00.000-04:00

Bruce Davies Friend's Lighthouse

Tadoussac harbour

Our Port of Refuge, hard to believe such a calm day that it could get so bad!

Leaving Quebec City, Chateau Frontenac

2007-06-27T07:36:00.000-04:00

While as you can see our trip to the casino did not change our lifestyle! The towns of Malbaie and Pointe-ou-Pic were very beautiful and anyone who likes to garden would love walking around and looking at everyone's landscaping. The growing season is a couple of weeks behind Southern Ontario and the lilacs were all in bloom. This area is also known as the city of lilacs and everyone takes great pride in their gardens. I would highly recommend a road trip along the north shore of the St. Lawrence as there is lots to see and do.

We left our port of refuge on Sunday and made our way to Tadoussac. The weather was beautiful and it was hard to believe that it could ever get as ruff as it did! We moored at Club Nautique de Tadoussac and went for a walk. Again the town was very quaint but a bit more touristy as it is a huge whale watching base. We left Tadoussac the next morning for some much anticipated whale watching. We had seen a few coming in but did not take much time as we were anxious to get to port. We started by heading up the Saguenay and although it is very beautiful it is also very long and you would need an extra week if you were serious about seeing all of it. Our boat is just too slow to get very far and we only say 2 whales so we tuned around and headed back out to find more whales. The weather was perfect for spotting them as the wind was light and the sea calm so it was easy to see them rolling around. Our efforts payed off at one time we were surrounded by about 20 whales rolling and swimming around and under the boat! This was sure a highlight of the trip so far. We also saw quite of few seals swimming by and they were quite cute as the popped in and out of the water. We then headed to another small town called Grandes-Bergeronnes as locals told us we would see so many whales they would keep us awake at night banging on the boat and it was the cheapest marina on the St. Lawrence! They were right about the marina, if you could call it that, but we never did see any more whales so that was a bit disappointing. The people were extremely friendly and their hospitality made up for the lack of whales.

We planned to leave the next morning at about 9 or 10 but woke up to our first day of fog. We tried to leave once but had to turn back as the fog kept rolling in and out. We did not really want to get stuck for another day as there was not much to do there. Bruce said it would be like getting stuck in the Dew Line in the days he was flying up north! We finally got away after lunch and crossed the St. Lawrence to the south shore. We had a great crossing and were able to sail much of the time as the wind was perfect for a change! We pulled into Rimouski at about 1900 and this is by far the largest town we have been to since we left. I hear they even have a mall! May have to go and check it out later. Don and Arlene will fly home tonight so I will have to resume all my first mate duties. It was great having them and all their help was greatly appreciated and made my life a lot easier! We will reprovision today and get a few things done on the boat. We plan to leave in the morning and continue on the south shore. The towns on this side are supposed to be very friendly and beautiful so we look forward to some new adventures.

2007-06-23T13:33:00.000-04:00

WARNING: This may not be a blog post for parents, children or non sailors!!

While after a quiet uneventful few days, all our 7 p's didn't help us one bit! We left Quebec city with a good forecast, checked the tides and read all the guide books but it we were certainly not prepared for the trip from Quebe to Cap-a-l'aigle! The tide charts told us what time we should leave Quebec City to arrive at our destination at about 18:30. The weatherman said that the winds would be from the Northwest 10 to 15 kts. Cooler temperatures and just a chance of rain. We had a great sail past Quebec City and continued on our voyage. The winds started to pick up about 3 hours into the trip and became stronger and stronger and they were always from the North East, never the North West. The wind was suppose to become light and variable in the evening however that too never happened. We rode against the current for the first 3 hours and then hoped to pick up quite a bit of speed as the tide changed to our favor. This never really happened as the winds became more like 25 to 35 kts from our nose which fought against the current on our tale and created huge waves which slowed us down considerably. Now most times when you get caught in something like this, you pull into the first suitable harbour and stay put however this was not an option as Cap-a Aigle and Pointe-ou-Pic are the only harbours that can be visited at any time of the tidal cycle. In low tide all along the river until this 2 places we would be sitting on mud so we had to continue our trip. This being the only option we were taking huge waves over the bow and pounding up and down for about the last 8 hours of the trip!! Not good. Poor Arlene was hanging on for dear life and I thought if we ever got to shore, she would probably pack up and go home! Non of us were sick, just very uncomfortable. Now this supposedly 9 hours trip became a 13 hour trip and we were forced to come into a strange harbour after dark! We called the marina on the radio and the telephone and got no answer so we were on our own. We got our got out every available flashlight and with the help of all 3 of us on deck tried to navigate our way into the marina. As we got closer to shore the waves died down and we were able to put out the fenders and lines and get ready for docking. Bruce was not about to go in too far unless he could see a suitable dock right away and if we didn't we would have no other choice but to continue further down to another bay with an anchorage. This would have meant another 12 miles and none of us were looking forward to that as you can imagine! As soon as we rounded the corner we could see a nice long dock and the club was sheltered from the wind and waves. You would never know how bad it was outside the break wall. We were never so happy to see a dock in our lives. By this time it was 22:30 and we had had nothing to eat or drink since lunch! We tied up, made dinner, cleaned up all the water we could and went to bed. The next day Bruce was talking to a man here who told him that many people had sailed oceans for years and did this trip once and gave up sailing afterwards. The boat was amazing and didn't let us down. This was the worst we have seen and hopefully will see again!

Today we are taking a much needed break. This town is beautiful and we took a walk down just one road for about 2 K and there must have been 10 B & B's along the way. This afternoon we are going into the Casino in Mal Baie and to of all things a Canadian Tire Store to get some more spare parts that we don't have! Don had to go back up the mast to fix the anemometer again. Hope it works better now .

2007-06-22T07:51:00.000-04:00

This is the Quebec Yacht Club in Quebec City and the rainbow over the boat when we arrived. Hopefully we will have more Quebec City pictures soon .

2007-06-21T23:46:00.000-04:00

Don climbing the mast to fix the anemometer. Unfortunately, it is still not working properly so he will have to make another trip up as we think we know what is wrong!

2007-06-21T22:54:00.000-04:00

2007-06-21T19:03:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. Our friends made it from Toronto about 10:30 on Sunday but we decided to stay another night in Pointe Claire as the weather forecast was not great and we were afraid we wouldn't make it through the locks at Montreal and then be able to find a place to stay for the night so we got Don to go up the mast and fix the anemometer and get a few more groceries etc. We left early the next day and went thru 2 locks. We had to wait about an hour at each lock but other than that, we had a fairly easy day. We motored again as the wind was light and from the wrong direction. So far that has been what we have done most days! We made it to a nice anchorage in front of Sables Island close to Sorel at about 18:30. Some people say you can go to Trois Rivieres from Montreal but I think that would be impossible unless you were through the locks the day before and stayed in Lachine. There is a good place to stay there but unfortunately we didn't know that the day before or we would have tried to do just that.

The next morning we set sail for Trois Rivieres, not too early as it was only about 35 miles away. The winds were strong but from the wrong direction again but Bruce was determined to sail so we tacked our way through Lac St. Pierre so the short trip ended up taking up most of the day, but the sun was shining and we were in no hurry. We anchored in the west branch of the Riviere Saint Maurice right in front of a beautiful beach and had our first swim in the St. Lawrence . The water was 23 degrees and there was quite a current even in the river. This was the first time anchoring in such a current and we have never anchored when the bow of the boat would not point into the wind. The anchor stayed beside us or behind us all night. We dropped the dinghy and went for a walk into town. The people were very friendly and the town quite beautiful!

We planned our departure to Quebec City to take advantage of the currents and left at 0800 only to find that we would arrive earlier than we wanted to. In the end it really didn't matter except just as we were ready to enter the club a storm came up and it started to rain quite heavily. The only good thing was right after we docked a beautiful rainbow appeared over the boat which made for a great photo opportunity for Arlene who loves to take pictures! The evening was spent doing laundry and catching up on a few phone calls. We had quite a storm around 2100 and even though we were at a dock, I think Arlene was a little nervous having a tall mast over her house during a lightning storm! The next day we spent the entire day walking around Quebec City. Bruce bought his first pair of flip flops(crocs). He now has to learn to walk in them. This should be quite funny as he keeps trying to scrunch his toes up! We had lunch and dinner out which was a real treat for me as we had not eaten at a restaurant since we left home! I fell in love with the city and would have liked to spend more time here. Tomorrow we will leave for Malbaie or Pointe au Pic and then on to Tadoussac. I am looking forward to seeing some whales but not to the colder temperatures I am sure we are going to get.

So far I think we are adjusting quite well to living on a boat. We have started to follow the 7 p's of sailing (prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance) and that seems to work better than throwing money into the water. I have decided that I have brought far too many clothes. I have also decided that a boat is a lot harder to keep clean than a house and no matter how small it is you can still lose everything. We seem to have spares and tools for everything but when something breaks, we never have the right part or tool to fix it!

We forgot to bring our camera to Quebec City today but my friend Arlene took tons of pictures so will post some after they go home and e-mail the pictures to us. I am still getting used to trying to fiqure this blog thing out and this is the second time I am typing this blog as the first time only half of it got saved. It is now almost midnight so I hope this works this time as we leave tomorrow and may not have the internet for a few days again!

2007-06-17T14:15:00.000-04:00

This is the picture from the corner of our Blog. Some readers were commenting that they wanted to be able to enlarge it!

This is Singer Castle.

The Locks

Uncle Blake and Aunt Sheila waving from Shore!

Some Small Ships we passed. We saw quite a few ships from Algoma Steel in the Sault!

This is a picture of the Thousand Island Bridge and Kent and Linda's Boathouse in Gan. We used their dock there!

2007-06-17T13:21:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone, we are now in Montreal and finally have the internet so this may be a long blog as it has been a few days since we updated it. We can also load some pictures for everyone to see some of the sights. I returned from Toronto on Wednesday and my cousin Lyle lent Bruce a car for the day so he was able to pick me up in Ottawa and we were able to re-provision the boat and do some other running around for supplies. What would we do without our friends and relatives! Dave Burns also delivered our much needed wind thingy (I can't remember how to spell the other name.) Thanks Dave! It was also great to be home and see Lindsay again although I kind of felt like a guest in my own home as she has reorganized everything and I wasn't allowed to move anything of mess anything up!! Love you hon!

We left Prescott on Thursday morning about 08:00 for what we thought would be a short trip to Cornwall, however we had a 3 hour wait to get though the Snell and Eisenhower locks so we didn't get into Cornwall until 18:30. We stayed at the Marina 200 in Cornwall and had dinner with Bruce's cousin Brenda and her husband Bob. It was great to see them. Bruce's Aunt Sheila and Uncle Blake met us as we were sailing by in Morrisburg and waved from shore. Sorry we couldn't make a stop in Morrisburg to see them. We also filled our gas tanks in Cornwall and were glad we did as we payed 1.06 a litre and in Montreal fuel is $1.50 a litre!

From Cornwall we had a little later start as we did not want to go thru the next set of locks that day in case we had another 3 hour wait. We went as far as Valleyfield and anchored in the Bay, that way we could get an early start and get through the locks and make it to Montreal in one day. It was a beautiful day and we spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun

We left our anchorage early the next day and had better luck going thru the Barharnois (sp?) locks. We were just motoring in to tie up to the pleasure dock when the lockmaster came over the loudspeaker and told us not to tie up as we were next to go thru the locks. This was great as there was another boat on the dock who had been waiting for 3 hours. Timing is everything. From there we continued onto Montreal. We feel right at home here as we are at P.C.Y.C in Pointe Claire. They give us 3 free nights so that is an added bonus. The club is very friendly but the docks really need a lot of work and the power sucks, but it is free and we are now retired so we like that! It is also a block away from the Town of Pointe Claire with lots of nice shops and a grocery store and best of all a great ice cream shop that reminds me of the Dairy Cream in Port Credit. The lineup was out to the street last night. We are also able to get on line and that makes us very happy!

Our friends Don and Arlene joined us this morning from Toronto and will spend the next 10 days with us as we continue our trip down the River. We hope to leave early tomorrow for Sorel, Trois Riviere and then Quebec City. Not sure how far we will make it in the next 10 days with them but they are pretty flexible about where we drop them off as they are airline employees too.

2007-06-10T15:17:00.000-04:00

In the last post, we were getting ready to go to bed in Amhurst Bay when the wind picked up and Bruce said "I think our anchor is dragging." These are not words you want to hear when it is dark and windy and you are in a strange place surrounded by shallow water. We decided to raise the anchor and reset. When the anchor was off the bottom, Bruce could see we had hooked a large rock! By this time, the wind was really howling and I was not too happy. We reset but decided that we did not feel comfortable going to bed when the conditions were so rough, so we decided to again raise the anchor and continue to go to the other side of the island where it would be calmer and safer. Again, I cannot stress how unhappy I was to be moving at midnight in the cold, dark and wind! It took us 2 hours to get over to the other anchorage. By this time, we were exhausted but were able to sleep well knowing that we were safe! The lesson we learned was the weather forecast is not always right and don't anchor in Amhurst Bay if the wind is from the Southwest even if it is forcasted to be light.

After a short but good sleep, we continued our trip to Gan. We went to a dock next to the Playhouse Theatre that belonged to a friend of a friend who said it was okay to use it as they were sailing in Greece. We were happy to be on a dock that night as severe thunderstorms were in the forecast for the late afternoon and early evening hours. It never got as bad as was forecasted but all around you could see the storms and we did get some wind and rain. Thanks Kent and Linda for the use of your dock, we had a nice visit with your daughter Kate and her boyfriend Mark. We also saw our friend Don from Ottawa, who we had met the first year we went to the Thousand Islands as well as his wife Louise. Louise, sorry we missed you this time!

The next day we continued to Brockville where we anchored next to Skelton Island. Here we had our next anchoring incident! I don't think we gave Poseidon enough money! The winds were calm and Bruce had put a trip line on the anchor. Somehow the trip line got caught on the rudder and we lost all steering. The boat was safely anchored at this time so we were not in any danger. Bruce however got to use his wetsuit, snorkel and fins a lot earlier than planned and the water temperature was about 17 degrees. I was glad he could not blame this one on me!

On Sunday, we left for a short but very scenic 11 mile motor to Prescott. There we met my girlfriend Joanne from Ottawa, whose friend's dock we used in Gan and my cousin's wife Bev from Prescott. Bev and her husband Lyle run a great B & B in Prescott, right on the St. Lawrence River called the Ashbury Inn. If you are ever in the area check it out at www.bbcanada.com/8197 ! Bev made us all a terrific lunch and then joined us on the boat for dinner. Lyle was away on a fishing trip but we will see him before we leave. Today, Monday, Joanne and I left Prescott for Ottaw where I will fly home from tomorrow to make my doctor's appointment. Will try to post some pictures on our next blog, but we are having trouble finding internet for our computer.

2007-06-10T14:54:00.000-04:00

Well we finally got off the dock at 07:45 on Wednesday. You couldn't have asked for a better dayto start out. It was a bit cool but the sun was shining and the wind was actually blowing from the right direction! We remembered to throw a few coins to Poseidon on our way out of the Cloband to top it all off, a few friends were even up to bid us farewell. We had a great day as we sailed and motored for exactly the same amount of time and we never had to tack once. We arrived in Coburg almost 12 hours and 70 miles later. We were able to catch the second period of the hockey game but as it became clear that Ottawa was not going to win, we went to bed! Coburg has a great club and a brand new big screen T.V.

On Thursday morning we again set out at about the same time, but the wind was not as favorable as it was the day before. The wind was out of the East and that was the direction we were heading. We motored the whole way and had a very uncomfortable trip for about 3 hours from later on in the morning until the afternoon. For Steve's ears only, we also lost the little swirly thing at the top of our mast! For everyone else, the cups for our anemometer. We no longer have wind velocity! Can't be a good thing on a sailboat! Another 12 hour day brought us to Amherst Bay on Amherst Island. Tomorrow we are planning a shorter day of just about 35 miles to Gananoque. We hope to find an internet cafe' and post this message on our blog and make a few calls home, we may even clean out the barbecue!

So far best thing about living on a boat is that I have not put on makeup or been able to blow dry my hair once. Bruce doesn't recognize me and thinks he has a new girlfriend so he likes it to! The worst things are that we have no dishwasher and have not been to any restaurants!

Before I sign off, I just want to thank everyone who came out to our going away parties. Your support and best wishes mean a lot to us. Thanks also for all the gifts. We will certainly miss everyone but hope it won't be too long before we can see you all again. We love to hear from everyone and look forward to your comments on our blog!

2007-06-05T14:02:00.000-04:00

After twenty years of planning (mostly Bruce) and months of preparation (Bruce and Esther), we had said all of our goodbye's and cried all we could (mostly Esther),and we were finally ready to set sail! Unfortunately, the weather Gods were not with us and we are still stuck at the dock! We have always said that we are going to enjoy the journey and wait for a destination so we shouldn't be too surprised when our plans have changed on the very first day!