Our planned departure from Waterford was delayed by a few hours, as the flight of five set of locks was shut down. Mark had hatched a plan that would have seen us tackle 10 locks today, I was skeptical of the plan. Moot point since Lock 2 did not open until shortly after noon. We also waited inside lock five ( gratefully) until lock 6 was ready. One of the other boat asked why not let us out. Well if you have never done this you exit into a sort of cement bathtub with currents and not a lot of room. [View Full Entry]

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The boat looks odd with her masts down, booms and gaff lashed to the deck. The job went well despite boat wake and oh the thunderstorm and rain. An occurance which I bet caused people to say Canadians don't know enough to come in out of the rain. With the main mast in the air we could not reasonably take shelter, or close the ports either. The dreaded job is done despite the liberation of our main mast support system by someone else with ,we assume a ketch rig headed north. May they enjoy the fruits of our labour. The Castelton [View Full Entry]

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The weather has been sunny, hot and humid since leaving Fort Pierce. Our windscoop (air conditioning for sailboats) has been working overtime to keep our berths comfortable for sleeping. The Dismal Swamp route was lush compared to our transit in the fall. It came with some biting insects called green heads. They are sort of like deer flies but have a bright green head. Nasty things too, exiting the canal and leaving those guys behind has meant my swollen and itchy ankles began to heal. We left Norfolk Virginia headed for New York City, but ended up putting in at [View Full Entry]

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The winds changed direction and off through the ocean inlet we went. Nice sunny day, our aim Beaufort North Carolina. In the entrance channel we were approached by a coast guard boat complete with a manned machine gun on it's bow. He wanted us to move over as far as possible since there was a submarine coming out astern of us. Well we are not inclined to argue with either guns or submarines. We got all the way out of the channel. Good thing too, these things throw an enormous wake. At Mark's word I turned Witchcraft to meet the huge [View Full Entry]

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After sorting out a banking problem, by sitting in Vero Beach and receiving courier packets, sending faxes and so on we were on the move again. Titusville was a good anchorage to sit out the t-storms and torrential rains that arrived on May 17. It also was the beginning of an invasion of 'Love Bugs'. Thank goodness these guys do not bite, because it is an invasion. They did not like the rain any more than we did, so did not plague us during downpours. As soon as the sun comes back out so do they. I can say that once [View Full Entry]

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The trip home began in earnest after our two day stay in Turtle Cay. If you ever come this way Turtle Cay is worth a stop. We anchored in the White Sound portion of things, but there is anchoring outside Black Sound and moorings in Black Sound were only $10.00 per night. Black Sound is at the Settlement of New Plymouth, which is a colourful friendly place. The old jail is present, and one can view the old cells. They surely do not look friendly, no light and so on, outside painted the ubiquitous pink found in the Bahamas. Streets are [View Full Entry]

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We let go of our mooring on Wednesday, at about noon headed for the Current Cut. Why so late a start you ask...well we needed to time our passage through the cut. It is called Current I assume perhaps incorrectly for the settlement of Current, but from a cruisers stand point it would be because of the current that reaches upwards of six knots. A slow boat would have some trouble negotiating the sharpish turn as well as the subsequent cut. Get it wrong and you will be on the sand or worse yet on the rocks. Having successfully made [View Full Entry]

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On the sea again...or my boat is packed and I'm ready to go. By the time this is posted we will be letting go of the mooring in the morning. We have had good meals and said our good-byes to both the people and favorite places. We have been witnessing a mass exodus over the last week or so, and now it is our turn. We decided against leaving with a veritable herd of other boats a few days ago. There were several reasons for this, one was a short weather window, too short for our comfort, another was we were [View Full Entry]

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This is just an excuse to post some photos from various places we have been during our time in the Bahamas, as well as during our travels here. Shell collections, wild-life and perhaps a few plants we thought were interesting. We have managed a few shots of the mail/delivery boat as it sits on the pier being unloaded and as it is leaving. We have seen numerous interesting vessels during our travels and perhaps will use this opportunity to post some of those photos as well. People are getting ready for Easter, extra things are being brought in on the mail [View Full Entry]

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It's turned out to be a busy couple of weeks, with lots going on. Various dinner invitations extended and exchanged. This has meant lots of good food and even better company. I hitched to Governors Harbour the other day, intending to do a few errands and visit a new friend, all of which I did. A rather pleasant surprise occurred in my day. I was taken to the site of the new nature preserve on Eleuthera. This is one the BNT (Bahamas National Trust) parks and as of yet is not open to the public. They have 25 acres to prepare, [View Full Entry]

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