Back into the USA

We headed into Georgian Bay, which we were warned was very rocky. In this part of the world seaplanes are not unusual. We arrived in Parry Sound and we saw there were seaplanes and we discovered that it was possible to take a ride. Much to Ian’s astonishment I agreed to go up in the plane. It was just as well we had headphones or I would have realised how rattly the plane was. It was fabulous experience but I was glad when we touched down on the water again.

We had spent two months in Canada and it was now time to head back into the US. On our return we have to check in on the US Border Patrol app but because we are foreigners we also have to report in person to immigration to get our visas updated. The nearest immigration office was in the opposite direction, 25nm miles north, but we thought we ought to go to ensure we were legal. There are two Sault Ste Marie’s, one on the Canadian side and the other directly opposite in the US state of Michigan.

While we were here we visited the Soo Locks which consists of two canals and four locks which allow vessels to go from the St Marys River which links Lake Superior and Lakes Michigan and Huron. The ships that go through here can be up to 1000ft long. Over 7,000 ships transit the locks each year over a 42 week period. This essential transportation link moves nearly 86 million tons of cargo annually, including 95% of the United States’ iron ore.

Alongside the marina was a Lake Ship, the Valley Camp, also known as a Laker. From 1917 until 1966 the 11,500 ton ship travelled some 3 million miles and carried in excess of 16 million tons of cargo. It was 550 feet, beam of 58 feet, and had a depth of 31 feet. We were pleased we did the detour.

Quite a spectacular sight on the river was the Soo hydropower plant, one of the oldest large generating stations still operating in the United States which opened in 1902.

One of the must places to visit is Mackinac Island which is car free. To get about you either take a horse-drawn carriage or a bike. You would think that being car free would be great however, the main street had a very strong smell of the horses deposits. Mackinac Island is a big tourist destination. We used our bikes to ride around the Island which was 8.2miles. Along the way is Arch Rock which we saw from the bottom and then walked the 207 steps to view the Arch from the top.

On the Island is Fort Mackinac which was founded during the American Revolution and was originally sited in Mackinaw City on the mainland. The British moved the fort to the Island in 1780 as they thought it was too vulnerable to American attack. The Americans took control in 1796. In July 1812, in the War of 1812 the British captured the fort and in a battle in 1814 the Americans attempted but failed to retake the fort however it was returned to the United States after the war. The fort remained active until 1895. During these years Mackinac Island was transformed from a center of the fur trade into a major summer resort.

From Mackinac island we travelled down into Lake Michigan to Charlesvoix home of the Mushroom houses. They also look a bit like Fred Flintstone’s house or Hobbit houses. The builder was Early A Young who built 26 houses and four commercial properties. The houses are made of limestone, fielders and boulders and blend into the landscape

Along the canals, lakes and rivers, various places have public outdoor weekly music nights. So far we had managed to arrive on the wrong day however this time we were there on the right day and we saw Cabaret Boreale who were pretty good and gave a theatrical performance.

Lake Michigan can be susceptible to some quite stormy weather and big seas, so after three nights in Charlesvoix our next stop was Frankfort where we had four nights because of the weather on the Lake. There was a fishing competition being held and some very large salmon was caught. Chatting to some people ashore they kindly gave us a few portions of salmon..

The first weekend in September is Labour Day which is a bank holiday. We booked into the marina at Grand Haven well in advance, 1. Cos we’d got caught out with not booking for a public holiday before and 2. It was Colin’s birthday and unbeknown to him his nephew Ritchie along with his wife Lesley and son, Ollie were coming to visit. We had cocktails as is tradition and a lovely meal out. The weather had been a bit unsettled but the weekend was glorious. On our way into Grand Haven it was like being on the M25. I’ve never seen so many boats coming out together.

During the summer Grand Haven has a Musical Fountain which is a massive, synchronised water, light, and music display located across the river from downtown. We just happened to be moored across from it and saw it from the flybridge of the boat.

We had one final stop before we headed to Chicago, at St Josephs. We met up with other Loopers here. For one of them, St Josephs, was their home port and also had a sailing boat there. He asked if anyone wanted to go sailing the following day. Well, you don’t have to ask that twice when Ian’s about. He hadn’t been sailing since November 2024 so he was absolutely thrilled and the conditions were perfect.

We next headed to Hammond Marine, just outside of Chicago, our last stop on the Great Lakes before we started our journey south down the rivers.

August/September 2026

Trent Severn Waterway, Canada

Leave a reply

We left the Rideau Canal and went to the small town of Picton for Canada Day. We had to do some shopping which was a bit of a walk away so Ian brought it back on his bike.

We were now headed to the Trent Severn Waterway which is 386km and first opened in 1922 to connect Lake Ontario and Georgian Bay. There are 37 conventional locks, two sets of flight locks, two of the world’s highest hydraulic lift locks, and a marine railway. The first part of the waterway links Lake Ontario to Lake Simcoe.

The locks all had walls that boats could stay on for the night. The areas alongside the locks are really well kept by Canada Parks and most had picnic tables and BBQs. Some of the locks were in very quiet areas and others in the middle of towns.

At Campbellford there was a 27 ft high toonie. What you may ask is a toonie? It’s a Canadian $2 dollar coin. Built in 2001 it is 18ft in diameter and it features a polar bear on ice. There are some interesting sights along the way.

Peterborough is a hydraulic lift lock. The lock has two chambers. It uses water and gravity to raise and lower the boats 65 ft and takes about two minutes. An additional foot of water is added to the top chamber, making it heavier than the bottom chamber. When a central valve is opened the heavier top chamber descends, forcing water through a connecting pipe from its cylinder to the cylinder in the lower chamber. The pressure pushes the lower chamber up.

The other hydraulic lift lock is at Kirkfield, which has a lift of 15 metres (49 ft). The lock is situated at the highest point along the Waterway at 256.20 meters (840.5 ft) above sea level. It’s a long way down

After 41 locks we arrived into Lake Simcoe and headed to the town of Barrie where Ian was staying with the boat for a couple of weeks whilst I went home to meet my grandson. Serafina was heading home too. We took a slight diversion to Toronto airport via Niagara Falls. We agreed that despite the fact we were going to be sitting on a plane for eight hours we would take the boat trip to the bottom of the falls where there is a good chance of getting wet.

We all arrived back and headed back up Lake Simcoe to Orillia where they had a Summer Fayre which included Dog Jumping. It was different but the dogs seemed to enjoy it.

As well as three more locks the next part of the Trent Severn Waterway meant taking a train. Yes, I did say a train. It was one of the most unusual parts of the trip, the Big Chute, a marine railway. It was originally built in 1917 as a temporary fix because of World War I there was a shortage of workers and money needed to build a normal water lock. Planners later decided to keep the marine railway instead of building a water lock to block invasive parasites like the sea lamprey. A water lock would let the fish swim freely into the upper freshwater lakes and harm local fish, but the dry lift of the railway stops them from crossing. The current railway was opened in 1978 and can transport boats up to 100ft in length and 24ft wide. The trip takes approx 10 minutes and covers a distance of 748ft.

One more lock and we were now in Georgian Bay.

July

Ottowa to Kingston on the Rideau Canal

Leave a reply

After leaving Montreal we were headed to Canada’s capital, Ottowa. We had to go through a couple of locks on the way and the Carillon Canal lock was a monster of a lock. It has a 200-tonne guillotine gate that raises or lowers the boat 20 vertical metres in just 20 minutes. Each time the lock is used it displaces over 17million litres of water!

Ottowa is on the Rideau Canal, which meant going through eight locks to get to the dock where we moored right in the centre of town. The locks are quite a tourist attraction and as a result you have an audience when locking in and out. The locks are manually operated and the Parks Canada staff crank the historic wooden gates and sluice valves by hand using traditional winches just as they did when the canal opened in 1832

The Rideau Canal was built from 1826 to 1832 under the guidance of Lieutenant Colonel John By. It was created as a secure military supply route following the War of 1812 to bypass the vulnerable St. Lawrence River. The construction camp at its northern end eventually grew into Ottawa, Canada’s capital city. It has a total of 47 locks across 23 lock stations along the route. The Canal is a 200km man-made waterway running through a corridor of communities from Ottawa River to Lake Ontario.

We visited Parliament Hill and had a guided tour of the Houses of Commons, which was being used by students during our visit and they were holding a lively debate, a lot of shouting and heckling much like our own House of Commons. The HoC is normally in the Central building but this is under refurbishment so the HoC was moved to the West Building.

We also visited the East Block which is home to four heritage rooms that offer a glimpse of life at Parliament in the 19^th century. It still houses the offices of senators and their staff. The first room was the office of Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald who worked there from 1866 to 1873 and again from 1878 to 1883. At the time, the central heating plant of the East Block could maintain a temperature of only 11°C during the winter—fortunately, the room had a fireplace!

There are various sculptures around Ottowa. The big spider is Maman, a massive 30-foot-tall bronze, stainless steel, and marble sculpture. Created by artist Louise Bourgeois in 1999. The Centennial Flame was originally built as a temporary monument. Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson lit the flame for the first time on December 31, 1966, to open the celebrations of Canada’s 100th anniversary of Confederation. The Centennial Flame burns atop a fountain. Each side of the fountain has a bronze shield with the coat of arms of a province or territory.

The “Women are Persons” sculpture was created in 2000. It is a tribute to the Famous Five (for those of you old enough to know it’s not that famous five, Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog) Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney, Nellie McClung, Emily Murphy and Henrietta Muir Edwards, all from Alberta. They brought a case before the highest court in the British Empire to appeal a 1928 decision by the Supreme Court of Canada that had ruled that women could not be appointed to the Senate, because they were not “qualified persons.” On October 18, 1929, the Privy Council reversed this decision.

After leaving Ottowa we continued on the Rideau Canal. The next lock was Hogs Back which is adjacent to Hog’s Back Falls, which are a series of artificial waterfalls.

It took us five days to get through the Rideau canal. It was beautiful and very narrow in some places, so much so that we needed to hit the horn to let other boats know were coming through.

Once we passed the final lock on the Rideau Canal at Kingston Mills we had to get through the LaSalle Causeway bridge which has a clearance of just 14ft. By chance we were told about the bridge and discovered that it only opens once a week on a Sunday. When I say it opens, it doesn’t actually open, they remove it. Cranes and heavy machinery lift the modular span completely off its mounts to allow marine traffic through. However, we had some luck as they also remove it on Canada Day, 1^st July, which was a Wednesday so we got through a bit earlier.

New York to Montreal

Leave a reply

We now made our way up to New York where we had the iconic photo of our boat in front of the Statue of Liberty. Quite a moment. Last year we headed up the East River, this year we headed west up the Hudson River. This was very different scenery, quite spectacular. We passed the “Water’s Soul” which is a large white sculpture which is 80 ft high. It depicts a woman with closed eyes holding a finger to her lips in a state of silent contemplation and self reflection. A British Airways Concorde is also found on the waterfront.

Further along the river about 40 odd miles from the Statue of Liberty is West Point, America’s prestigious military academy. The abandoned Bannerman Castle sits on Pollepel island in the middle of the river which was a military surplus warehouse. By chance while canoeing on the Hudson River, David Bannerman saw the island and purchased it in 1900 as a safe storage site. In 1901 Construction began on the castle based on a Sottish style.

A fellow looper recommended we visit the CIA. No not The Central Intelligence Agency but The Culinary Institute of America which is located on the Hudson River. This is where budding chefs in America go to train. They also have restaurants which are student-staffed and we went for lunch in the American Bounty and also did the tour. The food was outstanding.

We were now heading up into the canal system where we start encountering locks. Our first was Troy Lock on the Hudson River and from here we entered the Champlain Canal. Our first day on the Champlain we went through nine locks. We have to go in tie up with our ropes, (this varies from canal to canal, some locks have ropes hanging down you have to grab hold of and some have cables you pull your ropes around to hold you) You have to keep an eye on the ropes and let them out as you need to or pull them in, depending if your are going up or down in the lock.

The canal took us onto Lake Champlain which is 107 miles long of which 100 miles are in the USA and the most northern part is in Canada. We attempted to check out of the USA, but surprisingly it is not possible to check out of the USA when on your own private boat. This can cause issues when leaving the USA by plane and then flying back in again!! All adds to the adventure. However, the Canadians did put a stamp in on our passport when checking in which is one of the few areas in Canada that does this, it is specific to the Quebec region. Normally you make a phone call and that’s it.

From Lake Champlain we headed to the Chambly Canal Lock which has nine locks. Some of the locks are operated by the same lock keeper. So, he drives between the locks. The canal in parts was very close to the road. The last three locks on the canal ran directly into each other. This was quite a sight to see.

Our next stop was Montreal, this is a bit of a side trip on the Great Loop, but while we were up this way it would be a shame to miss it. To get to Montreal we had to go north on the Richelieu River and then back down on the St Lawrence Seaway which has a strong current. The last mile the current was running at four knots against us and that was with the engine running at 2400 revs. The current can send you in different directions so it was a relief to get into the Montreal Yacht Club and tie up.

Montreal is the second largest city in Canada and is on an island. You could be forgiven for thinking, when visiting The Old town of Montréal that you were in a French city. Our first afternoon was a wander around the old town filled with bars, restaurants and shops. We had to find a bar playing England’s first game against Croatia. There was plenty of choice. We got chatting to a lovely Scottish guy with his two sons who had flown into Montréal on their way to Boston for the Scotland game. This was in contrast to a Scottish couple who sat in front of us. The guy nearly touched the ceiling, jumping so high when Croatia scored. As we were leaving Ian went and spoke to the Scottish guy and his sons to wish them good luck, the other guy had gone and sat with them just before this. He promptly got up and left. I’m not sure what we had done to upset him, other than our English accents. Never judge a book by its cover or its accent, a ginger bloke with a surname Cuthbertson, whose ancestry is Scottish!!

Unfortunately, the next two days came with rain so we decided to take a bus tour of the city. On the tour we saw the “Tower of Songs” Leonard Cohen mural. The mural is on the side of a building which is 20 storeys high and is a tribute to Cohen who was born in Montreal.

Canada’s largest church is also in Montreal, Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal. It was founded in 1904 by Saint Andre Bessette in honour of his patron saint, St Joseph. The Oratory is the highest building in Montreal, rising more than 30 metres above Mount Royal’s summit.

A replica of the “Angels Unawares” sculpture is also at the Oratory. It depicts a group of migrants and refugees from different cultural and racial backgrounds and from diverse historic periods of time. They stand together, shoulder to shoulder, huddled on a raft. Within this diverse crowd of people, angel wings emerge from the centre, suggesting the presence of the sacred among them. The sculptor or the original and the replica is Canadian artist, Timothy Schmalz who was commissioned to create the original by Pope France which is at the Vatican, Italy.

Situated in the old town is the Basilica of Our Lady of Montreal, aka Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal.

June 2026

Kitty Hawk to Washington DC

Leave a reply

We headed to Norfolk where we hired a car and drove to visit Kitty Hawk. Like me, that may not mean much to you, well it is a pretty significant place, as it’s considered the birth place of modern aviation. At Kill Devil Hills the Wright Brothers achieved the first successful airplane flights on December 17, 1903. The first flight lasted 12 seconds and flew 120 feet, the second also 12 seconds and 175 feet, the third 15 seconds and 200 feet and the fourth flight 59 seconds and 852 feet.

The Wright Brothers Monument, which is 60ft high, sits atop Big Kill Devil Hill, the primary location of the brothers’ glider experiments.

We wanted to visit Washington DC, but it was quite a way off our route so we decided to go to Annapolis where we hired another car. We drove to the park and ride at the Metro station just 30 mins away and it was only 30 mins on the metro.

There are lots of museums in Washington and they are all free. The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum and research complex, featuring 21 museums, the National Zoo, and numerous research centers. It was Memorial weekend during our visit and it was typical Bank Holiday weather but we are State side and the UK was brandishing in glorious hot weather. It did nothing but rain!

The first museum we visited was The National Museum of American History. We spent all day here there was a lot to see. The Entertainment zone included Dorothy’s red ruby slippers, R2-D2 and C-3PO costumes and the Muppets.

There were two Lowriding cars, Chevy Impalas “El Rey” and “Gypsy Rose.” Featuring murals and candy red paint, the 1963 vehicle “El Rey” was built by three generations of the same family. the 1964 “Gypsy Rose” as you would expect had hand painted roses.

We also had the pleasure of visiting the National Air and Space Museum. Ian was very keen to go here to see a SR71 Blackbird. No, again it meant nothing to me. It is the world’s fastest jet propelled aircraft used during the Cold War, flying at a maximum speed of 2000mph and a range of 3000 miles. It is quite a beast.

There were lot of planes including the Enola Gay (those of you of a certain age will be singing the OMD song now!) The Enola Gay, was named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets. On 6 August 1945, it dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan causing massive destruction and the end of the second world war. A Concord was here too, which had a max cruising speed of 1,350mph flying at an altitude of 60,000 feet which allowed passengers to see the curvature of the earth. A British Airways concord flew from New York to London in just 2 hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds.

We took a walk along Capitol Hill, to the Washington Monument and then to the Lincoln Memorial, which was impressive. Capitol Hill is where the Senate and the House of Representatives meet. The Washington Monument is a 555-foot tall and built to commemorate George Washington, a Founding Father of the United States and the nation’s first president. The Lincoln Memorial is in honor of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States who led the US through the American Civil War, defeating the Confederacy and playing a major role in the abolition of slavery. He was assassinated in 1865. The Reflecting pool which sits in front of the Lincoln Memorial was closed for maintenance. We obviously had to go and have a look at Whitehouse too.

We also visited the Art Museum which had a Banksy.

There should have been a Memorial Day parade in Annapolis but unfortunately it was cancelled due to the weather. Also in Annapolis is a memorial to Kunta Kinte, the main character from the 1996 novel Roots written by Alex Haley about his ancestor. Kunta Kinte was based on one of Haley’s ancestors, a Gambian man who was born around 1767, enslaved, and taken to Annapolis where he died around 1822.

Whilst in Annapolis we had our second visit to ER, Ian this time. He managed to amputate the tip of one of his fingers. It really was not a pretty sight!! Hopefully this is the last of our ER visits.

May 2026

It’s definitely not all G&T’s on the deck!!

1 Reply

We spent a month in Bahamas visiting a number of anchorages with beautiful turquoise clear water in the Abacus Islands. We also had some boat jobs to do, when do we not! We had to paint some of the windows and polish the boat. We took ourselves off to Green Turtle Cay where there is a small lagoon which can only be accessed at certain times of the tide so were out the way doing our jobs.

Here is where we saw a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which launched 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites into low Earth orbit. The first stage booster, landed on a drone ship in the Exhumas, Bahamas. We were between launch (about 200miles) and landing (150miles).

The main town was a 10 minute dinghy ride. We had a walk around and came across the “Loyalist Memorial Sculpture Garden”. The garden is a tribute to those who played a important role in the history of The Abacos, the Loyalists and their slaves, who despite hard times, survived and made a new life in The Bahamas.

A short walk from where we anchored in Green Turtle Cay was a beach where stingrays will swim around you which was pretty special.

Next stop was Marsh Harbour, which is a bigger town but still small. We did the usual chores of shopping, laundry and visited one of the colourful restaurants for lunch. We didn’t venture any further south as it would have been more difficult to get back up again with the forecasted winds and we only had two weeks.

We next visited a small anchorage called “Allen’s Cay” where we went ashore and took a trail which has all sorts of bits and pieces hanging in the trees, across to the other side where there is a Signing Tree. People who visit leave their boat names on pieces of wood. The other strange thing here was the mounds of sands, hundreds probably thousands of them. We couldn’t find out what they actually were.

We went back to Green Turtle Cay to finish off our jobs, then onto Old Bahamas Bay to check out and head back to the USA. It took us 10 hours to get across to Fort Pierce as we were able to pick up the Gulf Stream which helped us along. We then meandered from here up to St Augustine to meet Cousin Susan before heading north.

We arrived at the public dock at Seven Sisters, just outside Jacksonville, staying for just the one night. Getting ready to cast off the following morning, uh oh, NO GEARS!!! This is going to be challenging. Thankfully we had tow boat membership, who we called and they towed us the 21.8nm to Lambs Yacht Centre which took about five hours. Best fuel consumption we are ever going to get.

The transmission needed a rebuild but that takes time. The best place to get this done was in Fort Lauderdale. So, to speed things along, we hired a car and drove the 664 miles there and back in 10 hours. Then the same again to collect it and bring it back to the boat for fitting. Three weeks and two days later, we say goodbye to Lambs YC, who were fantastic and start off again heading up to Oriental, North Carolina where the boat was being lifted for more work.

We stopped off on the way at Jekyll Island where we met up with some fellow Brits, Lucy and Tim, who we’d been chatting to but not met before. The dolphins were out in force here with dolphin watching boats milling about. I wanted to shout “they’re over here”!

It is a busy time along the ICW with many people now going north as it starts to get hot in the south and to get away from the hurricane belt. Obviously, there are the loopers who are also all heading north. There are people who take photos of boats passing along the ICW, which is really nice and we were fortunate to have someone contact us with some photos.

Now to the next boatyard for the boat to be lifted at Sailcraft Services in Oriental. We anticipated being here for about two weeks for the work to be done and get our jobs completed too.

Ian is Comfortable — Someone is comfortable

So here’s where it was my turn to have a bit of a hiccup instead of the boat. After a week of pain which wasn’t going away, I decided I really need to see a doctor, so we visited a medical drop in centre who recommended I go to the Emergency Room at the local hospital. We arrived at 10am where I had various blood tests, three different types of scans, ultrasound, CT and HIDA, culminating in surgery by 8.30am the following day to remove my gallbladder. I wasn’t expecting that! The surgeon’s verdict was it was “horrible, horrible and it was testing getting it out”. It is at times like this, although we do have insurance, thankfully, that you realise how fortunate we are to have the NHS in the UK where you don’t have to consider or worry about the financial side of things. Anything medical in the USA is very very expensive. The bill is eye watering!. Well on the bright side it was no more boat jobs for me for a while.

Oriental is a lovely town but we didn’t get much chance to experience it with me being out of action for a while. The local brewery had bands at the weekend and we managed to get there once.

Eventually after three weeks and four days we are off, keeping everything crossed that we’ve got all the major jobs out of the way for the rest of the season. We have spent quite a lot of the last couple of months in boat yards, so nice to get going again.

March/April2026

Florida – Earth to Space

Leave a reply

We arrived back to Cuffysark after having been home for Christmas and the New Year. Ian’s cousin Susan was only an hour and a half away, so along with Colin and Maggie we went off for the weekend to visit her and Mike. Not too far from where they live, a couple of hours drive, which in America is a short journey, was the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State park where it was possible to see Manatees, aka sea cows, The manatees had arrived for some warmer water and there is an underwater viewing area. Apparently there were about a 100 of them that visited that day, so we were really lucky to see so many together. Manatees are large, docile animals that are closely related to elephants. They can hold their breath up to 20 minutes and are quite adept at doing a rolly poly, which we got to see a few times.

The park is home to rescued animals and rehabilitated birds and animals native to Florida. The vast majority would not survive in the wild. There is a Florida panther, red wolf, manatees and whooping cranes, plus black bear, bobcat and, of course, alligators. An exception to the rule is Levi and Peepers, Whooping Cranes. Peepers is unable to fly due to an injury however, Levi is able to fly. Levi was part of an effort to reintroduce a migratory population of whooping cranes to their historic range. Operation Migration involved captive raised birds who were conditioned to follow a small aircraft along a migratory path from Wisconsin to Florida. After several years of detours to visit Peepers, Levi became a park resident. Although fully flighted, Levi stays because of his strong bond with Peepers. True Love Birds!

There was also a Florida brown bear, called Maximus who was abandoned by his mother and weighed just 4lbs when he was rescued. Florida Brown bears live solitary lives. There were various birds and the flamingos were a striking colour. There was also a reptile house, which is somewhere I’m going nowhere near. I waited outside in the cold, and it was bitterly cold, while the others went inside and also warmed up. We then went off to lunch and met one of Ian’s other cousins, Kevin and his wife Amy. Forgot to get a photo!

Susan, prior to our arrival and during our arrival was determined that she was going to get us to go in the Spring at their local park, Ichetucknee Springs State Park, where the water is a constant 22 degrees all year around. It will seem lovely and warms she said because the outside temperature, it was in fact minus 5, is particularly cold. I was fortunate, I got the wet suit, but it was chilly. Anyway, we gave Susan her wish and we all got in!! Florida was going through a particularly cold patch and it was the coldest it had been since we’d been in the USA. We’d had a lovely meal the night before so this was our penance.

It was time to leave Doctors Lake Marine, on Fleming Island, just south of Jacksonville and start heading south to hopefully warmer climates and over to the Bahamas for a month or so. The Kennedy Space Centre was on our route so after a few hops we arrived in Titusville where we hired a car, no public transport, and headed over to the Space Centre to do the tourist thing. There had been rocket launches scheduled but unfortunately they all got pushed back so didn’t get to see any. Perhaps there might be one when we go back up the coast next month.

Artemis II, is due to take a crew of four astronauts around the moon and back to Earth for the first time in over 50 years and we saw the space rocket on the launch pad.

We also visited the Firing Room at the Apollo/Saturn V Center, and saw the launch of Apollo 8 and the first crewed Saturn V mission blast into space. The room has remained the same and they took us through the checks etc before take off and the countdown. When the rocket took off they’d managed to get the effect of the windows rattling with the power of the blast from takeoff. It was very well done.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is also on display. The Shuttle was attached to the rocket and then once it had been launched into space the shuttle would disconnect from the rocket. The Atlantis space shuttle transported astronauts to space and back for thirty years, launching like a rocket and landing back to Earth like a glider. Its first flight was on 3^rd October 1985 and its last 8^th July 2011 and travelled 126 million miles.

We arrived in Palm Beach which is very busy and lots of boats whizzing about so the anchorages are very rocking and rolling. We managed to find an anchorage just off the Inter coastal Waterway (ICW). It is very difficult to get ashore here. There are marinas which are eye wateringly expensive and full up with in the main, super yachts, and even for a fee it was not possible to take a dinghy in. Guess they don’t want us riff-raff. We wanted to get to a supermarket to get some fresh bits before we headed over to the Bahamas. No easy task. There was a very exclusive restaurant a 15 min dinghy ride away who had a dinghy dock. So we booked a table, docked the dinghy went shopping and then went for lunch. We did put our trolley in the dinghy before we went for lunch!

A weather window arrived and on 11^th February we headed over to the Bahamas. It took us just under 10 hours to get across, arriving at the Old Bay Bahama Marina. We decided to stay a couple of nights and so after some chores, we went to the beach a stones throw from the boat and sat on some sun beds and watched the turtles and the fish near the waters edge. Lovely to be in some warm sunshine after the cooler temperatures of Florida.

Jan/February 2026

The not so Dismal Swamp Canal to St John’s River

Leave a reply

There are two routes going south from Portsmouth, the Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW) and the Dismal Swamp Canal. We had already gone up the ICW so we decided to go the Dismal Swamp Canal route. It is very busy in October as “the Snowbirds” are all heading south for the warmer weather. Plus one of the bridges was having some issues and it wasn’t being opened so regularly so the Dismal Swamp Canal it was for us.

Now the name doesn’t make it sound very appealing, but the Dismal Swamp Canal in October with the trees shedding their leaves is stunning. It is the oldest continuously operating artificial waterway in the United States, connecting the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia with the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. Work on the canal was started in 1793 and was dug completely by hand; most of the labour was done by slaves rented from nearby landowners. It took approximately 12 years of construction to complete the 22-mile long waterway, which opened in 1805

The canal is not very deep, just six foot so we went at a slower place as in some places it can be a little shallower. Luckily we were following two other boats so if it was shallower they found it first and were able to direct us around it.

At the end of the canal is Elizabeth City. The city was once a major seaport where four-masted sailing ships carried goods to and from the new world (North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean). The city is very welcoming to boaters offering free docks.

We visited the Museum of the Albemarle which gives the history and culture of the 16-county Albemarle region of north eastern North Carolina.

The Wright Brothers used Elizabeth City as a supply base and transit between 1900 and 1903 as they travelled to the Outer Banks. The city provided crucial logistics, allowing the brothers to ship materials and travel by boat to Kitty Hawk/Kill Devil Hills for their historic glider tests and first powered flight.

There are some big barges along the ICW.

This could be Ian waiting to catch a fish!

Whilst we were in Turkey we met a guy, Bill, who was from Essex, but had lived in the USA for many years. We were passing by where he lived in the US, so managed to meet up with him. He introduced us to the biggest tortoise we’d ever seen.

We meandered along the coast making our way to St Mary’s in Georgia for thanksgiving. The Town puts on a Thanksgiving Dinner for boaters. They provide the venue, meat and everyone brings along a dish to share. There must have been about 60 people who attended. We also went along to the Submarine Museum where we were given a talk, which I was really looking forward to, NOT. Well to my surprise it was really interesting. I thought it was going to be technical but it wasn’t and the guy giving the talk did a great presentation. The museum is the largest of its kind in the south, and the fifth largest in the USA. More than 99% of all WW II submarine combat war patrol reports are housed here, and files on nearly every submarine the United States has or has had in service as part of the collection

We finally arrived just south of Jacksonville on the St John’s River where we would leave Cuffysark for our trip home to the UK.

For our shake down cruise in 2025 we covered 3,811nautical miles from Port Charlotte, Florida up to St Andrews, Canada and back down the coast again to Doctors Lake, Florida. So after getting to know the boat we are all ready to attempt the Great Loop in 2026 with a pre loop trip to the Bahamas first.

December 2025

New York to Annapolis

1 Reply

After leaving Newport we headed on down to New York, or rather Port Washington, where there was a good anchorage which was good for provisioning and the train station was a short walk which took us directly into New York for our second visit this year.

Our first trip back into New York took us to Times Square. This cat was in one of the shop windows, taking “Big Cat” to the extreme.

Maggie had been asked to get a particular Jelly Cat toy. Now, like me, you may not have heard of Jelly Cat. Well, it is a worldwide brand and British. We thought, we’d just go in the store, collect what was needed off the shelf. OH NO! You have to make an appointment and luckily they had had a cancellation so we had to come back later in the day.

Now I thought for the price, it must be “what it says on the tin” a diner and you get real food. OH NO! It’s an experience at the Jelly Cat Diner. You go to the diner counter and you and the person serving you, both pretend they are going to make the item, in this case a cheesecake. Believe me this wasn’t just kids, adults too. It’s amazing what takes off and how it has become such a craze and it had quite a price tag to go with it. Great marketing! You can only get the Cheesecake in New York. Other countries have certain toys that are exclusive to that country, the Fish and Chips experience is only available in Selfridges in London. It was certainly an experience watching it.

We also visited MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art, which amongst lots of paintings was the collection of Campbell Soups that Andy Warhol painted. I had not appreciated that there were in fact 32 of them, all individually painted. Why cans of soup you may ask? Well apparently, he drank (not ate, his words) Campbells Soup every day for lunch for 20 years.

One of things you should do while in New York is see a Broadway show. Recommended to us was The Book of Mormons, which was really good.

After a week in Port Washington we meandered down the coast stopping at various creeks along the way until we reached Baltimore where the Fells Point Festival was being held. There were lots of stalls selling crafts, beer (craft beers are a big thing in the US and some of them are falling over strong) and food. The main stage had bands playing. As often is the case at these type of events there were some great bands.

After leaving Baltimore we parted company, for the time being, with our boating buddies, Colin and Maggie on Serafina, as they were heading home earlier than us and plus they had insurance that covered them further south earlier than us. So, we had to take it slower. Our next stop was Annapolis which is a very yacht friendly town.

There are many very old houses in Annapolis, streets with shiplap houses. Shiplap House, is one of the oldest buildings, built around 1715, originally a store and tavern.

We visited the Maryland State House which was the first peacetime capital of the United States and is the only state house ever to have served as the nation’s capital. Congress met in the Old Senate Chamber from November 26, 1783 to August 13, 1784. It was during this time that General George Washington came before Congress to resign as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army and the Treaty of Paris was ratified, marking the official end of the Revolutionary War. George Washington was elected the first president of the USA in 1789.

We were now headed back to Portsmouth for a couple of nights. The weather wasn’t great, windy and raining but we were tucked up nicely in the marina. This was at the time Jamaica was taking a hit with Hurricane Melissa, so we definitely couldn’t complain after the devastation that Jamaica suffered.

October 2025

Plymouth to Newport

Leave a reply

After leaving Boston we headed down to Plymouth, Massachusetts. Plymouth is home to the Pilgrims who departed England on the Mayflower on 6^th September 1620. The original intention was to arrive further south however storms pushed them north to Cape Code. They founded the first permanent European settlement in New England. The first winter was harsh and the settlers’ survival was largely due to the assistance of the local Wampanoag people.

We visited the Plimoth and Patuxet museums. The Patuxet Homesite is located on the Eel River and was home to the Native peoples who lived there for over 12,000 years. They have a Wetu (house) which is where the Wampanoag communities lived. A big fire was lit in the middle of the room, which was a bit smoky, but kept them warm (although it was pretty warm outside whilst we were there). The seats were all lined with animal furs. The cooking area was outside of the Wetu.

We next visited the Plimoth site which was a 17^th Century recreated English Village. There were timber framed houses with people who were dressed as you would have in the 17^th century and they talked to you as though you were really in that century which was a little odd! There was a woman cooking dinner, a guy building a house. They also had animals including goats and pigs and they were also growing crops. The woman asked us how we had arrived and she was a bit surprised when we said by boat, after all she thought she was in the 17th century, not your normal mode of travel.

In the autumn of 1621, the colonists marked their first harvest with a three-day celebration. The Wampanoag people joined the English for feasting and entertainment. In the 1800s this celebration became the basis for the story of the First Thanksgiving.

Our next port of call was Martha’s Vineyard which is an island seven miles of the coast. You can only get there by air or boat. In the town of Oaks Bluff (what a great name) there are the “Gingerbread Cottages”. They were built in the second half of the 1800’s. They are informally known as The Campground and officially as the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association which is a religious non profit organisation. We had a chat with a couple sitting on their veranda who said that most of the cottages were now used as holiday homes or lets.

The Tabernacle sits in the middle of the cottages and is the largest covered outdoor performance space on the island. It was built in 1879 and is an impressive structure

After a few days here we headed back to the mainland to New Bedford which is found behind The New Bedford Hurricane Protection Barrier which lies across New Bedford and Fairhaven Harbor. The project protects about 1,400 acres in New Bedford, Fairhaven, and Acushnet from tidal flooding associated with hurricanes and coastal storms. The barrier extending across the harbor consists of a 4,500-foot-long earthfill dike with stone slope protection. The barrier has a maximum elevation of 20 feet and a 150-foot-wide gated opening to accommodate commercial and recreational navigation.

In the 19^th century New Bedford was the busiest whaling port in the world and the richest city per capita in the USA. It was also known as the “city that lit the world” as the whale oil was used to create clean-burning, bright, and long-lasting lamp oil.

This part of the USA is well known for its lobsters, so when we saw one so large on the top of a restaurant we had to go and visit and the lobster was very nice too. Walking along the street we saw a 20 ft rooster made of stuff that had been thrown away as rubbish (or should I say trash).

We next visited Newport, Rhode Island which is where the Americas Cup was held for 53 years from 1930 – 1983. Newport is well known as a hub for numerous sailing events and luxurious yachts. Now when you arrive at places with big nautical links it’s not always so easy to get a place to moor your boat, by which I mean, there are often only expensive marinas or expensive mooring balls. We were impressed that there was something for everyone, even quite a reasonably sized anchorage, which we used. Plenty of places to take your dinghy ashore too, which can be a challenge at times. They have a sailing museum here which we obviously had to visit.

The other main attractions here are the Newport Mansions which were built during the Gilded Age from 1870-1910. With the expansion of industry and transportation and the lack of income tax (well there’s a thing) it created a new wealthy class of people including the Vanderbilts, Morgan, Ford, Carnegie and Rockefeller. They spent their wealth on lavish lifestyles trying to out do each other! Definitely a case of trying to keep up with the Joneses or should I say the Vanderbilts! We visited Breaker House which was built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II, one of the richest men in America, from 1893 – 1895. It was very opulent.