What would you rather do in Winter: Sail in the Bahamas or Ski in Ontario? I know, that’s not a fair question – most of us dream of escaping winter, so the obvious choice is sailing the Bahamas rather than freeze in -20 Celsius. But indulge me, and let me make my case. We have […]
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After Nassau we make our way down to the Exumas. This is where the fun really begins! We are wowed by the sheer beauty of the waters, beaches and little cays. There is so much to explore and so much to enjoy, it’s hard to capture in words or pictures. It’s worth a visit and […]
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Our Christmas wish comes true and we finally have a weather window to cross from West Palm, Florida to West End, Grand Bahamas. Almost our whole group of boats ventures out eager to finally get to warmer weather and that fabled blue water. With some knots in our stomachs we head out – afterall this […]
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We were travelling down the ICW through Florida, where the bridges become more numerous and also lower. Often we saw boards showing bridge heights of 62’. With our air draft of 61’ we can clear those no problem, but as we went along more and more of the bridges were opening swing or bascule bridges, […]
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We finally make it to Florida via the ICW. Our plan was originally to go all the way down to Miami, but we are playing with the idea of leaving from West Palm. Before we get there, we stop in St. Augustine, where we finally meet up with some new friends and have way too […]
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Georgia is said to be the toughest of the ICW, as it has so many small rivers that run through shallow marshy areas, connected by sounds open to the Atlantic. But it also has some of the most beautiful barrier islands, and old southern historic city’s such as Savannah. For us, it offered so much […]
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After our grounding fiasco by Browns Inlet in the ICW and with the windy weather subsiding for a little, we were eager to actually sail and decided to make a jump from Cape Fear/ Southport, North Carolina to Charleston, South Carolina. There we have a quick meet up with our friends Julie and Patrice from […]
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Now we have reached the end of the beautiful sailing grounds of the Chesapeake Bay and we start our first miles on the ICW. This way we are circumventing the sometimes hazardous wind and wave conditions around Cape Hatteras, a very pronounced point reaching out into the Atlantic on Hatteras Island, a large barrier island in […]
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After our brief 2 day Atlantic jaunt along the Jersey shore we are now in protected coastal waters again, travelling up the Delaware river, through the Chesapeake and Delaware canal and into the sailing haven of the vast Chesapeake Bay. We have had some awesome sails, hung out with boating friends, and attended the Annapolis […]
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Remember what happened when we sailed into Halifax, Nova Scotia? They declared a state of emergency! It was the rainiest weekend they had seen in years and broke the record rainfall of 250mm in one day. Well, we did it again! Sailing into NYC, tropical storm Ophelia was causing strong North East winds and rain […]
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As Hurricane Lee passes to the North of us we hunker down in a protected mooring basin in historic Old Saybrook, CT, where we finally get to hang out with our good friends and canoeing buddies from University days. We also have some great nights at some very interesting Island anchorages and spend my birthday […]
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After Maine our next big stop would be Connecticut to visit with some friends from university days, other than that we had not made any definite plans, just sail further south, of course. Well, the next shore to follow was Massachusetts, but where did we want to stop? Our buddy boat Breakaway had taken a […]
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Our trip from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia to Maine across the Bay of Fundy (also often referred to by sailors as the “Bay of No Fun” due to it’s tidal ranges and tidal currents) turned out a pleasant one. We were rewarded for waiting out some weather for a few more days and letting the fog […]
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What does the south west coast of Nova Scotia really look like? Well, we would only see it in bits and pieces as fog and rain were our constant companions for the last week and a half in Canadian waters. We round Cape Sable, the most southerly part of Nova Scotia, wait out some weather […]
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We had a beautiful easy morning in early August, with perfect wind and hoisted sails right away. Our son, Evan was joining us on this leg of the trip from Halifax to Lunenburg, where his girlfriend Kare was going to meet up with us and spend another weekend. We sailed out of Halifax Harbour with […]
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Well, we had seen a little of Bras d’Or, Cape Breton, so our next step would now be to get down the eastern shore of Nova Scotia to Halifax, where we would be able to visit more with our kids and work on some boat projects. However, the weather was not looking great for sailing […]
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We are hopping along the south shore of the Northumberland Strait, and getting into another province. After going through Quebec and along P.E.I, missing New Brunswick we are hitting some hidden gems of Nova Scotia anchorages. Summerside had been a wonderful stop but the weather was forcing us to leave before our buddy boat Europa […]
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As I write this we are doing a long overnight passage to PEI to get some miles in. The promised north wind we were hoping to catch to make this passage has died for now and it looks like we will be motoring through the night. However, it is gloriously warm and sunny which is […]
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We were sad to leave Quebec City. There was so much more to explore here but the winds would be favourable to sail the next 2 days. Finally, being able to try our new headsail added to the excitement of going further east. Our friends Uwe and Martina felt the same way and so both […]
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Now that we had managed the last of the Saint Lawrence seaway locks, the next chapter in our travels was getting to Quebec City. Here we wanted to spend a few nights to enjoy the sites, ride our bikes a bit and take a little breather. Our first stop was in the archipelago of Hochelaga. […]
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Sticking closer to home this year, we planned to circumnavigate Lake Ontario in a clockwise direction. Our first leg brought us to Henderson Bay, then Sodus Bay and finally Rochester. Here we were happily stuck for a long weekend after our trusty old Volvo Penta had died just 5 miles west of Sodus.
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There’s nothing better than a sailing trip with good friends! Our weekend included some engine troubles, Tall Ships and a hover craft. There was great music and food, an interesting town to explore and even a meet up with some friends on their way south. These are the makings of a perfect Long Weekend.
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The weather was looking good, so we decided to take a short trip from Gananoque through Kingston to Little Bluff south of Waupoos Island (Prince Edward County). A dinghy trip along the shore of Long Point with a stop at the most western point of PEC and the Point Traverse Lighthouse was a great little outing.
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Our first trip into the USA on Vitae in 3 years was part of our Circumnavigation of Wolfe Island with a stop in Clayton NY for the Boat Museum
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No, we did not take our boat down south yet, but we finally got the chance to reschedule our flights to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to visit with our dear friends Rob and Monica. Originally, we had been ready to go in March 2020 – but of course, Covid hit and that was that. […]
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I have always enjoyed a good challenge and well, this seemed like one of the bigger boat projects one could do with a good sewing machine.
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It may seem a long way away from the luxury of sailing, but once we have Vitae stored for the winter we are more than anxious to get out for a few days paddling.
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Killarney was next on the list and we wanted to spend a bit more time close to the little town and its gorgeous white mountains. Then we would go on to Tobermory where the crew of “Foghorn Lullaby” joined us for a weekend at Cove Island.
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Once through Little Current it became quieter again as the number of possible anchorages increases and the variety in the landscape offers different experiences.
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This was our first introduction to the North Channel. Finally, we were going to be close to Killarney. Interior canoeing was our first love, and we have spend many weeklong trips circumnavigating the killarney provincial park.
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This section of the trip was truly a highlight for us as we had passed by everything when we moved Vitae down to Lake Ontario, on our 40 hour trial by fire sail from Wiarton to Sarnia. Now we had the time to visit little hamlets like Bayfield and especially Port Elgin
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Leaving Lake Erie’s west end we entered the Detroit River, passed through Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair River to finally get to the clear blue waters of Lake Huron.
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Heading off into Lake Erie we were a bit concerned about the length of the lake, how we would break it up, and how to avoid the often choppy conditions found here…
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The Welland Canal is always a challenge, and while we have come down the Canal a few years ago we have always been told that going up is far worse due to turbulence created…
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Our trip across the north shore of Lake Ontario included stops in Cobourg, Whitby, an anchorage in Toronto’s Outer Harbour and a crossing to the entrance of the Welland Canal at Port Weller via a stop over at Port Dalhousie in St. Catherines.
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After an overnight stay on the docks in Trenton, we spent the morning scrubbing the decks and generally cleaning up. This was the first really thorough clean of the decks this year and took us a couple of hours. So nice to have it ship shape again.
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The inside passage is often used by pleasure craft to avoid the larger waves around the outside of Prince Edward County. As we were expecting some stronger seas, we decided to do this route over a couple of days. It had been a few years since we had sailed this area and we had some fond memories.
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This is our shake-down cruise in more than one sense: It’s our first trip as gainfully retired, and it’s going to be our longest sailing adventure in both mileage and time. We will be gone until at least mid August.
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This was Launch Day May 22, 2021 at 1pm at Iroquois Marine Services. We have always dreaded the departure from this spot due to the shallow and lengthy cut we must navigate to get to the St. Lawrence River.
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