This is it, coming to the end of our trip!

We woke up early Monday and headed over to the mast dock at the Oswego Marina around 9am. Mast went up smoothly and we got everything connected and promptly went back to our slip to do all the detailed work …

Today we were booked into the marina, and we only had a half nautical mile to do. We left the free wall, and went right into lock O-8 for the last drop down to lake level. We had a short chat to the lock master who also has a small …

We left in the morning and started our transit down the Oswego locks towards Oswego. Things went well enought, but we were locking the whole day with a group of 5 other boats, and we were always last in line, so it was a bit of a tricky tie up …

We spent and extra down day in Brewerton, catching up on blog posts, doing some work, and relaxing a bit. Had some nice Chinese food for dinner which was a nice treat as well.

The following day we left the dock very late morning, just doing a very short 10NM …

We left pretty early in the morning and got underway. We had a couple of locks to do, the first of the locks going down which was neat.

We had planned a short trip today stopping just before Oneida Lake. However when we got there, the lake was like glass …

We left little falls after getting some water and a pump out in the morning, and headed down the canal.

It was a bit of a short day, only 22NM. We maybe could have continued on but then it would have been a very long day as there didn't seem …

We left the wall at the top of lock E-12 in the morning. Shortly after leaving I noticed a sudden change in the sound of the exhaust again, and looking at the exhaust noticed less water and more white smoke. I had a sinking feeling that our repair had failed …

We left off yesterday tied up at lock E-7 with a broken exhaust.

Theone picked up the part we researched and found in stock at the auto parts store in the morning, along with more hose clamps. With those parts in hand we could finally complete the repair. It's a …

Today we finally (after much waiting) start the lock system. It's a long journey yet, 23 Erie Canal locks, and then 7 Oswego Canal locks before we get back to Lake Ontario.

We started pretty early and the Troy lock was first up. We ended up having to wait a …

We left anchor around noon in order to catch as much of the current pushing us up the Hudson as we could. It's kind of crazy that we still have the flow of the Hudson reversing based on the tides of the ocean this far inland. But soon we'll past …

It was time to finally leave the dock after a really beautiful week in Catskill. We decided to do just a small 15NM hop north along the Hudson to Houghtailing Island, which was a nice ease back into moving again. Also or first time out as a purely motor vessel …

When we left Kingston I was hopeful there might be some light winds we could use for our last sail before taking down the mast. We motored out of the harbour, and I raised the mainsail to catch a tiny puff of wind before everything went completely still. Defeated we …

We spent an extra day at anchor in Poughkeepsie as we aren't in any rush, still waiting on news about the Erie Canal opening.

During our day in Poughkeepsie, Theone rowed Aria and I ashore and we went for a hike around the area while Theone enjoyed some alone time …

We left pretty early from Indian Point, and sailed off anchor in very light winds. We didn't make it more than a nautical mile before the wind died out completely (such a tease) and we ended up having to motor. The wind did pick back up about half way through …

We had a nice couple of days Dyckman Landing. The current here is quite strong so we had to time our rowing into the marina to make it easy. Also lots of J/80's on balls here and there must be an active racing community. We saw quite a few …

We were happy to set out the next day after a rather rolly night behind the Statue Of Liberty. It wasn't horribly rolly, but rolly enough that a single night is enough. It's also much worse during the day as there is a lot more boat traffic.

We raised anchor …

It was an overcast day, and not much wind forecast overnight, so we decided to go and anchor for a night at the Statue Of Liberty, since we hadn't done that yet.

We came out of the marina, put up sails and did a short bit of sailing. But it …

We booked a couple of days at Hudson Point Marina, and have decided to move over there and see what it's like. It's a lot more expensive than being on a mooring ball, but there are a lot of nice things about being on a dock.

We left the mooring …

This ended up being a bigger sail that originally planned. We were going to sail a single night outside to Cap May, stay a night then continue to New York, but weather turned a little in our favour and it ended up being good winds to do it all in …

We really enjoyed our stay at Tidewater, very nice marina. And we had a lot of fun exploring Portsmouth and Norfolk. But we are homeward bound and it was time to continue on. There is a weather window opening up to go outside to New York, and we decide to …

We made a pretty early start and headed out with plans to get all the way to Norfolk today. Not much wind and not much of a great place to sail anyways, so we motored this entire stretch.

It's a lot of bridges through this section but it's pretty easy …

Ended up a short day today. The weather was rainy and gloomy this morning. We considered just staying put where we were but finally decided to just do a small 11NM motor to an anchorage a little further on. A compromose between doing something and doing nothing.

We dawned our …

We spent two nights anchored in Little Alligator River, which gave us a day to just hang out on the boat which was nice.

The next day was very windy, gusting 20 to 25 knots, but in a great direction for us. So we pulled up anchor and rolled out …

We woke up to some large wakes rocking the boat (one downside to anchoring right along the ICW), and so we got up and under way. Nice easy sail off anchor just rolling out the genoa after pulling up the anchor.

We had a nice downwind sail from our anchorage …

One of the reasons we had come to Belhaven was that we needed a pump out, which they offer at the town dock we were at. However the machine wasn't working the office staff said, and someone way suppose to come take a look at it. Well that person showed …

Theone had us up early as she was eager to see a doctor, and we motored straight over to the town docks in Belhaven. It was a bit sketchy getting onto the docks, as it was pretty shallow, but the docks themselves are quite nice. We came in and got …

Theone's ear had been hurting the past couple of days, and although she was hopeful it would get better on it's own, it was only getting worse. We realized we were going to need to get to somewhere so she could see a doctor, and Belhaven was the next logical …

We had a late start to the day, and decided to make a very short sail today just to get us a little further along. We sailed off anchor and out through the channel at Broad Creek and then out towards the sound. About half way the wind ran out …

We spent 4 nights at Homer Smith Marina in Beaufort which were really lovely. It was refreshing to be back at dock, with all the amenities. After some boat cleaning, and showers we were feeling pretty good. We also went out for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant which was quite …

We spent a couple nights at anchor just inside the Beaufort inlet at the anchorage called Fort Macron. We needed the rest so two nights here were perfect with a south wind and good protection. A fair bit of boat traffic, but coming from the ocean it all seemed very …

After much prep and weather watching, we were finally leaving the Bahamas. I liked the idea of jumping into the gulf stream and sailing it north, so we did some research and it seemed like something we could handle. We did a lot of predict wind weather routing and found …

So, our weather window was looking good, and we made the decision to leave in the evening on the 16th. We don't really like leaving right into a night sail, but sometimes that is what works best for the winds, and this was one of those cases.

We had spent …

Winds were much lighter in the morning, and coming from the north directly now, so we had much better protection where we were at Pensocola Cay.

I decided to try a new technique sailing off anchor since we were close to the cliffs. Normally we raise the main sail but …

We woke up to a rather large swell and strong north west winds in front of Coopers Town. It was a pretty uncomfortable morning, so we got underway quickly after waking up.

Raising anchor was a real challenge here, and I had to bust out some gloves. We were in …

Had a nice couple of nights at Manjack Cay. Met up with Bluemoon and got to see their Guineapig setup on their boat (they have two Guineapigs onboard), which was actually quite brillant. I couldn't picture it before seeing it, but it works quite well.

They are heading back to …

We managed to stick out a couple of nights at Great Abaco. We had good wind protection, but quite a bit of waves rolling in, which made it rather uncomfortable at anchor. But it wasn't horrible and maybe our least bad option.

We did however make the most of it …

We were at Crab Cay for a couple of nights while we had some strong southeast winds. We went ashore the first day and I somehow managed to knock a coconut out of a tree with another coconut. We attempted to get a couple more by boosting Aria up a …

We spent two nights at Manjack Cay on the western tip. The anchorage was nicely protected from the winds we had, but at high tide we did get some ocean swell coming in, and so it was a bit rolly now and again because of that. We ended up re-anchoring …

We woke up with plans to cross through Whale Cay Cut today. This little section of the Abacos is very shallow between Whale Cay and Great Abaco Island, and so the deep route is to go out and around Whale Cay. This means timing the tide to avoid currents, etc …

We spent 5 nights at the dock at Orchid Bay Marina on Great Guana Cay. This was a nice break from the constant go of cruising and gave us some time to relax and catch up on work, boat projects, provisioning, etc.

We didn't actually get up to a whole …

After not being able to get a mooring ball in Hope Town, we decided to book a stay at Orchid Bay Marina on Great Guana Cay nearby. We've been on the go a lot lately and we were looking for some down time. Also there was a fair bit of …

Had a bit of a lazy morning before getting underway today. We planned a little 20NM sail up to Hope Town. Nice light winds, but enough to sail, so we raised our full main and sailed off anchor and floated out of the anchorage and due north. Had some fun …

Today was finally the day, making our big crossing north to the Abacos. It was a bit of a northern migration with the 30+ other boats from our anchorage all heading the same way. I'm not sure why, but we were a bit apprehensive about this passage. I guess we …

Our plan today was to make our way to Current Cut (a narrow bit where as the name implies, the current gets quite strong with the tides), and then head over to Egg Island to anchor for the night before heading north across Providence Channel to The Abacos.

The wind …

We spent some time in Rock Sound waiting out some weather, and re-provisioning before heading north again. We had quite a little front come through with enough wind to flip our dingy that was trailing behind the boat. Thankfully we had the paddles tied down on deck, so our only …

Very lightwind day today. We sailed off anchor nice and easily, and headed towards Shroud Cay.

We put up the spinnaker, realized we needed to head upwind a short bit more (oops), doused the spinnaker, sailed the 10 minutes more we needed, and then raised it once again. It was …

We waited out the strong winds in Pipe Cay anchored close to our friends on Atlas VII. It was quite windy, but we were anchored up pretty well and we were nicely protected as the winds wrapped around from the south through west to north.

Our chain seemed to get …

Our first night anchored in Pipe Creek didn't go so well. The evening was wonderful, but late that night I woke up and noticed the little motor cruiser that we were anchored some distance away from was right up close to us. I suspect we were being influenced more by …

We had a nice night at anchor, and woke up early to head across the sound. Winds were light to start, but made for an easy sail off anchor.

We were on a close hauled tack for most of the way with a perfect line to Staniel Cay, but shortly …

Today was our crossing back across Exuma Sound to Eluthera. We had some nice east winds predicted for the day which would give us a nice wind angle to cross the sound. We wanted to leave early to give ourselves lots of time, but this meant going through to Lumber …