Where we are and where we are going
Below is the rough route we started with. We knew that life throws curveballs though, so this route would likely change as our trip progressed. . . and then it did. . . when we couldn’t cross the Atlantic due to hurricanes, we figured we would head south through the Bahamas and then on to Cuba, the Florida Keys and Mexico. After Mexico, we were going to head back east and hopefully across the Atlantic to Europe in late spring. However, we had to go back to Florida to fix our boat after the jetski accident and we will be ending our trip by putting our boat up on the hard in the Chesapeake.
Click on the image below to see our route so far: (approx. 5381 NM to Mar 12, 2024)
You can also look us up on MarineTraffic.com using our AIS/MMSI number: 316051076
We are currently in:
Port Canaveral, Florida
Places we have visited
Port Canaveral, Florida
Sandwiched between the Kennedy Space Centre and Cocoa Beach, this is a very busy port. In fact, it is the world’s busiest cruise ship terminal. About 580 cruise ships pass through this port every year. We see at least one come in almost every day. There is also a naval port here. Cocoa Beach is a very popular vacation spot, especially during Spring Break. We have seen licence plates from Ontario and Quebec, as well as everywhere in the U.S. Beyond the usual American shops and culture, there are many surf shops and mini-golf places. However, in our minds, the best feature of this town are the frequent rocket launches that you can watch from your backyard!
Exuma Islands, Bahamas
These multiple low lying cays and islands make up much of what people think about when they think Bahamas. There are the swimming pigs, snorkeling, sharks, sand bars, mangrove rivers, colourful huts, conch shells, iguanas and many many sandy white beaches. Georgetown is the main hub for cruisers and where you will actually find boat shops and a grocery store that is not just the equivalent of a large room in somebody’s house. It is the destination for a relaxed pace of life.
Abaco Islands, Bahamas
We have and are visiting numerous small towns in the Abaco islands of the Bahamas. The Abacos are in the north eastern area of the Bahamas. They have numerous Cays and barrier islands to visit, all with beautiful blue water and white sandy beaches. Much of the area is quite shallow and there are sand banks and shoals to navigate around. The towns are mostly small and very rural but are visited frequently by cruisers and sport fishing boats from Florida. Much of the islands were severely damage by Hurricane Dorian in 2019 and are working on rebuilding themselves still. There is plenty of sea creatures to see, including rays, turtles and sharks.
West Palm Beach, Florida
This city is located right at the top of the south Florida intercoastal waterway. From here, if you are a large boat, you need to travel north in the open ocean. Therefore, it is a common stop-over place for cruisers to go to before heading to the Bahamas, when heading south. The harbour is surrounded by an affluent neighbourhood (althought adjacent Palm Beach is even more expensive) with lots of restaurants and shops, as well as a promenade and city ‘square’ (it is actually a triangle).
St. Augustine, Florida
Said to have been founded in 1565 and thought to be the oldest city in the U.S., St. Augustine is a beautiful historic city to visit. I think it is a wonder that so much is preserved in a state where so many distructive hurricanes hit. This city has an obvious spanish colonial feel to it. There is a well developed old town to tour, as well as a fort and beautiful beaches near by. It is a popular spot to visit for sailors and boaters, and they do a good job of accomodating us. There are many stories of ghosts and pirates associated with this city and it surrounding areas.
Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina
This beachside community is actually part of Wilmington’s metropolitan area. It looks like it is probably a very suburb to live in. There are so many people out ever evening running, cycling and walking. There is a great park with playground area as well. To top it all off there is a 6km long beach island with nice sand. We approached from the open ocean coming down from Beaufort, but you can also approach it on the ICW. It is a popular spot for student from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington and cruisers heading north or south along the eastern seaboard. It has experienced it share of hurricanes in the past. It was also the location where the show Dawson’s Creek was filmed.
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk (and Portsmouth just across the river) are just at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. The largest naval base in the world is located here and as you enter the city via the Elizabeth River, there are large gigantic naval ships including destroyers, aircraft carriers and support ships. It made our boat feel small! The city itself is has many historic districts and museums. It looks like it has undergone a lot of revitalization in recent decades. We didn’t spend much time here though, so I can’t say much more.
Saint Michael’s, Maryland
This is a charming little town on the east coast of Chesapeake Bay. It was historically a ship building town and a location of battle during the War of 1812. It subsequently became a popular osytering and clamming location and has a great Maritime Museum that outlines this history. Now a days it is a popular place to stop for cruisers and those looking for a quick but quiet get away.
Baltimore, Maryland
In the 1830’s Baltimore was the second biggest city on the east coast of the US. It is a major port city and the Baltimore Ohio B&O Railroad was started there. However, in more recent years it is much further down the list of populus cities in the US. Despite it being fairly large and spreadout, the population is only about 580,000. In 1904 there was a major fire that decimated about 70% of the downtown core. They had a lot of rebuilding to do. When wandering around the downtown core, the Inner Harbor, it can seem very sparcely populated. It is home to the National Aquarium and John Hopkins Medical School but also has a history of high homicide rates. It appears that they have been trying hard to gentrify many of the areas in Baltimore and hopefully they are able to achieve this because some of the areas are very nice and there is so much history there.
Newport, Rhode Island
Popular port city at the entrance to Long Island Sound and just off the Atlantic Ocean. This city is steeped in New England cgharm. With the boat loads of cruising visitors (small boats and cruise ships alike) there comes plenty of shops and restaurants. They are pricey, but I can see the attraction. They had lovely warm weather when we were there in August but they do experience cold winters with plenty of storms during the winter months. Newport is an hour from Providence and one and half hours from Boston.
Port Washington, New York
This is a lovely upscale port city on the north shore of Long Island. There was a very cute downtown core and also another area of town that was almostly perfectly set up for cruising boats. There was a town dock, located near a grocery store, hardware store and a West Marine as well. There are also laundromats that are easily accessible. You cna also walka short distance to the train that takes you into the big city. On our last day, we happened upon a saturday morning market and got some yummy chocolate croissants.
New York City, New York
No description needed for what this city is all about. It is well known throughout the world and home to many iconic landmarks. Instead I will provide some random facts about the city that I gathered while here: There are over 1.6 million people living in Manhattan itself and over 8.4 million living in the entire city of New York. New York has 421 skyscrapers that help make up it’s impressive skyline.
Annapolis, Maryland
This is the capital of Maryland and previously was the capital of the United States for a very short time. It has a population of just over 40,000 and lots of historic buildings. It is also the location of one of the U.S. Naval Academy. It has been known as the sailing capital of the U.S and often plays host to big sailing conferences. There are a lot of marinas and boats in this small town!
Solomons, Maryland
This lovely town is right on the waters of the Chesapeake and only 1.5 hour drive from Annapolis. It has at least 6 marinas in this town of just 2500 people! We have seen lots of jellyfish in the waters here and it seems that some of them are stinging so we will probably stick to the pool. We have also seen Canadian geese and lots of herons.
Beaufort, North Carolina
A picturesque town on the coast of North Carolina. It looks to be a popular place to get away to. There were historic houses down all the streets. Many had names plates on them and it looked like several were for vacation rental. Along with the house came golf carts. It was very common to see golf carts driving around the town to get people where they wanted to go. Front street is right along the water, which housed several marinas. Right across the river is the main anchorage and then an island full or grass and low mounds that wild horses live on.
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is a medium-sized port city in South Carolina. It is the biggest city in the state of South Carolina. It was founded in 1670. It is known for it’s pastel houses and cobblestone lined streets. It has a fort, aquarium and a city market in it’s French quarter. It is full of history and southern hospitality. It has access to the ocean but also to rivers and marshes.
Florida (Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Fort Pierce)
Florida is the boating capital of North America. Boating is a big part of many people’s lives here because the land is so integrated with the ocean through canals, inlets and the Everglades. It was interesting to read about the Everglades in the Museum of Discovery and Science that there was a big push to drain the ‘swamp’ for many many years and then it changed to conservation. Boca Raton is a upscale suburb of Fort Lauderdale with lots of shops and restaurants. It had a great new dinghy dock associated with a park. Only problem was, we couldn’t park our rental car there overnight, so we had to park it in the commutor train parkade 1Km away. Fort Pierce is just south of Cape Canaveral and is a cute beachside city/community with mangrove habitates across the bay.
Nassau, Bahamas
Nassau is the capital city on New Providence Island and the Bahamas. It is a major stop for cruise ships and individual cruisers, probably because it is only a day away from Florida. The people drive on the left side of the road here but often in left-hand driving cars imported from the U.S.
San Salvador, Bahamas
This is a small island on the outskirts of the Bahamas. We only stopped here for one night to give ourselves a break in our passage up to Florida. There are many that believe that this was the island that Christopher Columbus first set foot on when he discovered ‘The New World’. So there are several monuments to document this. We didn’t get to explore because it was very rainy here this day. But we have read that the people are friendly and there is almost 100% employment on this island because of the Club Med, so they do well economically. It certainly looked like they did a good job of keeping up their houses and building despite previous hurricane damage. Interestingly, they drive on the left side of the road here too. They also use the Bahamian dollar which is interchangable and on par with the US dollar. They speak english on this island.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico is another organized, unincorporated US territory. It accounts for over 90% of the combined population of all the US territories. Puerto Rico was colonized by Spain in 1493 after Christopher Columbus sailed over here. It remained possessed by Spain until 1898 when it was acquired by the United States during the Spanish-American War. In contrast to the other islands we have visited in the Carribean to date, this island is very much hispanic. They have two official languages of the governement, Spanish and English. However, Spanish is most prominent as it is the primary language of over 95% of its citizens. The currency is of course the US dollar. They drive on the right side of the road. Insterestingly, they have distances to places in kilometers, but speed signs are all in MPH. San Juan is the largest city on this island by far. It has a beautifully colourful old town that is a must see and next to it is a well-preserved large fort, the Castillo San Felipe del Morro.
Saint Thomas, USVI
Saint Thomas is one of the US Virgin islands, which is a territory of the United States. It is an organized, unincorporated territory of the US. Which means it has some self autonmy and some self-governance. They have a non-voting representation in the US congress. Their citizens are US citizens but have no voting rights in the US. They also do not pay the US taxes. This is a popular stop for cruises and the main town Charolotte Amalie caters to the cruise ship passangers. There looked to be a bustling business of yacht charters as well. When you arrrive you can see that they have more money and ability to rebuild after hurricanes than many of the other carribean islands that we visited previously. It still have a distinctive carribean feel though. Interestingly, they drive on the left side of the road on this island! They deal in US dollars.
Sint Maarten/Saint Martin
This is a facinating island. It is one of the smallest populated land mass divided by two countries. It is a part of France and a part of the Netherlands. The border between the two is open and you can drive just 5 minutes and go from one culture to the other. The Dutch side, is said to be, more bustling and offers more shopping and pubs, while the French side is more laid back and offers lots of restaurants and quiet beaches. However, despite the cultural influences this is still very much a caribbean island behind the shops and restaurants in the bays and resorts. On the French side they use Euros and speak French. On the Dutch side they use US Dollars and Dutch Guilder and speak mostly English (although if you listen to passers by you might catch a conversation in Dutch). Both countries are still recovering from being hard hit by Hurricane Irma in 2017, when 95% of the buildings were damaged and 70% were made uninhabitable. There is a little more headway with rebuilding in Sint Maarten in an effort to get the cruise ships coming back to port. We stayed in Simpson Bay/Cole Bay area in Sint Maarten which has a lagoon connected to the ocean and is very calm.
Martinique
Martinique is actually a region of France. This island is more urban than the more southernly Windward islands. We stopped in Marin Bay. It was bustling! There were tons of sailboats and has a very popular looking Club Med. Sailing charters abound here. There are lots of boat shops here but is still limited in it’s size, at least at the bay we were in. They speak french on this island, of course, and drive on the right side of the road. They use the Euro for currency.
St. Vincent
St. Vincent is the largest island in the country of St. Vincent in the Grenadines. This was a very quick stop over for us so I can’t say much about it other than that it is very hilly. It’s capital is Kingstown but we stopped in Chateaubelair which was quite small. They speak english in St. Vincent. On this island there are ‘boat boys’ that greet us as we entered the bay and with a small fee (usually approximately $10-20CAD) they will show you to an anchor spot and either help you anchor or take a line to shore to help you tie up. It is difficult to say ‘no’ to them, and not recommended. It seems best to be friendly. They also come up to your boat to offer you food to buy or to take away your garbage.
Carriacou, Grenada
Carriacou is a Grenadine island that is a dependancy of Grenada and is located just north east of the main island. It is home to 8000 people. It’s capital city is Hillsborough. They speak english in Grenada. Their main currency is the Eastern Caribbean Dollar. They drive on the left side of the road. Carriacou is know for it’s coral reef diving sites. It is also known to be very friendly, healthy and safe; which we have found it to be.