When we’re cruising day after day and anchoring out overnight, we get to a point where we’d like to take in the creature comforts a marina will afford. Most marinas offer the essentials of power, water, fuel, laundry and showers, but every once in a while we are “wowed” –…

We left Duncan Bay knowing we’d travel south on the Tennessee River for only 4 hours, so it wasn’t going to be a long day. Twenty-nine miles later, at mile marker 62.6, we made a starboard turn into Cypress Creek, then another right into the first cove. What we found…

We had been towing our dinghy for over a year when we finally decided to get serious about finding a davit system. Towing is easy and inexpensive, however towing can also become problematic in rough seas or at higher speeds, so we wanted to find a solution, a viable launch…

While cruising through the Killarney Channel, on our way to Collins Inlet, we received a call on our VHF. After switching to channel 68, Bill, the guy hailing us, told us that, as he was standing on the balcony of his channel-side home, he noticed our red Ranger Tug slowly cruising…

Georgian Bay is on our cruising bucket list, a trip like this deserves a dedicated stretch of time to explore properly. With that said, we decided to get our toes just a little wet. After we left Covered Portage Cove, we passed through the channel in Killarney for a short,…

Doubling our pleasure comes to mind when we think of our visit to Covered Portage Cove in the North Channel. Not only was it our first time anchoring in this cove, we also had the pleasure of  rendezvousing with friends Charlie and Linda on Freedom’s Turn (above). We met them in 2008…

From South Benjamin Island we made our way past Little Current, Strawberry and Heywood Islands as we skirted south of Frazier Bay to enter Lansdowne Channel on the way to Covered Portage Cove, just west of Killarney, the old provincial outpost that separates Ontario’s North Channel from Georgian Bay. We had…

Torch Lake has lots of fond memories for Lisa and I. We each boated here before we were married and began our boating adventures together on this lake. We used to trailer our 21-foot Four Winns Sundowner to Torch Lake to spend long weekends on the hook, but since our…

Lisa made me promise we’d stop in Fort Lauderdale for a week, so after staying in Homestead for two nights to catch up on work and other chores, here we are putting the boat in the water right at Cooley’s Landing Marina (below), on the New River at the beginning…

When leaving Key West by water, heading east to Marathon, there are two Intracoastal Waterways (ICW) route choices. There is the un-obstructed, direct route of Hawk Channel which runs parallel to the Keys and cuts into Florida Bay at Marathon. Hawk Channel is somewhat protected from the coral reefs that…

Just for you Rob! We left Key West Harbour early in the morning – with calmer waters and clear skies forecasted, we thought it was time for a little excursion to the Marquesas Keys. The Marquesas sit 18 nautical miles west of Key West and are uninhabited. Our thoughts were that it…

Ever since we arrived for our month-long stay, it’s been very windy and this has inhibited our plans to explore the surrounding area of Key West by boat; we were getting itchy to push away from the dock. We’re usually not interested in taking random boat rides, so when we…

I am truly in the swing of things on day two in the boat yard. The good news is the On & Off product helped de-wax the hull, one of the steps needed to properly prepare the hull for bottom paint. Next, and it was probably overkill, I applied acetone…

We never addressed the issue of bottom painting our Ranger Tug until one day, while taking our boat out of the water in Ft Myers Beach; we were surprised by the excessive growth of barnacles on the hull of Kismet. We recognized the problem and we wanted to take care…

If you’re a boater or have ever walked a marina dock, sat on the back deck or cockpit of someone’s boat, you’ve most likely had the occasion to inhale the odiferous and unpleasant aroma coming from the vent of a black water holding tank as someone flushed their business down…

Recently we made a post about meeting Ted, on Manatee (below – left), a very friendly boater whom we spent only about an hour of total time with. We first met Ted while we were both traveling south on the GICW (we slowed down for a short conversation about where…

Lisa and I gave a great deal of thought to the purchase of our Ranger Tug and GMC tow truck but, until recently, we never gave too much thought to the dinghy we’d need and how we’d transport it on and off of the water. We finally had some boating…

Our last morning in Cottonwood Canyon was as still as could be. This made it even harder to leave this beach anchorage, but we knew we would have a morning full of visual delights as we headed out towards our day’s destination, Davis Gulch and Llewellyn Gulch. The sky and water…

On our fourth day out, we found the well protected, but wide open, Oak Bay for a couple night stay, we shared a beach with only one other houseboat. This is one of the most popular bays for boaters in Lake Powell. Today we were more comfortable with picking a…

The mystery of the unknown is one of the most compelling reasons why we love exploring new to us, boating destinations. Lake Powell more than satisfied our quest to be inundated with awe inspiring sights as we made our way up the lake, around the crested buttes and all the rock…