Approaching the Dismal Swamp! Another boat had cleared the way for us. It is so calm we could wash and dry our rugs and hang them over the boom. Obviously this was before we took our mast down.

The Big Chute Marine Railway is a boat lift at lock 44 of the Trent-Severn Waterway in Ontario, Canada. It works on an inclined plane to carry boats in individual cradles over a change of height of about 60 feet (18 metres). It is the only marine railway (or canal inclined plane) of its kind in North America still in use, and is overseen by federally operated Parks Canada. You stay on board as you traverse the rocks and rattle and shake along with the boat! I gave a complete stranger the camera and they took these shots - thank you whoever you were! (Our mast had been taken down after New York - on the Hudson)

Georgia, sailing beside our great buddies 'Tash and Den on board SV Frodo. Perfect sailing in flat waters!

The mighty Frodo and Mariah - great times! We are towing our dinghy. This dinghy was built in a Barbados brothel by Den and Noel - it's a great story... all in Of Foreign Build (on Amazon).

Now we're in Florida with my mum and dad. That's dad and me - we loved it when we stopped all the cars so the bridges could lift just for us!

This looks like Canada to me - one of the prettiest countries...

It wasn't always sunny. We rigged a tiller extension so we could see more easily where we were steering- I still sat in the rain!

That bow has pushed through oceans all over the world...

In a lock near the The Dismal Canal.

A momentous occassion - fancy a little Aussie boat sailing into New York. We had a wonderful three days in the heart of the city.....

I loved locking through - this is in Canada...

A group are chatting to us here, 'you came all that way in THAT boat?' They couldn't quite believe it!

One of my favourite pictures, Noel at the helm, puttering through the middle of Chicago! Wonderful!

This is the Dismal Swamp. A beautiful canal with man-eating bugs! They really hurt when they bit! This canal is an alternate route along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, connecting the Chesapeake Bay with the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. The Dismal Swamp Canal is the oldest continually operating, hand-dug waterway in the United States.

Okay, this was a few years ago - I've eaten a lot more mussels since then! However, life on board was simple, easy and budget-run. So harvesting our own food was a great opportunity!

The other end of the work-scale, boats need constant maintenance. This is me, not catching aliens but rubbing back a coating of poisonous anti-foul. Each day the lads in the yard would come up to me, laugh, and say 'you still rubbing that boat Miss Jackie' - we were in Alabama!

Of course there is the money side of work - I had to keep earning by writing articles. The flat waterways allowed me to write while underway! This would be in South Carolina.

Housework (boatwork?) and laundry still had to happen - this could've been anywhere (not an ocean voyage though).

Castleton on Hudson. Getting ready to take the mast down to continue the journey under bridges!

Work work work - topping up with water in Beaufort, South Carolina.

Georgetown South Carolina. It's not all work, sometimes there's play. We spent sometime with our great friends from The Netherlands 'Tash and Den. They were on their sailboat called Frodo. Here, 'Tash and I had chatted up (or got chatted up) by the local tour boat, so they invited us along for a ride. They made us haul lines too!

Noel and Den setting up our small TV on a glorious evening anchored near Cumberland Island, Georgia.

Of course the girls had the most fun. That day the four of us trekked on the island, getting stuck in mud, getting acquainted with tics and having a jolly good time!

Sigh - back to work. I loved being in Alabama, everyone was so polite and helpful... a different way of life. We were there out of season and so the marina car was more-or-less our own. A big American tank with country music blaring out - the shops felt too close sometimes!

A taster for the next blog - I'll post pictures of us on the canals.

Waiting at a lift bridge.

The canal from Veurne to Diksmuide is narrow and shallow, which slows us down. The lift bridge operators are brilliant and manually lift the bridges and then race to the next one.

Our first sloping wall lock in Belgium

But it is all so easy with jetty's to tie to.

I love this design - friends can come stay and have their own house - you can meet in the middle!

Near Diksmuide

Our Women on Barges (FB group) flag is furled as it has some wind damage! We are about to arrive into Diksmuide and end this part of the voyage.

Horaaay!

We temporarily tied up at the visitors' dock, right next to our buddies Carole and Barrie on Silk Purse.

On the way in we saw Iron Lady. Alison and Roger gave us a very warm welcome (Alison is a WOB too - Women on Barges - and other boats too!)

Settled into our winter mooring. Here's our view on port (there's a boat tied next to us now - which is empty 90% of the time)

Our view aft

View on Starboard

Our view forward! Pretty nice eh? I think we'll like it here.

Puttering through the middle of Chicago!

Yay! Belgium here we come!

Puttering through Dunkerque

There were a few twists and turns. (They weren't noted on our charts, but our friends on board MV Silk Purse had warned us of them.) That's the great thing about being part of a fantastic Facebook Group called Women on Barges (and any other boats too!)

This lock didn't look like it had been used in a while! We were supposed to nose up to the wall and find a piece of string to pull - however, it opened automatically.

Press here for Belgium! Beam me up Scottie! lol!

The last part of our France journey.

Welcome to Flanders! We are now in Belgium.

Taken across the paddocks - see the map below to gain context on how close we are to the sea. From 1914 to 1918 Flanders Fields was a major battle theatre in the First World War. A million soldiers from more than 50 different countries were wounded, missing or killed in action here. Entire cities and villages were destroyed, their population on the run. Ypres and Passchendaele became worldwide symbols for the senselessness of war. Today, the peaceful region still bears witness to this history in monuments, museums, cemeteries and the countless individual stories that link it with the world.

This is where we were when we took the shot above (red circle).

Heading for Veurne

It's here we checked in and you can see our course in green. Hairpins on canals!

There are plenty of lift bridges here.

On the Lokanaal the lift-bridge operator told us about this spot for the night. Perfect!

Almost half way between Veurne and Diksmuide where we will spend the winter.

Our first day in Dunkerque coincided with a massive street garage sale. We purchased lots of great gear (for Noel's up and coming motorbike purchase) and this hat for me. In the UK, as well as catching up with family, I was attending horse events to promote my latest book. I needed to stand out, so checked shirts and cow-girl hats were the order of the day!

While we enjoyed a cool one we dreamed about our next boat....

.... which caused us to have another beer!

The beer was our excuse to try and find a fish and chip shop we had visited on our last foray into the European canals. It's an interesting story, we didn't have TV or Radio on board (and still don't!). When we arrived into Dunkerque (on our last boat), it was raining and we sought sanctuary in a Fish and Chip Shop. This is where we first heard about 9/11 - it had occurred 5 days earlier and we hadn't known about it!