Blog
Our last post was at the end of November in Dunedin, FL after the nasty Gulf crossing and then traveling 15 miles north to Tarpon Springs. Tarpon Springs is a wonderful small town on the Gulf Intercoastal known for its Greek heritage and sponge fishermen. We enjoyed some great Greek food before we left to fly home for the Holidays. Turtle Cove Marina is located off the main river channel and... Read full post
End of Day 120:
50 Travel Days 41 Locks 2900 Miles 1660 Gallons of Fuel Travelled 174 miles across the Gulf of Mexico leaving port at 4PM, arriving near Clearwater, FL at noon the next day Key Learnings: Dolphins are beautiful to watch up close Running in salt water means washing the boat immediately upon docking The Gulf sea conditions are difficult to predict, even with 3 different... Read full post
Every time we make an updated blog post we vow to only let one week go by until the next one. So again we are two weeks later and a lot has transpired! We left the fantastic Wharf Marina in Orange Beach on Sunday, November 10, heading east on the GICW to Palafox Pier and Yacht Harbor in Pensacola. We are still traveling with Angie and Tom and are not looking forward to "breaking up" when we... Read full post
It has taken this past two weeks to finally get out of the river systems that we have been traveling on since we left Sturgeon Bay three months ago. Did anyone see the fireworks we set off to celebrate this joyous occasion? (Just kidding...no fireworks on the boat!) In all the background information that we read and talking to Gold Loopers, neither of us recalls anyone saying the river systems... Read full post
End of Day 84:
39 Travel days 35 locks 2200 miles 1280 gals of fuel (includes fuel used by generator) Spent 5 days at a wonderful conference totally dedicated to doing the Great Loop Key Learnings: Because we like to travel at 10 to 11 mph, some Loopers consider us a "fast" boat The river scenery in Alabama is not very interesting Rain storms in this area create a war zone of debris to... Read full post
We made our return trip from Chattanooga to Joe Wheeler State Park covering October 7-12 (Monday thru Saturday) without much fanfare. A lot of repeat scenery, but beautiful all along the way. Joe Wheeler Marina sits in an inlet off the Tennessee River and is in a setting that is really breathtaking (there are earlier pictures).
We began our AGLCA (America's Great Loop Cruisers... Read full post
We took a 288 mile side trip from our route and traveled about 4 days to the Chattanooga area from Huntsville. Not much in terms of any exciting stops along the way, but the scenery just kept getting better. We stopped in two very rural marinas before arriving at the City Dock in Chattanooga on 10/1. The next three days were spent cleaning, which is never ending on a boat, and sightseeing... Read full post
Our last two days at Grand Harbor Marina ( Saturday/Sunday, 9/21-22) were spent with a friend, Steve Slattery, from McFarland. He is helping a friend, Joey, deliver a boat from Lake of the Ozarks to Punta Gorda, FL. We spent the weekend chasing football games with them We were lucky enough to find the Badger game at a great little place called Freddie T's in Counce TN. We had a geat time... Read full post
This past week has been pretty laid back in terms of activities. We have basically been travelling alone, and meeting a few Looper boats in the marinas where we have stayed. As we read about the 40 plus Looper boats coming out of Lake Michigan and heading down the river system being challenged by the the two locks that closed today (the ones we had such problems with earlier), we are so... Read full post
End of Day 43:
23 travel days 15 locks 1419 miles 1001 gallons of fuel Key Learnings: Boat is still running well Can't find parts for a 30 year old windlass, so installed a new one The farther south we go, the nicer the river scenery We don't handle continuous 95 degree days well Don't assume that they did not use metric anchor chain 30 years ago Measure 3 times (not twice) before drilling... Read full postPages
