SOME PARTING THOUGHTS........

Now that we've been home for a few weeks, I've had a chance to digest what we just accomplished. I want to share a few of my thoughts and experiences of this 10 monthly journey on the waterways of the US and Canada, called American's Great Loop. 

This was a huge check off the bucket list. Approximately less than 150 boats complete this trip in a year. We have traveled all over the world, but I will have to say this journey was probably the most challenging yet rewarding adventure we had attempted and completed.

It confirmed how lucky we were to have been able to enjoy the beauty of our country by water.  We got to experience, and re-learn some American history we had forgotten. The people we met really were the highlight of this journey; many of whom I'm sure will remain friends for life. 

For the most part we had great weather. A chilly start with unseasonable cold winter in South Florida. Very little rain and could not have had better weather in Canada, while the rest of the country was in a heat wave. We ran aground 4 or 5 times,( depends on who's counting). But we never had to call Sea Tow.

Having boating knowledge is a comfort. Mike was, and is a great Captain. I really never worried about anything going wrong, because he knows how to fix just about anything and has very logical mind. He was often the leader of our flotillas, so guess I was not the only one who trusted his judgement.

We challenged ourselves by transiting 120 locks, anchoring 38 nights (wish we had done more), and not killing each other! Yes, there were moments we had our disagreements, to put it mildly sometimes. But it was just the two of us, no one else was there to help, so we had to make it work. 

And make it work we did! We now fly our Gold Burgee with pride! Loopers receive a Gold flag once you complete the Loop. The more adventurous Loopers will go for Platinum if they complete the Loop more than once. We are staying on land for a while, but not too long. We are planning on a trip to the Bahamas in the Spring with several other Loopers for two to three months. You can't keep good boaters or Loopers down.  And yes, we will probably have more "disagreements". And yes there will probably be more money (a lot more) put towards repairs and improvements but remember...it's a boat!

BY THE NUMBERS: 

   

      Jan. 22 to Nov. 11, 2016

294 Days

7075 Miles

5368 Gallons of Diesel Fuel

18 States and Canada

120 Locks

80 Lighthouses

32 Days off Boat (side trips and home)

13 Car Rentals

38 Nights at Anchor (wish we had done more)

2 Prop Changes

6 Visitors (3 couples 2 times)
161 Blog Posts

                   

CARRABELLE to ST. PETE BEACH HOME / Thursday to Friday, November 10-11 (Days 293-294)

Admiral's Log:   3:35 pm, 11/10/16
                         Air Temp:   69     Water Temp:   68
                        Winds:   5 mph
                       Speed:   9.8 mph

The big day has arrived. Can't believe we are going to be home by this time tomorrow! Our plan was not to leave until the afternoon and Mike was getting itchy to get going. We were like horses smelling the barn. So we took off around 2 and did a little fishing, but had no luck.  Finally around 3:30, the other boats started to arrive. Mike was to lead the 3 faster boats and Eddy was to lead the rest. Eighteen boats gathered at Red Marker 2 and off we went.

The rendezvous spot, Red Marker 2

Leaving for the crossing of the Gulf

I think we were all a little anxious, but none more than us, since we will be crossing our wake at the end. The seas started our pretty smooth, around 1-2 feet. But around 11 pm they started getting quite choppy, around 2 to 4 feet and occasional 5 and 6 footers, which continued until about 5 am. It did not bother us much because our boat is so heavy. But we heard Sandy on Chica had gotten sick and Gabby on Crazy Love was not feeling too good either. We all agreed on an alternate VHF channel to keep in contact with each other. Once midnight approached we decided to check in with each other at the top of the hour to make sure someone was awake.

And...we're off.

We all have radar and autopilot; which is similar to cruise control, but you don't even have to steer. Someone needs to keep an eye out for fog, other boats, unusual lights etc. Eddy said he and his wife take 2 hour shifts, but they have done this crossing 7 times. I think we were just too keyed up and nervous, so neither of us could sleep. I think we slept an hour each. Plus we had some kind of shaft seal leak and one of our bilge pumps (pump out water) came on every 2-4 minutes. That' a good thing, but we needed to make sure it kept coming on. So that was another thing that kept us awake. We really did not even eat. Needless to say it was a long and nerve racking night!

Crazy Love took this of Rowe Boat as the sun was setting.

Last sunset on our Loop.

We ended up with 4 boats in our group; us, Crazy Love was heading to Madiera Beach, Chica was going to our yacht club and we picked up Tiger a catamaran going to Clearwater. We had a beautiful sunrise, 73 degrees and a big sigh of relief knowing we were almost home and had survived the dreaded Gulf Crossing! Tiger shot off earlier for Clearwater and the rest of us dodged crab pots and went into John's Pass where Crazy Love crossed their wake at Madiera Beach and we led Chica to Pasadena Yacht and Country Club.

Our last sunrise on the Loop

Crazy Love crossing their wake.

I called our neighbor Tricia to take photos of us pulling into our dock where we crossed our wake at 10:50 am on Friday, November 11. I was a little teary, it was an emotional day. I'm sure part of it was lack of sleep, but to think of where we've been and what we've accomplished was a little overwhelming. The best word to describe our feelings at that moment....bittersweet.

GPS shot of Rowe Boat at home 

Getting closer...

and closer...

We're home!

Celebratory Selfie!

PORT ST. JOE to CARRABELLE / Wednesday, November 9 (Day 292)

Admiral's Log:   8:35 am, 11/9/16
                       Air Temp:   63     Water Temp:   69
                      Winds:   4 mph
                      Speed:   9.1 mph

We woke up to find out Donald Trump had won the Presidency. I think most of us agree we did not have much of a choice for either party and most people were voting against rather than for a candidate.

We rarely drive from then Pilothouse, but it was a rainy and overcast day. There was not much to see this day. We arrived at the Carrabelle marina a little after 3. Not one of the better marina's we've stayed at, but it was just for one night. The first slip they wanted us in was too narrow. Then the next slip had a pretty strong current so we had to bow in, making it very difficult to get off the boat,  we had to practically jump off.

There is very little to do in Carabelle, so we just hung out on the boat until Suzan of Lazy Suzan talked us into our last Looper dinner. Seven boats ended up eating at the Fishermans' Wife restaurant a short walk from the Marina. 

Jane and Jack from Dixie (they are from St. Pete)

Sharon and King from Blue Moon and Lee Steinberg and Max the helper on Lazy Suzan.

Alan and Sandy on Chica, Bob and Sandy on Karine,
Mike from Aqua Finnatic, Rowe Boat, Suzan from Lazy Suzan and Maria from Aqua Finnatic
(our new Canadian friends)

PANAMA CITY to PORT ST. JOE / Monday, November 7 to Tuesday, November 8 (Days 290 -291)

Admiral's Log:   8:20 am, 11/7/6
                       Air Temp:   72     Water Temp:   71
                      Winds:   4 mph
                      Speed:   9.9 mph


Beautiful day for cruising, and no jackets! We arrived at Port St. Joe Marina at 2:15. Mike and I walked to Piggly Wiggly for a couple of basics and checked out the tackle store. 

                                      

Fellow Looper Jill Kristy from Frostproof.
Sweetest couple doing the Loop in that little 24 foot sailboat!

We called Apalachicola Marina to make reservations for the next day and were told they were full. There are so many Loopers making their way south right now, does make it hard sometimes. So we decided to stay here another night, there is more of a town here anyway.

Tyndall Air Force Base out of Panama City.

Fifteen fellow Loopers walked to the Sunset Grill for dinner. I had a shrimp and scallops in a creamy pasta sauce, which was very good. Mike had his favorite fried sampler. We took a couple of desserts home for later. 

Tuesday, Mike and several other Loopers met with Eddy Jonson the Weather Guru of the Gulf for Loopers. He and his wife Sharon live in Pensacola and he has a site called Eddy's Weather Wag. He gets up every morning at 4:30 and analyzes all the weather applications including NOAA. He then reports to Loopers what the Gulf looks like that day. Whether it's a good day or night to cross depending on the wind and waves. It was decided Thursday to Friday were going to be the days we will all cross.  Faster boats will leave Friday morning.

Port St.Joe Marina

Port St. Joe Lighthouse

Crossing the Gulf is one of the more anxious times for most Loopers. Some will go the "rim route", stopping at some of the smaller towns along the way, like Steinhatchee and Crystal River. Sometimes those areas can be shallow, and need several good weather days in a row. Most Loopers, including us, will cross the open Gulf. "Go fast" Loopers who run 15 mph or more can do it in the daylight hours. Depending on their destination; usually Tarpon Srings or Dunedin but can go further south in one day. Most Loopers, like us who run between 7 to 12 miles will start out about 3 in the afternoon and cruise all night long and get to their destinations anywhere between 8 am and noon the next day.

Mike and I walked to town, and bought a wooden buoy and glass buoy ball to put in our lobster trap table on our front porch. I went back to town with Suzan of Lazy Suzan, Sandy of Chica and Sharon of Blue Moon just for a little extra exercise.

Mike had oysters and beer and I had gumbo for lunch at Dockside grill at the Marina, which was quite good. We made a 15 bean soup with sausage to eat for the crossing. We had our last docktails of this journey. Going to miss them, it's always a great time to meet new boaters and share experiences. We discussed the crossing again with Eddy and his wife Sharon, and all agreed we were lucky to have the weather Guru along for our crossing. AND they are both Auburn grads. War Eagle!

Our last "Docktails" going to miss this camaraderie.

FT. WALTON to PANAMA CITY / Sunday, November 6 (Day 289)

Admiral's Log:   6:55 am, 11/6/16
                       Air Temp:   60     Water Temp:   69
                      Winds:   7 mph
                      Speed:   10.2 mph

We changed our clocks back last night so we did not leave as early as we thought. We will slowly work our way down the coast to make the dreaded Gulf crossing. Most of the next few days are stops all Loopers make as they prepare to cross the Gulf. 

All the bird poop makes it hard to see the color of buoys...

this is suppose to be a green buoy.

Hurricane damage?

Nice fixer upper.

Another choppy and pretty cool start. We both had on warm up pants and jackets, and of course I had on my ear muffs. We crossed Choctawhatchee Bay into a very narrow channel. 

Entering the narrow channel on the ICW

Lots of sand dunes along the channel.

We got to Panama City marina at 1:30 and topped off with diesel. Our slip was pretty far from the main ship store and pretty darn tight. We had to bow in, which ended up working out better anyway, because we fished out of the cockpit. We bought a couple dozen bait shrimp for something to do. We must have caught at least 30 fish between the 2 of us. No keepers but quite the variety; flounder, puffer, snake fish, pinfish, mangrove snapper, trout and one really big something Mike lost. 

Since we were so close to home we are trying to eat up what we have on board rather than buy anything else. So we had breakfast for dinner, one of my favorites.

ORANGE BEACH to FT. WALTON BEACH Free Dock / Saturday, November 5 (Day 288)

Admiral's Log:   8:25 am, 11/5/16
                       Air Temp:   68     Water Temp:   73
                      Winds:   4 mph
                      Speed:   10 mph

We started out with a little choppy seas, but nothing we could not handle. As we passed Ono Island, we think we passed the house of the previous owners of Rowe Boat.

Rowe Boat previous home.

Pensacola Lighthouse

Fellow Looper Diva Di from Anna Maria Island

No sure what this was but cool looking.

Eventually the seas settled, the sun came out and we listened to the Auburn Football on satellite radio. 

Crazy back yard!

Not sure if this Osprey was from the Naval Air Station or Eglin Air Force Base

Dolphins love our wake. Never get tired of seeing them.
But I'm not happy being back in salt water, missing fresh water.

Great boat name, haha!

We arrived at the Ft. Walton Free Dock at 3pm. But we were not sure where we could tie up. There were 6 slips and a long dock. Luckily there was another boater there and he told us the slips were probably too shallow for us but should be good on the long dock, which worked out fine. 

A little later The Bar B from Delaware, tied up in front of us. They are in a Nova Scotia which is the same boat as Near Miss. There were only 8 of those boats built, so kind of rare that we would see 2 of the 8. 

The free dock is part of a city park. Which was actually quite entertaining. It was like a 3 ring circus. On the left side of the park was a big tent with a wedding. On the right side several high school kids were getting pictures taken before a Homecoming Dance (I'm guessing). The middle ring of the park was the most entertaining. There were about 20 young people; late teens and 20's playing some crazy celtic games. We called it Braveheart games. 

Ring number 1, the Wedding.

Ring number 3, the Homecoming Photos

And in the Center Ring, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Larpers!

We later Googled it, and seems it this activity is called Larping; live action role playing games. Some were dressed in kilts and had plastic and cardboard swords and shields. They would line up in 2 lines, facing each other and run at each other with their swords and shields. It was hilarious! Like I said, very entertaining.

The free dock was not near town so we cooked burgers and dogs on our grill at watched the Alabama/LSU game.

Gorgeous sunset, right?!

NEW ORLEANS Road Trip / Wednesday, November 2 to Friday, November 4 (Days 285-287)

Since we were so close and love good food, we decided to take a road trip to New Orleans for a couple of days while the boatyard finished up with the boat. We had asked a couple of fellow Loopers who had lived in the New Orleans area for some restaurant suggestions. We've been several times, but always like to try new places. Tonya from Sweet T gave us quite a few, the first one we went to was Middendorf's a little out of our way in Manchac, but hey, we have no schedule. It is famous for "shaved catfish". Catfish is sliced very thin and fried of course. But it was delicious! Kind of a hokey place, but been around since 1934 and still family run by the grandchildren.

Huge field of cotton on our drive thru Mississippi.

Don't know the purpose of the fake tree.

After lunch we drove into the French Quarter to our hotel, the Grenoble House. Nothing fancy, it was several buildings combined but had character and a good location on Dauphine Street, one block over from Bourbon. We walked around and took in a few sights before deciding on dinner.

The Super Dome from my car window.

Love the wrought iron balconies.

Andrew Jackson Square 

Kind of surprised these horse drawn carriages were being pulled by mules!

We had heard another Looper couple, Dan and Jackie from Horizon Chaser were in New Orleans as well. We texted them and made plans to meet at a Jazz Club, then dinner. We went to the Spotted Cat at 5:30, luckily we went early and got a seat. Most jazz clubs don't start playing until 8, the Spotted Cat starts at 2 and has 3 different bands nightly. There is no cover, you just have to buy a drink, which is not a problem for Loopers! 

Dan and Jackie on Horizon Chaser, from New Hampshire

We had a great time listening to music until 7, then went next door to a little Italian/Creole place called Adolfo's. It was upstairs above a bar with a jazz duet. As soon as we walked in the door we were hit with the wonderful smell of garlic. We had yummy fresh muscles for appetizer then each couple split a steak covered in their famous "ocean sauce" of crabmeat, crab and crawfish in sort of a garlic, wine cream sauce. Do I need say more?! 

Since it was the night of the World Series, Mike and Dan wanted to get back to our hotels and watch the game. Our hotels were just a couple of blocks from each other, so we could walk back together and saw a street band along the way. What a game! I'm glad the Cubs won because they were definitely due, but also because the coach, Joe Madden and one of the players Ben Zobrist used to be in Tampa. We sure miss them, but are happy for them as well. Also David Ross, an Auburn guy, is also a Cub, so Congratulations Cubbies, well deserved!

Thursday, we kind of slept in a killed a little time and bought some Pralines for our moms. Then we took an Uber to another place Tonya told us about, the Parkway Tavern, suppose to have the best Po'Boys in town. She did not disappoint again. The Parkway Bakery was founded in 1911. The Poor Boy originally consisted of potatoes and maybe a drizzle of roast beef gravy; and were invented to help feed the poor boys that were the striking streetcar conductors. Now a days they put anything and everything on a Po'Boy.

We had a city tour lined up for 3 hours. We were in a 24 passenger van and our tour guide grew up in New Orleans and was quite informative and colorful. He took us through the French Quarter, Garden and Warehouse Districts, a cemetary and the 9th Ward where Katrina did the most damage. He told us that the city has bounced back pretty well, before Katrina there were 800 restaurants and now there are 1500. There is more employment now as well. The blight homes are down from 50,000 to 8,000. 

A Mardis Gras Tree

Cool statue, she looked so real, even has hair coming out of her bathing cap.

Very interesting above ground cemeteries.

Where bodies were "stored" until they could be put in a crypt.

This one was so old you could not see the names anymore.

Then there's this guy....an unopened bottle of Gin.

This guy has sort of a Katrina Museum

He then took us to the New Orleans City Park for a bathroom and drink break at the Morning Call snack bar. Similar to Cafe DuMonde with the coffee and beignets. While we were there we saw the filming of a movie. Come to find out the working title is "Shock and Awe" about George Bush and Iraqi War. Not sure if this scene was suppose to be in New Orleans or a substitute for DC. Rob Reiner was directing and we saw Woody Harrelson and James Mardsen shooting a scene. I Googled the title and also found out that Tommy Lee Jones and Jessica Biel are also in it, but we did not see them. Pretty cool.

Rob Reiner talking to James Marsden

Woody Harrelson...Cheers!

For dinner we went to Deanie's, just down from our hotel; also recommended by Tonya and our tour guide. It is all fresh seafood. Mike had oysters on the half shell and we split an order of fried shrimp. We both said they were the freshest we had had in a long time. 

Friday, we returned the rental car around noon and just chilled till dinner. We met Phase II and Sweet T at a Mexican Restaurant at The Wharf. The Wharf is a really nice Marina with a movie theater, lots of shops and restaurants. We planned to start heading east towards home Saturday and were not sure when we would see them again so we took the opportunity before we all went our separate ways again.

Mike and Tonya of Sweet T and Dave and Lori of Phase II.