Sea Ya on the Loop

Celebration Party for our Loop Closure!

2011-11-06T13:48:00.001-05:00

Last night we had a party to celebrate crossing our wake on the Great Loop. It was a fun time with many old and new friends.

SEA YA completes the Great Loop!

2011-11-02T14:23:00.001-04:00

On Monday, October 31, 2011 we crossed our wake at the mouth of the Tenn-Tom and completed the Great Loop. After we left Hoppi's ( we had to stay there 4 days so Dave could fix a very leaking oil hose), we anchored for 3 beautiful, peaceful nights and then on to Green Turtle Bay Marina for a reunion with friends Dave Smith and Bill Seward. We had a great week running around with Bill, ate out a lot and saw a hilarious live stage show called Smoke on the Mountain. We left Bill and Green Turtle on Sat. the 29th and headed for Pebble Island Marina.

Soon to be replace by a GOLD burgee!

Beautiful home along the shore

We're almost there!

WE crossed our wake!

We DID it!!!!!!!

Point at which we completed the Loop

What a wonderful adventure this has been. Lots of sights, lots of friends, lots of stories to tell. We have finished the Great Circle Route but we're not finished yet. We are heading for Cape Coral, FL for a winter of sunshine and warmth. We will go home for the month of December though. WE HAVE TO SPEND CHRISTMAS WITH OUR GRANDKIDS:-) Then it's back to FL till spring. The plan is now to take the boat back to Green Turtle Bay Marina for next summer. It's a one day drive from home and the area is a great place to vacation in the summer. Who knows.....we may do the loop again!!!!!!

Chicago to Hoppie's Marina

2011-10-14T21:00:00.000-04:00

We left Chicago, Sat., Oct. 8th on a beautiful sunny morning. We've stopped at Hennipin, Il, East Peoria, Havana, Grafton and are at Hoppie's marina tonight. We've passed beautiful bluffs, lots and lots of barges, seen traditional paddlewheel boats and the arch in St. Louis.

The big event of the week was today. While waiting to go through lock #26 today, we were told to anchor along the Ill. shore for about an hour while a large barge was going through the lock. When it was our turn, we had trouble bringing up the anchor. When it finally came up out of the water it was entangled in the looped end of a large steel cable that must have been attached to something at the bottom. It wouldn't budge!!! It took us and hour and a half to get it off. Meanwhile we had 20 to 30 mile winds. I (Peg) was at the helm while Dave worked to get us untangled. When it finally came off, the Lockmaster asked a large barge to wait while he let us into the lock next. We made it to Hoppie's marina before sunset and are glad to be tied up for the night.

Chicago Guests

2011-10-08T10:06:00.000-04:00

Our stay in Chicago was blessed with many visitors. Friends from Taylor University, friends from home, and family that live in the area. We had three days of fun and fellowship. Docked in Dusable Marina right by Lakeshore Drive, we enjoyed the night lights of the city, Navy Pier and cruising along the shore line. We have been to Chicago many times before so we didn't do the museum tours this time. A walk through Grant Park on a beautiful, sunny, fall day was a treat.

Cruising Lake Michigan

2011-10-03T10:14:00.000-04:00

Since we last posted we have traveled to Mackinaw City, Charlevoix and are in Frankfort this morning. The seas have been calm and the sun has been shining. We had thought we would have delay on Lake Michigan because of weather, but God has given us cruising mercies and we are thankful. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Stafford's Weathervane restaurant in Charlevoix and saw a couple of the fairytale designed houses right across from our marina. We enjoyed the 480 foot sand dunes along the eastern shore on Sunday. Today we will head for Ludington.

Back on the boat!

2011-09-22T21:31:00.001-04:00

When we last posted, we were in the Apostle Islands with our family, having a great time.........THEN.......Dave came down with terrible chills and a high fever. We assumed that he had the flu. We decided to go home on August 13 to recover. On Aug. 15th I took him to the emergency room where they sent him to University hospital ICU. He had a bacteria in his bloodstream that just about killed him. After very strong antibiotics in the hospital he was sent home with an IV in his arm that pumped antibiotics into him every 4 hours for 4 weeks. Praise God, he is well now and feels good again. While he was recuperating, we hired some great people at Pikes Bay Marina in Bayfield, WI to finish up all the repairs and upgrades on SEA Ya.

As of today, we are back on the boat and plan to scoot out of Lake Superior starting Saturday. The weather looks promising for getting across the lake. We hope to complete the loop sometime in Oct. when we reach Tennessee. Then on to the ALGCA rendezvous the end of Oct. We will then head for Florida where we will spend the winter.

You never know what life will bring your way so live each day with gusto!

2011-08-14T12:44:00.001-04:00

Here are some pics of the last two weeks with our kids and grandkids in the Apostle Islands. A fun time was had by all.

August 2011

2011-08-14T12:34:00.000-04:00

Apostle Islands, Lake Superior

2011-08-10T22:02:00.002-04:00

The boat is back in the water and we are enjoying the Apostle Islands out of Bayfield, WI. Christine, our daughter, and her husband, Ben, spent last week with us with their 3 children. This week we have our daughter-in-law, Dawn, and 4 grandsons with us on the boat. We're having fun with our new dinghy, a Boston Whaler, and 2 kayaks on board. Dave has been taking it easy, finally, after weeks of working on the boat. He still has two new vacu-flush toilets to install, but this week we are just having fun with our family. We plan to explore the north shore before we leave Lake Superior for Lake Michigan and rivers south.

It's been over a year and a half since we were last on the boat so we are getting used to our boating routine all over again. Most of it is coming back fast. We'll post some pictures soon.

2011-07-23T19:04:00.005-04:00

Greetings from Lake Superior. We are still on the hard in Superior WI but hope to have SEA YA

back in the water by the end of next week. Dave has been hard at work for weeks getting her ready to finish the loop and the spend the winter in Florida. We are looking forward to the AGLCA rendezvous at Wheeler resort in Oct. I have been cleaning the inside and getting rid of stuff that we didn't use before on the loop. I(Peg) am really looking forward to cruising again. I love our boat. When we get her afloat we'll head for the Apostle Islands and Bayfield, Wi for a few weeks with our children and their familys visiting for some boating fun. We will then head East to Lake Michigan and ports south on our way to Wheeler rendezvous in Tennessee.

On to Lake Superior

2009-09-08T18:02:00.004-04:00

The morning after we escorted the freighters up the St Mary's River, we left the marina in Sault Ste. Marie and called the lock. They usually route "small craft" through the Canadian locks, but this time they called us into the gigantic US locks. We were in the 850' lock, not the 1020' lock for the really big freighters. We had been in higher lift locks on the Tennessee and TenTom Rivers, but never in one this strategic for major shipping lanes. The lock hand threw ropes down to us and we went up the 20' rise to Lake Superior. We had a batch of spectators in the gallery that we visited with as we came to the top of the lock. From there, we went on down the St Marie's River into White Fish Bay.

This picture is of the Whitefish Light House, the oldest light house on the Great Lakes. Whitefish point is famous because it is the place where hundreds of ships have gone down in storms. One of those was the Edmund Fitzgerald. Apparently, in storms, the waves converge at this point creating hurricane like waters. We passed through, cheating Davey Jones again. The water was very smooth.

We bumped the boat to a higher speed for the day, as we needed to cover 90 miles to get to an inlet where our boat would fit. Lake Superior is famous for vicious weather, and in addition, there are not many places to get off the lake in bad weather. The forecast for the lake was good for then next 5 days, so Peg and I decided to take advantage of the situation and pack in the miles while the lake was calm. Our first trip was 90 miles to Grand Marias, MI. The second day was 72 miles to Marquette, MI, and our third day was 90 miles to Houghton, MI, on the Portage canal. This put us within 125 miles of our final destination in Bayfield, MN.

Along the way after our night in Grand Marias, we passed by some beautiful shoreline. There was about 5 miles of huge sand dunes, then we came to the Colored Rocks. We would like to spend more time there when the weather is a little more stable, but we took the time to follow the shoreline past these beautiful formations.

We passed this lighthouse right after pulling out of Marquette, MI. We left in early morning and I thought this was a neat picture that depicts what we saw all along the way across the lake.

My original plan after Marquette was to travel North around the huge Keneewaw Peninsula. As I was studying the guide book the night before, I learned that there was a canal that ran right through the middle of the peninsula called the Portage Canal. It cut a lot of time out of our travels, and was a beautiful area. We stayed at a state marina, left early in the morning for a 125 mile trip to Bayfield.

We made it into the Apostle Islands at 5PM in the evening, getting into the slip by 7 PM. We were tired, but it was a smooth trip and we will not be travelling for a while. We plan to stay in Bayfield for a month, and then move the boat down to Duluth, MN to put it into heated storage. We chose to spend the month in Bayfield because it is possible to boat and anchor out around the islands even in bad weather. There is protection in the islands, plus they are beautiful and fun to hike around on. Our family is going to visit us and enjoy boating with us for the rest of the month. The plans are in place and we will be busy entertaining and enjoying family for the month.

I will probably not be updating this blog very much for the winter. I will keep you posted if I add anything. We are having the time of our lives, loving every minute of it. We also have met our main goals, thus far - We have not been in Readers Digest 'Drama in Real Life', and Gordon Lightfoot has not written a song about us.

Our New Travel Partners

2009-09-03T18:33:00.002-04:00

We left De Tour Village this morning into the St Mary's River. The river was absolutely still with a little mist over it. On up the river we caught up with a freighter that had slowed in the river because of fog. I could run out of the channel, so I passed him slowly and went on with the radar on and good visibility. I looked at the radar and about 1 mile out, there was a huge blob in the middle of the channel. It looked like an island on the screen. When I got there, it was two freighters stopped in the channel waiting for the fog to lift. Aw we got there, they started moving slowly, so I followed them the rest of the way to Sault Ste Marie. They are our new travel buddies. They don't say much, and a couple of times I had to get on the radio and get after them for one dumb mover after another.

When we got to the city, we docked at the city marina and rode our bikes down to the locks to watch them go through. The one that I followed was 1010 ft long, the longest freighter on the great lakes.

They moved on without us. So much for making new friends. Maybe I should not have been so tough on them for their inability to run the ship.

Mackinac Island

2009-09-03T06:46:00.004-04:00

We stayed at Cheyboygan for one night after checking back into the US and left in the early afternoon on Friday for Mackinac Island. The weather on the way was gloomy and there was a strong East wind which did not affect our travel, as we were behind a protective island. As we approached Mackinac Island, we could see the Grand Hotel and the large old wooden houses from about 10 miles away. Peg and I had never been to the island, so we were pretty impressed with the place.

When we pulled into the marina on the island, the basin was fully exposed to the eastern wind, but where we were docked, the waves were not as bad as in other slips. We were rocked well into the evening, but it settled down later, then picked back up in the morning. Needless to say, we did not stay on the boat much that day. We toured the island in a horse drawn buggy and went through the stores in the downtown area. Our friend Bill was in a slip that was getting the wave action from the wind and he had a miserable night trying to keep his boat from getting damaged. By Sunday, the weather had calmed down and it was sunny and beautiful.

Admiral Peg found an Internet special at the Grand Hotel which was pretty reasonable, so we left the boat on Sunday afternoon and went up the hill to the hotel for two nights. At the price we paid, I expected our room to be in steerage, but it was a beautiful, fairly large comfortable room. Of course, at a place like this you eat your way through your entire stay. Breakfast and dinner were included in the price and they made certain that you did not leave hungry. Since getting back to the boat, we have not eaten much. Peg did the unthinkable and took a picture of her plate of food. We have truely entered the old codger era of our lives. We really enjoyed our stay in the beautiful hotel, and we enjoyed the quiet rest.

We left the island on Tuesday and came back across Huron to the ship channel that leads to Sault Ste Marie on the St Mary's River to the little village of De Tour. I spent the next day studying the guide books and charts familiarizing myself with Lake Superior. This is not a lake to mess with, so I want to be prepared.

We parted company with our friend Bill on Sunday afternoon. He is heading on down the Eastern coast of Lake Michigan, while we go to Duluth on Superior. We have spent most of our trip with Bill and will miss his company. He is a true friend and I learned a lot from him about boating and life. I am sure our paths will cross again in the future.

Back in the USA

2009-08-28T09:46:00.003-04:00

Wednesday, we left our last anchorage in Bear Drop Bay in the North Channel, and crossed the open water to Drummond, on Drummond Island where we entered through customs into the US. It is good to be back, but we enjoyed every minute of Canada and remember our trip through their waters as the most beautiful on the adventure, thus far. The crossing was smooth all the way, which is important in large bodies of open water.

We spent the night at the Drummond Marina and pulled out on Thursday morning to cross Lake Huron to Cheybougan, Mi. We were in need of fuel, and Cheyboygan was the best price in the area. We were out in open water the whole day and the weather was beautiful the whole way across. Today, we are going to go to Mackinac Island to rejoin our friends on Cynthia Faye. We will probably stay there for two or three days. The price of dockage in the US is more than half of the price in Canada, and fuel is more than half the Canadian price.

Our plans have changed for the rest of the loop. We have decided to take advantage of being north in the great lakes and we want to go explore Lake Superior. We will put the boat in heated storage in Duluth on Barker Island for the winter, then move it to a marina for the summer. We plan to boat around Superior for the first part of the summer, then move on back to Lake Michigan in mid August and complete the Great Loop in the fall of 2010. The decision came about when we saw how much our kids and grandkids liked being on the boat. This will be a chance for our entire family to enjoy more time boating together. I will also be able to do some upgrades to the boat while it is in winter storage, since it will be 3 hours from home. We have travelled with our friend Bill on Tortuga for almost the whole trip and we will miss his companionship. I am sure we will link up again in the future. Bill and I are 'two peas in a pod', as Peg said. What I don't think of, he does. We have had a great time together and we taught each other a lot in the time we have been together.

The Fishing is Good

2009-08-28T09:32:00.003-04:00

Things started a little slow in Baie Fine. This was the largest that I caught the whole time we were in The Pool
We didn't catch anything in Oak Bay, but when we moved to Bear Drop bay, things picked up. This catch was the first day we were in Bear Drop.
Then the second day, we caught more. It was fun trolling around the lake with a line in the water and actually catch something. There was a man on another boat that was a real fisherman, and he caught a huge northern pike. Ours were kind of small, but they were good to eat. I removed the bone line that is such a nuisance in northern pike.

Rockin' and rolloin' in Georgian Bay

2009-08-21T18:53:00.003-04:00

When we left the Gun Barrel Channel early last week heading to Kilarney, the wind on the bay was to have died down from 20 to about 10 knots. We had shelter from the SW winds for a short period of the trip and the waves were not bad at all. As soon as we got into the open water without shelter, it was obvious that the weather report was wrong, and we took a quarter beam sea for about 9 miles. For the most part, it was not as bad as some waters we had been in before, like the Albermarle Sound on the east cost, but we took two hard hits that were the worst we have had to date, and it actually moved the couches around on the aft deck. Peg also looked real good in green from head to foot.

We could not be outdone by our friends, the Groves, who have similar pictures from a rough ride on Lake Ontario.

2009-08-14T08:12:00.005-04:00

This is the line that I picked up coming out of the Lost Channel anchorage. It was tangled around the starboard propeller, and I went under and took it off at the marina in Penetanguishene.
On our second day of travel in the Georgian Bay, we stopped for lunch at this famous little Henri's fish house on Campfire Island. They had huge dock facilities and while we were there eating, the docks started filling up. There were two float planes that flew in just to eat at the restaurant. The pickerel (walleye to those from Minnesota) was wonderful.

The Georgian Bay is the most beautiful of the places we have travelled through thus far. The area is full of granite as you can see in the pictures. As we travel through the waterways, there are houses built right on top of the huge granite boulders. The soil layer is very thin, so there many places without much vegetation. Fortunately the channel is very well marked, and my chart plotter is very accurate on depths and locations of rocks.

Yesterday, we pulled into Hopewell Bay to anchor for the night. I have not seen so many stars as I did last night. There is no extraneous light in the bay. I sat out on the front deck for a long time last night soaking in the beauty of God's great work. So far, I have not caught any fish, keeping up my record of turning every body of water where I through in a line into the dead sea.

Finishing the Trent Severn and into Georgian Bay

2009-08-09T16:04:00.003-04:00

We completed the Trent Severn on Saturday, August 8. It was a 240 mile, 45 lock waterway that was loaded with beautiful little lakes, large lakes, and lined with little family cottages with large gatherings enjoying their holidays. The picture shows the final anchorage in a secluded spot named Lost Channel.

The final day on the Trent Severn took us through some very slow waters where the channel was narrow and the shoreline was lined with boats. We also encountered two, one boat wide channels with wild currents where you had to announce on the radio that you were coming through because you could not see through the channel until you were in it.

Probably the highlight of the day was the Big Chute Railway where they load the boat on a rail car in slings and as they start up the rails, it lifts you out of the water and carries the boat over the crest of the hill and lowers you 65 feet to the waters below. It was quite an experience. We tied up at a pier as we arrived, got off the boat, and spent about 1 hour watching the operation. We then got into line to get loaded. I was not sure how they would handle our boat, but when it was our turn, they called in a pontoon boat loaded with the max number of people - that boat ended up sitting on the platform when the life came out of the water. They then loaded two boats that were about 17 or 18 feet next, behind the pontoon boat. They then called us in, and they eased us in right up in the center of the two boats ahead of us. It was funny watching the eyes of the people in the boats in from of us as we pulled in. The bow pulpit on our boat is about 6 or 7 feet above the water and the boat weighs 35,000 pounds. As I approached, the attendant was telling me how many feet I was away from the boats. We got down to 1 foot, and he told me to stop. It was close, but it all worked. In the back of my mind, I was thinking, 'I hope nothing goes wrong with my electronic engine/transmission controls. Once in, we had a lot of fun talking with the other people in the boats.

The boat actually rested on the keel, and the transom was hanging way out over the back of the rail car. One of the attendants noticed that I had a line wrapped around my starboard prop and he went down under the boat to try to get it, but could not reach it. I plan to put my mask and fins and go under tomorrow to remove it. My friend Bill has an air diving system that I can use to breathe while I am removing the wayward line.

Lock 45 was the last lock on the Trent Severn. Our good friend, Linda is opening the lock doors for us. Unlike the sophisticated locks on the Tennessee River, the locks on the TS were mostly manual; thus, they were much slower.

Once through the last lock, we were in the Georgian Bay, and the channel wound back and forth to get out into open water. It took a long time to get out. The channel was leading us though the rocks that were in the shallow water. We made it through with no problems.
Midland, ON is known for their murals. We walked around town for a while before going to a restaurant for supper. The Town docks were a little rocky with lots of waves during the day, so we pulled out on Sunday morning and headed for Penetanguishane, to the Bay Mooring Yacht Club. This is one of the nicest marinas we have visited, thus far. The people drove into town and brought out gourmet coffee for all of us. They got a car for us to go into town to the grocery, and also walked out on the dock tonight to see if there was anything else we needed. We are staying here for two days.

Fenelon Falls to Sunset Cove Marina

2009-08-05T21:23:00.005-04:00

The night on the lock wall at Fenelon Falls was done totally on batteries, and we watched our use of electricity very closely. They were pretty low in the morning, but once we got underweigh, the engine alternators charged them back up. Peg really took it seriously, lighting candles so that we could sit up on the aft deck.

Wednesday's travels took us through the Trent Severn Canal, some of the most feared and dreaded part of the Trent Severn. The top picture shows how narrow it is all the way through. Fortunately, we did not meet any large boats on the way through the miles of the most narrow part. It is carved through rock, so any mistake can cost you lots of $$$'s. We made it with no problems, but it does get a little uncomfortable when you see the depths come up to 2.5 feet under your keel. I think some of the guides are a little alarmist in their writeups, plus the water is deeper this year than last year.

We came to the second lift lock, only on this one, we pulled the 35,000 boat right up to the edge of the trough, about 60 or 70 feet above the land below. It was a little disconcerting for both of us - Peg out on the front deck seeing almost straight down, and me up on the bridge looking out across the countryside like I was up on a mountain. Also, the sides were not as high as the first lift lock, so we were really able to see over. All is well, and we made it safely through.

The famous Hole in the Wall Bridge, built in 1905 is shown above. It is 28 feet at the center, so there is plenty of room for one boat to pass. We are enjoying the Trent Severn though it is pretty slow travelling with all the locks and shallow water.

We docked at Sunset Cove Marina for the night. It is just ahead of the long string of locks coming up. I even fished in the evening and caught a few little sunfish that I threw back. It is also much cooler at night. All non Minnesota people are bundled up, except for our frozen friends from Michigan. The days are also getting a lot shorter.

Peterborough to Fenelon

2009-08-04T20:48:00.004-04:00

August 3 - When we left Peterborough, we came to one of the unique locks on the trip. The Peterborough Lift Lock was built in 1904, and you literally go into a swimming pool at the bottom, the boats at the top go into their swimming pool, and they add 1 more ft water to the top to make it heavier, and they raise the lower one up with the weight of the one coming down. The lift was 64 ft and it is done through large water hydraulic cylinders on both of the locks. It was pretty amazing being suspended 64 ft above the lower river in a tub full of multi-ton tubs of water.

At Peterborough, a foot infection that I had in Florida flared up again, and I had to go the ER on a Saturday to get it looked at. The doctor prescribed some anti-biotics and it is getting better. I hope I can get it cured this time. I am wearing my sneak with the laces undone to relieve the pressure on the top of my foot where the soreness is.

One of the things that boaters dread is hidden rocks under the water. We passed through a beautiful lake called Stony Lake today, which is laden with granite (very hard on props and drive shafts), but stunning. These picture depict the beauty of the area. There is no problem as long as you pay close attention to your charts and markers, but sometimes, as one of my good friends found out last year, the markers are ill placed. We so enjoyed this section and did not have any problems.

Aug 4 - We are tied up at the lock wall in Fenelon tonight. It is a neat little town that surrounds the lock in the center. When we pull into the locks, they are surrounded by people taking picture of us coming in and tieing up. We enjoy talking to the vacationers as we are lifted in the locks, and maybe even sparking a little interest in them doing the same thing in the future. On the way here we crossed Sturgeon Lake and it was very windy, but not uncomfortable.

These are the falls at Fenelton. We are enjoying the evening here. The generator is still not working and the part to repair it is a couple of days away; so, Peg and I are sitting here with candles burning, the ice maker and bar regrig turned off and guarding the usage of amperage. Tomorrow, the main motors will charge them up again. We are saving the battery power for the regrig and other important items.

The Trent Severn Waterway

2009-08-02T15:53:00.003-04:00

Trenton, ON is the beginning of the Trent Severn Waterway. This waterway will take us to Georgian Bay and it is full of locks and famous for shallow areas and lots of rocks to ruin your day of boating. The marina at Trenton was really nice and was run by some great, helpful people. We stayed two nights and then started the trek up the waterway. On the first day, We cover 31 miles through 12 locks in over 9 hours to the town of Campbellford. We were very tired when we arrived because we both had to tie lines to the lock wall cables. I was running from the helm to the cockpit to catch the aft cable, then back up at the end to start the engines and get ready to move to the next lock.

At Campbellford, we filled up with fuel and docked on a free wall without electricity. The next morning, the generator would not start. I traced the problem to the failing part and have new one on order to be sent to someplace on down the waterway. We will not be able to anchor or take advantage of free lock walls until the generator is fixed.

Our next stop was Hastings, ON, where we docked for the night and went to a little restaurant that had the best halibut fish and chips. This little town had one traffic night. We were sound asleep when some excitement took place across the river. At about 11pm, a car full of teens drove into the river right across from the marina. The street led right into the water, and I assume they had been hitting the happy juice. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
The marker C54 is where our friends that did the loop last year bottomed out and did expensive damage to their running gear. We had to honor Madison and Marlene with a moment of silence as we pass the marker. It was only fitting.
The trip across Rice Lake in the morning was beautiful. The water was like glass and the shoreline was fabulous. It was good to see so many little vacation cottages being used by families. Minnesota waterways are being taken over by the wealthy with giant homes, and you never see anyone enjoying the water.

We were crowded into the smallest lock of the trip with more boats that they were putting into the larger locks. The lockmaster took our picture. As we left this lock, we pulled into a marina in Peterborough, ON and will stay in the marina until the Canadian Holiday weekend is over. Last night, there was a concert featuring the Canadian Tenors in the park next to the marina. We sat on the bow and enjoyed classical voices singing beautiful music. The park was packed. We plan to leave tomorrow move on northward.

Lake Ontario and on to Canada

2009-08-02T14:51:00.006-04:00

We left Oswego early in the morning to go east on Lake Ontario to Clayton, NY. It was foggy and rainy, but the lake was pretty smooth and we had a great trip. A fourth looper boat came up behind us and joined our procession up the lake. John and Barb on Scoperta have been with us ever since. In Clayton, we all had breakfast together in the morning at a great little cafe in the downtown area. We walked around town until the antique boat museum opened, then went to the museum.

The antique boat museum is the largest collection of restored wooden boats in the world. They were beautiful.
After the museum, we took a 12 mile trip through the 1000 Island region to the little Canadian town of Gananoque, Ontario. I was the only one that could leave the boat to check in with Canadian Customs, but I had my cell set up to use in Canada, so I checked in from the boat without any problems. The next day, we wandered around the town and took some pictures of the magnificent old homes. We left on Sunday morning with the intention of stopping in Kingston.

When we got to Kingston, we could not find a place to stay. We really wanted to stop there, but there was this big thing that we could not dock anyplace. Kingston was crowded because of a special celebration of the military on that weekend. We went on to Picton and tied to a mooring ball for the night. The next morning we left Picton and headed to Trenton, ON

The Erie Canal

2009-07-31T21:10:00.007-04:00

After the Hudson River, we came to a fork in the water. We either had to take the Champlain Canal, which was straight ahead, or the Erie Canal that turned to port. We had to take the Erie because we are running a little late on our travels, and we do not have the time to go to Lake Champlain and Montreal.

At the mouth of the Erie Canal is the neat little village of Waterford. Waterford has a long wall with electrical hookups at their Visitors Center, and it is free for 2 days, and $10/day for extra days. The guys on the boats that we travelled with walked downtown every morning to a little eatery for a $3.99 breakfast. The people running the Visitor Center were all volunteers and they were so nice and friendly. On Sunday, there was a wonderful farmers market set up on the sidewalk right next to the docking area, so we stocked up on fresh fruit and vegetables.

It is back to locking again. The locks on the Erie are not the mammoth locks of the Tennessee River. About 4 boats our size can fit in, and sometimes there are ropes hanging from the walls that you need to hold onto, or there were cables that you tied a rope around from the center cleat.
There were a lot of free walls to tie to for the night. We always asked the lock master and they always let us tie up. This picture is from Fonda, NY where the wall was along the county garage. We were locked in for the night and could not get to the ice cream parlor that was in plain site of the boat. That is like putting a dog in a cage and setting a big steak right beside the cage.

I thought it was interesting that there are giant guard gates in several spots along the Erie. They are there to protect down stream villages from being wiped our in case of a lock door failure. We went through 5 locks, one after the other, and were lifted 140' in the distance of about 5 miles. That would be a lot of water dumping down on a little town all at once.

The Remington Gun factory was in the little village of Ilion and I took the tour of the factory. It was interesting to see a gun made from start to finish. The gun business is booming and they are working at almost full capacity.

Our other stops on the canal were in Sylvan Beach and then to Brewerton, after crossing Lake Onieda. We stayed a couple of days at Brewerton while I repaired a window and got a replacement for our VHF radio, which died.

Next was the 20 mile long Oswego Canal that took us to Lake Ontario, at Oswego. Along the way, we spent a night on the free lock wall with electricity at Phoenix, NY. They had tables with umbrellas along the walkway for us to use, and we had dinner there. It was a charming little village and all the villagers would walk along the wall and visit with us.

In all, we went through a lot of locks in a very short space.

On to Kingston

2009-07-31T20:45:00.002-04:00

The Hudson River has huge barges that are pushed by large tugs that pass you like you were stopped. They don't make a huge wake, but they displace a large amount of water that leaves the water very disturbed for a long period of time.

There are quaint old light houses all along the Hudson that are very beautiful. I think they are all automated, as we did not see any life in the buildings

We pulled into a Kingston Marina, guided by our friend Dan Mapes. Dan helped us get tied up and then took us to stores where we re provisioned. That evening, we had dinner at an Italian restaurant with Dan and his wife Deb, and Bill. The next morning, Bill left the marina and I waited for a delivery of motor oil from a local parts store. Peg and I went into Kingston and ate breakfast at a quaint little cafe on the main street. I had never been to Kingston before, and I found it to be a real neat little town. It seemed smaller than I thought it would be.

We left at about 10, headed for the Erie Canal

Moving up the Hudson.

2009-07-25T21:20:00.011-04:00

We left the mooring ball in Great Kills and went into New York Harbor after passing under the Verazano Narrows Bridge. After we passed under the bridge, the Coast Guard proceeded to stop all three of us travelling together for a safety compliance check. They did not board our boat because we had papers from an inspection performed in Key West. After that, we all took turns passing in from of the Statue of Liberty for pictures. We then went behind the Statue and anchored for the night.

At about 6:30pm, all the friends on the other two boats came to ours, and we took an evening cruise up the East River to the United Nations, then came back. I had always wanted to go under the Brooklyn Bridge, and I finally got to do it in my own boat.

The anchorage behind the statue was a little lumpy while the ferries were running, but it really didn't bother us while we were sleeping, as the Staten Island Ferry only ran once per hour. I pulled up a cable from the bottom both times I raised the anchor, which provided a challenge to get it off. The second time, I was an expert.

In the morning, we left the anchorage and went up to the 79th Street Marina, which was not too pleasant. The boat rocked a lot while were were in the marina. We went down to times square and got tickets to the Broadway musical, South Pacific. That evening, we went to the Lincoln Center and really enjoyed the old musical. I had forgotten that the theme was interracial marriage, which has become sort of a non-issue today.

The next morning, we left the marina and went up the Hudson, under the George Washington Bridge, past Yonkers, past the Palisades, and between the Catskill Mountains. There were train tracks along both sides of the river, and the trains ran constantly. It was a beautiful ride, one of the best thus far on the trip.

At night, we anchored in the river behind a little island that had a castle built on it. It was so peaceful after the rocky water in New York. The trains went by a lot, but they were so fast that the noise did not last long.

Tomorrow to Kingston where we plan to spend the evening with our fellow boaters from the Bahamas, Dan and Deb Mapes.

New York City

2009-07-12T21:57:00.009-04:00

While we were on the mooring ball on Statin Island at $35/day, vs $200/day in a marina in New York, we took the train from Great Kills to the Statin Island Ferry and went into New York two times. I love the mass transportation that New York has to offer. It is so cheap and easy to use. I wish our city had more ways to get around than driving the car every place.

While riding the Ferry, we passed our symbol of freedom. It guarantees our right to pursue happiness. It does not guarantee that the government needs to provide our happiness as it has been twisted over the years.

We bought tickets on the tour bus, which is usually the best way to see a lot of the city. You can get off at many points and walk around, then get back on the bus again. I enjoyed the bus because I got to see things I had never seen before. We were with our friends Jack and Linda, who were experiencing New York for the first time. I was glad to be able to help them find their way around since I had been to the city about every week from 1986 to 1990. Once I found a complete map of the subway system, I was very comfortable.

Times Square is always interesting. It is really a busy place and now offers chairs that you can use to just sit and watch the people, or take in the giant screen video displays. It is not a good place to experience New York because New Yorkers don't really go there. It is for tourists. They have chain restaurants that a New Yorker (or me when I am in New York) would ever enter. True New Youk restaurants are probably the best place to eat on the earth, and there are thousands to choose from.

We visited Ground Zero. One intersting thing was the fire house that was right across the street from Ground Zero. The picture shows a memorial for the brave firemen that lost there lives in the World Trade. I was a little disturbed by a display they had nearby in a remembrance place that talked about forgiveness for the this attack on our country. Forgiveness is due to people that ask for forgiveness, which I do not think is the case in this attack. Back in the 80's, I had an office in the North Tower where the plane came in. They are building a new skyscraper on the site.

I had never been to Harlem in all my travels to New York. I always thought it was a dangerous place that you never wanted to enter. It was actually very nice and just as safe as any place in NY. Of course, we had to take a picture of the famous Appollo Theater. We saw the wall of paper where people could leave messages for Michael Jackson. We also saw the largest Protestant and Catholic Church in the world on the northern loop of the tour bus. If you visit New York, I highly recommend the tour bus.

Yes...We braved the 2 million person crowd to see the 4th fireworks. Only in New York....I have never seen such a spectacular fireworks display in my life. I have never see fireworks that could make a smiley face, square, 3D triangles and boxes, and about four "Grand Finales" before the final "Grand Finale". The crowd was very civil and we had a lot of fun talking to the people with whom we were crushed together with.

Overall, we really enjoyed the day, but got back to the mooring ball field after the shuttle that takes you to your boat had stopped running. Our good friend Bill, brought his dinghy in to get us all back to our boat for the evening. It was 2:00am when we got back.

The next day, I went to the grocery store and restocked the boat supplies. I also relaxed after a long day in the city.

I really enjoy New York City.

Annapolis to New York Harbor

2009-07-12T21:06:00.007-04:00

It has been a while since I have had a chance to provide an update on our travels.

After pulling out of Annapolis, we travelled all day to an anchorage in the Chesapeake to Delaware River Canal for a night, pulled out early the next morning and went down the Delaware River to Cape May, NJ. The trip down the Delaware was smooth and we had an outgoing tide pushing us all the way. The Delaware River and Bay was huge. At the mouth you could barely make out the shoreline on either side. From Cape May on into NY Harbor, we would be out at sea.

From Cape May, we boated to Atlantic City on a very lumpy sea. Peg looked really nice in a shade of green. We docked at a marina in Atlantic City, visited the aquarium that was at the dock where we were staying. We then walked about 4 miles on the famous board walk to the down town casino area. On the way back to the boat, we loaded a cab with 3 people, and two of walked back.

<> The next day, we boated to Shark River and stayed at the city docks. Coming into the Shark River, we had an incoming wind against an outgoing time of about 3 knots, also facing a lift bridge that we did not fit under. We waited out in the ocean until they opend the bridge, and then headed i. The water was so turbulent that I was constantly turning the wheel back and forth to maintain course. There was no danger, but it was exciting.

The next morning, we pulled out and went the rest of the way to Great Kills, NY on Statin Island. Here we tied up to a mooring ball, which is much more secure than anchoring. If you look back at our horrible experience wit a mooring ball in Key West, this was so easy to hook up to, which is the way they are supposed to be. We stayed there for three nights.

Annapolis - 6/26 through 6/29

2009-06-29T17:46:00.004-04:00

We made a 65 mile trip up the Chesapeake from Solomon Island to Annapolis. Bill was able to get dock space for me at the military marina, which was on a creek that was not very close to the city. We rented a car for $20/day and drove in to see the sites.

Annapolis is a neat little city. The statehouse was the nations capitol for a short period of time when the United States was free from England in 1783. We spent ate at the ChartHouse on Saturday night, which was a great place for dinner. On Sunday afternoon, we drove all over the downtown area looking at the old row houses, then walked throught the downtown area and went through the State House for Maryland. Bill's military card got us into the naval academy and we drove through the streets inside the fences for about an hour.

It was a nice place to spend time. On Monday morning. Bill took off before us since his boat is slower. I took the car back to the rental agency and left later. We are in an anchorage in Chesapeake City, just below the Delaware border. Tomorrow, we will go out into the Delaware River and travel down to Cape May, where we will make a crossing of the Atlantic to New York Harbor. We would like to be anchored in the harbor for the 4th.

Solomon Island 6/22 thru 6/25

2009-06-29T17:19:00.004-04:00

On Monday morning we left Washington DC and headed down the Potomac back to the Chesapeake Bay. We for the first night in a beautiful, peaceful location about halfway down the river. The next morning we left early and exited the river at around 1:00 where we met up with our good friend, Bill, who finally caught up with us. We travelled up the Chesapeake to Solomon Island and went into a marina.

Solomon is a quaint little town that we enjoyed for a few days. We ate in some restaurants and enjoyed the crab that comes from those pesky crab pots that we dodge all the time. We don't have too many pictures of the place because we kept forgetting the camera. We followed the tall ship into the harbor, and we think it is heading to New York for the 4th of July. Bill helped me fix an anti-freeze leak on one of my motors that had been plaguing me for a couple of weeks. Of course, it was in an impossible place to reach and it helped to have another set of hands.

We left the Solomon's and headed north to Annapolis on Friday morning.

A great week in DC

2009-06-23T09:03:00.009-04:00

Chris, Ben, Caden, Macey and Liam arrived at our boat at the Gangplank Marina in DC on Friday, the 12th of June. We spent a day on the mall seeing all of the monuments, a day at the Space museum, the Natural History museum, watched them print money at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, went to Mt. Vernon, the American History museum and spent a day boating on the Potomac. We had a great time and the week went way too fast. We were sorry to see them leave for home on the 20th.

Surprisingly , the boat didn't seem crowded at all, everyone had a bed and enough space! Our Tolly has a queen size hide-a-bed in the salon and the forward cabin bed was big enough for all 3 kids. They liked their beds with their own reading lights.

Mr. Miller Goes to Washington

2009-06-09T19:00:00.006-04:00

We made it! We left an anchorage early on Monday morning with about 86 miles to get to Washington before the dock service at the marina closed. We did it. I guess there is a reason that I bought a boat with 800 HP. I can't wait to pay the fuel bill for that run.

The Potomac is a beautiful river, and if George Washington threw a rock across it, he must have an arm like Popeye. The river was over a mile wide most of the way, with the shoreline sort of in a mist on both sides. At Mount Vernon, it must have been 3/4 mile wide. On the way, there was a lot of debris in the water caused by heavy rains the week before. There were huge logs that would have ruined a prop, and we had to dodge them for the last 20 miles of the trip.

We are in a marina where we can see the Jefferson Memorial, and the Washington Monument. Ben, Christine and kids are coming on Friday to stay with us for over a week. I can't wait. We are going to see the sites, and on one of the days, we plan to boat down to Mt Vernon for a day. They have docks there where we can tie up for the day.

Last night, we forgot to go up and close the windows on the aft deck and helm. Everything was soaked, but it will dry out. I closed it up tonight and we had a downpour. i had all the couch cushions on the deck today to dry.

We are right in the path of helicoptors that I think are trying to trimmy radio antennae; and the Washington airport is just on the other side of the river. We have plenty of noise, but I love seeng the helicoptors. An Apache helicoptor flew over today

Deltaville, Virginia

2009-06-07T19:25:00.011-04:00

We had a wonderful time in Deltaville, Virginia. Deltaville is right in the center of all the history of the Revolutionary war that liberated our country from England.

We visited Williamsburg, first. This is the place where Peg and I went on our honeymoon. I think people were a little surprised that we went to a place like Williamsburg for our honeymoon when there are many more exotic places to go for this special event. It was 1966 when I married the girl of my dreams, and we did not have much money, but we had a VW bug, and with what we had, the trip through the mountains and the small towns was very special for us. When we got to Williamsburg, it was not as we remembered it. I don't think Williamsburg changed..... we just didn't remember very accurately. We do know that they had much better reenactments of the events leading up to the revolution from the viewpoint of the patriots, loyalists, and the slaves. They had a two hour set of vignette's scattered about the village depicting the feelings of each constituent and how they looked at the revolution. it was very well done. They also added guided tours through the top homes and buildings which added a lot to the understanding of the times.

The Jamestown tour did not have the preserved homes and businesses of Williamsburg, but was also well presented through movies in the visitors center, and reconstructed indian villages, fort, and sailing ships that brought the colonists to America. I was especially dazzled by the people on each of the ships and their nautical knowledge of the olden days. It is the origin of the technology that is built into the charts and chartplotters that I use on Sea Ya. Does anyone know where the measurement of 'knot' come from???

Yorktown was the third leg of the triangle, and probably the most enlightening for me. It had very little in the way of things to walk through and see, but the visitor center and museum had a wonderful depiction of the timeline to freedon for our country. From my history studies, there was the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, then "boom" we were free from England. This site had a very clear depiction of what actually happened for almost 10 years from the Declaration. We lost so many battles to the British that I was amazed that they kept going forward with the fight. All it took was a good win here and there to keep the patriots fighting. I also learned that the bloodiest fight was between the Patriots and the Loyalists in NC and SC after the British were defeated. It lasted for a long time. This location would be very boring for children, but fascinating for anyone interested in what got us to the great nation that we are today.

The weather has been windy and stormy, so we needed to wait for a break On Sunday, the break came and we travelled 65 miles up the Chesapeake into the Potomac River on our way to Washing DC. We are at an anchorage 26 miles up the Potomac and plan to be in Washington tomorrow.

Charleston to GeorgeTown South Carolina to the Chesapeake

2009-06-03T07:18:00.008-04:00

It has been a long time since I updated the blog, and a lot has happened since I last posted. Follows is a quick update of our travels:

May 9, 2009

Travelled from Charleston to Georgetown, SC, the target city we have been doing very long days to get to for the replacement of our canvas. You can see in the pictures that our boat has a fully enclosed flybridge and aft deck. Canvas lasts about 10 t0 12 years and ours was falling apart, and the plastic windows were getting foggy. A shop in Georgetown, as reported by another looper traveler, did good work at a reasonable rate, and the shop agreed to do it in 11 days. As it turned out, he needed one additional day because bad weather with high winds slowed him down. We are delighted with the work done by Sharps Canvas and are really enjoying the new top and some of the creative design features that Scott Sharp added to our enclosure. Scott is a Christian man and I really enjoyed working with him. He is very conscientious and a good at his trade. He is also a musician, which can't help but make him a good guy.

While the canvas work was being done, we went home to fill up our love buckets with our family. It was a wonderful time and we spent just about every waking moment with one family or the other, or both. We also had a wonderful morning of worship at Grace Church. This time with our family cemented in my mind that our year long trip is an adventure for me and not a lifetime way of living. I am having a wonderful time, but being around our church and family are verrrrry important to me.

While at home, we also met with a young couple that has dedicated their lives to sharing their faith with young people all over the world. Dustin and Katie Kelm will be living in our house for a few weeks while they are in town. Dustin is a world champion unicyclist and he uses his talent to capture the attention of the young people so that he can share his message of salvation with them. They have a very effective ministry adn are making a difference in peoples lives.

Georgetown is a small town with a lot of antibellum homes and buildings in a little restored downtown area, right on the water. We enjoyed their restaurants and walking some of the streets looking at the beautiful old homes. it was a very friendly place. We also did our re-provisioning of supplies on the boat.

May 26 through June 2

Most of this time was spend on the water to get north as soon as possible to the Potomac so that we can be in Washington, DC to meet our daughters family there. I believe we are close enough now that we can slow down. We had several long days of travel and need a little break. We took the time to spend a day in the teeny town of Belhaven on 5/29. It was a fun stop and Peg was really impressed with the decorating and landscaping at the marina. The bathroom and shower room was decorated very nicely and it was like being at home in your own bathroom. We also had one of the best lunches at a little locally owned restaurant. The place sold wine, books and music, and had a little gourmet restaurant with the wife as the chef. It was a fun place, adn since we were the only ones in the place, we had a nice visit with the husband and wife owners.

After Belhaven, we travelled two days to make it to the Norfolk, VA area. We stopped at a marina in Portsmouth to link up with our looper friends, Bob and Peggy Olson on "Baby Grand" so that we could travel together. On 6/2, our two boats headed out of Norfolk into the Chesapeake Bay in some of the most beautiful weather we have had on our trip. On the way out of Norfolk, we passed a huge naval base and saw destroyers and aircraft carriers. Bob and Peggy left ahead of us, and Bob was out on the deck taking pictures of the ships, when he looked forward, there was a destroyer backing out of dock and was about 500 feet in front of him. There was no warning that he was backing out. Bob stopped and waited for the ship to turn and head out to sea, then followed the destroyer down the channel. I asked him if he chewed the captain out for not signalling.

We are now in a beautiful marina in Deltaville, VA and will be sharing a car with Bob and Peggy to visit Williamsburg and Jamestown.

Beaufort, SC to Charleston, SC

2009-05-15T15:50:00.007-04:00

May 7, 2009 - We left Beufort in the morning and headed north through the Intracoastal Waterway to make it to Charleston by the end of the day. The travel in this section of the ICW is not the most popular part of our adventure because of the winding, narrow, shallow, and rather monotonous scenery. We travel for hours through grassy swamp and the waterway is so winding that the auto-pilot is not very effective. Horrors!!!!! I actually have to steer the boat, plus keep a watchful eye on the depth sounder and the charts. Fortunately, we did not have any groundings, but it was tiresome. We arrived at the City of Charleston Megadock and got into a slip in spite of brisk winds and very swift opposing currents. Several times while docking, I needed to rev the motors quite high to overcome the wind and currents; whereas, this is usually done with the motors at idle. We were pooped after a day of travel and ate on the boat and rested for the evening.

In the morning, I fixed a substantial breakfast and then we got on the bikes and rode to the information center for Charleston, where we purchased trolley tickets for the day so that we could see the sites. We went first to the Charleston Aquarium, which was very nicely done and very enjoyable. We then went down to the center of town for a mid-afternoon lunch, then took a horse drawn carriage ride through Charleston's historic district. We had wanted to go to the Maritime Center, but it was getting late and we did not want to ride the bikes in the dark to get back to the boat. Peg bought a grass basket at the Charleston Market. We have been to Charleston several times, so most of our activity was just doing things that we had not done on other trips. If you are going to Charleston for the first time, you should plan to spend several days to really enjoy the city.

On Saturday morning, we packed up and headed north again to Georgetown, SC.

Beaufort South Carolina

2009-05-09T07:51:00.007-04:00

May 6, 2009

On May 5. we left Thunderbolt with intention to travel about 60 miles to Beaufort, SC (the British pronounce it 'Bofert', but the people in Beaufort pronounce it 'Bewfert' and call it beautiful Beaufort), but after we passed Hilton Head Island and entered into Port Royal Sound, I looked to the East and saw a huge storm coming. I turned to the VHF weather channel and heard that a major thunderstorm was coming, so I did a 180 degree turn and headed back to Hilton Head at full speed. A marina let us tie up at the fuel dock for the night, and the next morning, we took off at 6:30 to go the last 18 miles to Beaufort. Me thinks me better listen to the VHF weather a little more often. I sometimes forget that their are large bodies of water and severe storms in the Itracostal Waterway. I wouldn't dream of heading into open seas without spending about 30 minutes studying the weather.

Beaufort is a beautiful little town on the river that has many anti-bellum homes and stores that have been preserved. President Lincoln recognized the city as a strategic location for the Union Army because of its location and protected harbor, and the Union took over the city without a shot fired very early in the Civil War. All the citizens fled before the army came in, and the slaves took over the homes where they worked. The homes are beautiful and there are 300 year old oak trees with huge outstretching limbs that touch the ground about 40 feet from the main trunk, then grow upward again. The Spanish moss was thick on the trees and I learned that it gets really thick when there aren't many rain storms. The rain and storms clear a lot of this air plant from the trees and keep it from getting too thick. They haven't had many storms lately. We ate at one of the best restaurants since the start of our trip. It was Minneapolis quality, and we really enjoyed the menu. We stayed one full day and left the next morning.

I also included a picture of a shrimp boat that is grounded on a shoal. It was probably blown out there in a hurricane and it cost more to get it off the shoal than the boat was worth. We see many stranded boats like this along the way. Waterways are amazing after you travel on them like we are doing. Before this trip, I would look out across a large body of water from the shore and think that you could safely boat any place across the span, but there are marked channels that wind through them and if you venture out of the channel, you could end up grounded in a couple of feet of water. Tidal currents cause a lot of shoaling.

St Augustine and Jeckyll Island.

2009-05-08T09:19:00.004-04:00

Peg and I had been to St Augustine in 1979 on a family vacation, and we wanted to visit again because it is such a neat little city with a rich history, being the earliest settlement in the US. We took the horse drawn carriage ride again, and had a driver that provided a wealth of information about the history of the city. One interesting thing that he told us was that Ponce de Leon was only 4'11", and he would not allow anyone on his crew to be taller than himself. When he landed at the spot of St Augustine, he was greeted by the natives that were over 6' tall. From this, he assumed that they lived a long time to grow so tall that there must be a fountain of youth. In the evening we had wonderful meal at a nice restaurant with Bob and Peggy Olson, our boating friends that we have been travelling with for the past few days.

From St Augustine, we travelled 90 miles to Jeckyll Island. Jeckyll Island is a small island on the Intracostal Waterway where the rick people from the north developed a resort with "cottages", so they would have a place to go in the dead of winter. Well, they were anything but cottages, but they were not exactly mansions, either. Peg and I rode our bikes around the island and took a little train tour to learn more of the history.

We timed our departure so that we could go through Jeckyll Island Creek on a rising tide. We are now entering the leg of our trip where it is very shallow, and a lot of boats get grounded in the ICW. I am glad we left when we did because it was very shallow even in the rising tide, but we did not go aground. Through about 200 miles of shallow water, I only felt the bottom twice, but I did not get stuck. Anytime there was doubt about the depth, I took the boat out of gear, and crept through the area.

We stayed at such places as Two way Fish Camp, and Thunderbolt on our long journey up the Georgia to Beufort, where we plan to tour the town.

Titusville and the Space Center Visit

2009-05-08T08:36:00.011-04:00

April 29, 2009 - I was really looking forward to going to the space center where the moon program in the 60's and the shuttle program are run. I have always been interested in the space program and for a time, read everything that I could get my hands on about the technical side of the feat. We went there in 1979 when the kids were little, and the building was very small, and the main feature was a guided bus tour around the complex. Well, now it is a huge complex with many buildings and well done displays, including one dedicated to the rocket that took the men into space on the moon trips. There is also a thrill ride that simulates a shuttle takeoff that was a lot of fun.

There was a manatee in the marina basin at Titusville that was playing in the water in an open slip. It is the first time we ever got an extended view of a manitee in the wild. He was rolling around in the water right next to the air conditioning water out let on a boat, letting the water run into his mouth while he lay on his back. We watched him for about 15 minutes.

From Titusville, we travelled 100 miles in one day to St Augustine. We are going to be moving in large chunks for the next couple of weeks to get to Georgetown, South Carolina. The canvas on our boat is very old and needs to be replaced. I had an estimate from a shop in Tennessee that was very reasonable, and I was planning to get it done when we got back to Tennessee. Well, the smartest, most wise person on the boat said, "Why don't we get it done now so that we can enjoy it, rather than wait until we sell the boat?" Ding - She was right, and through an Email group of boaters, someone posted a note about a shop in Georgetown that they were very please with their work and their price. We need to make 50 miles a day to get there, but we want to stop and see the sites in some places where we have not been before, so we are doing long days of travel.

2009-04-29T06:13:00.005-04:00

It has been a while since I updated the site and a lot has happened since the last update. We are in Titusville, Florida at the moment and are going to go to Cape Canaveral to tour the space center. Internet was so slow in the Bahamas that it was difficult to do much more than simple Email.

To finish the Bahama adventure where I left off, we did not leave the Green Turtle Key, but stayed there for a little over two weeks at the marina. Bills transmission arrived and he and I installed it in his boat in less than a day. There were a few problems with the new transmission, but Bill was able to power the boat with two engines again.

We enjoyed the Bahamas and would like to go back again for a longer stay sometime. It is beautiful over there and we wish we could have seen more places. Even without the mechanical problems, I don't think we could have gone much further because of constant high winds. Even most of the boats that were there to fish cold not go out because of the wind. So, we stayed in one place and went to the beach a lot, visited with new friends on the docks, walked on the beaches, and often went to town for conch burgers, or other foods that you don't see in the states. We formed lasting friendships with Dan and Deb Mapes from New York, and Bob and Wenche Cordes from Freeport in the Bahamas. The one thing that we really liked about Green Turtle Cay was that it was not ruined by tourists. Everything was simple and modest and the lifestyle was very laid back. There were not any huge, opulent resorts and cruise boat docks that flooded the area with half day tourists. The hardware store was out of about everything, but that that didn't seem to bother them at all. The restaurants were all owned by people who lived there, and the service was slow, but who cared.

Peg had a bad fall off of a dock ladder while exiting a boat one evening. She was laid up for several days with a lot of pain, but is improving and doing more all the time. She was exiting a boat of some new friends of ours that we met at the marina, when her hand slipped off of the ladder. She landed on her tailbone on the transom of the boat and then fell to the cockpit floor on her back. Fortunately, Bill and Bob caught her before she hit the floor, or she would have landed on her head. Also, she was fortunate that she did not land about 4 inches higher on her back where she had major surgery several years ago. God certainly takes care of us and we are thankful.

We finally got a break in the weather and left Green Turtle Cay on Sunday, April 19 for the west end of the Grand Bahama Island to wait for weather suitable for crossing back to the mainland. While waiting, our new friends, Bob and Wenche invited Bill, Peg and me to their home for wonderful dinner on Tuesday night. Wenche also gave us a complete tour of Freeport on the way to their beautiful home on canal where they keep their boat right behind their house. A highlight of the evening was the use of their phone to call our kids back home.

The weather finally broke for us on Thursday, April 23, and we headed out into the Atlantic at 7:00am with three other boats. The crossing was not as smooth as when we went over, but the interval of the large waves were far enough apart that it did not bother us much. The Gulf stream gave us a good push, so we made good time, arriving at West Palm Beach at 2:30 in time to clear customs. After customs, we went north to a quiet anchorage for the night.

The next day, we said goodbye to Bill for a while and left the anchorage to head north to Fort Pierce. We travelled with Dan and Deb, and other friends Bob and Peggy Olson aboard Baby Grand, who are from the St Paul and also doing the Great Loop.

At Ft Pierce, we rented a car so that we could re provision the boat after the long stay in the Bahamas. Saturday morning was farmers market day right next to the marina, and it was so great to get fresh fruit and wonderful breads. We were so tired of canned fruit. I made a fruit salad which we are still enjoying every morning. We also visited the Manatee Center in Ft Pierce and learned all about these gentle creatures. I was also able to make it to a nice little Baptist church while we still had the car.

Leaving Ft Pierce, we travelled to Melbourne, Fl to anchor for the night, and yesterday made it to Titusville, where we plan to go to the space center with Bob and Peggy.

This is quite an adventure and we are thoroughly enjoying every minute of it.

Seven Days in the Bahamas

2009-04-07T09:11:00.006-04:00

We have been in the Bahamas for seven days now and are really enjoying the warm weather and warm waters. All the water here is so clear that it is hard to tell how deep it is when you look down into it. When we are under weigh, the depth finder tells us the correct depth, but when not using the depth sounder, the color of the water is the only way to tell the shallow from the deep, whether there is sand on the bottom, coral, grass or rocks. You learn the colors quickly.

The Bahamas are a very interesting formation in the middle of the Atlantic. If you look at a topological map of the sea floor, they are mountain tops rising out of 2000 ft. ocean depths. There is a plateau in the middle of the islands and cays that is very shallow, but has passable routes that allow you to move from one area to the other. The tides are 3.5 ft and the currents are extremely strong where there are exits to the seas. Since it is so shallow between the islands, the water gets exchanged about every day with new water from the seas, hence the cleanness and clarity of the water. Also, islands have natural water supply, cays do not have any natural water supply.

After crossing, we arrived at the West End of the Grand Bahama Island last Monday when Peg updated the blog. We left there the next morning and travelled 60 miles to Great Sale Cay where we anchored for the night. The next morning, we travelled another 50 miles up around the north end of the Great Abaco Island to Allen/Pensacola Cay, where we wanted to anchor and spend some time enjoying the cay. The wind was quite strong on Allen/Pensacola Cay and the protection from the wind was not very good and our anchor would not hold, so we went on to Spanish Cay to the marina for the night. The next morning we left the marina and went to an anchorage for a couple of nights along the coast of the Great Abaco Island. The wind has been quite strong and from an odd direction, so most of the commonly used anchorages in the desirable cays are not available to us. You must have protection from the wind while anchoring or it is not a pleasant night, with the constant fear that your anchor has let loose and you are adrift.

We have been in a marina at Green Turtle Cay for the past few days, and they have sporadic internet connection at the boat. We rented a golf cart for a few days and have been scooting around the cay for the past several days. Supplies are very expensive over here, so we are glad to be able to live off the massive amount of supplies we loaded up before we left the mainland. Peg and I spent the afternoon on the beach yesterday and really enjoyed ourselves. We motor into town to little cafes in New Plymouth in the morning for breakfast, if we feel like it, and then buzz all around on the cart exploring. New Plymouth was formed after the Revolutionary War by Loyalists who left the United States because they were still loyal to the King of England. It is really quaint and not ruined by tourists. Everything moves at Bahamian pace, much to the frustration of our friend Bill, who is trying to get a new transmission for his boat shipped into the country.

We may not make it further south to the area of Marsh Harbor on this trip, as the winds are quite high and there is an area where we would need to go into the Atlantic to get there. We will need to return to Florida by the mid part of next week to continue our adventure up the east coast.

Bahamas! Here we come!!

2009-04-01T09:42:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, March 31, we left Lake Park Marina at 6:30 AM and headed east into the Atlantic Ocean. At first it was a little rough but when we hit the DEEP water it calmed down a little. I (Peg) had said I never wanted to leave site of land on this trip but we did. It's a little eerie seeing nothing but ocean and knowing it's over 400 ft. deep. Our depth finder quit working at 400 ft. so who knows how deep it really was! We arrived at West End at 5:30 PM and checked in at customs with no problems. We're really here!!! Our friend, Bill on Tortuga, was traveling with us. There's safety in numbers. Today we're heading for an anchorage off Great Sail Cay and then on to Marsh Harbor in the Abacos. As I've always said "any place with palm trees is a great place to be!"

Key West to North Palm Beach

2009-03-20T09:46:00.010-04:00

We stayed in Key West until Monday, March 9 and headed up the coast. In the last update, Peg told you about some of the things we did in Key West, and after that writing, we set out on our own on our bikes a few times to see more of the sites in the main area. I think every visitor to Key West has the obligatory picture of them standing by the buoy marking the southern most point of the US. We are no different. We also had a "Cheeseburger in Paradise" in Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville.

After leaving the keys, our goal was to move north to a crossover point to the Bahamas. We are planning to go to the northern most islands of Grand Bahamas, where you check in at customs, then cross to the Abacos. There are two popular points to cross from - one is Ft Lauderdale, and the other is at Lake Worth, up at North Palm Springs. We travelled up the Atlantic side if the keys because it is much easier than going up the north side on the Intracoastal Waterway when the weather permits. After two nights in very calm, beautiful anchorages, we made it to Key Biscayne and anchored in No Name Harbor on the south tip of Key Biscayne.

From there, we rented a car and toured around Miami and Miami Beach. Of course, we had to eat dinner at Joe's Stone Crab. We also stopped at the stately old Biltmore Resort in Coral Gables. We had wanted to stay at a marina in the Miami Beach area, but at $4 per foot, our $15 per night anchorage and rental car worked fine.

We left Key Biscayne on March 14 and travelled up the ICW because the waves were a little rough on the Atlantic side. It is very slow travel because of manatee zones and lift bridges. I lowered all my antennas to avoid a few waits at bridges that I could clear, but you couldn't get away from the weekend boaters. There is a distinct difference between weekend boaters and long term cruisers. They are not aware of boating etiquette and swamp you with large wakes from very close passage. You really have to be on your toes when they are out.

We arrived at Ft Lauderdale, in the afternoon, rented a car, and began to shop to load up our boat with esssentials supplies for the trip to the Bahamas. The weather forcast for Monday was perfect for the crossing. Things are expensive in the Bahamas, so we loaded the boat with over $1,000 worth of groceries, and I made sure that I had a reasonable amount of spare parts for the boat on board. I also changed the oil in the boat, and we were as prepared as we knew to be to cross on Monday. Our forward berth looks like a grocery store, and our cockpit has trays of coke and large water carriers (water costs as much as .80 per gallon in the Bahamas).

I charted the crossing from Ft Lauderdale and it was 69 nm, which at our travel speed of 8.5 nm/hr would take about 8 hours. Crossing the Gulf Stream would shorten it a little, as we would be riding it for quite a way, so we planned to leave at 5:00am Monday morning. We got up at 4:00am and prepared to leave. At 5, we pulled away from our slip and headed out toward the cut to the ocean, when the radar stopped working. I asked Peg to see if the boom was still turning and she told me that she could not see it. I checked and the navigation lights were turned on, so if she couldn't see the boom, it meant that the top running light and aft navigation light were not working. It took 15 seconds for me to decide to turn around and go back to the dock.

I checked every thing that could easily be checked and could not find the problem. By the time I was done, it was too late to start the crossing, so we slept a little, then decided to go north to North Palm Beach and wait there for the next crossing window.

I fixed the radar (blown fuse), and the aft lights (fully corroded switch in the console) and we are sitting here waiting for a break in the weather. This all worked out for the best in that we have linked to two other boats that are going to cross with us. There is safety in numbers. I am a little under the weather at the moment with a fever, so I am using the downtime to fiinish the taxes and do some needed planning for where to safely go in the Bahamas.

No matter how all this sounds, we are not working ourselves to death, and we are loving every minute of the adventure. Everything that is happening is "just boating".

Having Fun in Key West!

2009-03-04T11:27:00.003-05:00

Tues., March 4th, we went into Key West with two friends, German and Bill, for the afternoon. After a dinghy ride to shore German and Bill picked us up in German's car. We had lunch on Duval St. and walked around. It was a beautiful day even if it was a little chilly in the wind. We went to a few famous places, Sloppy Joe's ( Ernest Hemingways favorite hangout), and Kelly's. Saw some yachts with more sq. footage than our house. We saw H. S. Trumans little White House. All work and no play make Dave and Peg dull people!!! We plan to have a few more days like this before we leave Key West.

Marathon to Key West

2009-03-02T16:56:00.000-05:00

We left Marathon on Thursday, Feb. 26 and arrived in Key West at about 4:00. We needed to stay in a Marina for a few days so that I could change a fresh water pump on the port motor. The reason staying in a marina is a big deal is the price for slip rental. The cheapest slip rate in a marina that can handle a boat our size starts at 2.50 per foot. It skyrockets from there. At 50 ft, that adds up pretty quickly. We stayed at a marina that was pretty close to the famous downtown area, but we only went out 1 evening because it took a long time to change the water pump. I finally got it all in and ready to go at 10:00pm Saturday night. We left the marina on Sunday morning and moved to a mooring ball field close by, which charges $16 per day. We plan to be here until Sunday.

The mooring ball is preferable to anchoring if you can find them. Once tied to a mooring ball, you can rest easy because there is not any anchor to break loose in the middle of the night. This adventure has been a series of firsts for us, and mooring ball tie up was one of those first time events. If someone took a movie, I am certain that we would win the contest on the funniest videos. It was not funny for us, but I bet it was a scream to watch. First, the wind was blowing at 20 knots, which means a boat our size gets moved around a lot. Second, most mooring balls have a short line that you can reach with a dock pole, then tie your line to the ring at the end. These mooring balls did not have any lines on them. The only way to tie up was to put the dinghy in the water and pull up to the ball. That meant that Peg had to maneuver the boat in high winds, which takes a lot of skill. I tell her through our headsets which engine to engage to maneuver into position, but she was having a lot of trouble getting up to the ball in all the wind. Third, once up to the ball, the ring on the top was too small for our line to pass through. I wrapped the line around the bottom of the ring and held on until Peg could put a small clevis on the line and shake the line until it came down to me. It took all my strength to hold the line around the ring, but I finally got the clevis on in the ring and tied the line through it. I then put a second line because we were expecting a storm.

The storm hit, and we had 40 knot winds late afternoon and all night. I almost did not make it back from shore in the dinghy before the winds started blowing and the waves kicking up. The storm that came through was the same one that overturned the boat in the gulf with the NFL players. We only had 2 ft waves, which rocked us around all night, but was nothing like the people in the Gulf experienced because they were broken up by reefs before they entered where we were tied up. I am surprised that they went out with the weather reports that we were following. The storm was predicted early and accurately. I knew on Friday that it was coming in on Saturday. There were small craft warnings long before the storm blew in. It did not just blow in all of a sudden. We have avoided those problems by paying strict attention to the weather reports when we go out. If the waves are predicted to be above 2 feet, we stay in because there are always some 3 and 4 ft waves mixed in the mostly 2 ft waves.

Changing the water pump was not much fun. On a boat with two motors, there is a good side to work on and a bad side to work on. The good side is when the repair is on the side of the motor facing the gangway down the middle between the motors. The bad side is the side facing the sides of the boat where the 200 gallon fuel tanks are about 10 inches away from the side. I have not had a mechanical repair where the part was on the good side. After laying across the top of the engine and also crawling into a space about 3 ft high, I finally got the water pump changed. Of course, there is also a written rule that you can never get all the parts you need in one trip to the parts store. I put 25 miles on my bike on Friday, hauling 8 gallons of coolant back to the boat (these are big motors). At one point in the process after failing to get two bolts into a place that couldn't be reached with your hand, I thought of pulling the sea plugs and sinking the boat in the slip, but I overcame the problem and the boat is safe.

Peg took a cab to the grocery on Saturday and stocked the freezer and fridge. I have been taking it easy for a few days and we plan to spend some time seeing and enjoying Key West.

On the Move - Ft Myers Beach to the Keys

2009-02-24T08:50:00.001-05:00

We finally got a weather break and left Ft Myers Beach on Saturday, Feb. 24, going into the open Gulf on the west coast of Florida. While in Ft. Myers, we bought two collapsible bicycles and equipped them with baskets. I forgot how much I loved riding a bike, and I took a couple of 20 mile rides to get some technical gear that I needed. Peg rode the 6 mile trip to the store a couple of times and did really well. I think they are going to come in handy on the rest of our trip. They will fit easily in the dinghy to haul them to shore. We also enjoyed visiting with Daryl Carter, my cousin-in-law, who graciously took us around Ft Myers to restock our supplies, and also took us to the art fair on Sannibel. I know that some of you were worried that we would encounter pirates...we did in Ft Myers, and here is the proof.

The Gulf was very calm and the water was a beautiful green color and very clear on the Saturday we left. We made it from Ft. Myers to Marco Island, south of Naples that day, and anchored in a bay, close to the bridge that leads to the mainland. While in route, we got to talk to some Dolphins that were swimming under the bow.

At Marco, we needed a few supplies from the grocery, so our friend Bill and I got into the dinghy and went to shore to go to the groceries. When we got on shore, we asked a woman how far it was to the grocery store, and she said it was 1 mile. Since it was so close, we didn't go back to get the bikes and started walking. It turned out to be over 3 miles (she must have been talking about country miles, which are much longer than city miles). It was good exercise for two people that had been sitting at a helm all day. We were anchored in very calm water and it was a very peaceful night. In the background of our boats at anchor, you can see a sail boat that was ruined by a hurricane.

On Sunday we did not make it to church, but had to travel all day again, as the weather reports were not hopeful for later in the week and we were two days from the keys. We travelled all day to a wonderful anchorage at Little Shark River in the Everglades at the southern tip of the west coast of Florida. On the way into the anchorage after a 50 mile journey, the sunset was beautiful.On Monday, we went from the anchorage to Channel 5 under the bridge at Long Key in the Keys, where we anchored in Long Key Bight. While in route, we passed friends of ours, German and Ruth Moran, with their spinnaker out. It was a beautiful site.Today we plan to go to Marathon, on down the keys and find another anchorage. Slips at a marina are 2.50 and up, and at 44 ft, that adds up quickly. We hope to be in Key West in a few days, but we might go out into the Atlantic and do some fishing on the way, and who's in a hurry?

From Boca Grande to Ft Myers Beach

2009-02-15T20:08:00.000-05:00

When we left our anchorage at Boca Grande, we had the added challenge of raising an additional anchor in the front. With Peg at the helm, our headsets in place, we got out of the anchorage like a couple of professionals. As we left the anchorage, we came into fog that only allowed 1/4 mile visibility. With the radar and our very accurate chart plotter we were able to avoid any problems keeping in the channel without hitting anything. Unfortunately, we could not see much of the shore as we passed places we wanted to see from the water, like Captiva and Sannibel where have vacationed in years past. The fog finally lifted a little and we made it to Ft Myers Beach too the Marina.

Our friends from Grace church came today and spend the morning and afternoon with us. We have known Mel and Jan Bleeker for many years and they brought along two other friends, Ted and Dorothy from Grace. We had a great time visiting and going out for dinner.

Before we leave here, I need to do some work on the forward sanitation system and some electronics work at the helm. The "to do" list never ends.

One beautiful picture that I want to share is of a Great White Herron that we took at the marina in Boca Grande.

We Made It to Ft Myers Beach

2009-02-15T07:04:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since I have had time to fill in some information on our adventure. We crossed the Gulf of Mexico, a 180 mile trip that started at 10am on Friday, Feb 6, and ended in Clearwater beach at 2:00pm the next day. The Gulf was relatively calm with a few 4 ft waves at the start, but then settled to a beautiful 1 and 2 ft wave action under an almost full moon. We travelled with 3 other boats, and we all had our radars on watching for other boats. There were no tense moments on the trip, and other than being tired, it was enjoyable and good to have it behind us. I kept awake by talking with the other three boats, and watching 24 DVD's in a window on my chart plotter screen. The boat drove itself on the autopilot.

Prior to leaving the Panhandle and crossing the Gulf, we had a little incident going from Port St. Joe to Appalachacola (we had intended to go further to Carabelle, but the incident caused us to stop early). While travelling thru a very narrow channel, a strong gust of wind blew us out of the channel, and we ran aground in very soft mud. Our friend Bill came back and I got in the dinghy and took a rope to him to pull us out. We were not very stuck and it pulled out easily, but there was a horrible noise whenever I engaged the starboard motor. I checked it out and could not see any damage in the engine room, but I had to tether the prop shaft to keep it from turning, and run into Appalachacola on one prop. I hired a diver to go under and inspect.

I was so worried that I had broken the prop, or severely damaged the under gear, which is very difficult and expensive to repair, and would stop our adventure for potentially over a week. I was so joyous and broke out in the doxology in from of everyone on the dock when he came out with a mangled crab pot. It was unmarked and lying on the bottom. There was no damage to the props. After Clearwater, we left on Sunday and went down the Intracostal Waterway to the Sunshine Bridge, that leads into St Petersburg. This is a huge span that is new and replaced the old bridge that was knocked down by an ocean vessel in a storm, with a huge loss of life when a bus plunged into the bay. We anchored in the protection of an island for the night, with stunning views of the beautiful span and we also saw a giant cruise boat leaving the harbor, and an oil tanker coming in. The next day we weighed anchor and travelled to Sarasota, where we went shopping for some supplies. We anchored in a very calm harbor right next to the causeway entrance.

The following day we took a long cruise down to Boca Grande and anchored in a peaceful little bayou. We had to set anchor to the front, and then back toward shore, where we lowered the dinghy and tied the stern to limbs on the Mangrove trees on the shore. It was so peaceful and nice that we stayed two days, visited the little town and ate lunch at the marina. We are using the dinghy much more now that we are anchoring out more. It is our only way into a dock from the boat and it is sort of fun motoring along closely to the shoreline looking at the fabulous homes in the very wealthy little town of Boca Grande.

Our friend Bill tied his boat to ours, and we sat on the front deck and watched the sunset. The anchorage was so peaceful and quiet.

It is Sunday, Feb. 15. We are docked at a marina in Ft. Myers and we are expecting company today. Jan and Mel Bleeker, our dear Christian friends from Grace Church are visiting us on the boat. I will continue the story of our travels tomorrow.

We crossed the Gulf of Mexico

2009-02-07T19:56:00.001-05:00

Friday Feb. 6 we left Scipio Creek to start across the Gulf to Clearwater at 10:00 AM. We were traveling with 3 other boats. We had a great crossing with smooth seas. Dave piloted and sent me to bed at about midnight. We arrived at Clearwater, FL at about noon on the 7th. We are very thankful for all that were praying for us as we crossed the Gulf. Thank you, all. It is much warmer here and we are enjoyint it. More to come tomorrow.

Great reception in Port St. Joe Marina

2009-02-02T17:44:00.000-05:00

Ok I messed up on the last entry. I wanted to add that one of the boats that we were traveling with had friends that were here for awhile, arranged a lovely reception for them and us that were traveling with them. Lots of really nice people. We had a Super Bowl party for 6 other boaters, a great night. I made chili and everyone brought something. What a great night. This is the nicest marina that we have been to so far. It is walking distance to a grocery store, a pharmacy, and a few other stores. A really nice marina.

Back on the water again:)

2009-01-31T08:43:00.001-05:00

We left Mobile on Jan. 26 and headed for Pensacola, FL. Bill ( a retired military man) got us into the Marine base marina and took us to the commisary to stock up. we stayed there until Friday the 30th . On Saturday we headed for Fort Walton city FREE docks. No power but you can't beat free! This morning we are headed, with 2 other boats, for Panama City, FL. It was really cold when we got up this morning, 40 degrees. That still beats what we left in MN.
We had our first experience getting out of a slip in high winds without hitting the other boats around us. We had two helpers who held the line to keep us from colliding until we got clear. Thank goodness for other boaters who are always ready to help!

Packing to go home for the holidays:)

2008-11-23T15:56:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

We're packing up to go back home to MN for the holidays. We can't wait to see our kids and grandkids. We're stopping in Toledo, OH for Thanksgiving and then bringing Dad Miller home with us for Christmas. Merry Christmas to all. We'll be back in mid January.

The Final Leg of the River - Demopolis to Mobile

2008-11-16T09:31:00.002-05:00

The final leg of our fall trip from Demopolis to Mobile was a beautiful ride down the Tombigbee River, which turned into the Mobile River for the last 15 miles, and then into Mobile Bay. We had many new experiences along the way with handling 44 ft, 17 ton boat, and some new navigation experiences. We weathered them all. The weather reports were threatening all the way down, so when we had good days we travelled more miles than usual, with one day of 73 miles and another day travelling 82 miles. Remember, we are travelling these miles at 9.5 MPH (where is my BMW when I need it). Daylight hours are also very short, so we are weighing anchor at 6:00 AM and anchoring no later than 4:30 PM because it is dark at 5:00. There was only one marginal marina on the whole trip, so we anchored in small lakes and streams off the main river. It is also a little different that travelling by car, as you have your own bathroom and kitchen on board so there are no stops. It is like driving down the road in your house.

Our first anchorage after leaving Demopolis was in a small stream that was identified in our guide book as suitable for our size boat, and it was our first time to anchor in a narrow place where you must put out two anchors. Needless to say, it was quite a learning experience and we did not handle it too well to begin with, but finally got things set. To top it all off, we were the first ones into the anchorage and two other experienced boaters had to wait on us to anchor before they could come in. The pressure was on and we were not performing too well when our front anchor would not hold and I had to take it off the chain and put on another one that held beautifully. We got the rear anchor set and we were done, but it took a while to do all this and I was covered in mud from dirty anchors and chains that I couldn’t take the time to clean off, since others were waiting. To top it all off, Peg was managing the helm under my verbal instructions to keep the boat in place and accidently got the boat into the bank. She was not particularly calm after it was all over and swore that we were never going to anchor out again as long as we lived. We calmed down and enjoyed the beautiful spot that was as peaceful as I remember nights in the country with no other civilization and disruptive light sources. We were surrounded by trees on both sides and the moon was so bright. We sat out on the deck for a while enjoying the beauty of God’s creation. We had two more nights in anchorages that were just a beautiful.

As they say, experience is the best teacher, but it can be a brutal teacher. After the first experience at anchoring, our next ones went off without a hitch. I lay awake in the early morning and replayed the situation and came up with a way to execute anchoring that divides the tasks to exploit our individual strengths, plus we also changed our communication to constantly tell each other what we are going to do next so there are no surprises.

As we got closer to Mobile, the barge traffic doubled and the current got swifter. If you look at a map of the river, it is a series of one 180 degree bend after another, and some parts are not very wide. It is quite exciting to enter one if these bends and encounter a tow that is three barges wide coming at you. The captains of the tows are very friendly and helpful and have every reason in the world not to run over you, so it isn’t as bad as it sounds. The only problem is that if you get in their way, it takes them a mile to stop and they can’t turn on a dime.

Entering Mobile Bay was exciting. It was our first time to pass a big city and also maneuver around large ocean going freighters. The big surprise was entering Mobile Bay. Suddenly, we did not have banks on both sides; rather, nothing but water all around us, and a narrow channel that led out thru the middle. It was pretty thrilling to be on open water, but we were very thankful for the little red and green channel markers that keep you in the deep water, as it was only about 5 or fewer feet outside the channel.

Sea Ya is moored at Dog River Marina and will stay here while we are home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will return after the first of the year to continue our journey. We made a lot of new friends on the first leg of the trip and their help and company was so great. Thank God that other boaters are so patient and kind as we learn. We are really enjoying our adventure.

From Columbus Missippi to Demopolis Alabama on the Tenn-Tom

2008-11-10T22:15:00.001-05:00

It has been a while since we have had an internet connection, and even now, we have to go to a central place to get a signal that is strong enough to connect and interact with the web.

Since the last update, we ended up staying at Columbus for 8 days. We had planned on 7 days to continue working on the boat; but, on Friday when we were supposed to leave, it was pouring down rain, so we stayed another day. Most of the stuff I did to the boat were fixing small, niggling little problems that I had been putting off, like repairing leaking faucets, etc . The best thing is, there was a good hardware store in town to supply what I needed to get things done. We attended a little Baptist Church on Sunday that reminded me of the church I went to while I was growing up. Everyone in the entire congregation came by to welcome us. So far the south is one of the friendliest places I have ever been. On Tuesday, Peg, me and our friend Bill rented a car and drove to Chattanooga to pick up his car and our car and bring them to Columbus. We figured that it would be about 4 hours closer to our final destination in Mobile and would make the travel home a little shorter.

We also did some sightseeing in Columbus. We visited the Waverly, an antebellum plantation and were given a wonderful tour by the owner, who had moved into the house with her family when she was a child. The family did a complete restoration over about 40 years, and the place is really nice. They refurnished the entire house with period antiques, since there was nothing in the house but squirrels, opossums, and mud dauber nests when the family bought it (there was even a tree that extended into one of the rooms). The nice part about the place was the fact that it still looked authentic, over some of the places we have visited where things were a little more modernized.

We ended up leaving on Saturday, travelling about 60 miles to an anchorage, which was listed in our river guide as acceptable. We entered the anchorage with no problem and had 12 foot waters. Deeper in, the depth meter read 4 ft, so I stopped as soon as I could, but we had grounded. In the process of getting out, I hit a log with the prop. The next day, we had a slight vibration that was not there before, so I knew that the prop incurred damage. In spite of that problem, it was a perfect spot to anchor, very quiet and calm all night. I still don’t know why my depth sounder showed 4 feet under the keel.

From the anchorage, we continued down the Tenn-Tom to Demopolis , Alabama. On the way, for a short distance, the sights were the most spectacular that we have seen thus far on the Tenn-Tom. There were bluffs called the White Cliffs of Epes. They were pretty spectacular.
We pulled into the Demopolis Yacht Basin at about 3:00 PM on Sunday and have been here for a day. I had the boat pulled out of the water on Monday morning and replaced both props with the spares that I carry. Both were damaged slightly, so we sent the bent ones down to Mobile to be straightened and will pick them up there. Also, the fresh water pump quit working while at anchor, so I replaced it while at the Marina.

We plan to leave Demopolis at 6:00 AM and travel a long day of 71 miles to an anchorage. From here on to Mobile, there is not much other than Bobby’s Fish Camp Marina (it is hard to consider it a marina, since there is no water hookup, electricity, or any other amenities). He also charges more per foot to dock than anything we have encountered thus far. We will be anchoring out every night for the next two or three days.On to Mobile!! Fuel prices are the lowest in a long time, now.

On to Mobile!! Fuel prices are the lowest in a long time, now. You will not be able to contact us for about three days. There is very limited cell phone, and no internet on the way.

We Are In A Communication Dead Zone

2008-11-01T09:39:00.000-04:00

After many days of little or no internet connection, and spotty cell phone service, we are finally able to get caught up. Our cell phone and air card are Verizon, which usually has excellent coverage, is not well covered in Mississippi, as we motor down the Tenn-Tom.

Since my last posting, Sea Ya has travelled about 120 miles down the Tenn-Tom waterway, after staying at the Marina in Iuka, Mississippi for 4 days. While at the marina, we visited the Shiloh Civil War battlefield where 23,000 Americans lost their lives and even more were wounded in a two day battle that seemed to end pretty much undecided as to who won or lost. I have read a lot about the Civil War, and I found it very interesting to visit the history center and take a driving tour of the battleground. We ate at the Cat Fish Hotel, a restaurant that is famous for its steaks, or maybe it was catfish. Even Peg ate catfish.

As is usual for a boat, I spent several days working on the boat, removing some old electronics from the helm, and adding a cell phone booster antennae to the radar arch and an amplifier and antenna in the salon so that we can answer our phones inside the boat. I also added a mount to the transom to carry the outboard for our dinghy.

We are travelling with Bill Seward, aboard Tortuga, and I helped him change an alternator in his boat and he worked with me helping string cable through the conduits. Bill is an interesting man. He was a B52 pilot during the Vietnam War, and after he retired from the Air Force, he flew about every type of aircraft known to mankind. He is a Christian man and we have really enjoyed his company, plus as a beginner, I am learning a lot from him about boating with a large vessel.

On Thursday, October 29, we left the marina at Iuka and travelled 60 miles to Midway Marina. We just stopped overnight, and continued on to Columbus Mississippi where we are docked at the Columbus Marina. Midway was not the end of the world, but you could see it from there. We will probably spend a few days at Columbus to attend church on Sunday, and make some repairs on the boat.

The word boat stands for "a never ending to-do list". We had been having some problems with the starboard engine control turning on. It has been a nagging problem since we bought the boat, but I never could isolate what was causing it, because it usually popped on before I could get my test equipment out. The engine control is an electronic connection from the helm to the engine room that controls throttle and shift commands without needing to run metal cables thru the boat. You cannot pilot the boat if they are not working. Yesterday morning as we prepared to cast off, it shut off and I traced it to a cheap little solenoid. This is unusual because it usually means '$pend lot$ of money' when something goes wrong. I rigged it so that we could travel yesterday, and I now have a new one to install.

The Tenn-Tom is beautiful this time of year with the changing of color. It is also an interesting waterway, as there are long passages that are man made, and the hills along the side are from the earth that was moved to make the waterway. The original Tombigbe River snakes back and forth across the waterway as you travel, with parts of it navigable. We did not take any side trips, as we wanted to make it to Columbus before dark; but, we may go back and travel thru a few of them before we leave. There are also a lot of locks that are very close together, some as close as 5 river miles, so you spend a lot of travel time locking. We have been fortunate to be able to get right in with no more than a 15 minute wait. There are also a lot of barges travelling up and down the river, and if you get to a lock while they are locking up or down, you may need to wait for 3 hours while they work them through.

We are truly enjoying the beauty that God has created and fell very blessed to be able to go on this adventure.

Dave

On the Road (Water) Again

2008-10-26T09:26:00.000-04:00

We are back on the water again after spending a week at the Joe Wheeler State Park in Rogersville, Alabama. We spent the week with the American Great Loop Cruising Association, a large group of people that have either made the trip we are on, are in progress on the trip (like Peg and me), or who are planning to do the loop. There were 55 boats and about 150 people. It was helpful for us new timers to be able to talk with experienced people, and also attend interesting seminars on things like boating safety, and how to navigate some of the difficult passages that we will encounter. Boaters, so far, have been a very great bunch of people to be around.

On Friday, we rented a car and visited the Space Museum in Huntsville, Alabama, where they have a real Saturn V on a pod in front of the building. It stands 363 feet tall. It is amazing that it would take off and launch the moon project astronauts to a speed of 24,500 MPH. The museum inside told the complete story of America's space program, from the end of the World War II to current day. It was an interesting place and I recommend visiting it if you ever pass thru Huntsville. It brought back a lot of memories from the time when our country was focused on going to the moon. I should have some pictures soon, but we forgot our camera, and someone is supposed to be sending pictures to us.

We travelled 63 miles yesterday on our last leg of the Tennessee River. We said goodbye to the Tennessee, and are now on the Tenn-Tom waterway. It is a man made waterway that was constructed in the 50's to connect the Tennessee River with the Tombigbe River that runs to the Gulf at Mobile. It is the largest waterway that the US has ever done, and moved more earth than the Panama Canal Project. There are about 8 locks in quick succession that we will be going through as we continue our journey. We are in Mississippi, now, but about half way down to the Gulf, it goes back into Alabama and winds on down to Mobile. If you want to see where we are located, go to Google Earth and put in the coordinates, 35 50' 26.29" N and 88 14' 50.26"W. We will be here for two or three days while I do some work on the boat.

We are going to visit the Shiloh Civil War battlefield today or tomorrow.

We are Under Weigh on our Trip

2008-10-20T08:50:00.001-04:00

We finally had everything ready to leave on the morning of Thursday, October 16, and we pulled out of Shady Grove Harbor in Soddy Daisy at 8:52 AM for a 6,000 mile journey that will take us about 9 months to complete. We really enjoyed our time at the marina and the owners, Randy and Terri, who are great people and who helped us a lot while we were preparing our boat to leave. We enjoyed their company and will miss them.

Usually on this trip, you don't want to have deadlines for your travel because of the unknowns of travel on the water, but we had 4 days to make it to a special event near Huntsville, Al, which was 200 river miles away. Travel on water is so unpredictable. We travel at about 9.5 miles per hour and usually plan to go no more than 50 miles a day. Many things can slow you down, like a problem with the boat, or a large barge going through a lock that you need to go through, or fog. We decided that we stood a good chance of making it in 4 days to arrive on Sunday.

We successfully went through a lock on our own for the first time, about 2 hours after shoving off. We passed with flying colors and have not had any problems locking at the three locks that we have gone through thus far. We are pretty proud of each other, as each of us have to work together to get tied up to the wall, and then get off again. As we approach the lock, Peg has to go from front to back putting our fenders and two huge, heavy PolyBalls over the side to protect the boat from dragging along the wall while the water is lifting us up or down. Then she has to throw a line over a floating cleat that is recessed in the wall, and pull us in tight. She is an expert at it and has not missed yet. All I have to do is pilot the boat up to the side and keep it there in the swirling wind, while she gets us tied up. She has to stay with the tie up until we leave in case there are any problems with the floating cleat. We have done it enough now that we do not have any apprehensions as we approach a lock. That is good because we will have over 100 locks to go through on our trip.

Our first day on the water, we passed through some of the most beautiful scenery that we have ever seen on the water. The Tennessee River winds through the mountains and hills, and the leaves are just starting to turn, which provides a lot of natural beauty as we travel. The most spectacular part on the first day was a section that is called "The Grand Canyon of the East", a 10 to 15 mile stretch along the river that is more narrow, over 100 feet deep as it is one of the few places in the world where the earth cracked, with towering rock bluffs rising for a couple hundred feet straight up on both sides. We passed through sections of the river with unique names, like the 'skillet', the 'pot', and the 'suck', because of the odd characteristics of the current and the shape of the area. We are loving the Tennessee River and look forward to enjoying its beauty for a couple hundred more miles.

On our first day, we were introduced to the friendly, helpful world of the boating community. There are wonderful people travelling by boat, some doing the same trip that we are doing, others that have done it before and are back to places they did not get to see on their first trip, or are just exploring an area while on a long term stay on their boat. While cruising along on our first day, we came up behind a boat that is similar to ours, and the skipper called us on his radio as we approached. He was travelling alone and heading to the same destination, so we slowed down and followed him for the rest of the day. He has been aboard his boat "Tortuga", since May and is just seeing sights that he has not been to before. We have with him plus another boat that we came upon at a lock, travelling along together. They were a great help to us as we anchored out for the first night, and they are teaching us a lot about the way to handle a big boat for the first time.

We made it to the rendezvous after 4 days of travelling, with one day covering 73 miles because of lack of marinas and anchorages. Our last day coming in was a short 27 miles on a beautiful sunny day.

I promise not to be so long winded in the future, but I was making up for a long dry spell.

First time through the lock!!!

2008-10-14T10:27:00.000-04:00

Sunday, Oct. 12, we spent the day cruising on the TN river to Chattanooga for lunch. New friends, Dan and Joan French, came with us. Dan is a lisenced captain, and he and Joan, tutored us on our first time through the lock. It was a beautiful day and great company. We now feel ready to take on the locks!!!

Getting ready to get started

2008-10-07T16:43:00.000-04:00

As of Oct. 3rd, we're back on the "SEA Ya". We will be leaving Soddy Daisy, TN in about a week to attend the AGLCA rendevous at the Joe Wheeler Resort in Alabama. We're looking forward to meeting other Loopers and learning a lot at the seminars. We'll then start heading south. More to come........!

The work progresses

2008-09-16T16:39:00.000-04:00

Dave has been back on the Sea Ya for the last 10 days, working hard. He has the new mufflers installed, repaired canvas back on and various other tasks done. Peg stayed home in Minnesota to stay out of the way while he had things all apart on the boat. She also got to spend precious time with grandkids while he was gone:) We hope to be back on the boat to begin our journey the first part of October.

Sea Ya

We're making progress!!

2008-08-06T12:07:00.000-04:00

It's Aug. 5th already. We've been living on the boat for a month now and we are making progress. The new name is on the boat, new batteries have been installed, part of the hull has been waxed and polished, the new sewage system is working, Dave has been doing some engine work and the canvas is in the shop for some repair. All of the tools are now put away in a new tool chest in the hold. It's nice not to have them laying all over the place:)

Peg has been making it home with her decorating touch. The master stateroom is the one place that is tidy and pretty during all the repair work so it's a nice place to go at night.

We head for home (Minnesota) in a few days to see family (we need a grandkid fix!!). We'll take back a few things we don't need and gather a few things at home that we wished we had brought to the boat.

It's been very hot and humid here, thank goodness for air conditioning!! We'll be back on board sometime in September to begin the LOOP.

Sea Ya

Peacefullness

2008-07-24T08:30:00.000-04:00

It's early morning, the river is very calm and glassy. The only sounds are a rooster in the distance and the birds. It's cool this morning and we're sitting on the enclosed aft deck having tea and coffee. What a life!!:)

We are finding the SEA YA very liveable. Dave is making good progress on the repairs and upkeep that needs to be done. I am working on getting the previous name off the boat so Dave and I can put the new one on. Boats in general require work, but when you get out on the river, cruising along, it's all worth it.

What is the Great Loop?

2008-07-17T10:22:00.000-04:00

For those of you who aren't quite sure what the Great Loop is, here's a website that explains it, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_loop

2008-07-13T15:38:00.000-04:00

We have now spent our first week on the SEA YA! After we figured out all of the switches and gauges, we have air conditioning (thank goodness, it's very hot and humid here!!) and we found out the sewage tanks only last 5 days before you have to go empty them out. Dave has just finished fixing a leak in the ice cube maker (got the carpet wet). We took our first voyage on the Tennessee River and forgot to take our camera out of the car before we left, so, no pictures. We've had 2 severe rain storms and the power at the marina went out in one of them. Our generator works great. The 4" foam mattress topper has made our bed very comfortable and I am very thankful for that:) We've made several trips into town to shop for the odds and ends that we determined that we need and figured out how to store the groceries in the limited space available. It may sound like the first week was a little hectic but actually WE LOVE IT!

This morning we attended First Baptist Church in Soddy Daisy, TN. The people there were very welcoming and we really liked the service. This will be our church while we are here. God is good to lead us directly there our first Sunday.

We will post some pictures, I promise.

The Journey Begins!

2008-07-01T09:57:00.000-04:00

We began dreaming about buying a yacht and sailing the Great Loop of 6000 miles a few years ago. Friends of ours (the Groves) had the same dream and bought their boat two years ago and left on the Loop in April, 2008. That fueled our flames of adventure even more.

After much research and searching we found our boat. We are now the proud owners of a 44 foot Tolly Craft motor yacht with Cockpit. (pictures to come later) It's docked in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee, where we bought it. We will head there next Monday to live on the boat for a few weeks to get used to it and do some work on it:) We're naming her "SEA YA" (a phrase that our little grandson says when he's leaving:)

More about the Loop and our boat to come.

Sea Ya!!