North Star on the Great Loop Journey: Happy New Year

Preparing for the trip

Captain Jerry has been making the final preparations to North Star, our 32 foot Cape Island down east trawler. We are anxious to leave our landlubber lives behind and begin our long awaited journey around the Great Circle. Join us as we travel 10, 000 kilometers: through the historic Trent Severn Waterway; the pristine waters of Georgian Bay; the North Channel of lake Huron; and hop from beach to beach on lake Michigan. We will visit Chicago and begin our trek along the rivers: Illinois; upper Mississippi; Ohio; Cumberland: Tennessee; Tenn-Tom Waterway and the Black Warrior. We will have transited through 68 locks at this juncture. We have chosen the inner route from Mobile Alabama to Tarpon Springs Florida and the shorter Ocheechobee Waterway to reach the East coast of Florida. We will skip over to the Bahamas to wait out the winter before heading North on the Atlantic Inter Coastal Waterway.
The 10 years of researching and planning are finally at an end and we invite you to come along on our adventure.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year

We spent the last week getting ready for a long awaited visit from my daughter Emma. The Captain is still working at getting the boat ready for a superstructure paint job. The weather has been fabulous and there is no shortage of social activity and entertainment here at the dock.

Emma and I spent a wonderful day in the sun at the beach yesterday. It was so nice to sit and chat in person rather than on skype. There was live music and a huge crowd since it was New Year's Eve. We came back for supper which was a pot luck dinner at the Tiki Bar. At around 11:00, we got in the dinghy to go watch the beach ball drop at Time Square, at the beach. There was live music and a very lively crowd. Everyone had Chinese lanterns that fill up with hot air once you light an oil soaked cardboard. They float up in the air much like a hot air balloon. There were hundreds of these being launched so we of course had to try it. Emma is bringing one back home to show her friends. After the count down and the beach ball drop, there was a spectacular fireworks display. Drinking was allowed and many folks had their champagne ready. It was nice to dinghy back across the bay rather than battle the traffic over the Matanza Pass Bridge.

Today Emma and I are taking the trolley to Bowditch Beach which is at the west end of Estero Island. Tomorrow we will visit the east end of the island which is Lover's Key State Park. The Captain is not a beach person so he will stay with the Bonita Bill's cronies and work on his paint job.