North Star on the Great Loop Journey: Hancock Creek- North Fort Myers

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.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Hancock Creek- North Fort Myers

We anchored in a quiet little anchorage near Marinatown Marina last night called Hancock Creek (N26 39.3352 and W081 53.7070). We explored the area by dinghy and went to Marinatown docks. There are 3 restaurants here that have the usual outdoor and indoor seating. We went for .50 cent oysters at one place and had dinner at the next one. Friends from Glades boat yard, Al and Sonia, keep their boat here so we visited with them for a short time.
We went back to the boat so Jerry could fix a leak in our water system. There is always something to fix or adjust.
We watched a comedy and made it an early night.
This morning we set out for La Belle and the city dock. We arrived at 1;30 but the dock is full. We tried to anchor but the Caloosahatchee river is deep and it is windy today. We found an other free dock just a few miles from la Belle so North Star and Black Tickle are both tied up for the night. We will try La Belle again tomorrow so we can go to the Mexican Flea Market.
Skype is not working again today so I will have to hold off on my phone calls.
We had a bit of rain on the way down today but it is sunny and hot now. The boys have gone for a walk so I will take some much needed time out.