North Star on the Great Loop Journey: LaBelle town dock

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.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

LaBelle town dock

We had a nice quiet night at the free dock just west of Port La Belle marina (N26 46.0952 and W081 24.08260. Jerry and Randy walked over to Port La Belle Marina and met up with some old acquaintances of ours from the boat yard.
We had a pot luck dinner on our boat just the three of us and made an early night.
We left early this morning after being awakened by a couple who had come to look for sharks teeth. I didn't find any here but I usually do at Glades Boat Yard. We tied up at the courtesy dock across the river and rode our bikes to our favourite Mexican flea Market. The same old junk is still for sale but they have good produce. I bought some cactus that will add colour and texture to my stir fry. It is already cleaned and cut, all I need to do is boil it with onions and add it to the rest of the colourful veggies.
We walked back into town with Randy to go on the Nature walk and then for lunch at the Log Cabin. It specialises in Bar B Q pork but we always have fish there. It is very good.
We are now tied up at the free town dock that offers three free nights with power and water. It is noisy but it turns out it is like old home week. We know the folks at two of the 6 boats here.
We will stay for our allotted stay but I think Randy is moving on as he is anxious to get to the Bahamas.