North Star on the Great Loop Journey: St Augustine

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.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

St Augustine

What a wonderful anchorage this turned out to be. Gloria and Maurice gave us a tour of their 53 foot Pearson sailboat, Cloud IX. They are getting ready to sail to Fort Myers and the Keys. They then leave by car to go to, Little Bay Islands in Newfoundland where they have a summer home. We will get together with them in Newfoundland this summer.
They took us shopping, to get propane and for a tour of the Lighthouse Museum. We had drinks and snacks at Betty and Bryce's beautiful home. They are friends of Gloria and Maurice. Everyone was so friendly and accommodating, it made our stay very special.
What a great view of he city from the lighthouse. St. Augustine is rich in history of shrimping and shrimp boat building. Maurice was a wonderful guide.
It is a beautiful day for travelling today, we should reach Jacksonville around lunch time. We found yet an other free dock that we need to reach at slack tide. If all is well we will stay in Jacksonville for a few days before going down the St. John's river.