North Star on the Great Loop Journey: Tory Island

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.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Tory Island

Entrance to the lake across from Clewiston lock

It is a little cooler today(74) and the wind died down so we made our way to Tory Island, 16 miles east on the rim route. We are yet at an other free town dock. There is no power or water and provisioning is not good here but we don't need anything. The docks are new and many locals are sitting around fishing and catching blue gill and cat fish. Jerry can't fish because he only has a salt water licence and we are in fresh water. the first time we tried to come here in 2008, there was not enough water and there were trailers littering the water from a recent hurricane.
We strolled down to Roland Martin last night to check out the night life at the Tiki Bar. It was quite crowded with tourist, judging by the many different licence plates around. It was such a warm evening, perfect for sitting around in the open air bar.
There were not as many alligators as in previous visits here, it is earlier in the year and the water level is up. Lots of bird life. Ibis, Black Crowned Heron, Coots can be added to Saturday's sightings.
The weather looks good for being on the lake tomorrow so we will try to make an early start and reach Stuart or at least Port Mayatka. We have two locks if we go all the way to Stuart.