North Star on the Great Loop Journey: Palatka

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, March 5, 2012

Palatka

We decided to leave yesterday and make our way to Palatka thus completing the wide part of the river. The heavy rain prediction had been lifted and it was nice and sunny but still quite breezy. The wind was mostly on our stern so it made for difficult steering but no banging and splashing for the most part.
We are tied up at a free town dock with no power or water so it was a cool night but we were cosy and warm in bed. It was still 60 degrees in the boat when we got up even after the outside temperature dropped to 40 degrees.
There was an Azalea Festival going on in town with street vendors lined up main street. Food, crafts and all sorts of activities for kids. We found a nice Blues Bar so we went back in the evening to listen to two acts. It was quite pleasant. They had a rack of used music books that I thought were for sale but the bar tender said to just take one, they were free, my favourite price.
This is a nice clean town, the dock is just off the waterfront park. There is an old wooden dock that one can use during the day which includes power. The sign says no overnight without permission so I am sure we could have stayed there. This dock is floating and brand new and has no signs about overnight.
We are off to explore the St. Johns river tributaries today. We are now in a skinny river so no more 3-4 foot waves.