North Star on the Great Loop Journey: Beach Haven Yacht Marina

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.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Beach Haven Yacht Marina

Beautiful homes on the canal that winds through Atlantic City

We are tied up to the fuel dock at Beach Haven Yacht Marina in Beach Haven New Jersey. We only travelled for 8 hours today since we made 94 miles yesterday in 11 hours.

We drive right past decks that are literally on the water

It was an overcast day with a fresh breeze and even some rain. It is nice and sunny now. We should have paid attention to the tide but we did not want to wait around the anchorage until 11:00 so we left at low tide. Wrong thing to do. Jerry was struggling to find enough water to put under the keel. We did manage to go hard aground after Atlantic City so we had to wait out the tide for half an hour. We were too close to the red. A trawler came by and called tow boat US to ask how we are supposed to pass marker R130. They told him to go way out and hug the green markers. Jerry powered up, made a trench and North Star broke out of the sand bar. We followed the trawler for the next little while. It was a stressful experience but all is well with the boat. We found cheap fuel at $3.75/gal and since this marina is not open for the season yet, the harbour master let us tie up for free for the night.