I meant to keep up the blog as we traveled on The Great Loop. I even sat down to write several times as we traveled. But, as you well know I was derelict in making good on good intentions. Now that I am at our house in Houston Texas with some time to think and remember I will endeavor to catch up to our trip thus far. In all we have traveled approximately 3200 nautical miles.
We started from the Fort Loudon Marina in Lenoir City Tennessee on January 5th. We traveled down the Tennessee River to reach Pickwick Lake where we took the Yellow Creek entrance to the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway on January 25th. From there we traveled down to Dog River Marina in Mobile Alabama by February 6th.
Along the way we stopped at Joe Wheeler State Park, which is the home of the AGLCA Fall Rendezvous. Since we were getting there on January 20th our expectations were low. We thought that the place would be dead and we would be scrambling to get out as soon as possible. We were greatly surprised by the reception we received from the year round boaters that were there.
What a great group of people. We hosted the first ever for us Dock Tails on our boat and then went to dinner with them. We enjoyed it so much that we stayed there for 3 days. But we needed to get down the river so we continued on our journey.
By the time we reached Mobile Alabama we had developed a steady drip from our dripless seal. We had Dog River change the seal and set out for Orange Beach and The Wharf Marina. Pam has a saying about places like The Wharf, “She was born to live this way.” There have been several marinas along the way that she has felt this way, but this was the first since we left Fort Loudon Marina. The bad news is that the drip became a steady stream by the time we reached The Wharf.
We contacted Saunders Yachtworks and they we able to squeeze us into their schedule. They were up front about the possibilities, but we hoped that all that was needed was to clean up the shafts and install new seals.
We had Bye George hauled out so we could assess the problem. She really looks big when she is out of the water. Of course it is a boat so we ended up having to replace the shafts, dripless seals, couplers, motor mount shims, and two motor mounts. The good news is that it all happened without having what would have been a major incident while in the water. The shafts were pitted inside the boat. Evidently the cooling water to the seals were lost at some point in time and overheated the shafts. I know enough about stainless steel that pitted stainless will shear. If one shaft had sheared while underway it would have torn up the hull of our boat leaving a gapping hole and a sunken boat. I shudder every time I think of that.
Bye the way, if you are in need of repairs Saunders is the greatest place to be. They treat you like royalty even if you are a lowly Looper like us. They were up front about the possibilities for solutions to problems. They presented the options and let us make the decisions. When the final bill came in they were apologetic for the over run. However, the over run was not their fault. I had increased the scope of work from the original scope and the over run was due to that, not their fault. All in all I highly recommend them for any work done on the boat.
We left Saunders and headed to Pensacola. We stayed at the Palafox Pier and Yacht Harbour Marina. It was a bit pricey but because of the location at historic downtown Pensacola we enjoyed it immensely. The highlight though was that Pam’s oldest brother was able to make the trip from Saunders to Pensacola with us. Pam had me and the boat in ship shape long before her brother was allowed to come aboard.
We stayed in Pensacola until May 2nd mostly because Pam’s mother is there. She was able to spend good quality time with her before we continued the journey.
Pensacola was also memorable due to the severe storm we experienced. It had 60+ mph winds and waves crashing over the sea wall on top of Bye George. It tore up sections of the Bimini top and scratched our Eisenglass. More on that later.
When we left Pensacola the goal was to cross the Gulf of Mexico as soon as possible. We were both fearful of the crossing especially after the storm at Pensacola. We had visions of that taking place with us in the middle of the Gulf. The weather was not yet finished with us. Once we made it to Panama City we had another storm visit us. This time the winds did not get as high and we were not as anxious. We were more determined to be prepared for the storm so we made adjustments to our lines and to the things on the decks.
We left Panama City on May 7th heading to Carrabelle which was our jumping off place heading across the Gulf of Mexico. We did make one stop along the way and that was in the town of Apalachicola. It was a Sunday that we made it there and it was a fairly short day so we had some time to wander around the town. We stopped to eat at the Owl Café which specializes in oysters. The oysters were fresh and tasty, but it was the people we met at the next table that made this stop. They shared some steamed oysters with us and the table on the other side of us. They were curious about our Great Loop trip which opened the door for us to meet Rudy, his wife and her twin sister. Rudy has been active in keeping up with our journey all the way to the winterization of Bye George.
And here is the friend that Pam made on the dock beside the Owl Café.
We discussed the Gulf crossing from the start of our journey back in Lenoir City. We thought about the pros and cons of the two choices we had. The choices were either we cross over night to Tarpon Springs or we make a day crossing to Steinhatchee.
Over night to Tarpon Springs is faster since it is accomplished in 16 to 18 hours continuous travel whereas the trip to Steinhatchee takes at least 3 days to reach Tarpon Springs, one day to Steinhatchee, one day to a midway point and then one day to Tarpon Springs.
Since the over night trip would require continuous operation Pam wanted to have a captain along. We attempted to engage a captain, but we were not successful. Therefore we decided to make the day crossing.
We arrived at the Sea Hag Marina in Steinhatchee after an uneventful 60 miles across the Gulf of Mexico. This marina is basically a fishing marina with room for a couple of larger vessels. It was great fun to see the catches from the fishermen and guides. I would like to return and hire a guide someday.
The next day we left Steinhatchee and made the trip to Crystal River. This leg of the trip was actually more eventful than the crossing of the Gulf. We had 2 to 3’s quartering on the stern for most of the day which made for a rolling trip. There were many shallow sections of the channel coming into Crystal River. We spent an extra day here so that we could swim in the Three Sisters Springs. Although the water was a little cold, it was a great experience and well worth the extra day.
We left Crystal River and anchored out at Anclote Key. The winds picked up over night and we decided to stay at Dunedin until the winds let up. The next hop landed us at Clearwater where we met with Pam’s cousin Sharon
The marina at Clearwater was a working marina with tour boats, fishing boats, ferries and work boats.
From Clearwater our next stop was Sarasota. This was our first experience with mooring balls. I will let Pam tell the details of this experience.
On May 20th we left Sarasota for the next leg to South Sea Resort. The length of travel was only 55 nautical miles, but it was a long day due to the many miles of now or minimum wake zones. It took over 8 hours to make this trip. After this leg of the trip we started adding extra time just in case.
South Sea Resort was another of those “I was born to live this way” places. We stayed here three days and enjoyed every minute. We even were treated to sightings of the resident manatees.
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After being in the lap of luxury we headed for the Lake Okeechobee. We were already monitoring the lake levels since there had been little rain in the last month or so. The southern route or Rim Route was not passable for anything except fishing boats. The Cross Lake Route was little better. Fortunately we only have a 3 1/2 foot draft so we were set to take the mid-lake route.
We first made three stops along the Okeechobee Water Way before crossing the lake. We first stopped at Sweetwater Landing for the first night. The next day we traveled to Glades RV Park and Marina. This was not a “I was born to live this way” place. But what it lacked in pizazz it made up for in character. We were provided a golf cart to make the trip to the swimming pool. We met more incredible people that made this stretch of the trip wonderful. We stayed at Glades for three days mostly because of the friends we made. Secondarily we were waiting to see if any rain would come and to make sure the weather would be the best possible for the crossing.
The next stop was the final stop before making the crossing of Lake Okeechobee. We stayed at the place on Okeechobee, Roland Martin’s Marina. We were fortunate that the weather forecast was for northerly winds which would blow water to the southern end. That would give us a little more depth as we are crossing. The minimum depth according to the US Army Corp of Engineers was 5 ft. We were on pins and needles until we hit the deeper water on the east side of the lake.
Pam took a few minutes to relax once we entered the eastern canal. She usually does not rest long, but this time she was mentally exhausted so she sat here for a long time, about 20 minutes.
I have come to understand that when operating a boat there are times you can dock the boat like a pro, but then there are times that humble you. The docking at Sunset Bay Marina and Anchorage in Stuart was one of those days that humbled me. It took three attempts to get Bye George into the slip. The first two times I came close to putting the port side into the Nordhavn next to me. Funny thing after trying the first time I immediately tried the exact same thing. Guess I did not learn because the captain on the Nordhavn came out to make sure I did not put my port side into his boat.
I came back out for the third attempt and instead of doing the same thing, I came from the other side of raceway. The wind and current now kept me off of the boat next to me and I was able to get her in the slip with no problems. But it did humble me.
On May 30th we headed to Vero Beach. Along the way we witnessed some of the most beautiful water. Of coarse we had many dolphins follow us so we included the obligatory dolphin picture.
This isn’t half way, but I am going to stop this post now and continue on the next post.
Bye George 