We are Cruising
7 days ago we were fighting with a storm. Sub-tropical hurricane Alberto was looming in Southwest Florida and had finally caught up with us. We stayed the extra day in Titusville, just to be on the safe side. There is no sense in doing this adventure in horrible weather. Everyday it has rained at some point. Usually the mornings are clear. Around 3:00 pm it rains. It thunders and there is bright white lightning! I swear, it has not failed that the minute we get our lines tied in a new marina, there is a down pour. I’m thinking my God is hearing my prayers for safe passage as we leave a dock, and as soon as we are safe, he lets loose!
We are traveling about 45 to 60 miles a day right now. We have traveled 538 miles in 9 days. We are moving swiftly because we started a bit late on our Loop Adventure. Normally, if you start the Loop from Southwest Florida, like we did, you want to toss lines in mid February, early March. Remember back a few stories ago about April Fools Day, and how we couldn’t leave yet? Well, we left real late. May 21st. You make this trip with the seasons, which I will explain in our next posting. More importantly, per our boat insurance plan, we have to be in the northern part of North Carolina by June 15th. Hurricane season is upon us, and our insurance won’t cover any damage done to our boat caused by a hurricane if we are below a certain longitude and latitude. If something were to happen above that point, we would have coverage for the summer months. This is why we are scooting along.
This trip is meant to be enjoyed obviously. Jim and I have spent a lot of time in Florida. We spent our honeymoon on a boat, we came 3 or 4 times looking at boats. We’ve seen Florida by car and on the water. Many days on the water this last week we commented to each other, “oh, we’ve been here”, or “we’ve seen this”. Actually, last weekend, at the Titusville Marina, as we walked to the office to pay our bill, we looked at each other and said, “been here”! We had looked at a boat in the marina on our trip to buy our boat. It was on the list.
So, traveling at a good clip through Florida has been good. Although, we did stop in St. Augustine, and I would love to see and wander that city. It was really beautiful, even in the rain.
As I was saying earlier, we’ve had beautiful cruising days and snotty afternoons and evenings. From Titusville we traveled to Daytona Beach. Yesterday we were in Jacksonville and today we are in Jekyll Harbor, on Jekyll Island, Georgia. Wooohooo! We will continue to cruise everyday, weather permitting, until we get to the Carolinas. Then we will be able to slow our roll a bit, and really enjoy some sightseeing and anchoring out instead of staying in marinas. I think we both are looking forward to this.
Because the Loop is done, traveling with the seasons, you want to be pretty far north during the summer. The goal is to be in Chicago by Labor Day and cruising down the Mississippi and other rivers down to Alabama around Thanksgiving time, and then cross the Gulf of Mexico, back to Florida for the winter. Because we had a late start, Jim and I may just cruise to the Chesapeake Bay Area for the summer so we don’t have to rush. Then we would head back to Florida, maybe the Keys or the Bahamas for the winter, and then start the Loop again in February so we can take our time. Our goal is to complete America’s Great Loop. Maybe this year, maybe next.
One day at a time. It’s not like we have to be anywhere.
Here are some pictures from the last 4 days.
I can’t tell you enough how thrilling this is. It’s a brand new adventure every single day. Jim and I do well together. I’m sure you can imagine how small our world is, on the boat. We are enjoying the solitude, the long walks in new places, even if it’s just taking the trash out. We search for meetings we can get to by foot or by Uber. We cook and clean and problem solve together. We say “I love you” a lot. ❤️
Thanks for peeking in.
Jim and Kim
