Week of May 5th

HAPPY CINCO de MAYO

Before we go any further, some have asked "what is the Loop" all about? We've been talking about it for so long, I forget that we were as uninitiated as perhaps some of you. So, here it is....
The Great Loop is a circle of the inland waterway and the open ocean comprising about 6000+ miles. One can start the Loop from anywhere but we started in Miami Beach FL. From there, we are transitting the eastern seaboard to the NY Harbor. After visiting the Stature of Liberty, we will move north up the Hudson River to the Erie Canal near Albany NY. We will traverse the Erie Canal and exit at Oswego NY to cross Lake Ontario to Trent, Ontario, Canada. The Trent Severn Canal is like the Erie Canal in that it was built by connecting existing waterways to serve as a means of commerce years ago. We'll "vacation" along the Trent Severn Canal which will connect us to the Georgian Bay and North Channel, both protected northern bays of Lake Huron. At the end of the North Channel, we will cross to Makinac Island and the western shore of the state of Michigan. We'll marina hop down the coast of Michigan and cross to Chicago then north to Waukegan where we'll rest and visit with Joan's sister. About the second week of September, we'll head into the Illinois River, connect to the Mississippi River, down to the Ohio River, up to the Cumberland River, over to the Tennessee River, up to the junction of the TomBigBee River, down to Mobile AL, have some work done on the boat, transit the ICW to Apalachicola FL, across the Gulf to Tampa FL, down the western coast of Florida to the Keys, through the Keys and up the eastern side to our slip in Miami Beach. All by Thanksgiving. Then home for X-mas with the Kids.
We consider this an exploratory trip as we'll never be able to spend enough time in any one place to really experience the area. As with many other people who have done the Loop, I expect that we'll head back again one day.
Meanwhile, on our way....

Here at Wilmington Marine Center, sitting on the stern of the boat, I can view the traffic heading up river on the Cape Fear. While somewhat surprising, the Cape Fear is a noted commercial river and Wilmington serves to transfer a fair amount of cargo. Usually, at least one cargo ship passes by each day.
And, this is what keeps us occupied as we wait for ZF to arrive on Monday to install our new transmission along with various other parts and pieces to make the boat run again.
In the interim, we pass time shopping, doing laundry and other various and sundry chores on the boat. Here's Steve after he finished his shopping for fresh fish for dinner. Mott's Fresh Seafood is near Wrightsville Beach and has served to supply us with fresh fish, this time Wahoo, everytime we pass this way. Usually, however, we arrive by boat...not by car! This same day, we found a Starbucks and thank our coffee angels for that! We were nearly out of coffee and a disaster would have happened if we didn't have our coffee. Never mind that mine is decaf these days...a remnant of being bitten by a crab.

And, our other bit of entertainment is watching the resident alligators. There are three that we know of...sort of like the Three Bears...Momma Alligator, Baby Alligator, and Daddy Alligator. We've seen the Momma and the Baby but Daddy, a reported 10' specimen, has yet to appear. The baby likes to swim up to boats and hang out watching whatever activity is going on. Sidney is justly attracted to the little guy but wisely stays near the boat.

Otherwise, our week of "waiting" has been filled with various and sundry boat duties along with Claire finishing a few of her knitting projects. The grandbabies are going to be grown and gone if she doesn't pay attention. Rain helps to focus her on the projects as the boat can't be waxed or worked on when Mother Nature is showering us with liquid gold.

Sorry we don't have anything more exciting to report. Living in a boat yard is not the most interesting sport in the world. However, it has caused Claire to start running again...next to swimming, it is her favorite thing to hate. Thank Gawd for IPODS. The boat yard is not close to anything and Wilmington is not a bike friendly town so we're relegated to "on site" activities. Hopefully, next week will find us traversing the ICW headed to Norfolk and our rendezvous with Colorado Cat.