And we're off 2.0

Pre-departure Memorial Day

Millie is ready to roll.

Egret happily resting on her mooring at the Niantic Bay Yacht Club

 

The happy couple with Steve and Margo.

Look what I found.  Here's the beginning of the unpublished final post from the Great Loop:

If I don't write the final blog entry, are we still on the Loop?  We are in a bit of denial that our journey is over and Egret is safely back on mooring 19 at Conanicut Yacht Club.  Getting back to Jamestown after being away for one year and one week has obviously invoked a sense of accomplishment.  After six thousand miles, the boat is running well, and all the systems are functioning.  If you've been a steady reader of the Blog, you know that for us, traveling on the Great Loop has been a bit addicting.  We constantly meet new and interesting people, travel to new places, and meet and overcome new challenges.  There's a rhythm to it all that is also very appealing and will be missed. 

But it's nice to be home.  It's nice not to worry about cell phone coverage, access to grocery stores, weather, or running into rocks.  Our bed is a little bigger, but it doesn't rock around all night.   We spent the first few weeks back with trips to Portland and Burlington to visit the kids, which was super fun.  Then off to Philly for a slew of doctor's appointments and some fun catch-up time with friends.  Never try to fit an entire year of doctor's appointments into a week.   

A quick statistical summary of our trip:

We traveled six thousand miles, through two countries, and nineteen states. Of the 371 total days away, we spent 289 on the boat and 82 off the boat.  Of the 289 days on the boat, we spent 181 in marinas, 70 at anchor, 30 on free docks or free walls, and 8 on moorings.  Over the six thousand miles, we used almost 3 thousand gallons of fuel and put 560 hours on the engine.  

Friends and family on our trip north

When we last spoke we were dodging bees and moving north.  In spite of a one-week layover in St. Simons, GA, we continue to head north -  pretty quickly.  Cumberland Island was our first stop after Fernandina. For some reason, most of the cruisers tend to skip Cumberland Island. Not sure why as it's insanely picturesque with lots of wildlife and history.  The anchoring is easy and it's right off the ICW - no excuses.  

Sunset on Cumberland, Is

Roger and Millie show the wild horses a little respect.

Classic Cumberland Island trail.

Plum Orchard Mansion owned by Thomas and Lucy Carnegie

Egret at Cumberland Island

We headed to Jekyll Island after Cumberland and we were excited about getting the bikes out for some nice riding. Not to be.  After a short ride, Roger got a flat. No problem, we've got a pump and a tube.  Oops no wrench to get the tire off- that's not OK.  We tried to get a little air in the tire unsuccessfully when a good samaritan rider stopped by to help.  OK - great - back on the road. Well, it obviously flats again.  Chrisy heads off to grab a golf cart and Roger finds good samaritan #2 who happens to have a wrench and a functioning pump.  Roger changes out the tube, calls Chrisy and we're off.  Not so fast.  Roger flats again. Then Chrisy flats. I've lost count by now but it's time to put the bikes away, get a beer, and take the courtesy golf cart from the marina. The rest of the afternoon was actually quite pleasant.  As we found out when we got to a bike shop in St. Simons, our tires are ten years old, cracked, show evidence of being ridden while underinflated, and basically useless.  One of the problems with folding bikes is that their tires aren't exactly "off the shelf."  Amazon to the rescue.  Had the tires shipped to Hilton Head, and we were back in business.  

While we've been moving pretty quickly on our trip north we have been able to coordinate visits with lots of friends and family.  In St. Simons, we met up with Roger's sister Betsy and most of her family as well as cousin William Hanger with lots of his friends and family. 

Betsy and Rick on the beach - Sea Island

Classic Sea Island dinner on the ping-pong table.

We've been visited by a few green flies recently - big ones.  Turns out that Millie is not such a big fan. 

She found an escape on the bow. 

Chrisy has been desperate to get to Savannah, and Roger has always found a reason to keep moving.  Not this year.  A two-night stop gave us a full day to enjoy this lovely city.  Here is the statue of the Waving Lady as she greets returning captains. She's looking for her long-lost boyfriend.

 St. John Cathedral

One of the many squares in Savannah

Cruising buddies Nile and Linda Schneider in Savannah (who we met in 2013) with 

new cruising buddies Karen and Mark.

We have used our reciprocal privileges through Conanicut Yacht Club a few times, but this was probably the best. Free dockage for two nights at the Wexford Yacht Club in Hilton Head... a beautiful Club that you enter via a private lock.

 

..and a free pickleball lesson with a friend-of-a-friend, Karen and the pro, Brian.

On the dock at Wexford - the saga of the bike tires hopefully came to an end with four new tires.

We put those new tires to good use with a 26.5 mile ride around Hilton Head with more cruising buddies, Burt and Prue Preston, who we met in the Bahamas in 2015.

Roger's former colleague at Bancroft School,  Bud Brooks and his wife Carol, with the heavens opening up behind us in Hilton Head. 

Long-time cruising friends Cathy and Allan Rae at their lovely home in Beaufort, SC 

An Egret is always a welcome sight - Seabrook Island

Bruce and Heather Glendinning relocated from Philly down to Seabrook Island, SC

Roger's sister, Betsy's good friend, Clarke Weidlein, joined us for dinner in Southport, SC.

On the Road Again

Last year during our Great Loop planning we were presented with an opportunity to rent a condo in Vero for the month of March.  We really enjoy Vero in March so it was an offer we couldn't refuse.  We made sure we were in Vero by the end of February and we'd pull off the Great Loop for the month of March - take a break.  We had our golf clubs shipped down, made lots of tee times with our friends Sharon and Greg, lost countless balls - our games are very much a work in progress - made lots of plans with friends, played tennis, took Millie on lots of beach walks, and best of all, we had our children down for a fun-filled week.  

Now we are back on the road - so to speak.  We departed Vero on Saturday, April 1st, and headed to an anchorage in Cocoa Village about 50 miles north.   It felt good to be back on Egret and moving north.  Our trip was pretty uneventful and we arrived in mid-afternoon. After surveying the anchorage to make sure that we avoided submerged gas and power lines, we anchored in about 12 feet of water just off the town docks.  

After getting Millie to shore for her evening walk, we returned to a rather hot and humid boat and decided to turn on the generator so we could get the AC running to cool down the boat.  Within two minutes of turning on the generator, a swarm of honey bees descended on our cockpit. What happened? What did we do? Where did they come from? The Generator? The AC? More importantly, what are we going to do?  And thank goodness we had closed the door in our cockpit! A fellow cruiser who saw what was happening came over in her dinghy to inquire. She was actually a beekeeper and obviously quite knowledgeable on the subject. She reassured us that we were not about to recreate a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's, The Birds - yes we may have been catastrophizing a bit. She went back to her boat and did some research to locate a bee removal specialist.  With the specialist located, we made a plan to meet "The Eradicator" at the dock the next morning at 8:15.   Roger got dressed in long pants, long sleeve shirt, and a baseball hat pulled down tight, and made a quiet but speedy dash through the cockpit to the dinghy.   Once on board, The Eradicator calmly vacuumed the bees - guiding them into the vacuum with his bare finger. If one would stray to his neck he just vacuumed the bee off.  Roger observed from the safety of the dinghy. Chrisy and Millie were behind closed doors in the main salon. Once the Queen Bee was located and secured in a special container, the vacuuming pace increased substantially.  Within half an hour - no more honey bees.  Well almost, there were a few more that Roger bravely vacuumed up.  The Eradicator said that the queen must have randomly landed on the boat and that it did not come from the boat.  That was nice to know.  Glad we don't need to vacuum out the generator or AC unit.  

We had a nice visit from Tom and Tina Osborne, fellow loopers who have completed their loop.

Family fun day on Egret in Vero

Nana and Pops are on an outing to the ice cream parlor with the star. 

John Brittain, friends for over 55 years

Many of those lost golf balls were lost with great cruising buddies Greg Page and Sharon Buerhle.

Egret, ready for departure after a month in Vero. Photo credit to Roz Allen. 

Honey bees swarming the Queen in Cocoa Village anchorage

Hundreds of honeybees swarmed Egret within minutes....

The Eradicator at work

After the excitement at Cocoa Village, we headed on for Titusville (had a great dinner at Dixie Crossings with cruising friends Barb and Doug who we met in 2013),  New Smyrna Beach, (first time here - we hung out with our Canadian Loopers - Yachts of Fun and JEMA) Fort Matanzas anchorage (beautiful anchorage with a raging current), and St. Augustine. 

Millie on her morning jaunt to the beach at Fort Matanzas.

The happy couple at Castillo de San Marcos - the fort in St. Augustine

Fellow Loopers Jeff and Sharon, Yachts of Fun with Jim and Elaine, JEMA out for dinner in St. Augustine

We've been pretty spoiled with our weather for most of the trip.  That luck would end toward the end of our stay in St. Augustine when a massive Nor'Easter would descend on us.  With rain and 25 knots of wind forecasted for the foreseeable future, Chrisy had the good idea to get moving a day ahead of the weather so we raced from St. Augustine to Fernandina, the town on Amelia Island. The reasoning worked perfectly until we arrived in Fernandina and they didn't have space for us on the dock.  We grabbed a mooring ball and rode out the first eight hours of the front bobbing and weaving on a mooring, getting very little sleep.  Honestly, it felt as though we were in a washing machine with high winds and fast currents.  Our luck would return on Easter Sunday when we were able to get a space on one of the inside docks that is really well protected from the prevailing winds.  

Mid-afternoon walk for Millie and we tripped on some live music in Fernandina. Chrisy looking fresh as a daisy; Roger looking like he had a long night on the mooring.  

On to Vero for March

We made lots of different plans for the Super Bowl and finally settled on going to Key Biscayne Yacht Club.  While the game obviously didn't turn out the way we wanted, the Yacht Club with a nice pool, bar, showers, and friendly staff and members was amazing.  Chrisy stayed busy with daily bike rides, yoga classes in town, and the Coconut Grove Art Show while Roger flew to El Salvador for a board meeting.  

From Key Biscayne, we spent one night on anchor in West Palm Beach and then moved up to Delray Beach where we were hosted on the dock of Roger's high school friend, Louise Vanderlip, and her husband, Henrik.  The price was right and the hospitality was superb. We were also able to catch up with friends Henry and Suzie O'Reilly, Debbie Maine, Roger's post-college roommate Reed Webster and his entertaining daughter, Margaret.  We randomly ran into Lisa and Rob Barker, friends from Chrisy's childhood years, at a wonderful "America's Cup" slide show and lecture.  Henrik and Louise made our stay a bit too comfortable, and it was hard to move on, but we needed to keep pushing toward Vero Beach.  

Peck Lake is a large anchorage on the Intracoastal Waterway with a state park and a massive beach.  After much deliberation as to the legality of bringing Millie to the beach, we gave it the thumbs up and Millie had several long walks.  Unfortunately, the anchorage is adjacent to the Intracoastal Waterway and there is no "No Wake Zone" sign so our accommodations were somewhat rolly during the day, but the beautiful beach with hardly anyone on it certainly made up for the rolly waves.  

Millie was sorry to leave the park but happy to leave the anchorage when we pushed on to Stuart on the St. Lucie River.  We've heard lots of great things about Stuart over the years from our cruising friends, but we have never been.  It did not disappoint.  The marina was very welcoming with nice facilities, and the town even put on an art show for us on Sunday.  We caught up with our Jamestown friends Mary Hutchinson and Jim Wharton - our one-man send-off party way back in May and had a lovely afternoon at their resort community and spent the evening with our Michigan Great Loopers, Robin and John.  

Last winter we fell into a perfect rental for Vero Beach so we factored that into our Great Loop adventure and booked a stop for the month of March.  The condo has three bedrooms and three baths. Basically, we are going through a bit of an adjustment period getting used to all of the space.  After spending months where we have been within 15 feet of each other, there are times now when we can't find each other.  Roger's wallet and reading glasses are constantly missing, but we are gradually getting used to life on land.  Millie had no such adjustment period and quickly settled into multiple walks per day.  

Miami in the background on a gorgeous travel day for a motorboat. A special thank you to our Canadian friends, Steve and Dodie, for the photograph.

Your basic Key Biscayne sunset

The ladies enjoying their walk on the beach at Peck Lake.

Roger, Henrik, Louise, Chrisy, Lisa and Rob Barker friends of Chrisy's

Margaret, Reed, Henry, Roger, Debbie, Suzie, and Louise. Please note the sleeve length on Roger's blazer.  This is what happens when you don't pack a blazer on Egret.

Concert at the art show in Stuart

Jim Wharton and Mary Hutchinson at their lovely home in Harbour Ridge.

Friends John and Robin from Moonshadow II

Sunset at Stuart

Your basic travel day on the Intracoastal Waterway.  Put your head on a swivel and know the rules of the road.

Egret's new home - the mooring field at Vero Beach Municipal Marina.

No this is not Maine - it's Vero Beach.