In fact, we crossed our wake quite a while ago. I have been putting off writing this blog because it will put a finis on our wonderful trip of a lifetime. As happy as we are to be home, cruising America’s Great Loop is the kind of trip you never want to end. Of course, it isn’t for everyone. You have to have a strong stomach (or a big supply of Dramamine), love seeing new places, meeting new people, and be very tolerant of being cooped up in a small space with another human being—and possibly a parrot, dog, cat or other creature.

While we loved the socializing and meeting new people on the Loop, one of the parts we enjoyed most was anchoring in a quiet creek somewhere and watching the sunset. We did that quite a few times on this last six-week leg of our trip.

I was excited to see Charleston Harbor. I was born in the “Holy City” and lived most of my life in nearby Hanahan. Charleston became Gary’s hometown in 1969, the year we married. We had cold, but sunny weather as we cruised up the Stono River and finally saw the city marina’s megadock ahead. We were given a spot right on the face dock in the Ashley River with very familiar sights all around. Docked behind us were several multi-million-dollar yachts as well as some that were not so expensive, but certainly out of our price range. Gilraker is not intimidated by larger boats. She laughs at the fuel pump. Her one little Cummins has served her (and us) well over the past 6,000 or so miles.

We tied up and immediately began calling friends—or trying to. Our cell phones gave us a fit dropping calls and refusing to complete connections until we found that we could re-set them by turning them off and back on. My friend Lin was the first to find us. After a wrong turn into a marina a little further up the Ashley, she found us and gave us a lift to California Dreamin’, a place new to us that had great food and nice large portions. Best of all was talking non-stop with Lin, who had had the “privilege” of being third-grade teacher to our oldest son Robbie. Despite this she still speaks to us and even appears to enjoy our company. We had a great visit before Lin dropped us back at the marina and headed out.

We spent a cold winter night all toasty and warmed by our electric heaters. Next day, my friend Clara, who had been in our wedding over 40 years ago, dropped by about lunch time. She called to tell me she was in the marina parking lot and I hiked the quarter-mile or so down the megadock, around the end, across the parking lot and up to the convenience store. No Clara. My cell phone wouldn’t work anywhere in the parking lot except next to a palm tree at one corner of the convenience store. (This was before I found I needed to re-set it.) We played Keystone Kops on the phone as Clara told me what she could see and I kept walking around the parking lot looking for her car. Turns out she’d seen me, but didn’t recognize me all bundled up in my hooded jacket. We were about 20 feet apart when we finally saw each other.

Clara hiked down to the boat and looked over our home away from home, trying not to look too distressed when she saw where we’d been living for a good part of the last two years. We hiked back up to the marina restaurant where we had lunch, then bid Clara goodbye. We had thought to maybe walk around town a little, but it was too cold, so we hiked on back to the boat and read for the rest of the afternoon. Later we went for a walk down to the end of the megadock and back to our boat. We talked to a man who was in charge of a crew working on refinishing all the woodwork on a sailboat that had been built in 1929. The brisk walk in the cold air gave us a good appetite and we enjoyed our supper in the warm pilot house.

Next day we took care of housekeeping duties and checked out the big mega-yachts docked behind us. One was white and modern-looking. The other was a gorgeous two-masted sailboat with a dark blue hull. I Googled the name and found pictures of her. She is apparently spending the winter in Charleston before heading for California.

I had recently found a friend from med tech school on Facebook and she and her husband picked us up in the afternoon and gave us a short tour of the old part of the city that we had not seen in quite awhile. Charleston has recovered beautifully from Hugo and has a really nice park on the Cooper River near the entrance to the harbor. We drove by the old market, which is being modernized to better serve tourists and the vendors who set up stalls there.

Faye had mentioned several places we might like to eat and when she said “Bessinger’s” my heart sang. If you grew up eating Bessinger’s barbecue, as I did, none other tastes as good. So off we went for the best barbecue sandwich on the planet and onion rings that are to die for. Afterward we went to Faye and Dennis’ home for some coffee that really hit the spot and a wonderful time reminiscing and catching up on forty years of news. Faye drove us back to the marina and we began preparations for an early departure the next morning.

We were glad we had decided to spend the extra couple of days in Charleston, partly because we got to visit with friends, but partly because by waiting we had a beautiful day for cruising. It was still cold, but we had a beautiful sunny day to cross Charleston Harbor and wend our way up the ICW.

We had to speed up at one point crossing the harbor to avoid a big freighter, but other than that we had no problem getting into the ICW on the other side of the Charleston peninsula. We passed a very pleasant day cruising north paralleling Highway 17. It’s amazing how different the scenery is when seen from the water.

We spent several nights anchored in creeks along the way, then spent the night at a marina near Socastee. Our final night on the water. Our friend from several trips to Europe, Curt was hanging over the railing at Barefoot Landing when we cruised up the ICW at Myrtle Beach, and he got pictures of us as we waved hello and farewell on the last leg of our trip to Holden Beach. Lois and Lorenzo were there to greet us and handle lines for us this last time. It was with really mixed feelings that we stepped back onto our home dock. We had our picture taken holding our gold burgee that replaced the tattered white one on the bow. It is the symbol of the Loop completed.

That was the last trip we took on Gilraker, weather is such a factor in boating and we just never seemed to have spare time when the weather was right to get out much. We did take our son, his wife and her two nieces out to watch the Fourth of July fireworks off Southport, but shortly after that we put the boat up for sale and moved on to other adventures. Gary told the couple who bought Gilraker that he hoped they could have as many good memories of her as we do.

Daufuskie Island

We had a somewhat bouncy ride to St. Mary’s. Captain Paw-Paw decided we could make better time if we ran offshore, so run we did. We ran right into a military exercise being conducted off Jacksonville. The weather was a little cloudy and there was a light wind, but the ocean just had those gentle swells that make for such good napping. The captain was cruising along and the first mate decided a nap would be just what the doctor ordered. She had no sooner stretched out, pulled the quilt up to her chin, breathed a sigh and closed her eyes than the radio crackled and a stern voice said something we couldn’t understand about the “white sport fisher off our port bow.” It was a Coast Guard patrol boat and when the captain finally decided they thought we were a sport fisher and answered, they told us to stay off their port bow and keep moving.

We were more than happy to comply and zipped happily along for about a mile when an even sterner voice came over the radio, identifying himself as “Warship 80.” He told us to stay at least one and a quarter-miles away and to speed up. Of course, by this time first mate and captain were nervous wrecks. The last thing we wanted to tangle with was a warship—ours or anyone else’s. So we throttled up and passed him/her with our starboard to his port, and thanked them for being there as we passed by. By then I had the binoculars and what to my wondering eyes should appear but another warship and a submarine. The other warship told us politely to stay away, which we did. We turned toward the ocean and hoped we could stay well out of everyone’s way. We heard the submarine and an army tug discussing staying out of each other’s way, and had no desire to challenge either of them. First mate got no nap that day!

The rest of the trip was uneventful and we eventually found the St. Mary’s River and gratefully tied up at Lang’s Marina in the quaint little town of St. Mary’s. We called my sister-in-law, Paula, and she drove over from Kingsland and we went to dinner at the Old Mill Restaurant, not too far from the marina. We all had a terrific shrimp dinner. Paula then took us back to the boat, where we got a good night’s sleep.

Next morning we were up bright and early and sorted the laundry, which seemed to have multiplied in the hamper. Paula picked us up and took us to her house where we started a load of wash, then we went to Cracker Barrel for brunch. We went back to the house and put another load in the washer before going to Wal-Mart to lay in supplies. Then it was back to the house, where Paula trimmed my overgrown hair and we put in yet another load.

By this time it was time to run to White Oak and pick up Paula’s granddaughters, Laurie and Callie. We were happy to see the girls, check out Laurie’s chickens and the new walk and patio that had recently been added to their house. Then it was back to Kingsland and another load of laundry and a nap in the recliner for the exhausted captain. Then Paula took us, our groceries, and the girls back to the boat so the girls could get a look at it. An extra treat was in store because when we were walking up the dock we saw a school of porpoises feeding in the area near the docks. They fed for quite some time while we stood in the marina parking lot and watched.

Later, when Karla, the girls’ mother got off from work, and Charles, their father, got off from his reserve duty in Jacksonville, we all went out for steak. We couldn’t thank Paula enough for all the running around she did for us. It was great seeing Charles, Karla and the girls, too. After dinner Paula drove us back to St. Mary’s one more time where we bedded down with the happy thought that we had plenty of clean laundry and the “pantry” under the bench was re-stocked.

We had spoken to a dear friend, Mattie Gladstone, and asked if she would like to ride from St. Mary’s to Brunswick with us. Mattie is the wife of the minister who baptized my dad and me, buried my mom and brother, and married Gary and me. Their family have been friends of ours since I was a child. Mr. Fred “Happy Rock” as he was known at Bible camps across the country, was a paratrooper at the D-Day invasion and had been wounded there. He became a Christian after returning to the United States and spent the rest of his life serving his Lord. For many years he attended every World War II reunion he could, and witnessed to any who would listen, including some of the highest-ranking generals. He had been bedridden for several years and Mattie and his daughter Mary and son David had cared for him devotedly. He passed away just a few weeks ago. He was truly an American and Christian hero.

Mrs. Mattie loves the water, having lived most of her life near Darien, Georgia. She agreed that she would like to ride with us and we asked her daughter to have her at the marina by ten on Wednesday morning. They arrived at 8:30 a.m. Mary and her friend Elaine brought their two small dogs with them for the visit. At first the dogs didn’t notice Maggie, who was sitting atop her cage surveying her kingdom. When they did notice her she was not amused. They barked at her a couple of times and she literally dive-bombed them from the top of her cage. Luckily, the dogs were so awestruck that it didn’t register at first what had happened, so I was able to scoop Maggie up and put her in the cage. Lucky for the dogs, too. I have felt the wrath of Maggie when I inadvertently invaded her territory. So have our cats. They don’t hang around her, having been bitten on the tail once too often.

We had a lovely time with Mattie aboard. The weather was overcast, which kept the cabin of the boat from getting too hot and the wind was gentle. We saw dolphins several times and a variety of seabirds, besides some beautiful scenery. We got to Brunswick about noon and David came to pick his mother up. He is a gentleman farmer and brought us some eggs from his hens and a delicious shrimp and rice dinner that Mary had cooked. These were totally unexpected, but much appreciated. We hugged Mattie and David goodbye at the Brunswick marina just as the rain began. It’s gratifying to know that a small thing can bring someone else pleasure. All that and a good shrimp dish make for a good night’s sleep.

Next morning the weather was not the most pleasant for boating or anything else. It rained off and on all day and we had to cross several bodies of fairly open water. To be charitable I will just call it snarly. We took a lot of water over the bow, plus a good bit of rain. Poor Gilraker has taken a beating over the nearly 6,000 miles we’ve traveled over 2008 and now 2010. We found this time she was leaking around windows and other places more than we’ve seen before. We have a pile of bar mop towels that we keep on hand for just such occasions and made good use of a lot of them. We bounced and jounced and were glad when we pulled into the Kilkenny Marina in the middle of nowhere, somewhere south of Savannah, out of the wind. You can see some of the mileage racked up over the months in our now-ragged burgee. We are carrying with us the new gold one that will replace it when we cross our wake in Holden Beach in a week or so.

We had some of David’s fresh eggs with grits and bacon for supper and wearily headed for the sleeping cabin. Oh no! My sleeping bag had gotten soaked by some water dripping down from the windshield and running down behind the console. The blanket that I keep for warming up my feet was dry so I flipped the bag around, covered the wet place with my raincoat, and grabbed one of Gary’s pillows. I slept much better than I expected to, probably because I was worn out from keeping my balance in a lurching boat all day. Everything has its good side. Today I draped the bag in front of the propane heater and dried it out completely.

We had a beautiful run from Kilkenny Creek to a place called Bull Creek, just opposite the northern tip of Daufuskie Island. We anchored there amid the salt marshes and it’s beginning to look and smell like home. If you were raised around the salt marsh you know what I mean. If you weren’t, you probably think they’re the most awful-smelling things in the world. We plan to anchor near Edisto tomorrow night and arrive in Charleston sometime early Sunday.

We left the St. Lucie Lock park in the early morning and exited the Okeechobee Waterway. We made a left turn and headed north toward home. We were back in the Intracoastal Waterway that we had left in April 2008. Now we’re only a little over 600 miles from home. A year ago we were wondering if we’d ever get to this point.

We pulled into the Ft. Pierce City Marina late in the afternoon and were assigned a slip at the very back. It was nice to get off the boat and walk around the beautiful park laid out at the waterfront. It is paved with varicolored bricks and has benches and sculptures to enjoy. Quite a few strollers were out and about, as well as some hopeful fishermen.

We slipped away early the next morning with our batteries all charged and our water tanks topped off. We would be anchoring out the next two nights in a row. It had finally started to warm up in the day time, although at night we ran the propane heater to keep the cabin warm. When we’re in a marina with electrical hookups we use a couple of small ceramic heaters, but the propane saves battery power when we’re anchored out.

We had beautiful boating weather to Cocoa, where we anchored in an anchorage right off the channel with quite a few sailboats, but no cruisers. We were within sight of the town and spent a nice quiet night with hardly any motion on the boat.

We’ve made up our own recipes for living aboard. Velveeta Shells and Cheese can be very versatile and filling. I boil the shells, drain them, then add a pound of browned hamburger and the packet of cheese. Served with either a canned vegetable, or even a package of fresh broccoli that has been lightly steamed, it will warm the cockles of your heart and leave enough for lunch the next day. To save on dish and pot washing we’ve even added the broccoli directly to the mix. If we’re tired of hamburger, canned chicken tastes just as good in this mix.

Another favorite is a jar of alfredo sauce warmed with a can of chicken. Pasta, a bagged salad and canned fruit make for a filling dinner and again, leave enough for tomorrow’s lunch. For breakfast we rely heavily on oatmeal with dried fruit mixed in. Maggie has to have a helping of this, too. She particularly loves dried cranberries and cherries cooked in with the oatmeal. The thing we use to lure her back into her cage, though, is a cheese nab with peanut butter. When she hears the cellophane crackling she starts her climb down into the cage, so that by the time we have the package open she’s sitting by her food cup anxiously waiting to get the nab so she can pull the crackers apart and gobble up the peanut butter.

We weighed anchor early in the morning on Wednesday and headed for Daytona. We have had unbelievably beautiful weather, and except for the minor problem with a fuel line back at Tampa, no problems with the boat at all. I still haven’t hauled out my khaki shorts, though. I’ve told several people the weather has seemed more like Canada in summer than Florida in winter.

We anchored off Daytona, again surrounded by sailboats, most of which seemed to have no one aboard. We spent a quiet night, warmed by our propane heater again. The run from Cocoa had almost totally re-charged our batteries so we had plenty of current to run the TV, use the toaster oven if we needed to and keep our anchor light lit.

Boats over a certain length are required to show a white light when anchored at night. We’re happy to comply with this rule. No one wants to be run down on the water, especially at night. Not that we were really in any danger. Gary said he awoke one time when a barge and tug went by. Since we were anchored well out of the channel, we had no worries and once again spent a quiet, peaceful night.

The socializing has definitely been different in this phase of our Loop trip. The first part we were always traveling with at least one other boat, much of the time with three or more and there was a lot of gathering on docks or back decks and swapping of stories, lies, information and misinformation. We saw two Loopers leave Carrabelle as we were on our way to the fuel dock. We never caught up with them and have only seen one other boat with a Looper flag at St. Augustine.

There was one place Gary worried about a little between Daytona and St. Augustine. Matanzas Inlet, south of St. Augustine is notorious for shoals that shift around due to the currents when the tide goes in and out. He had read reports on the internet that part of the marked channel had become shoaled. At one point south of the shoal area a cruiser passed us going south. Gary called them on the radio and asked how the Inlet was when they had gone through. The captain replied that he had bumped twice in the middle of the channel and he only drew four feet of water, about half a foot more than Gilraker.

Gary was so uptight that by the time we got to the shoal, he couldn’t eat his lunch. As luck would have it, a larger boat was passing us in the opposite direction right about the time we hit the inlet. We passed through without a hint of shoaling and the depth finder showed plenty of water under the boat for the whole passage. All that worry and a missed lunch for nothing!

We arrived at St. Augustine in the late afternoon and fueled up. This was the first fuel we had taken on since Sarasota. We’d used a little over 100 gallons. We don’t run very fast, but we run lean—at least on diesel fuel. We had been told that the drawbridge in St. Augustine was being repaired and would only open on weekends. While that had earlier been true, by the time we arrived, the famous “Bridge of Lions” is permanently opened and the bridge next to it, over which the traffic now flows to Anastasia Island, will open during weekdays also.

We tied up at the municipal marina and happily hooked up the electrical cord and filled up the water tanks again. After some nice hot showers and a little rest, we asked for restaurant recommendations from the dockmaster. He had mentioned two of his favorites, but we saw a Cuban place directly across the street and ate there. Gary had heard of Cuban sandwiches all across Florida, but we hadn’t found a restaurant that served them. In fact, we hadn’t eaten at a restaurant since the Burger King at Moore Haven.

We were disappointed once again. The Cuban place we found only served the sandwiches at lunch. So Gary had picadillo and I had chipotle chicken. I had reached the point that anything I didn’t cook tasted good and Gary was too tired to care. It was good, though, and filling, so we waddled back to the boat and a good night’s sleep.

Foiled again! While we were gone a Sea Ray Sea Dancer had docked next to us. On board were two young couples. How they got four people in that boat to sleep, I’ll never know, but they did. Unfortunately, young is the operative word here. They had a really good time until about two a.m. Gary is lucky in one way. With his hearing aids out he couldn’t hear a gun going off next to his head. I dozed fitfully until about two when things finally quieted down.

I had e-mailed my sister-in-law, who lives in Kingsland, Georgia, and she and some friends had planned to spend the day in St. Augustine. They planned to arrive around noon and she said they would meet us at their favorite restaurant, the Columbia House. We ate a light breakfast and took off walking through the old town. We killed time window shopping and looking around till noon and met up with Paula, Ray and Telsa shortly after at Columbia House. Gary finally had his wish fulfilled and had their famous Cuban sandwich. They have a fantastic salad that the waiter mixes right at the table and apportions out onto plates. After lunch we left to go back to the boat for naps and the others took in a couple of shops before they headed back to Kingsland.

We were tired from all the walking so we got a good night’s sleep, even though out neighbors were up again a good part of the night. But we were up early and decided to take a tram tour of the city. We spent a good part of the morning touring Castillo de San Marcos, also known as Fort Marion. If you’re a history buff, Google it. It has a very interesting history. It was built by the Spanish to defend their claims on Florida and the City of St. Augustine. Standing at the massive walls and looking out across the entrance to the bay you can see why it was never taken in battle, but only transferred by treaty or negotiations. One cannon shot could easily have reached our boat, as they had one that had a range of three miles. A smaller one could send a shot one and a quarter miles.

Our weather today was a tourist’s dream. Warm, slightly breezy, and sunny. I felt sorry for the reenactors we watched perform a Spanish cannon drill. They had on replicas of the heavy wool uniforms worn year-round by the Spanish troops. And all but one of them were volunteers. To add a realistic touch all the orders were given in Spanish.

I had one big disappointment at the fort. When our family had visited it when I was a child there was a room with a small window very high in the wall. An exhibit noted that Osceola and one of his comrades were held there during the Seminole Wars and that they had escaped through that small opening by starving themselves to the point that they could fit through. They were recaptured, taken to Fort Moultrie at Charleston and died there. I had wanted to show the exhibit to Gary, but we walked through and I couldn’t find it. I asked one of the rangers about it and found that it was one of those myths that get spread from time to time. (And we thought that only happened since the internet!) Although Osceola had indeed been held at the fort, he didn’t escape, let alone starve himself to the point that he could fit through that tiny opening.

After touring the fort we hopped back on the tour tram and got off at the “Fountain of Youth.”  We drank the obligatory small cup of water from the aquifer there and were immediately rejuvenated. Not! It was an interesting place and we talked to a guide who gave us a lot of info on the Timucuan Indians. Timucuan graves had been discovered on the surrounding property and an archaeological dig was conducted there. The Indian skeletons had been given Christian burials, and after a period of their being exhibited, they were given a Christian re-burial with Catholic mass.

After a late lunch of sausage dogs, which did more to rejuvenate us than the water had, we hopped on the tram again. The tram took us by Flagler College, where 1500 students attend school in what used to be the Ponce de Leon Hotel. We also saw several other hotels and churches built by Henry Flagler, the man who “put Florida on the map.” I might owe Flagler for my being here. My grandfather used to have a contract to supply wood along the railroad route for the steam engines, and it was while working at this job that he met my grandmother.

After our tram tour we returned to the boat. Our young neighbors had left during the day to return to Jacksonville and the marina was all quiet. Tomorrow morning we will leave, Lord and weather willing, for St. Mary’s, where we will visit with family, catch up on laundry and re-stock our supplies. Then it’s heading north up the Waterway and home to the Old North State.

At St. Lucie Lock

After a windy night listening to fenders squeaking against the dock, hearing wind whistling past something that we could never find, digesting crab meat, we left the next morning in cold, but relatively calm weather. If forced to choose we’ll take calm any time. We’ll also take boring as compared to fixing fuel lines and climbing through windows with boat hooks in hand. The bruise across my midriff has gone from the purple stage to yellow, but I’m still not wearing my bikini. And don’t worry. I won’t be wearing it when the bruise does heal!

We rocked along the next day through some beautiful scenery, passing some gorgeous homes all along the Florida Inland Waterway. Let me tell you: all the gold is not in California. We stopped near Sarasota to fuel up and I asked the dock attendant how far we were from Nokomis, where I used to spend a lot of happy vacation time when I was a kid. He told me were about 14 miles south, so I thought I had missed seeing Casey Key, where one of my uncles had a home and some rental cottages and another uncle owned a grocery store.

Later, after my nap, I realized while checking the chart that the guy was confused (or I had misunderstood) and we were at that moment cruising between the mainland and Casey Key. It has changed so that I didn’t recognize anything on the “bay” side that we were traveling down, but I told Gary about the time my cousins and I waded the bay at low tide collecting scallops, which my uncle then cleaned and cooked. Great memories, even after over 50 years! I had to call my cousin Nel and reminisce a bit.

Soon, though, we were at the only part of the island I recognized, the jetty. It was near there that my uncle had taken my cousin Joe and me fishing. He had pulled up to a dock and my job was to hold the bottom rung of the ladder while Joe ran up to buy bait. I held on tightly. The boat swung out from under me and there I hung: nothing to put my feet on, no way to go up, no way to go down. Uncle Edward was laughing so hard he was no help, either. It took Joe and Unk both to haul me back into the boat, dripping wet, jeans and all. Fortunately, at age 14 there was a lot less of me to haul in.

Another memorable occasion was Joe’s dad and our Uncle Tobe taking us out to teach us to water ski. Joe tried, and when he fell, it was my turn. I sat on the gunwale of the boat, pushed off, and found the seat of my bathing suit was caught by the prongs that held the boat canopy in place when it was being used. There I hung for what seemed an eternity till they could all quit laughing and pop my seat loose, which sent me flailing like a crab ignominiously into the drink. I did get up on the skis before Joe did, though. And he’s never forgiven me for that.

After running till late in the afternoon, we followed a narrow channel to an anchorage that Gary had seen mentioned in a Waterway guide. It was totally surrounded by mangrove trees, except for the little entrance channel. There was not a soul around and we spent a beautiful, peaceful night with only a couple of ospreys and some egrets for company. We could see the horns of the crescent moon appear and disappear as the clouds passed in front of it.

Next day we took off for Ft. Myers. We had a little bouncing around in the open water, but it was so mild we hardly noticed. It was cloudy, but another beautiful day for boating. We’ve decided any day on the boat is good. Some are just better than others. We’ve been seeing warning signs for a week about the manatees, but had decided the signs were just a way of getting people to slow down and not wake their docks. Finally, as we were passing Ft. Myers and in the early part of the Okeechobee Waterway, we saw a police boat go by. Later we saw him stop and circle around a few times. When we got almost to him he turned on his blue light and we slowed to a crawl. He pulled up beside us and told us there was a large school of manatees to starboard and to proceed carefully. We never saw the creatures, except as something that looked like shadows moving around in the water, so I was unable to get pictures. But we could tell there was something there. So much for the manatees.

We’ve started doing locks again. Lake Okeechobee is something like 14 feet above sea level. Not far from Ft. Myers we went through the Franklin Lock. It was somewhat of a disappointment after the ones we’d been through on the earlier part of the Loop. We had gone through the world’s largest lift lock at Peterborough, Ontario, the “Big Chute” in Canada where they had lifted the boat in slings and took us across a road, and huge locks on the Tenn-Tom. We had even gone through a double lock that lifted us about 65 feet. These in the Okeechobee Waterway are mostly a couple of feet.  It’s just wait for the green light, go in, grab a rope, hang on for a little while, then out the other side. We even came to one that was open at both ends and we just sailed through. They are installing a  new lock, so for now, there’s no “lift.”

For our first stopover in the Okeechobee Waterway we spent two nights at the Franklin Lock. The locks are operated by the US Army Corps (not corpse) of Engineers and each one has a nice little park where RV’s and boats can stay at very reasonable rates. Rather than charge boats by the foot there is a flat rate of $24.00 per night with a maximum of 14 nights. We also found that with the Golden Age Pass we bought for the National Parks last year we could stay for only $12.00 per night. We opted for two nights at Franklin and enjoyed the little break. Gray hair has its rewards!

There was a one washer/one dryer laundromat about a half-mile from the boat and I used the opportunity to catch up on the laundry and get in a few miles of walking. I joked with folks sitting in front of their RV’s bundled up in winter jackets taking in the sun—and the wind. It wasn’t so awfully cold, but the wind was biting.

Sunday morning we pulled out and headed east. I had already had my Valentine’s Day dinner, since Gary fried up some gorgeous, delicious shrimp and unbagged a salad while I was hiking back with the last load of laundry. Since we’d eaten on the boat for all our meals since our crab feast, he decided that for real Valentine’s Day we’d have catfish at Moore Haven, our next stop. The guidebook said there was a good catfish restaurant there.

The guidebook was wrong. We docked at the city dock in Moore Haven, a really nice dock, with water and electric hookups included for $1.00 per foot. We were right in front of the library and town hall. We could occasionally get internet service from the library wireless, but it was spotty and our own, for some reason, was non-existent. Gary struck up a conversation with a couple of locals who were looking over the three boats docked there. They told him there used to be a place to get catfish, but it was closed and now there were two restaurants in town: Burger King and a taco stand that served awesome Cuban sandwiches. After walking about a mile, we checked out the taco stand. They had no Cuban sandwiches, and what they did have looked pretty unappetizing. So our Valentine’s Day dinner was at Burger King. It’s o.k. I’ve had worse. And I sure didn’t want to cook by the time we walked back to the boat. At least Gary’s knees don’t hurt any more.

Monday may be awful for people having to go back to work, but it was a beautiful day for boating. We went through two more locks and had a glorious day on Lake Okeechobee. It’s shallow, but is a huge lake and can be nasty when it gets snarly. It wasn’t exactly like glass, but as close to it as we could expect, and we got to watch the buzzards, egrets and herons along the way.

Tomorrow we’ll go through the St. Lucie Lock that will lower us back to sea level and we’ll head for Stuart. Tomorrow night should find us in Ft. Pierce on the east coast. For this Presidents’ Day holiday we are at another of those little parks near the lock for the night. We will soon be in the Inland Waterway headed up the coast and home.

We Were Sailing Along on Tampa Bay

We pulled out of our slip at Tarpon Springs about 8:30 a.m. Of course for us pulling out of a slip is hardly ever simple. We had two lines around pilings, one on either side of the bow and a stern line to a cleat on the dock. Close by us was a sailboat with a couple we’d seen stash away six cases of beer yesterday. We didn’t worry much about waking them too early, but we really didn’t want to slam into their boat, either. Fortunately, the wind was blowing in such a way as to push us away from them—which meant it was pushing us into one of the pilings at the bow. The line on that piling happened to be a short one and Gary had sort of “lassoed” it and pulled the end of the line through a loop on the end. My job, after he warmed the engine and released the stern line, was to quickly haul in the port bow line, then run to the other side of the bow, and while he tried to keep the boat steady and not crash into the piling—or the sailboat—unhook the lasso and pull the line aboard. I’m glad we don’t have movies of the process, but I did get it done. We pulled out into the Anclote River and headed for Tampa.

In order to get to Tampa we had to run out into the Gulf again. The same Gulf which had beaten us up pretty thoroughly Monday morning. It wasn’t quite as bad on Wednesday, but it still was pretty choppy. We bounced and flounced a good bit, but it was nothing like Monday, and at least we’d had a good rest. After about an hour we entered the Florida Inland Waterway and after that had a beautiful run on a chilly but beautiful day.I won’t say we’re a jinx, but the forecast for Tampa tonight is freezing weather. Still, the water was that beautiful green color that I remembered from my childhood trips to visit family in Nokomis, near Sarasota. If Sunday’s sunset water looked like lavender taffeta, today’s looked like green silk, the ripples showing like the silvery slubs you see in silk dupioni.

We cruised along through Clearwater, St. Pete, and then came Tampa Bay. More rockin’ and rollin’. We laughed at the fact we’d gotten so used to it that it seemed hardly noticeable any more. We saw gorgeous waterfront houses and boats to die for, but we love our little diesel-sipping single engine wonder boat—as in “wonder where they got that thing?” We had gotten to within an hour or so of Anna Maria Island, where we were heading for one of our favorite meals in the world—stone crab claws. Gary found a note in one of the cruising guides that told about a place called Moore’s Landing. The restaurant specializes in stone crab claws and, with a dinner of same, includes free docking for the night. No power or water, but a place to tie up and not have to worry about being run down by a ship.

We had seen a ship in Tampa Bay. It was headed for the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, as were we. It was going faster than we were and was a whole lot larger. It was a good ways behind us and Gary poured on some power so we could get under the bridge and ease over to one side of the channel, well out of the tanker’s way. We made it under the bridge, eased over to one side, and suddenly the engine lost power. Of course. A fuel line had become loosened and Gary knew almost immediately what it was.

Problem was to keep the boat out of the channel and get the anchor down. Our anchor has a nasty habit of hanging up so that it has to have some brave soul venture out on the bow and kick it loose so it will fall into the water. That brave idiot is usually me. I volunteered to do it, while quaking inwardly—suddenly those three- and four-foot waves looked more like ten and twelve–but Gary decided he could do it with the boat hook, sticking it out the center front window.

Now the only time Maggie has flown with her severely clipped wings was when she was frightened by the boat hook. That little incident took place last year when we were docked somewhere in Alabama. This time I had put her in her cage as soon as we stopped, just in case, but had apparently not latched it securely, because when I brought in the boat hook, there she sat, looking down from the top of her cage. Meantime, the boat is drifting. I finally grabbed her despite her biting me and more of less threw her into her cage. Gary, meantime, was poking at the anchor with the pole. No dice. Couldn’t reach it. “Here,” he says, “you can reach it if I hoist you up into the window.” Once again I’m glad there aren’t movies. I finally was able to thrust half of my ample body onto the bow far enough to reach the anchor and jab it loose. Ah! Now, to get my ample body back into the boat without falling into the hatch that gaped open below me.

There is a coaming about an inch and a half high that runs across the base of that window. A rather sharp coaming if one’s ample belly is squeezing down on it. I kept trying to feel something under my feet and Gary kept telling me to let go, he had me. Right! I had no intention of ending up sprawled across the engine, adding insult to injury. And injury is the operative word here. After having my bulging midriff dragged across that coaming and all but falling on my backside to avoid the gaping hatch, I felt like I’d had the cheapo version of liposuction. My poor belly will be bruised for a week. But the anchor was down.

And in jig time the captain had the line reconnected and we were back in the channel on our way to the stone crabs. Heh, heh, heh. Look out crabs! Here we come! They had various dinner sizes listed on the stone crab claw menu—which is on its own little card. Now, if you aren’t familiar with these delicacies, you need to know that they aren’t like regular crabs. Stone crabs have one large claw and one small claw. That great big claw is full of the sweetest meat you ever ate. And the great thing is that the claw can be broken off the crab, the live crab thrown back into the water and it lives to grow another replacement claw.

We decided that since we were getting free docking we’d splurge and get the one-and-three-quarter-pound order. Now we know that we could have made do with one-and-a-half pounds. It’s hard to judge because the shells are pretty thick and weigh a lot. So you suit yourself. Next time we’ll just get one and a half pounds.

Now we’re back on board, digesting all that protein, listening to the wind whistle across the bow and getting ready to be rocked to sleep. Hope you’re as full, happy, and warm as we are. We feel really blessed. As Gary said, “Things could have gone so wrong and, while we had a little inconvenience, we’ve been too blessed to complain about anything. And all those crabs are somewhere growing new claws. Yummm! Yummm!

On the Water Again

            We had a long, long ride in heavy, heavy rain to get back to the short, short boat. She was a sight for sore eyes! After thirteen months of knee replacements, even having had the privilege of driving across the country and seeing all the sights we saw, there was something really special about getting back to the boat and, hopefully, finishing the Loop. So she had a little mildew here and there. That’s why God made Clorox. Gary had actually gotten a lot of wiping down and Cloroxing done the previous weekend. Maggie seemed to be as excited as we were. She started almost immediately doing the beeps and whistles she used to do mimicking the autopilot and other electronics.

            We unloaded the truck, kissed Bill goodbye and got busy putting things away. We had a lot less stashing to do this time. We’d learned that we didn’t need about half or more of what we’d brought before. For one thing this part of the trip will only take a few weeks, whereas when we left Holden Beach in April of 08 we left prepared to stay on the boat for most of a year.

            While we were away from Carrabelle the bottom had dropped out of the real estate market and a lot more. The condo complex next to the marina had apparently gone under. The restaurant was closed and we saw only a couple of trucks in the parking lot—and quite a few “For Sale” signs. In fact, there are a lot of vacation homes for sale along “The Forgotten Coast” as the area bills itself.

            When we saw we were going to have to be in Carrabelle for more than a couple of days Gary got someone from the marina to drive him to Apalachicola to rent a car. This enabled us to restock out pantry and drive to Eastpoint, about 15 miles away, to the nearest laundromat. The main advantage of the car, though, was being able to get to seafood restaurants.

            One was definitely less than four-star, but had delicious oysters and homemade potato chips. It was only a couple of miles from the marina. On Thursday nights they play trivia and the tiny place was crammed with locals, each table with its pad of sticky notes and a pencil. We didn’t stay long enough to see who won, but wondered what would happen on Friday night. We didn’t see how they’d be able to cram a live band into the place, that being the only thing we could think of that would top a trivia contest. We must have gone too early on Friday because there were only two other couples there and no games or bands.

            Saturday, after the strain of doing three loads of laundry and folding it all, we decided to go “uptown” to Apalachicola and some serious seafood. I hadn’t eaten any lunch so opted for the platter. Oh, man! Calabash has nothing on Papa Joe’s! We had a table overlooking the water and more than we could eat. Those who know us and our appetites know that’s enuff said.

            Sunday morning we squared away things, tied down what we remembered bouncing around previously, and Gary put Rain-X on the windshield. He returned the rental car and settled up with the good folks at Dockside Marina, cast off our lines and we were off again.

            We ran across the river to the fuel dock, took on about 80 gallons of diesel and headed out to the river mouth and the Gulf beyond. It was the Lord’s Day and He had lent us a most beautiful piece of it. We left about 3:30 in the afternoon, the idea being to leave Carrabelle in daylight and arrive in Tarpon Springs in daylight. The approach to Tarpon Springs is littered with crab pots. We have nothing against crab pots, but they can royally mess up a prop if you get tangled in one of their lines.

            The Gulf looked more like a lake than the infamous Mexican Ocean you hear so many stories about. It was a perfect day for crossing and we were very thankful. Later, as the sun got lower in the west, the water looked like someone had spread a piece of rumpled lavender taffeta around the boat. Where it was rumpled the rumples appeared pink, shading to orange as you looked from east to west.

            As soon as it got really dark I succumbed, as I usually do to an overpowering urge to nap. The water was not choppy at all, but the gentle swells, the bane of those prone to seasickness, lifted the boat gently, rolled it slightly, then passed the stern with a swish. It’s like being rocked by yo’ mama in a cradle or rocking chair.

            While I sawed zzz’s Gary kept an eye on the radar, autopilot and depth finder. The faithful old Cummins, juiced up on diesel fuel and fresh new oil just purred. Maggie helped Gary keep watch for awhile, then she tucked her head behind her wing and dozed also.

            Throughout the night we took turns watching the gauges and screens, although Gary slept a lot more lightly than I did. It’s not that he doesn’t trust my seamanship, he doesn’t trust anyone really except himself and Lorenzo when it comes to handling the boat. But he did get a few winks of sleep and I diligently watched the dials, gauges and screens. At one point during the night we watched a boat or ship cross our path several miles behind us on another course. It was the only contact we had all night.

            It was fun to watch the water also. We saw phosphorescent creatures, we assume were squid pass by a couple of times. But most of the 160 miles just flowed by, pun intended.

            And then came the dawn! It was as if someone flipped a switch. We crossed some invisible demarcation line and the Gulf decided we didn’t need any more naps. Instead of the slow rolling swells, it became three- to four-foot chop. And chop it did. The chop doesn’t roll under the boat, it lifts the bow, hurries to the stern, then drops the bow just short of the next wave, which then splashes over the windshield. This started about 6:30 and didn’t stop until we were almost at the mouth of the  Anclote River.

            We found out we hadn’t tied everything down. Every time something fell I had to lurch to where it was, holding on to something to get there. I was very thankful for the overhead rail in the pilot house and every other piece of “holdable” stuff in the boat before this thing was over.

            Maggie’s favorite word of the day became, “Bad! BAD!” She was a tired bird when we finally pulled into the Tarpon Springs City Marina. We were tired birds too. Gary is still aching from just holding on to the windowsill board. We did the minimum tying up and crashed into our bunks for a couple of hours.

            We noticed an immediate improvement in the weather when we woke up and put on a pot of coffee. It is a lot warmer in Tarpon Springs than it was the whole time we were in Carrabelle. It didn’t take too long to spruce things up, repack some of the things that had fallen off shelves in the head and Gary hooked up a hose and washed off the salt spray that covered everything—even my sunglasses which had been left under a leak around the windshield.

            Tarpon Springs is an interesting place and very friendly to boaters. It used to be the sponge fishing capital of the U.S., if not of the world. The bottom has dropped out of the market for natural sponges, but the resilient Greeks who settled the place haven’t let that stop them from making lemonade out of their lemons—as well as a delicious sauce to top off their dolmades. The streets at the foot of the docks are full of shops of all kinds, especially all things Greek. They even have Fisher-Price toys that teach the Greek alphabet and language to toddlers. There are boats for harbor tours and boats for sponge diving demonstrations.

            We showered, dressed and headed for Dodecanese Street, right at the foot of the dock. Greek food! Oh my! I had eaten at a really good place here on vacation many years ago and we asked a lady at a store across the street which way to go. She told us that place was closed, but recommended a place down the street. Oh my! We got a sampler platter and became Greeks for a day. Pastitsio, moussaka, dolmades, gyro meat (the stuff you see on the vertical spits in the windows of Greek restaurants), oven roasted potatoes, and a small Greek salad—with bread and olive oil, of course. On the way out the waitress stopped us and gave us two pieces of baklava for a midnight snack. Actually, we ate our take-out plates for lunch this afternoon. I couldn’t say when the baklava disappeared.

            The second night we ate at a different place, but the food was excellent and the atmosphere very Greek. When we finished the waitress brought an apple half, cut side down on a plate, sliced in quarter-inch slices and drizzled with honey and cinnamon. Very simple, but yummy and refreshing when there’s no room left for dessert.

            My friend Betty said this trip sounds like we’re just boating from restaurant to restaurant. Cruise and eat, cruise and eat. Yep, that’s about it. But we do eat on the boat a good bit also. In fact we plan to anchor out a lot on this leg of the trip—but first an appointment at Moore’s Crab House, just south of Tampa, for stone crab claws.

            More about that later.

Back Home

            We stayed at the Williams, Arizona, KOA Kampground for three nights. It was great to have a few days to rest up, do a little housecleaning and take a break from the constant riding. On Sunday we attended the First Baptist Church of Williams. Everyone was friendly and made us feel right at home. There were a number of visitors from various states and several locals told us that they were preparing to leave for Phoenix for the winter. Similar to our local snowbirds, they go south for the winter and come back to Williams for the summer. The weather is warm, but there is a breeze most of the time and no humidity, so the heat isn’t stifling. Thomas had told us that the water table in the area is so far down that it’s cheaper to have water hauled in by truck than to have a well drilled. Some places have water delivered by tank trucks on a regular schedule, others go and pick it up in their own tanks.

            The picture of the Kaibab trail shows the trail that Clara and I rode down on muleback in 1967. We rode to the point at the edge of the cliff, then turned back and had lunch in the trees in the center of the picture. Then we plodded back up to the rim. 

            Monday morning we headed east (on I-40, not I-20 as I wrote in the last blog), not letting any grass grow under the truck. We had one more stop on our schedule: The Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. They reminded us of the badlands of South Dakota, except for the petrified wood lying in huge logs, some broken into many pieces, some sticking out of the sand, some in small pieces. Our first stop was on the “Long Logs Trail” near the visitor center at the Petrified Forest. We got there right after a ranger had started leading a group on the trail. He told how the logs were buried in water that was laden with silica, which replaced the tissue in the logs, turning them to stone.

            The petrified logs are spread over a large area and testify to a catastrophe that occurred in the past. The ranger showed us a petrified seashell that was found by a young girl on the Long Logs Trail some years ago. There are many marine fossils in the park, and while it is often stated that the area at some time in the past was a “shallow sea,” I think perhaps there is just as good a possibility that the shells and other marine fossils were floated in during a huge flood “of biblical proportions.”

            The Painted Desert reminded us of the landscape of the Badlands we had seen in South Dakota. The ranger joked that they hadn’t retouched the paint in quite awhile, but the colors were holding up well. No joke. There are scientific explanations of why the various layers are colored as they are, but that doesn’t mean a thing when you stand and watch them blend, contrast, weave and change. We drove through late in the day and every mile and shift of shadow changed the colors of the landscape. It makes you marvel at the eye’s ability to see color and caused us to marvel at another of God’s blessings, that of sight. Check out the various chemical reactions that have to take place in the eye, literally in nanoseconds, and tell yourself that this ability to see at all, let alone subtle color shifts, is a result of accidental random mutations. Michael Behe has a great chapter on this in Darwin’s Black Box.

            We spent a night in Albuquerque, and saw the gradual shift in the landscape from desert grays, beiges and sage greens to the yellow grasslands of the Texas panhandle and the rolling hills of Oklahoma. We stopped in Shamrock, Texas, where my friends and I had spent the night over forty years ago. There were reminders all along the way of the old Route 66 that has now been retired. The restroom at the rest stop had a tile mural of scenes from Route 66.

            The green of roadside crops in Arkansas, along with the change to piney woods that more closely resembled those of home—no more lodgepole pines–made us realize our trip was fast coming to an end. We zipped around Memphis (I couldn’t even talk Gary into stopping at Graceland, just for old times’ sake), and headed for Knoxville, where we spent the night at Soaring Eagle Campground. (I’ve included a picture of their exit sign.) It was warm in the day time, but cooled off again in the evening since we were back in mountains. It was great to be back in our familiar old Smokies. The vistas might not be as grand, glacier-ridden or high-peaked as the ones we’d seen in the west, but they were familiar and looked like “home.”

            On Friday we wound our way down I-40 to Asheville and hopped on I-26 for the last leg of our trip. Finally about 7:00 p.m. on Friday, September 5, 2009, we drove up to our house in Tabor City. Maggie gave a whistle, that let us know she was glad to be back too. The cats, Killer and Boudreau, came running out for some ear scratching and we collapsed on sofas, sorry our adventure was over, but glad to be home.