Getting Close to Starting Our Great Loop Adventure

We certainly have been remiss in keeping up this blog! Yeah, we've been really busy this past summer and fall getting ready to start our loop adventure, but we are just a week away from taking off and felt we must let everyone know we are still alive and kicking and intend to do regular postings about our trip. We have been handing out boat cards and encouraging everyone to follow us here, so we are going to do a quick recap of what we've been up to the past 7 months. We are just going to provide the highlights and present them in reverse chronological order.

We had a "Bon Voyage" party at our house on the river this past weekend with friends, family, neighbors. We had to clean house and made a few appetizers, but our kids (actually the daughters) handled most of the preparation. There was an open house on the boat and we set up a powerpoint presentation about the loop along with all of our charts and cruising guides for everyone to peruse and learn about the trip.
 

Jane with Madison, our oldest grandaughter

Granddaughters Hannah & Sadie

Hannah & Sadie bake Opa a cake for his birthday!

Do you think grandson, Brennan will get much taller while we are gone?

PSJ Gathering

PSJ Looper Hens

 The first part of January we went to our second looper gathering in Port St. Joe, FL. We were able to meet up with friends we had met last year and had a really great time. Although the program covered the same topics as last year, we were able to pick up a few new tidbits and talk to some loopers who were just a few weeks ahead of us. And the social agenda at this meeting is absolutely fantastic! We look forward to meeting up with some of these folks somewhere along the route.

Bavarian Cream high and dry

Jane works on her rowing technique

We had expected to have Bavarian Cream hauled out during the summer, but between the boat yard's schedule and various projects we had going, this was delayed until the end of October. While we are very happy with our yard, there were a number of things that delayed the boat's return. For example, we had the props scanned and just as they were ready to be installed, a crack in the port shaft was discovered. It took 3 weeks to have a new shaft milled and installed. We also ordered a new set of spare props which took 6 weeks to arrive from Italy. So on it went until we finally got the boat back around the middle of January.

Boy, does she have a nice set or what?

Now we really had to scramble to do most of the basic maintenance, configuring, and provisioning to get her ready to go.

Larry tools up the river

We each had long lists of things to try and get done before we launched, but now are finding ourselves sorting the list in "must do" and "will do underway" so we can meet our goal of leaving on February 16. While the boat was in the yard, we continued to work on route planning, ordering parts and accessories, reading all of those user manuals and getting familiar with our dinghy, Cream Puff. We had purchased a new outboard motor for the dinghy and spent the nice fall days breaking it in. So all was not lost with the delay.


Just about the entire summer months were devoted to getting the boat ready. There were a lot of systems to install and update, and of course, general maintenance was necessary on just about everything else. We needed a new VHF radio in the lower helm and really wanted an autopilot to help on many of the legs we would be cruising. Larry easily installed the radio, but the autopilot took him about a month (shortened workdays due to extended happy hours!). Then there was new cabling for each helm's computers, a backup GPS, a new stereo system, and a satellite radio installation. He fashioned new stands for each helm's laptop and is still fooling with the DC/AC inverter he installed. These were in addition to general maintenance items such as repairing a fresh water line leak that drained the tank (and yes, it was located under the head requiring complete removal of the toilet), replacing 3 banks of house, genset, and engine batteries, learning to replace clogged fuel filters (and how air in the fuel lines doesn't help a diesel run), unraveling the mysteries of an anchor windlass, and hours of sanding and varnishing.

Jane & Tracy enjoy a swim in Lake Maurepas

Tied up in Madisonville

But all of that work doesn't mean we didn't have some fun. We managed to take the boat out at least once a week for a short trip up and down the river, and went to the Tchefuncte River with Tracy and Milana for a Labor Day end-of-summer bash. Although we arrived too late to tie up to the dock, we were able to anchor nearby and still listen to the band while relaxing on the boat. After pulling anchor we headed to a local restaurant for dinner then they went home while we tied up at the Madisonville wall and stayed overnight. The next morning we headed back home and hailed and passed through our first swing bridge by ourselves. We're starting to think we know how to do this! In between these events we squeezed in several trips to Florida and the beach, a trip to Ohio for Larry's nephew's wedding and a visit (and stamp!) to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (scratch off another one). We also had everyone out for a cookout and day on the river, and attended the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show in November to pick up some things we needed and look at things we think we needed.

Can you name this hitch?

So here are we now just just one week from the start of our trip. We plan to post our adventures here regularly and hope everyone visits this site frequently. However, since we need reliable internet access to maintain the blog, the posts will likely come in batches when we are in a marina somewhere waiting for good weather or just taking a break. We hope everyone can have a few vicarious experiences through this blog. It should be a hoot!