11/19/11 -  11/30/11   We left Dog River Marina and completed the Great Loop at 11:30 in southern Mobile Bay.   We toasted with coffee and changed the burgee (the small flag on the bow) to our gold looper flag signifying that we had completed the Great Loop.  Now all we had to do was go 600 miles west to home.   We crossed Mississippi Sound in two days anchoring at Cat Island and Rabbit Island Louisiana.   We crossed the Mississippi River with it's two locks and headed for Houma Louisiana City Dock.   This stretch of the Inter-coastal Canal is flat and swampy with few turns and long straight waterways.   We traveled several more days through Morgan City, Port Arthur, and finally into Offats Bayou in southern Galveston Bay.  We had a very fortunate weather window and made it up the length of the bay amid heavy ship traffic and into Seabrook Marina on November 30.   In ten and a half months we had traveled 7251 miles.  We had a great feeling of accomplishment but I was ready for a change back to hard ground.   Lace wanted to stay on the boat and never go home.  Of course we did go home and even now are working on a staggering to-do list.   We don't know what we'll do with the boat.   What we do know is that we are going to stay close for another year and then maybe we'll do it all again.   There will still be a lot to see:  Padre Island, the Bahamas, the Florida Keys, and lots of places in Canada that we missed.    For right now it's good to be home!

11/6/11 - 11/18/11   We were again southbound in the Tombigbee River.   We saw a fellow in a sail boat built from sticks, plastic bottles and blue tarps.   We passed him very slowly so as not to upset his fragile craft.   A couple of nights later, as we were anchoring in a very secluded lake just off the river, Lace saw a bear.  We scrambled to get the binoculars but he ran into the woods and we never saw him again.   We later found that this part of Alabama has a sizable bear population.   We were now approaching the old "14 mile" railroad swing bridge that was under renovation.   The new bridge was already in place and as we rounded a corner there was the old bridge span coming up river on two barges.   It took up nearly the entire river width but after a radio chat with  one of the tug boat captains we were able to pass.   Unfortunately when we got to the new bridge, it had stopped functioning and couldn't be opened.   We anchored in the river to wait for repairs.   It was just as well because it was cold and raining and not a good travel day anyway.   The next morning wasn't much better but the bridge opened and we passed under and made our way down to Mobile, Alabama.  Mobile Bay was pretty choppy but we made our way down to Dog River Marina expecting to stay a few days until the weather cleared up.   Over the next seven days we re-provisioned, did some maintenance and with the help of friends' rental cars visited the battleship Alabama on permanent display in Mobile, visited the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola and visited Fort Gaines, a civil war fort on Dauphin Island.   Even though we had not quite completed the loop, we combined forces with a couple that was about to complete their loop, and hosted a champagne happy hour on the Confetti.  By one count we had twenty loopers on the boat to toast our completion.

10/14/11 - 11/5/11   After visiting Chattanooga, TN we're back on the Tennessee River west bound toward Wheeler State Park at Rogersville Alabama.   We were a little ahead of schedule so we took our time and enjoyed the fall colors and the wildlife (lots of Bald Eagles)  We arrived in Rogersville on 10/20/11, three days early for the America's Great Loop Cruisers Association Rendezvous but we enjoyed the park and took long walks in the woods.   Lots of deer.  When the conference got started there were 53 boats from all over the U.S. and Canada and over 250 people attending.   At this point in our journey we had already taken the boat over 6000 miles so we didn't expect to benefit from the educational part as much as previous meetings but we found the  classes useful.   Of course we enjoyed seeing old friends and made some new ones.   That was probably the last time that we will see some of those folks and we were sad to see it come to an end.   We were back on the river toward the Tenn-Tom Waterway which is near the intersection of Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama.   The Tennessee Valley Authority built hydroelectric dams on the river to supply electricity to the nearby communities but I was surprised to see the number of coal fired power plants we passed.   We saw many barges piled with coal.   We were southbound now and as we began to approach the Gulf of Mexico, we felt the end of our trip growing near.

10/2/11 -  10/13/11    The Tennessee River does not flow as fast as the tributaries of the Mississippi so the travel was much more relaxed.   Deciduous forests beginning to turn their fall colors covered the limestone river banks.  Anchorages were easy to find so we anchored several nights on our way to Grand Harbor Marina for Lace's birthday.   The marina is a big one and it had several loaner cars for transient boaters.   There happened to be five other looper boats there that day and everyone went into town for supper at Freddy T's.  A good time was had by all.  At this point, we decided to depart from the usual looper route and take a side trip to Chattanooga Tennessee.  The first lock was the Wilson which has the largest lift east of the Rockies at 84 feet.  We were going up-river which means we entered the lock and after they closed the gates, they added water to the chamber until we reached the level of the river above.  The locks were mainly built for commercial traffic so the turbulence inside as they filled it tossed our relatively small boat around quite a bit, but we managed to control it without damage to life or limb.  Over the next five days we anchored up in increasingly beautiful surroundings as we neared the Appalachian Mountains.  We really enjoyed Chattanooga.  In fact, Lace believes it is her favorite city of any we have visited.  The city is spanking clean, they have a world class aquarium, they have free public transportation, and there are sculptures mounted on sidewalks throughout the city.  The city was of course made famous by the Glenn Miller Band in 1941 with it's recording of "Chattanooga Choo Choo". The song refers to a railroad route which took passengers from the eastern states to the southern states beginning in the late 1800's. We spent two days there.  Lace got a hair cut, we visited a once-a-week farmers market, got groceries at an upscale organic grocery store, and went to the I-Max theater for a 3-D movie about orphaned elephants and orangutans.

9/22/11 -  10/1/11   As we entered the Mississippi, the first landmark was the St. Louis Gateway Arch, a monument to westward expansion completed in 1965.   I had been up in the arch years before and St. Louis is not easy to visit, so we didn't stop.  A little further down the Mississippi is Hoppies Marine Services at Kimmswick, Missouri.  I believe I read somewhere that Hoppie Hopkins is descended from one of the last lamp lighters whose job it was to go around and light the navigation lamps on the river.  Although it is just a rather haphazard arrangement of floating barges tethered to the river bank, it is a favorite stop for loopers because it is the last fuel stop for a couple of hundred miles and Fern Hopkins gives a daily briefing on the latest river conditions.  The next evening we tied up to the lock wall at the Kaskaskia River where there were already 9 other boats tied.  Great happy hour!  The Mississippi River is extraordinarily turbulent in places and it takes continuous attention to steer the boat.  The next couple of days were rainy and foggy so we found an anchorage behind a wing dam and waited it out.  Wing dams are rock structures that radiate from the shoreline to keep the channel deep and navigable.  The next day we turned into the Ohio river at Cairo, Illinois (Unlike the Egyptian capital it is pronounced kay-row).  The Ohio River was even swifter than the Mississippi and since it flows into the Mississippi we were now going against the current.  At one point, as we were passing a dam, the boat actually stopped briefly which means the current was between 6 and 7 miles per hour.  A short time on the Ohio and then an even shorter time on the Cumberland brought us into Barkley Lake.  The starboard engine was running hot so we took a day at Green Turtle Bay Marina to change a water pump impeller and we were off again and into the Tennessee River.

9/12/11 -  9/21/11  Our tour through Illinois began with Joliet.  The free city dock was walking distance to a Harrahs Casino so we went over for breakfast.  I won about 40 bucks at a quarter slot and we left with our winnings.  Another couple of days at anchor and we landed at Ottawa City.  The city dock is suppose to accommodate about two and a half boats but more arrived later and we ended up with seven boats "rafted up".  We went to the grocery store and were given a ride back to the boat by the former owner.  He ended up ferrying several other boaters to and from the store.  He said his wife still worked at the store and he enjoyed doing it.  We were beginning to see an increase in commercial traffic as we approached the Upper Mississippi river and tug boats pushing 15 barges were not uncommon.  Also we saw a LOT of Asian Carp, an invasive species that has taken over the Illinois.  In fact we passed through a section of the river that has an electrified barrier to prevent them from passing into the great lakes.  They have an instinctive escape behavior that makes them jump out of the water when boat motors are nearby.  People in small open boats have been injured  when the fish jump out and hit them.  We talked to a boater that had to throw seven overboard after one "attack".  Anchorages were now harder to find because the river level was low.   Several more days at anchor and a tie up at Havana and Hardin and we found ourselves at Grafton, the gateway to the Mississippi.

9/10/11 -  9/11/11   At last, after dodging weather for weeks on Lake Michigan, we made our final crossing from Michigan City, Indiana to Chicago.  I was determined not to pay $100/night for a slip but while investigating mooring balls (much less expensive but then you have to pay a water taxi to get ashore), the guy on the phone said "Would you like to stay on the 'wall'?".   It was mid priced so I told him we'd take a look.   It turned out to be a great move.   The tie-up was next to the sidewalk along the harbor, it was walking distance to downtown, and the people watching was off the chart.   We arrived on a Saturday afternoon so we were present for the weekly meeting of the "Poor Man's Yacht Club".  This assemblage on the "wall" of several boats with their members, a couple of buckets of chicken wings and an unlimited supply of beer was apparently formed as a protest to the membership fee of the two yacht clubs on either side.  We walked to the Navy Pier and then came back to the boat and watched a top-notch fireworks display that was in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of Nine-Eleven.   We got up Sunday morning, walked through Millennium Park to Michigan Avenue, and went to church at the Forth Presbyterian, a cathedral built in 1871.  The sanctuary was jaw dropping.  The river route to Mobile Alabama begins with a tour of  downtown Chicago.  We went under 40 old bridges that are so low that we had to fold down the radar mast on Confetti to be able to get under them.

8/21/11 - 9/8/11   Saint Ignace is a nice tourist town just before you turn into Lake Michigan.  We saw more fudge shops than one can count and the usual local art.  We did enjoy a tour of a retired ice breaker ship that was used to clear a path for freighters.  Maybe the center of tourist attention in Lake Michigan is Macinac Island (pronounced mac-in-aw (but why?)).  The only ways to get there are by ferry or private boat.  It has no cars so transportation is provided by several hundred horses or bicycles.  After talking to friends that had gone there we decided to bypass it knowing we would miss overpriced meals and more fudge shops.  In the summer time the prevailing winds on Lake Michigan are moderate and from the southwest then they shift into the northeast and get stronger and harder to predict.  Over the next three weeks we found ourselves dodging into anchorages or marinas waiting for the weather to change so we made little progress.  When we did move it was usually in marginal conditions and at least once we encountered 5 foot waves.  We were not enjoying Lake Michigan.  The highlight was when we got to Saint Joseph.  We wanted to spend some time in Chicago when we eventually got there but it is expensive to park the boat near downtown.  When we got to St. Joseph we expected to be trapped by high winds for several days so we decided to take the train into Chicago, an adventure in itself.  We took the two hour ride in, got aboard a topless bus, jumped off at the Art Institute for a couple of hours, got back on and finished a very entertaining two hour tour of downtown Chicago.  We then got back on the train and got back to the boat in time to feed the cats.  A great day.

8/17/11 -  8/20/11  A nice little town called Little Current separates Georgian Bay from the North Channel.  We stopped for provisions, anchored out and then came back in the morning to attend a radio show for cruisers.  We spent the next several days cruising the channel.  It is similar to Georgian Bay but easier to anchor and I enjoyed it more.  It was late in the afternoon when we came across the U.S. border.  We weren't up to continuing on for another hour to make it to Drummond Island, which is the customs port, so we put up our yellow quarantine flag (indicating that we had not cleared customs) and anchored for the night.  I forgot to put on the anchor light which may have had something to do with the visit we got from U.S. Customs / Border Protection.  They woke us up at 10pm and after waiting for us to get dressed put two officers aboard to check our documents and a brief search of the boat.  We know the drill since we have been boarded twice before but not in the night.  They were very pleasant but cautioned us about not showing a light.   The next day we went into Drummond and cleared customs without incident.   It felt good to be back in our home country and we went to DeTour Marina, Michigan.  DeTour is the crossroads between Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Superior and quite a few freighters passed by us carrying corn, wheat, gravel, rock salt and taconite (processed iron ore).   These freighters are up to 1000 feet long and work until the lakes freeze over.  We took caution cruising these waters remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald, a 700 foot freighter that went down with all hands in November, 1975 after encountering 35 foot waves on Lake Superior.   We attended church Sunday morning at Union Presbyterian in DeTour and departed to an anchorage near Government Island.

8/9/11 -  8/16/11   Georgian Bay is called the land of 30.000 islands.  Some of them are only a few square feet but they must be navigated around just the same.  We like to anchor out most of the time rather than go to marinas not only because of the obvious savings but also the quiet and privacy.   Anchorages were sometimes hard to find though because the banks were so steep that when there was a protected area large enough for the boat, the water was too deep to get an anchor down to the bottom.   Also many of the islands are inhabited and they get electricity by way of underwater cables that are marked on the charts so that you can avoid anchoring there.   The water is so clean and clear in the Great Lakes that as soon as we entered Lake Ontario Lace began doing a little laundry every day in a bucket.   It only took a few minutes and kept us from spending time in a laundromat when we did get to a marina.  We spent the next 8 days wandering about, only making about 20 miles a day.  Probably the highlight of Georgian Bay was a fjord like bay called Baie Fine.   It is long and narrow with vertical sides rising 200 feet in some places.   We anchored for the evening and rowed the dinghy to explore the rocky shoreline.

8/4/11 -  8/8/11  After raising us over 800 feet above the level of Lake Ontario the locks of the Trent-Severn were now lowering us back down to the level of Lake Huron.  Lock 43 took us down 47 feet and we spent the night on the lower side.   One of the final locks is called the Big Chute and is not a lock at all.   It is actually a marine railway and lifts boats out of the water on slings and transports them over land down to the next level.   If there was a primary goal on this entire trip it was to enter the Georgian Bay and North Channel on the north side of Lake Huron.   This area has been described as the best cruising in the entire world by veterans.   The area is part of the Canadian Shield which is characterized by granite with a thin layer of soil or gravel with coniferous trees growing out of the cracks.   Some of these rocks date to the origin of this planet, some 4.5 billion years.   The scenery is spectacular but we actually found Georgian Bay to be somewhat uncomfortable because the channels through the rocks are often narrow and the penalty for inattention to navigation could be a bent prop or worse.   We actually did bump the bottom once but came away with no damage.   When we were in Elizabeth City, NC we met a fellow on his boat that lives here and he invited us to call him when we were in this area.   We anchored at Beckwith Island and he and his wife, who is a native Ojibwa Indian, came out to pick us up in one of his boats.  They took us to shore and then drove us to a restaurant for lunch and then the grocery store.   The Ojibwas experienced somewhat the same treatment from the government that American Indians did.   They were shuffled onto three remote island reservations as refuse and expected to expire.   As it turned out they survived and now struggle to hold on to their heritage as young members of the tribe move away the the native language becomes obscure.  

 7/30/11 -  8/3/11   The locks along the Trent-Severn Canal are often remote.   Several that we went through have no roads leading to them and are only accessible by water for the operators.   As we are nearing Lake Huron we seem to be seeing more cottages along the shore some modest and others large and ornate but always with a dock and boat(s).  Our luck didn't hold very long.   The three month old pump that transferred fresh water to the faucets quit and we were forced to go a little out of our way to Barrie, ON to get a new one.  The Confetti holds 250 gallons of water but it is inaccessible without the pump.   On the way to Barrie we passed quite an impressive home with it's own helicopter and we were later told that it belongs to the Swanson family (of Swanson dinner fame).   Barrie has both bus and rail service to Toronto so after installing a new pump we took the bus in.   Toronto is an impressive town.   It reminded us of New York city in a lot of ways.  We saw new and impressive architecture growing out of very old surroundings.  It has the Ice Hockey Hall of Fame which we didn't go into because we don't know the second thing about hockey (everyone knows the first thing: missing teeth).   It obviously has a vibrant business community,  the Toronto Stock Exchange is there, and even a smaller version of Times Square with ten story television screens.   We walked until we couldn't walk any more on pink granite sidewalks and then went to the train station and did a crossword puzzle until the "GO" (Government of Ontario) train came to take us back to Barrie.   The next day we were off again with still more locks to pass through before we reached Georgian Bay in northern Lake Huron.

7/16/11 -  7/29/11  We were continuing down the Trent-Severn Canal and I began to have trouble shifting one of the transmissions.  It eventually locked up and we limped into Buckhorn, Ontario on one engine.   After I did a brief investigation and talked to a transmission shop on the phone, it became apparent that the transmission had to be removed and sent in for overhaul.   This is no small project in that the engine has to be moved before the 150 pound transmission can be disconnected and lifted up through the floor of the cabin.   Luckily the marina where we landed had the equipment to do the job.   By the time we shipped it to Wheatley, Ontario, some 300 miles away, had it overhauled, had it shipped back and then installed it, we were laid up for 12 days.   We took the opportunity to get some overdue things done on the boat and to catch up on paperwork.   We found Canadians to be very pleasant, low key folks who revel in their brief summertime.  One shock was when I walked into the state run liquor store (there are no private liquor stores in Canada) and saw the prices.   I refused to pay what they were asking for a bottle of scotch and settled for the cheapest booze in the store which was a 1.75 liter bottle of vodka for $52.00 !!!!   How I longed for Texas free enterprise.

7/6/2011 - 7/15/2011   When we were in Kingston we met a fellow on the dock named Joe who said we HAD to go by his brother's house on our way past so we did.   Chris and his wife Lies live in a beautiful cottage on Hay Bay.  They are Canadians but spend winters (November through April) in Alabama.  Nice work if you can get it.  A few more days at anchor on Lake Ontario and we turned into the Trent-Severn Canal which would take us to Georgian Bay.  The canal is 240 miles long with 41 locks that will take us more than 800 feet above lake level and then back down.  We bought a season mooring pass which allowed us to tie up every night on a wall adjacent to the locks.   That gave us access to state maintained restrooms and often, towns along the way are within walking (or limping) distance.  Most of the locks are still hand operated by two guys that crank the doors open and closed and manually open the valves that control the water flow.  A week and 20 locks brought us to one of the wonders of the lock system.   The Peterborough Lift Lock puts the boat in a sort of pan and then lifts the pan hydraulically 65 feet to the next level.  Quite an experience.

7/2/11 - 7/5/11  Our first look ever at the Great Lakes was coming into Lake Ontario out of Oswego, NY harbor.  We had to put a bucket over the side and take a slurp just to believe it's fresh water.  We heard a story of a guy who was on a jet ski whose engine stopped far out in the Lake.  By the time he was rescued he was severely dehydrated.  When asked why he didn't take a drink from the lake he replied that he assumed it was salt water.  Our first stop is Whites Bay, in Henderson Bay.  It was a Saturday evening and we anchored surrounded by residences and boat traffic which means we had to endure constant boat wakes until dark.  We were compensated though because we had a ringside seat to a spectacular pre-Independence Day fireworks show on the shore line.  The next day (a Sunday) we moved on to Cedar Point State Park Marina and again more fireworks.  Monday July 4, we crossed over into Canada and cleared customs at Confederation Basin Marina.  Surprisingly it just took a phone call from a pay phone and we were in.  One night at anchor and then we checked into Portsmouth Olympic Harbor.  It is right next to a maximum security prison and museum (formerly the warden's residence) so I went to take the tour.  Also,down the street is an artillery emplacement built in the mid 1800's to protect the town of  Kingston, Ontario from attack by the U.S..  I visited it but as I was trying to get a better vantage point for a picture of the canon I missed a step and severely sprained my ankle which caused me to limp in pain for four weeks.  Such is the cruising life!

6/20/11 - 7/1/11   The town of Waterford, New York goes out of their way to accommodate cruisers so they provide free dockage, free electricity, free water, free wifi and $1 pump out.  Also they have a web cam that was pointed at the boat and our children were able to see us live, albeit in slow motion.  We stayed there 4 days and caught up on groceries, maintenance, mail and paper work.  The Erie Canal was built to facilitate shipping between New York and the Great Lakes..  By way of the locks it takes boats from the Hudson River up 405 feet and then back down to the level of Lake Erie.  Some of the lock machinery that is working today dates from the early 1900's.  They keep the machinery spit shined and I saw lock operators using rags to keep from touching the shiny brass control levers.  We very much enjoyed the scenery and the temperatures (highs in the 70's) but recent rains caused a huge amount of tree debris to be in the canal and we had to dodge logs most of the way.  We wanted to go to Lake Ontario so mid way on the Erie Canal we took a right up the Oswego Canal and entered the Lake at Oswego, NY.  We had gone through 30 locks in the past 11 days.

6/15/11 - 6/19/11   The Hudson River is very pleasant.  It is up to 100 feet deep and has steep rocky shores.  I kept thinking that some of the rocks hadn't moved since Revolutionary War soldiers traversed these waters.  The first night we anchored and just decided to stay there the whole next day and recuperate.  The next night we found a free dock (if you patronize the restaurant) at Highland Landing and had a great meal.  A night under Rip Van Winkle Bridge (Catskill NY) and a night behind Rattlesnake Island and we bid adieu to the Hudson and turned into the Erie Canal at Waterford, NY.

6/8/11 - 6/14/11   There is NO place like New York City.   It makes your senses go on overload.   The brightness and the heat of the day on one side of the street and the dim shade and the cold air conditioning coming out of the doors of stores as you pass on the other,  the smell of pizza then the smell of bus exhaust, the sounds of horns honking, cops whistles and conversations in more languages than you know.  We had people tell us "Don't look like tourists because you'll make yourself a target".   I don't believe it matters.  We saw everything from a guy in his underwear and boots playing a guitar in an intersection to a guy in a three piece suit stepping into a stretch limo.  The marina was the least expensive we could find but it was at the extreme southern end of Brooklyn at the edge of the "projects".  It took a fifteen minute hike, two buses and a subway ride each way every day to get into Manhattan.  We saw a Broadway musical "The Addams Family" (very very good), Central Park, Trump Tower, The Plaza Hotel, and went into Tiffanys and FAO Swartz on Fifth Ave.. We saw The NYC Library, Ground Zero, the outside of the NY Stock Exchange (no entry permitted since 9/11) and went to the top (almost) of the Empire State Building.  We spent one whole day at the Metropolitan Museum (absolutely overwhelming!).   We went to Coney Island and the NY Aquarium.  Lace needed a hair cut so we walked into a hair salon near Wall Street.  Lace sat down in the chair and explained briefly to the hair dresser how she wanted it cut.  The hair dresser nodded and made all the right sounds but we found out later that she mostly only spoke Russian.  The hair cut wasn't exactly what she had in mind but Lace was very gracious and we took a group photo.  On Sunday we took the requisite bus and subway rides up to the north side of Brooklyn and attended services at the local Presbyterian church (which is a school cafeteria most days) with our friend Elsa.  Later we ate lunch with her and her daughter Cassie and then visited Cassie's apartment where we met her husband John.  After a week of New York and again on the edge of exhaustion we put some groceries on the boat and shoved off past the Statue of Liberty and up the Hudson River.

5/31/11 - 6/7/11   Our next aim is New York City and Lace is not feeling well at all so we wasted little time heading north.  The temperature approached the high nineties for the final day in the Chesapeake so we headed for Worton Creek Marina where we could plug the boat into shore power and get all three a/c's working.  A short transit of the C+D Canal (connects Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay) and we stopped in Delaware City Marina to wait for weather and tides for the trip down the length of Delaware Bay.   This transit proved to be a tough one.   The start was very rough and slow going but eventually the tide changed and we ended up making almost 10mph with a following wind when we turned the corner into Cape May New Jersey.  We anchored out for four more days as we made our way up the east coast of New Jersey (marshy and unremarkable) and we pulled into Marine Basin Marina in Brooklyn, New York.  The odometer now read 3238 miles since we left Seabrook, TX.

5/24/11 - 5/30/11  We always wanted to see Washington D.C. so it was exciting to arrive.   Gangplank Marina was not much.  It was more geared for "live-aboards" working in D.C..   It was, however, very convenient for us because the subway and grocery store were within walking distance.   Over the next four days we visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (awesome!), The Sackler Arthur Gallery (okay), The African Art Museum (very good), The Hershorn Museum (okay), The U.S. Capital Building (private tour by our representative's aide was worth the trouble to arrange because we avoided huge crowds), The Library of Congress (worth the visit), Museum of Natural History (not so much), American History Museum (very good), and several art galleries.   We walked and gawked and snapped pictures in ninety degree heat until we couldn't walk anymore.   Lace picked up a bronchial problem that left her coughing and weak so after some last minute provisioning we shoved off for the three day trip back down the Potomac and back into Chesapeake Bay.  I don't believe we could have survived another day.

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5/20/11 -  5/23/11  There is so much to say about the Chesapeake Bay that it is hard to start.   After reading Michener's novel "Chesapeake" it was actually sort of a disap- pointment to begin motoring up the shore line and not see indian teepees with camp fires smoking in front of them.  It is, after all, only a body of water with thousands of expensive houses built to absorb it's beauty and fertile fishing.   Our aim was Washington D.C. so we didn't dawdle making our way to the mouth of the Potomac River.   The first evening in the river we made anchor in the middle of a small inlet called "The Glebe".   It is only a couple of hundred yards across surrounded with modest homes.   As we sat on the back deck for after-supper cocktails a lady came out of one of the houses carrying her french horn and sat down at her dock.   After some scales she gave us a 30 minute concert of popular song fragments ending in a full length rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".   She even responded when we yelled "More!".  After one more song she curtsied as we applauded.   Unforgettable!   A couple more days and we made our way into Gangplank Marina in Washington.

5/4/11- 5/19/11  The Dismal Swamp is a very narrow waterway with tall cypress trees on both sides that leech tannin into the water making it the color of mahogany.  It is also pretty shallow so one is well advised to pay attention to the depth sounder.  After that we entered the Elizabeth River and the huge Navy seaport of  Norfolk / Portsmouth, Virginia.  Suddenly we felt dwarfed by the commercial ship traffic and the even larger naval vessels and dry docks that line the shore.  The America's Great Loop Cruisers Association "Rendezvous" was to be held in Norfolk but wasn't for ten more days so after one night at Fort Monroe we settled in to Scott's Creek Marina in Portsmouth to rest, catch up on engine maintenance, see the sights and socialize with our Louisiana friends Larry and Jane on the Bavarian Cream.  A good time was had by all and on the 14th we moved the boat over to Waterside Marina at the Sheraton Hotel.  We had three straight days of class lectures on what to expect on the waters ahead and in the afternoons we opened the boat up for interested people to board and discuss the finer points of  looping. Back to Scott's Creek for final provisioning and we were off again and into famous Chesapeake Bay.

4/29/11 - 5/3/11   The next day was a long one.  Usually after noon we start looking for an anchorage but that day we couldn't seem to find one that wasn't exposed to waves. Evening came and we found ourselves on the Alligator River which is wide with a relatively straight shoreline.  I anchored on the lee shore but the wind came up and shifted in the night and we woke up on a roller coaster.  The wind was forecast to stay strong so we picked up the anchor and ran ten miles in the chop to a pretty good spot to spend the day.  Another day's run got us to Elizabeth City, NC.  This is a favorite stop for cruisers because there is a free city dock for 48 hours and a tradition of local hospitality including a wine and cheese party at the dock and a rose for the first mate.  We met Larry and Jane on the Bavarian Cream.  They are from Louisiana and they know how to party.  We visited the local museum and had lunch with them at the fish restaurant where the "locals" eat.  Our 48 hours at the city dock ended all too soon but they have no amenities so the plan was to move to Pelican Marina in the same city, do laundry, pump out the holding tanks and recharge the batteries.  Unfortunately after we got there we were informed that the pump-out dock was blocked and the washing machine was broken.  That was unacceptable so we left and started up the Dismal Swamp Canal (actually not so dismal) and found a great anchorage at Goat Island.

4/24/11 - 4/28/11  Easter Sunday evening found us in a well protected military anchorage named Hammock Bay.  As I pulled in there were already several boats at anchor.  The anchorage is not very large but I found a spot that gave us the maximum room.  Before dark, several other boats came in and made it a little tight but acceptable.    Monday morning we went into Moorehead City Marina, NC.  Our friends Shay and Elizabeth Glass on the Great Escape are residents  there and graciously offered their car for re-provisioning and two trips to West Marine.  Also we met Ted and Nancy on the Aloha Friday and later that evening we all went to a local eatery and had all-you-can-eat ribs. I have given permission to Lace to shoot me should I ever again order all-you-can-eat anything.   Two more nights of anchoring at Cedar Creek and Slade Creek and the weather had started to deteriorate.   There were tornadoes raking the southern states and the front was coming our way so we ducked into Dowry Creek Marina on Albermarle Sound.  This is still Lace's favorite marina.  In addition to the regular amenities it has a boat owners lounge where every night at 5:30 everyone in the marina gets together for BYOB happy hour, dinner entree provided by the owner and side dishes brought by the residents.  The weather cleared in the morning so off again!

4/21/11 - 4/23/11  Good Thursday (the one before Good Friday) brought us to Wrightsville Beach, NC. named, I assume, after the local historic celebrities  Orville and Wilbur.  It was a great anchorage!  The nearby inlet to the sea made the water refreshingly clear after the river water we had spent weeks in and I was able to pirate wifi from one of the nearby residences.  It was so pleasant in fact that we decided to spend three nights there.  We are chasing the cool temperatures up the east coast as the spring wanes but it is warm enough to take a brisk swim.  The water tastes saltier than I remember.  Three days is about the limit of how long we can stay at anchor without starting the engines or the generator because of the drain on the batteries.  The refrigerator is the major consumer.  We expect to be underway on Easter Sunday so Lace made us Easter Saturday supper with baked ham, potato salad, corn bread and cake for dessert.  Life is not too bad.

4/18/11  - 4/20/11  We spent two more days and nights working our way through the South Carolina wetlands.  They are beautiful and isolated.  We saw very little civilization with the exception of the occasional fisherman.  One evening we had just anchored in Bull Creek when we saw a fellow cruiser going by flying the Canadian flag.  After learning by radio that they would be anchoring nearby for the evening we invited them over for happy hour.  They tied up alongside the Confetti (known as "rafting up") and we met Tom and Phyllis on board the Cocoon Too.  They were on their way back to Canada after spending the winter in the Bahamas. The next morning we headed north and passed into North Carolina.  The countryside is changing more to tall trees on the shoreline but still buggy.  We spent the night anchored in Shallotte Inlet, NC., a very tight anchorage with shallow water all around.  Even with two anchors set, I was up on deck several times during the night checking them and in the morning one of them was set so hard that I damaged the anchor roller on the bow getting it out of the mud.  We headed up the Cape Fear river to the town of Wilmington and tied up at the city dock.  The next morning we took the tour bus to see the local architecture and ate lunch at the microbrewery (two buck draft).

4/14/11 - 4/16/11  We anchored for the evening in Wapoo Creek.  I set two anchors because of the strong currents that occurred at the tide changes in this area.  On the positive side we did not drag anchor overnight. On the negative side, I left too much slack in the anchor ropes and we awoke with one of them wrapped around one of the props.  Nothing to do but go over the side and untangle.  We brought fins and snorkel and the water temperature was tolerable.  The only bothersome thing was the unseen alligator.  He didn't show up so with Lace's help on deck we got it straightened out and got back on board with all limbs intact.  The weather was turning sour so we headed for the city dock in Charleston, SC.  It was very windy and rough for a couple of days.  This front caused tornadoes in the southern states killing quite a few people. 

4/12/11 - 4/13/11  We anchored out for a two more nights in the South Carolina wetlands and were introduced to the local insects called  "no-see-ums" by some. These are little biting gnats and we discovered that they indeed can be seen but that what is observable must be all jaws.  On the way we came upon a guy paddling in what was little more than a canoe.  He claimed to be doing the "loop" having started in Illinois one year and nine months previous.  Lace gave him a cold cup of blueberry yogurt, a plastic spoon and a good luck and we left him paddling the Pathfinder.  I told Lace that this guy "has grit" or something to that effect.  We made our way to the city dock at Beaufort, South Carolina took the walking tour of historic buildings including a guided tour of the John Verdier House built in 1801.  One can't help but be struck by the tragedy of the civil war.  North or south, white or black, there were no winners .   Later we met Bill and Carol on the Trident, had pre-supper cocktails and hors dourves on the Confetti, upscale supper at a waterside restaurant, then post meal cocktails on the Trident.