Goggle Map of our Great Loop 2014 to 2015

One additional post for our Great Loop adventure.  Below is a link to Goggle Maps to show all of our stops along the way.  The red balloons are our travels between April - September of 2014 and the purple stars are between September - November of 2015.

Google Map Link:

If link does not work, go to:

 https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zsp1SPnVXb1M.kxqbiqx373w4&usp=sharing

Completing the Great Loop

On Thursday, November 5 at 1:06 p.m., with an escort of dolphins at our bow, C.A.R.I.B. II "crossed her wake" (intersected the route she took when starting the Great Loop in 2014) in Tampa Bay and completed the Great Loop. We--Lon, Pat, and geriatric wonder cat Zipper--are now officially "Gold Loopers."

Dolphins swam alongside our bow in Tampa
Bay just before we "crossed our wake"

Our chart plotter 5 seconds after we crossed
our wake, and just before we made the left turn for
downtown St. Petersburg

Lon switches the burgees from white (Loop in progress)
to Gold (completed the Great Loop) with downtown
St. Pete in the distance

Pat also needed a moment to savor the
accomplishment

Getting to this point involved a very challenging couple of days. Panama City gave us a nice 3-night respite as we checked weather reports and confirmed that conditions seemed fine for an overnight crossing of the Gulf of Mexico from the panhandle to Tampa Bay on Tuesday-Wednesday (November 3-4). We left St. Andrews Marina at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Our "float plan" took us down the ICW to Appalachicola. Aside from some fog that developed as the sun rose, the 8-hour cruise to Appalachicola was uneventful-winds were light and the waters smooth.

Preparing to leave St. Andrews Marina just before
sunrise on November 3.

Whether as a result of past hurricanes or for other reasons, we saw quite a few derelict/sunken boats along the way.

Derelict 1

Derelict 2

Derelicts 3 and 4

Mid-afternoon we passed by downtown Appalachicola and into a glassy smooth Appalachicola Bay on our way to Government Cut, the entrance into the Gulf of Mexico. It was cloudy and there were a few showers ahead of us, but nothing large or even close to severe.

Passing through Government Cut. The Gulf of Mexico
is to the right in this photo

We had previously decided that we would shorten the crossing by making Clearwater Beach our destination rather than St. Petersburg. 170 statute miles at 8.5-9 miles per hour meant we were looking at a 19 or 20 hour crossing.

We encountered rolling swells on the Gulf that seemed to diminish in intensity as we continued. The marine forecasts had indicated that should be the case. However, two hours or so into the Gulf crossing things got "interesting", and on a trip of this kind "interesting" is not a good thing. The swells did not continue to diminish. They were not particularly large, but they were more closely spaced than predicted and as they seemed to be coming from different directions, we were being rocked every which way. Lon went below to do an engine room inspection, and the combination of the enclosed space, engine room smells, and a boat in "rock-and-roll" mode put him on a fast track to being seasick. Just that quickly, the not-so-intrepid First Mate got a quick promotion to Captain, and spent most of a very dark night staring at the radar and making sure we stayed on course. Lon was able to take the controls for brief periods of time, but it was a very long night. Zipper had the best of it--she slept in her favorite drawer nearly the whole time. The moon and stars were out for a while, but it was hard to appreciate them because of the way the boat was moving. We were extremely glad when the first hints of dawn appeared.

Better late than never, the seas finally calmed down when we were a couple of hours away from Clearwater Pass. The final challenge of the crossing was dodging lines of crab pots during the last hour while cruising into the sun. With a sigh of relief, and after 28 total hours of cruising, we docked at Clearwater Beach Marina and got some much-needed rest.

On Thursday, November 5 we cruised the final 37 miles down the intracoastal waterway to our home port of The Harborage Marina in downtown St. Petersburg. It was wonderful to see the familiar sights along the way.

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay

Approaching downtown St. Petersburg

And so, the saga ends in St. Petersburg. We are very glad to have had the experience. We learned a lot about other places, other people, and ourselves, but we are looking forward to settling back into life in St. Petersburg. We'll continue to live on the boat for the foreseeable future, a future which is full of possibilities that will reveal themselves in due time.

Gold Loopers Lon, Pat, and Zipper at home in
St. Petersburg

Before signing off on this final Great Loop blog entry, here are a few trip stats for the past couple of years:

2014: 4172 miles in 98 cruising days (157 calendar days), 112 locks, 1424 gallons of fuel

2015: 2062 miles in 32 cruising days (57 calendar days), 42 locks, 925 gallons of fuel.

We also cruised 341 miles during our time in St. Paul.

Grand Totals: 6575 (statute) miles, 154 locks, 2349 gallons of fuel, 130 cruising days over 214 calendar days, countless memories, extreme gratitude for a safe journey.

Thanks for following along with us. Time now for Pat to find a new hobby!

And Then There Were Two . . .

Remaining cruising days, that is. Or maybe just one if we decide that going straight to St. Petersburg from Panama City, FL (our current port of call) is a better option for us. We arrived in Panama City yesterday, October 31, and are here until at least Tuesday while a stormy weather system passes through.

In the last blog post we were sitting out rain in Fairhope, AL. Monday the 26th was a total washout, but things improved quite a bit by Tuesday, October 27, and we were able to make our way into Fairhope for some sightseeing. Fairhope was founded in 1894 by Iowans living a real-life utopian experiment in property ownership and taxation. It later became a favorite winter destination of artists and intellectuals, and is currently a resort destination and affluent suburb of Mobile. Unlike so many of the small towns on our Great Loop route which are struggling with downtown decay, Fairhope was almost surreal in its cleanliness and lack of vacant storefronts. Something is going right here.

Still grey at Eastern Shore Marine, but at least
the rain decreased on the 27th

Sidewalk "fish art" near
 the local elementary
 school

One of MANY antique and art-related shops
in Fairhope

Lon and ice cream cone in Fairhope.
 Just OK.

Downtown Fairhope decked out for Halloween

On Wednesday, October 28 we were able to get moving again. A red letter day--after leaving Mobile Bay we entered the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) for the first time since leaving it in northern Virginia in May 2014. And, later that morning, we entered Florida!

A pelican greets us as we enter the ICW
at Red 120

Our stop for October 28 and 29 was Pensacola, FL. There we met up with good friends from the St. Paul Yacht Club, Ron and Barb Hilson, who have a winter home in Pensacola. The city is the site of the Pensacola Naval Air Station. Ron is a retired naval aviator, so it makes perfect sense that he and Barb would choose to spend their winters there. Ron is a very skilled volunteer tour guide at the National Naval Aviation Museum, and on Thursday, October 29 we were treated to an all-day tour at the museum. Fascinating!

Former Blue Angel aircraft in the
 museum atrium. The Pensacola NAS
 is the home of the Blue Angels

Ron Hilson and Lon in the Naval Aviation Museum

Lon and Pat on the steps of the "Air Force One"
helicopter used by President Nixon to leave the
White House after his resignation in 1974

NC-4: In 1919, this became
 the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic
 Ocean (with several stops)

Aircraft awaiting restoration

Lon and Pat at dinner with Ron and Barb Hilson

On Friday, October 30 we left Pensacola and cruised about 60 miles to the Baytowne Marina at the Sandestin Resort complex near Destin, Florida. The tidal currents were not kind to us that day, so we arrived at the marina later than we would have liked--and definitely too late to take advantage of all of the resort amenities that went along with staying at the marina. 

Our dinnertime view from the Marina Grill, Baytowne
Marina

Restaurant mascot Mary Ann the
 Macaw looked
over our shoulders while we ate

On Saturday, October 31, we made an early departure from the Baytowne Marina with hopes of getting to the St. Andrews Marina in Panama City before the winds strengthened ahead of a significant storm system moving east from Texas and Louisiana. The last 15 miles on West Bay and St. Andrews Bay were somewhat choppy, but fortunately we were moving into the waves, so aside from some splash on the boat, the ride wasn't too bad.

Florida's version of "white cliffs": sand (not chalk)
lines the ICW canal between Choctawhatchee Bay and
West Bay

We are currently in the St. Andrews Marina in the '"Historic St. Andrews" neighborhood of Panama City. It's feeling very tropical at the moment--not a bad thing as far as we are concerned. 

Four-headed Pindo Palm in the city park. Said to be
the only such palm tree in the world.

Pat finding white sand in St. Andrews. It was
a tiny beach, and it wasn't on the Gulf, but it was the
best we could do without a car.

The Pelican Tree: carved from an oak killed in
a 1995 hurricane and created as a symbol of urban
renewal in St. Andrews

It now becomes a waiting game for the right weather conditions that will allow us to complete the Great Loop via a long, overnight passage across the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. Patience is the operative word.