We Made It!

At 4:15 p.m. on Thursday, September 4, after 4172 miles, 156 calendar days, 98 cruising days, 112 locks, 1424 gallons of diesel, and with a huge sigh of relief, we reached our 2014 cruising destination and docked at the St. Paul Yacht Club in St. Paul, Minnesota.

First view of downtown St. Paul

Rounding the final curve

It had been a rather long and challenging day--departure before 7 a.m., refueling, a 2-hour wait for lockage at Lock 2 in Hastings, MN, concerns about the weather, and multiple meetings of tows with barges in narrow channels. One very nice aspect of the wait in Hastings was that we were able to spend a little time with my mom and dad.  They had driven down to Hastings to watch us lock through, and came to the Hastings courtesy dock where we had tied up waiting for our turn in the lock.

Lon with Jerry and Bev Clausen, Pat's dad and mom

Pat with dad and mom

They were able to get some photos of us at the lock. This was fun for us, as we don't have much with the two of us "in action" on CARIB II.

Lon and Pat on CARIB II approaching Lock 2

CARIB II in Lock 2,
moving toward the wall

CARIB II leaves Lock 2

The previous days we'd had nice stops in the historic river towns of Winona (Monday, Sept. 1), Wabasha (Tuesday, Sept. 2), and Red Wing (Wednesday, Sept. 3).

Lon by the "Polish Museum" in Winona. The city
apparently has a large Polish population. We were sorry
that the museum wasn't open the day we were there.

Sunrise in Winona as we prepare to leave
for Wabasha

Pat on the observation platform at the
National Eagle Center in Wabasha

Wabasha was decked out for fall

Friendly locals: Lon and his Wabasha
"beer buddies"

We will be in St. Paul until the end of October. CARIB II will be pulled from the water, winterized, and put under shrink wrap for the winter. Since we don't want to spend the winter under shrink wrap, we'll drive back to St. Petersburg to spend the months of November through April in an apartment near downtown. Next spring we'll return to St. Paul and spend the summer on CARIB II at the St. Paul Yacht Club. After being on the move for 5 months we're looking forward to these opportunities to reconnect with friends and family in Minnesota and Florida. Next September we'll head for St. Petersburg on CARIB II and hope to complete the Great Loop by Thanksgiving 2015.

We are now officially on hiatus from the Great Loop, which means that this blog is going on hiatus as well until next September. It's been quite a year!