Arriving Home to Burnt Store Marina

Pictures taken by our friends.

The End of the Trip

Fuzzy’s big adventure is over. He completed The Great Loop with Nana and Papa. Look at the placemats Fuzzy sent you to see where he went on his trip.

Fuzzy really enjoyed traveling and he is glad he got to go along. He saw a lot of new places, met a lot of nice people and learned a lot of new things. Fuzzy will always have many good memories of this trip.

Fuzzy is glad he could share the trip with his cousins and hopes you enjoyed reading about his adventures. Fuzzy hopes you will be able to see many different places. Be sure to say yes if you get the chance to travel.

Sarasota, FL – Burnt Store Marina, FL - November 14, 2008

We did it! We returned to the port we left 8 months ago, arriving in Burnt Store Marina on Friday, November 14, at 2:00, after traveling 6017 miles and spending 227 days on the boat.

Our friends, Dennis and Judy and Bob and Margaret met us at the dock and helped us celebrate. Champagne for all!

It was a beautiful day for the last day of this trip. We had the anchor up and were underway at 7. The sky was overcast with little wind. It turned partly cloudy around 10 and the wind picked some, but we had a very smooth ride.

This trip enabled us to see parts of the country we probably wouldn’t have seen from a vantage point that many people don’t get to have. We have met many wonderful people, both those living and working in the places we visited and those traveling by boat, as we were.

In retrospect, doing the loop in less than 1 year prevented us from spending as much time in some areas as we would have liked. It also kept us away from family and friends for longer periods of time than we would have liked. Those people who spend several years doing the loop may have a better idea. They go home more frequently and for longer periods of time.

There are parts of our trip we would like to re-visit. We particularly enjoyed the east coast, Canada and the Great Lakes.

Although we are very happy to be back on land for a while and see our families, we look forward to spending some more time on our boat.

Clearwater, FL. – Sarasota, FL - November 13, 2008

We went to Frenchy’s for dinner last night with Kay and Gene. It was celebratory meal of sorts for having survived the gulf crossing. You wouldn’t think a restaurant by that name would specialize in seafood, but they do. We all had grouper sandwiches that were excellent.

We slept in today. We had been undecided whether to stay in Clearwater another day or continue on towards Burnt Store Marina. But, since we are both anxious to get back, we decided to leave today. However, our start was at a much more reasonable hour, 8:30.

The forecast had been for scattered showers today, but it turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day. We also had a very smooth ride for the first part of the day. We were traveling south, into a southerly wind. A very calm, breezy trip.

We were back out in the gulf for the first part of today rather than taking the ICW. We saved about 15 miles by doing that as well as not having to slow down for the numerous no wake zones. After crossing Tampa Bay we got back into the ICW. The winds picked up just as we were getting out of Tampa Bay. We’re glad we were in more protected waters.

We anchored at 3:30 in Roberts Bay near Sarasota. 56.8 miles today. The picture is of our new burgee, indicating we have completed the loop.

Cedar Key, FL. - Clearwater, FL. - November 12, 2008

We both slept very well last night. In fact, we slept straight through the night, and that is an extremely rare occurrence. It was probably due to the cumulative effect of the last 2 days rough seas and the fact that we didn’t sleep much the previous night.

The anchor was up and we were underway at 6:45. The day started out pretty cloudy and calm. It was much nicer than the previous 2 days. However, Mother Nature was just playing with us. As soon as we got back in the channel and out of the protection of the islands, the waves and wind picked up. Certainly not as bad as the past 2 days, but again, an uncomfortable ride.

After a couple of hours of this, the wind died and the rest of our day was nice and smooth. Today was also nice and warm. A change from the cold of the past 2 days.

Everything was going well, everything had been going well. Too good to believe, right? Right. So, Beth was driving while also keeping an eye out for crab pots, which are scattered all over the gulf. While avoiding 2 crab pots to port she ran over one dead ahead. The line cutters by the props did cut the line, so the trap was cut loose. But we did have the float and about 25’ of line trailing us. We put the boat in neutral, Beth picked up the line out of the water with a boat hook and Darrell cut it as close to the boat as possible. Luckily, the propeller seems to be just fine. We’ll get the rest of the line when we pull the boat out of the water.

We arrived in Clearwater, FL at 4:20 p.m., after 84.6 miles.

Last year, in 2007, we took our boat on a shakedown cruise from Burnt Store Marina up to Clearwater, FL and back again. So, although we’re not back to Burnt Store Marina where we started our trip, we have completed “The Great Loop”, because we crossed our wake as we entered Clearwater Inlet. We have encircled the eastern portion of the U.S. by water. We are now fully “looped”! We have replaced our AGLCA “In Progress” flag with the gold flag that signifies a “Completed” loop.

We will wait to hold our major celebration for a few days until we return to Burnt Store Marina.

Steinhatchee, Fl – Cedar Key, FL. - November 11, 2008

Our anchorage last night was about 5 miles offshore in 18 feet of water. Everything was quite smooth and nice until midnight when, with a combination of wind and current, the boat began rocking quite a lot. We were both awake on and off through the rest of the night.

We were up at 6 and raised the anchor at 6:45. Although the wind was forecasted to be subsiding and coming from the east, it didn’t start out that way. The first 5 hours of our day were quite uncomfortable, almost the same as yesterday. The seas were confused with rolling waves.

Around noon the wind subsided and the last 1½ hours of our day were quite nice and calm. There were more dolphins again today, after it became nice.

We anchored at 1:45 this afternoon off of Cedar Key. Not as long a day as yesterday, but almost as tiring.

Carrabelle, FL – Steinhatchee, FL - November 10, 2008

Because of the weather forecasted for the next few days, if we didn’t leave today, it would be several more days before we could.

With the wind today coming from the NE and changing to E later today and tonight, an overnight crossing directly to Clearwater wouldn’t be a wise thing to do. Darrell & Gene discussed options with a man at the marina who had much local knowledge.

It would be better for us to stay on the upper part of the gulf today and go east to Steinhatchee and spend the night. We would be able to make that crossing during the day and would anchor just off shore. Tomorrow, with the wind coming from the east, we would be able to hug the coastline while going south. That sounded like a good plan and, although it would take 1 or 2 extra days to get to Clearwater, we would be able to leave today.

We got underway at 6:45, just before sunrise. The first 3-4 hours were very uncomfortable. We were getting 3-5’ seas and taking spray on the flybridge.

We made preparations to steer from below, if necessary, but found we felt more secure on the flybridge. Also, we were less prone to get queasy. We just had to be extremely careful when going below. Life jackets were on at all times.

We were traveling slower than we would have liked to in order for Kay & Gene on Sojourn to travel at the speed best suited for them. After a bit we sped up and turned our bow into the quartering seas to make for a more comfortable ride. We ran off on a more northerly course for a while and eventually increased the distance between us and Sojourn. Around noon the wind subsided some and we turned directly toward Steinhatche as the ride became smoother. Many dolphin this afternoon. It was wonderful to watch them.

We anchored in Steinhatchee Harbor at 4:15. Sojourn anchored a short distance away. 78.6 miles. Long day.