Another beautiful cruise back to the marina that repaired the boat. We will leave the boat here while we go home for about two months. We will also be taking a trip in September to Spain and Portugal with our dear friends, Misty and Darrel and Ellen’s son, Nathan!
The boat ran great on the beautiful cruise up the Chester River to Chestertown. We absolutely loved Chestertown and are so glad we decided to visit the town. Chestertown was established in 1706 and is situated on the most traveled highway between the North and the South during the Revolutionary period. George Washington made eight known visits here between 1756 and 1793. The historic downtown area is a short walk from the marina and is filled with historic buildings, shops and restaurants. Beautiful homes surround the downtown area including many from the 1700’s.
We had some wonderful meals at Play it Again Sam, Modern Stone Age Kitchen and The Retriever Bar and, of course, ice cream at Sugar Doodles Sweet Shop.
We enjoyed doing the self-guided walking tour of historic Chestertown and loved looking at the houses from the 1700’s and reading about their history. Of particular interest was the White Swan Tavern, built in 1733 as a residence, enlarged to become a tavern in the 1793 until it became a general store in the 1850’s. It was restored in 1978 during which time an archeological excavation yielded some 70,00 objects from around the site. The Tavern reopened as a Bed & Breakfast in 1981 after being restored to its 1795 appearance. We decided to walk in and see if we could have a look around and were greeted by the lovely proprietress who welcomed us and gave us a brief tour of some of the rooms which were absolutely stunning! We could definitely spend some time here, given the opportunity!
Later, we took the loaner tricycles out for a ride on the old railroad trail. As much as we have ridden bikes on our tip, Ellen had to practice riding the tricycle before we ventured our of the marina parking lot!
We also walked over to the Washington College campus, founded in 1782. This was the first college chartered after American independence and the 10th oldest college in the United States. George Washington granted use of his name to the college and served on the Board of Visitors and Governors and received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1789 once he became President and retired from the board.
We were having a wonderful time cruising up the Chester River on our way to Chestertown when, all of a sudden, alarms started going off on the boat. Kevin went downstairs to check on things and found the entire cabin filled with black smoke! He quickly determined that there was no fire and assumed that it was exhaust smoke. We called for a tow and went to a marina on the other side of Rock Hall from where we had just stayed. It turns out the exhaust elbow had blown apart. The engine room was covered in soot as well as some things in the cabin. Luckily, there was an excellent mechanic at the marina who promptly ordered the new parts we needed and installed them. He even let us borrow his truck to go to the grocery store and have lunch as there is nothing in the vicinity of the marina.
We enjoyed our time in the cute little town of Rock Hall whose welcome sign says, “Nice people live here!” We just happened to be there at the tail end of their town-wide theme party, Pirates and Wenches Weekend, which must be the highlight of the year for the townspeople! Houses, dinghies, boats and golf carts were decorated, many people were in costume, there was a street festival and musicians. We even saw a real, live mermaid!
We took a couple of loaner bikes from the marina and had an awesome lunch at Blue Heron restaurant. While we have been on our trip, we like to get potato skins whenever we see them on a menu. Blue Heron had seafood potato skins with crab, shrimp and scallops and they were amazing!
We had a nice cruise back to Baltimore and were sad to say goodbye to Becca and Mona as they headed for the airport to fly back to Atlanta.
We enjoyed having dinner again with Lynnae and Jerry from Troublesome Phoenix and then joined Ronda and Bob from Hawkins Landing and Christi and Rick from Inked Mermaid and enjoyed a small concert at the marina.
We enjoyed doing a few things that we did not do on our last trip to Annapolis, another of our favorite stops on the Loop.
We had a nice lunch at Chick & Ruth’s Delly before visiting the Hammond-Harwood House, built in 1774, where a wonderful docent led us through the house and provided interesting information about the architecture, furnishings and the families who lived in the house up until 1924. She also very patiently answered our questions as we tried to understand it all! We finished the day off with a delicious dinner at Boatyard Bar & Grill.
We visited the William Pacca House and Garden the next day. William Pacca was one of Maryland’s four signers of the Declaration of Independence and the state’s third Governor.
It was pretty dicey on the Chesapeake for Becca and Mona’s first day at sea! We had about an hour and a half of 1-2 foot waves on our beam which is not desirable. We were all happy to dock at the marina in St. Michaels! Of course, our captain did an excellent job of getting us there safely. We were happy to return here as this was a one of many favorite stops last year.
St. Michaels dates back to the mid-1600’s when it served as a trading post for tobacco and fur trappings. The Christ Episcopal Church of St. Michaels Archangel parish was established here in 1672 and gave the town its name. The town earned the nickname “the town that fooled the British” when, during the War of 1812, the townspeople dimmed the lights in their houses and hung lanterns in the trees beyond the town causing the British to overshoot the town.
We passed several more lighthouses on our way to Baltimore. As we entered Baltimore harbor, we went under the Frances Scott Key Bridge, passed by the remains of Fort Carroll, a replica of the Lazaretto Point Lighthouse and Fort McHenry.
Fort Carroll was designed by Robert E. Lee and named for Charles Carroll, the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence. Construction began in 1848 but was never completed and it was never used as a fort. In 1864, it was flooded by torrential rains and declared vulnerable and obsolete. It stored mines during the Spanish-American War but was abandoned in 1920.
Lazaretto Point Lighthouse was the first on the Chesapeake to receive electricity in 1914. It was torn down in 1926 but recreated in 1985 from the original blueprints in order to preserve Baltimore’s history.
Fort McHenry was the site of one of the most pivotal battles of the War of 1812. After the British burned the capitol in Washington, D.C., Baltimore became their next target in September of 1814 but the American forces far outnumbered the British fleet and saved the city from defeat. In the meantime, Frances Scott Key had gone to Baltimore to negotiate the release of his friend, Dr. William Barnes, who had been taken prisoner but the British. Key was able to locate the ship where Barnes was being held and negotiated his release but they were required to remain on the ship until the bombing was over. Once the bombing ceased, Key kept looking through a spyglass to see if the American flag or the British flag was flying over the fort when he finally saw the American flag and began writing the words to what would eventually become the “Star Spangled Banner”. The British had withdrawn after a 25-hour bombardment of the Fort McHenry. After the British defeat at the Battle of Baltimore, both countries signed the Treaty of Ghent, basically calling the war a draw.
Once we had docked at the marina, we met up with our friends, Ronda and Bob and met new friends, Christi and Rick on Inked Mermaid. We all went to a nearby park that was having a festival and concert. Ronda and Ellen got Fairy Hair!
We rented a car and drove to Gettysburg the next two days and then visited Fort McHenry with Lynnae and Jerry the following day. We are sure getting our fill of history! After our tour of Fort McHenry with Lynnae and Jerry, the four of us went to Captain James Seafood Palace for some Maryland crabs!
The three day Battle of Gettysburg, in July of 1863, was the pivotal battle of the Civil War as well as the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on American soil. Being there and seeing where the battle took place had a profound impact on us. We enjoyed seeing all the pre-civil war buildings, particularly since there are none left in Atlanta! We took a bus tour of the battlefield the first day and drove our rental car through it the next day.
We visited the Shriver House in Gettysburg which gave us a glimpse of civilian life in Gettysburg during the Civil War. The house was built in 1860 and the Shrivers moved in to the house four months before the Civil War broke out. George Shriver had been off fighting for two years by the time troops made their way to Gettysburg. Once his wife, Hettie, heard the nearby canons, she decided she and their two daughters would be safer at her parent’s farm three miles down the road. Little did she know, that was the location where some of the worst fighting took place. They stayed at the farm for a couple of days and helped tend to the wounded soldiers. While they were gone, Confederate sharp shooters occupied their home and shot at Union soldiers from the attic. It is hard to imagine the sites that Hettie and her daughters witnessed and walked through the town as they headed back home after the battle and then returned to a house in shambles and this is just one of many stories of the civilians impacted by the battle.
We also visited the Eisenhower National Historic Site which was adjacent to the battlefield and the farm of Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower and the only home they ever owned. The house is furnished as it was in 1967 with 98% original furnishings. It is difficult to describe the vast beauty surrounding the property in addition to it being in the midst of the battlefield.
Next, we visited the Wills House, built in 1814 and the home of the David Willis family in 1863. Willis is the “father of the Soldier’s National Cemetary”, a burial ground for the Union dead. Abraham Lincoln was a guest of David Wills on the eve of the dedication ceremony on November 19, 1863 where Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg address and it is believed that Lincoln completed and rehearsed the speech while staying in the house.
To top off our week in Baltimore, Kevin’s daughter, Becca, and her partner, Mona, arrived from Atlanta on Monday. They will be with us for six days and we will travel to St. Michaels and Annapolis before bringing them back to Baltimore to fly home. Since they were anxious to have some Maryland crab, we just had to take them to Captain James Seafood Palace!
We passed by several lighthouse on our way from Crisfield to Deale. Deale was just an overnight stay for us but we had a great dinner a Happy Harbor restaurant.
We chose to keep the boat in Crisfield and travel by ferry to visit Smith Island and Tangier Island.
Smith Island was settled by the British in the 1600’s. It is a three-by-five mile island chain consisting of three villages and has a population of about 200 people, most of whom make their living by crabbing or oystering. It is the only inhabited island in Maryland that is accessible only by boat. Unfortunately, the island is shrinking due to rising seas eroding the island and it is projected to be completely submerged by 2100.
Smith Island is known for their famous Smith Island Cakes which the women have been making since the 1800’s. Ellen read about the cakes years ago and has made several of them so she was anxious to see where it all began. The Smith Island Cake is usually 8-10 thin layers separated by coatings of frosting. There are several flavors with yellow cake with chocolate icing being the most popular. Kevin had a slice of Red Velvet Cake which Ellen plans to make next Christmas!
We had a wonderful lunch at the Bayside Inn restaurant, visited the wonderful museum and then rented a golf cart to tour the small village of Ewell. Being on Smith Island was like taking a step back in time!
Tangier Island was first visited in 1608 by Captain John Smith who gave it its name and it was later settled in 1686. The beach on the south end of the island was the base of operations for the British fleet during the War of 1812. It was from there that the British burned Washington, D.C. and unsuccessfully attacked Fort McHenry in Baltimore during which our national anthem was written. The British erected Fort Albion which housed hundreds of African Americans who had gained freedom by escaping to the British. The site of the fort is now underwater.
Tangier Island has about twice as many residents as Smith Island and fishing, crabbing and oystering are the main source of income for the residents. It is known as the “soft crab capital’ of the nation. The island covers about 1.5 square miles and, like Smith Island, is shrinking. There are almost no cars on the island. Some of the residents leave their car in Crisfield and take the ferry over there to get supplies.
As the ferry boat was nearing the island we saw many huts that the fishermen use to store and clean their catches. Once we disembarked from the ferry, there were ladies on golf carts offering tours of the island. We took a tour from a lady that has lived on Tangier Island her whole life and then enjoyed walking around the island on our own. It was a joy to see this island and how the people live on it while, at the same time, it was sad to realize that it will not always be here and that many families who have lived on the island for generations will be forced to move once it becomes no longer inhabitable.
Back in Crisfield, we rented a golf cart from the marina to go to the grocery store. While we were shopping, a huge storm appeared out of nowhere. The manager of the grocery store was kind enough to take Ellen and our groceries back to the marina while Kevin took the golf cart back.
We rented a car and visited the three points of America’s Historic Triangle, Williamsburg, Yorktown and Jamestown. The Colonial Parkway, which connects the three cities, is an absolutely beautiful drive!
Williamsburg was the capitol of the Virginia Colony from 1699 to 1780. Colonial Williamsburg is an outdoor living history museum and contains 89 original 18th-century buildings and many more reconstructed buildings with costumed interpreters throughout. We had a creative tour of the Peyton Randolph house in that it was told from the viewpoint of some of the 27 enslaved people who lived and worked at the house rather than the viewpoint of the prestigious owner. In the courthouse, we participated in a mock trial trial in courthouse which was a lot of fun. Kevin’s character was suing Ellen’s character but, of course, he did not win! We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Kings Arm Tavern and were serenaded by a singing musician.
Jamestown was the first lasting English settlement in America. Three ships carrying 104 Englishmen arrived here in 1607. Twelve years later, the first enslaved Africans arrived here after being captured from a Portuguese warship. We visited the site of the 1607 James Fort (which was just located in 1944) and Memorial Church, which is adjacent to the fort site. The only 17-century structure still on the island is the church tower from the 1680’s. We also visited a re-created James Fort which had costumed interpreters showing what life was like for the colonists.
Yorktown was established in 1691. The 50-acre town was originally divided into 85 lots and lot prices were 180 pounds of tobacco. The town prospered until about 1750 and then faced destruction with the Siege of 1781, the Great Fire of 1814 and the Civil War. We enjoyed walking the streets of the quaint town and seeing some of the remaining 18th century homes. The last great battle of the American Revolution took place at Yorktown. In 1781, General George Washington’s troops, aided by French allies, defeated British troops and assured American independence. We drove through the battlefield while listening to the audio tour. We also visited the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. In addition to walking through several galleries of artifacts, we watched “The Siege of Yorktown” on a 180-degree surround screen which included special effects which made us feel like we were experiencing the battle firsthand. There is a also a Continental Army encampment and a Revolution-era farm on the grounds of the museum.
Leicester Longwool Sheep
We had one small lock to go through after leaving Coinjock. It was quite a change from the massive locks on the rivers! We made it to Norfolk where we will leave the boat while we go home to Atlanta for about 3 weeks.
We had some delicious She Crab Soup at Freemason Abbey Restaurant and had a front row seat from our boat to watch the 4th of July fireworks before heading home on the 5th. When we return to the boat, we will cruise the Chesapeake Bay and visit some of the places we did not visit last year.
Since we cruised the beautiful Dismal Swamp last year, we decided to take a different route to Norfolk this year stopping at Coinjock on the way. Coinjock Marina is famous for their 32 oz. Prime Rib so we had to give it a try and it was delicious!
It was a long day of cruising on the Pamlico Sound with no land in site for much of the day. Once we neared Manteo, the scenery was breathtaking with small islands scattered about the sound.
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Manteo and also rented a car from the Ford dealership in order to visit the rest of the Outer Banks. We drove along the Outer Banks National Scenic Byway through the towns of Corolla, Currictuck, Duck, Kitty Hawk, Nags Head and Hatteras. We visited three more lighthouses and the Wright Brothers National Memorial Park. We were able to see and do everything we wanted to do and much more. The only thing we did not do that we would have liked to have done if we had known about it sooner was take an ATV tour on the beach to see the Corolla wild horses, descendants of the colonial Spanish Mustangs brought here by explorers nearly 500 years ago. The area where the horses roam is only accessible by four wheel drive so we were not able to take our rental car and it was too late in the day to get tickets for an ATV tour by the time we reached the area. But, suffice it to say, we had plenty of other adventures both in Manteo and the rest of the Outer Banks!
The charming town of Manteo is located on the eight mile by two mile Roanoke Island. Roanoke Island is believed to be the site of the disappearance of The Lost Colony, one of the greatest mysteries in American history. John White had come over with the colonists and by the time he returned to England to get supplies to take back to the colonists, England was preoccupied with the looming war with Spain. While Sir Walter Raleigh wanted to help the colonists, Queen Elizabeth I had ordered all ships remain in England to defend against the Spanish Armada so White was not able to return to the colonists for nearly three years. When he finally returned, all of the 116 colonists including his family, had mysteriously disappeared. Included among his family was his newly born granddaughter, Virginia Dare, believed to be the first English settler born in America. There are several theories as to what happened to these settlers but none are conclusive. John White and many modern historians believe that the colonists had moved south to Hatteras Island where the friendly Croatan Native Americans lived.
The English settlement of The Lost Colony in 1585 was 22 years before the first permanent English settlement in Jamestown in 1607, and 35 years before the second permanent English settlement in Plymouth in 1620.
The Lost Colony Outdoor Drama is the longest running (86 years) outdoor symphonic drama in the country and tells the story of England’s first attempt to colonize the New World in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh. Over 4 million people, including President Roosevelt, have seen the show. It was fabulous!! The sets, costumes, singing, acting and actors were top notch and it was so intriguing to be watching it under the stars right on the banks of Roanoke Sound. We felt like we got to know the brave colonists and the Indians as well as Queen Elizabeth I and her court. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos during the show but wonderful photos are available online. The show won a Tony in 2013.
The Lost Colony Outdoor Drama was the start of Andy Griffith’s acting career. After graduating from High School, he performed in the play from 1947 to 1953 and eventually landed the role of Sir Walter Raleigh. He liked the area so much that he decided to move to Manteo full time and lived here until his death in 2012.
Roanoke Island Festival Park is a 27-acre park that exhibits what life was like for the first English settlers in 1585. It includes a Settlement Site with costumed interpreters, a replica of Elizabeth I, the ship that brought the colonists to the area, an American Indian town and a museum.
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is believed to be the actual site where the first colonists settled. We learned more about The Lost Colony here as well as their relations with the Native American tribes. In the museum, we saw artifacts that had been discovered on the site and watched a very good video about The Lost Colony and the archeological efforts to unearth their history. The area also became the Freedman’s Colony 300 years later beginning in 1863. Over 2,000 freed African Americans from all across the south lived and worked in the area for several years.
The Wright Brothers National Memorial Park was fascinating! We learned that the first flight was not actually in Kitty Hawk but four miles south in Kill Devil Hills. The reason that Kitty Hawk is sighted as being the location of the first flight is that Orville Wright sent a telegram home to their father from Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903 announcing the first successful flight. The Wright Brothers made over 1,000 gliders and tested for four years before making the first successful flight. In the museum, we picked up several phrases that the Wright Brothers exhibited as they attempted to make the impossible possible by taking their dream to reality. These phrases should be an inspiration to us all in our daily lives: think outside the box, overcome challenges, keep learning, anticipate setbacks, details matter, do it yourself, don’t give up, sharpen your skills, believe, keep going, be curious, observe, ask questions.
The Outer Banks is often referred to as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic”. There are more than 2,000 shipwrecks in the area but still less that the nearly 5,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, the “Shipwreck Capitol of the World”.
Bodie Island Lighthouse was built in 1872 and manned by keepers until 1932 when it was electrified. This is the third lighthouse built in this area. The first one was built in 1847 but, due to poor design, was abandoned in 1859. The second one was built in 1859 but was blown up in 1861 by Confederates who feared the Union would use the tower during the Civil War. We climbed the 219 steps to the top which is equivalent to climbing a ten story building!
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the second tallest lighthouse in the world. There are 257 step which we would have climbed had they not been closed for restoration.
Currituck Beach Lighthouse was built in 1875 and is made with one million bricks. It was the last major lighthouse to be illuminated on the Outer Banks. We climbed the 220 steps to the top, another 10 story building! This was our favorite lighthouse of the five lighthouses that we visited in the Outer Banks.
It was a beautiful day for our cruise out to the Outer Banks, right up until about 15 minutes before we were to dock at the marina but, besides Ellen getting soaked, we docked fine.
Ocracoke Island is 16 miles long, one to three miles wide and only accessible by private plane or boat. Ocracoke Village is only 4 square miles and home to about 800 residents. The rest of the island is part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore which was the first national seashore in the country and boasts to be one of the best beaches in the country. The seashore stretches more than 70 miles a long three islands: Bodie Island, Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island. It was so beautiful and peaceful! Famed pirate Blackbeard said Ocracoke was his favorite anchorage and he lived the last five months of his life there but is not buried there as his body was thrown into Pamlico Sound after he was beheaded in 1718.
We rented a golf cart to tour the village one day and rented bikes to visit the seashore the next as we were not allowed to take the golf cart as far as the seashore. During our golf cart ride, we visited the Ocracoke Lighthouse and the Ocracoke Museum. The Ocracoke Lighthouse was built in 1823 and is the oldest lighthouse in North Carolina and one of the second oldest lighthouse still in operation in the country. The Keeper’s Quarters adjacent to the lighthouse is now a privately owned home.
The Ocracoke Museum is housed in the David Williams House which was built around 1900.
We ate at several great restaurants including Howard’s Pub, Plum Pointe Kitchen and Ocracoke Oyster Company.
We stayed in Oriental last year but chose to stay at a different marina this time. The area surrounding Whittaker Pointe was so beautiful and very peaceful. The dock master was very accommodating and used to live in Atlanta! We took the loaner car into town for dinner at Toucan Grill & Fresh Bar.
While Beaufort, NC was a favorite stop last year, we decided to stay at nearby Morehead City this year to see a town we had not visited. Well, it was vastly different from charming Beaufort! Morehead City is a fishing town and although a lot of fishing towns are quaint and provide charming character, we did not get that vibe in Morehead City. Given the choice again, we would revisit Beaufort, NC.
There was an interesting event that happened in Morehead City just before we arrived. The Big Rock Blue Marlin Fishing Tournament had just been held. One of the boats caught the biggest blue marlin and the first one weighing over 500 pounds at 619.4 pounds. The prize for this catch would have been $3.5 million dollars ($2.7 million for winning the tournament and a $739,500 bonus for the first boat to catch a marlin over 500 pounds) but the catch was disqualified because it had been bitten by a shark near the marlin’s tail. Apparently, it was a superficial bite and there was quite a hoopla over the disqualification. The $2.7 million in prize money went to another boat who had caught a 484.5 pound blue marlin.
We cruised on the outside (in the ocean) most of our trip today. Mile Hammock Bay was a lovely anchorage. Kevin grilled our favorite sausage from Schmidt’s in Ohio. Ronda and Bob from Hawkins Landing were also anchored here so we were able to exchange photos of our boats at anchor. It was a wonderfully peaceful evening!
Southport was another favorite stop from last year. This year’s stop was made special by a visit from Ellen’s sister-in-law, Diane, and her husband, Don who live in nearby Wilmington. We cooked a Shrimp Boil on the boat and ate on the flybridge and had Strawberry Parfaits for dessert. It was so nice to spend time with them!
We also ate (twice!) at our favorite restaurant in Southport, Provision Company, and visited on Kay and Robert Creech’s front porch two nights. Ronda and Bob from Hawkins Landing were also at the marina and joined us on the porch. We also took an entertaining golf cart tour of Southport with Ronda and Bob. Several movies have been filmed in this quaint town and the historic homes are beautiful!
This was another new stop for us but one we would not choose to stop at again unless we needed to. The marina is across the ICW from Barefoot Landing which is a large complex of shops and restaurants geared toward “the tourists”! We did walk over the bridge to eat and look at the shops but there was nothing noteworthy about it, in our opinion. We did see Lynnae and Jerry pass by on their way to another marina.
This was another overnight stop for us. Lynnae and Jerry on Troublesome Phoenix were also at the marina and we enjoyed talking with them at the marina restaurant. They have traveled to the same places we will go in Spain and Portugal on our trip in September so we enjoyed hearing about their trip.
Georgetown, the oldest city in South Carolina, was a favorite stop last year and did not disappoint this year. This is where our favorite bakery, Indigo, is located. The bakery is owned by a charming couple from California who met online and later married and fulfilled her lifelong dream of owning her own bakery. Their pastries are amazing! They also hope to do the Loop one day!
One thing that we were not able to do last year was visit the Kaminski House which was built in 1769 by Paul Trapier and later purchased by the Kaminski family in 1931. Harold Kaminski was the son of Heiman Kaminski, one of Georgetown’s most affluent merchants in the late 1800’s. Harold also served as mayor of Georgetown. His wife, Julia, willed the home and its furnishings to the city upon her death in honor of her husband.
We met three Looper couples at the marina which is a rarity these days as most Loopers are much further north by now. Ronda and Bob are on Hawkins Landing and Lynnae and Jerry are on Troublesome Phoenix. We would go on to see them a few more times up until Baltimore. We also briefly met Mary and John on Walrus.
Since we spent so much time in Charleston last year, this was just an overnight stop for us this year. We met two lovely couples (non-Loopers) at the marina and enjoyed talking with them. One couple was from Tampa and had sold their home and become “liveaboards” and were traveling but not doing the Loop. The other couple was from Australia and had sailed on their Catamaran from England!
We enjoyed visiting Beaufort, SC last year and were happy to return again this year. The highlight of our visit this year was visiting with our friend, Beth Hawks, who used to do Public Relations work for Blueprint RF and has since moved to Beaufort. She gave us wonderful tour of the beautiful homes around Beaufort and then treated us to a delicious dinner. We so enjoyed our time with her!
We also celebrated Kevin’s birthday while in Beaufort!
We had not stopped in Savannah on our first time around and decided to stay just outside Savannah at Isle of Hope this time. We were excited to see that our friends, Caroline and Todd, from Sunset Dreams were docked there although we were only able to have a brief conversation with them as their daughter was graduating from SCAD that weekend and then they were heading back to St. Petersburg. Besides Darci and Steve, who started our incredible journey with us, Caroline and Todd are the Loopers we have known the longest as we first met them in January, 2022 in Key West and ran into them many times along the Loop.
We visited the tabby ruins of Wormsloe Plantation, the colonial estate of Noble Jones (1702-1775). We first learned about Nobel Jones during our visit to Fort Frederica in St. Simons, GA. He arrived in GA in 1733 with James Oglethorpe and established the colony at Fort Frederica among many other accomplishments. We thoroughly enjoyed walking around the beautiful nature trails and visiting before reaching Colonial Life Area.
The marina had two loaner cars so we were able to drive to Savannah where we visited River Street and enjoyed tasty beignets from Huey’s and rode the Hop On Hop Off Trolly around the city. We enjoyed seeing the Mercer-Williams house made famous in the novel “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”. Once we left Savannah and began cruising to Beaufort, SC, we listed to the audible version of the book since Kevin had not read the book and we had seen so many of the places mentioned in the book.
It was nice to be back on the boat after an extended time home celebrating birthdays and Ellen’s niece’s wedding. Sunbury Crab Company was a new stop for us and we enjoyed the beautiful, peaceful setting and the wonderful restaurant.
We passed by Fort Clinch and the Cumberland Island Lighthouse on our way to Brunswick from Fernandina.
We will keep the boat in Brunswick until at least June 1 while we decide what are plans are going forward.
We visited Fort Frederica National Monument on St. Simons Island as well as the St. Simons Lighthouse and Keepers House.
The Fort Frederica National Monument contains the ruins of the fort and a British settlement built in 1736. The settlement was built by the early settlers of the Colony of Georgia under General Oglethorpe. All that remains of the settlement are the foundations of many of the homes but it was very interesting to see how the colony was laid out and read about the people who lived there.
The St. Simons Lighthouse was completed in 1872 replacing an earlier light station, built in 1807, that was destroyed during the Civil War. The Keepers Home, also built in 1872, was used until the 1950’s when the light was automated. The light continues to be an Active Aid to Navigation maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary.
Fernandina was another favorite stop on our first time through Florida. Once again, we enjoyed walking around the quaint downtown area. We also walked a couple of miles to the Amelia Island Lighthouse. We knew that the lighthouse was only open for tours for three hours on Saturdays (this was on a Sunday) but thought we’d be able to walk around the property. We were, however, only able to get a glimpse of it as there was a locked gate to the entrance. One of the things we were not able to do on our first trip was visit Fort Clinch State Park so we rented a golf cart in order to visit the park this time and also did our own driving tour of the historical houses in Fernandina and rode around Amelia Island. Some of the many houses we saw are shown below.
Fort Clinch was amazing! The first fortifications on the site began in 1736 but construction as we see it today began in 1847. Although it was never fully completed or used in direct combat, it served as a military post during the Civil War, the Spanish American War and World War II. It became one of Florida’s first state parks in 1935 but was used again during World War II and then given back to the state.
Blue Spring State Park is home to hundreds of manatee in the winter months, typically from mid-November until mid-March, who are escaping the cold waters and enjoying the 73-degree spring. We had hoped to make it to the beautiful clear waters of the spring to see the manatee but learned we had missed the last of them by a week or so and the manatee count was “0” the day we visited the spring. According to the park, a record 729 manatees were counted this year! We did spot several manatee heading south as we were making our way north to the St. Johns River but it would have been fun to see the mass numbers in the spring. Even though there were no manatee when we visited, the park was still breathtakingly beautiful!
Ravine Gardens State Park, in Palatka, FL, has two ravines up to 120 feet deep with steep banks at 45-degree angles. We just missed the peak azalea season but we chose to hike the Azalea Trail which winds through the ravine system of the park and experience more of the natural beauty of the gardens. It was challenging at times but very much worth the effort!
Cumberland Island National Seashore is the largest and southernmost barrier island off the coast of Georgia and is only accessible by boat or small plane. While we could have anchored nearby and taken our dingy to the island, we decided to take the ferry from St. Mary’s since we still had a rental car. We spent two days on Cumberland Island. The first day, we took a 5 hour guided Land & Legacy Tour which was fantastic and we went back the next day to explore more of the island on our own and visit the beach. We especially enjoyed walking through the maritime forest. During the tour, we had a picnic lunch on the grounds of the beautiful Plum Orchard Mansion. There are about 150 feral horses roaming about the island.
The Settlement is the name of the northern end of the island that was settled by former slaves in the early 1890’s. Primus Mitchell was born into slavery on the island and he and his wife lived on Robert Stafford’s plantation, the largest plantation on the island prior to the Civil War, until they were freed by Union forces in 1862. The First African Baptist Church was established by Primus Mitchell in 1893 and was originally housed in a log cabin and also used as a courthouse and a school. Mitchell’s granddaughter, Beulah Alberty, built a new church in 1937 which is the church where John F. Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette married in 1996. Beulah was the last resident of the Settlement and came to be known as the Settlement Mayor.
Plum Orchard is one of four mansions on the island built for the children of Thomas and Lucy Carnegie. Construction of the Plum Orchard mansion began in 1898 as a wedding gift for George Lauder Carnegie and Margaret Thaw. Several additions were made over the next twenty years when the home totaled 22,000 square feet. The mansion was the couple’s winter home until 1921 when George Carnegie passed away. Many of the home’s original furnishings were eventually auctioned off and most of what remains in the house is from Dungeness prior to the fire that destroyed it in 1959.
The Tabby House is the oldest standing structure on the island and dates back to around 1800. The house was built by Nathaniel Greene’s widow and her second husband, Phones Miller, possibly as temporary housing while the first Dungeness mansion was being built.
The second Dungeness mansion was built in the mid-1880’s by Thomas and Lucy Carnegie. It stood on the same location as the previous Dungeness mansion which burned in 1866. The Carnegie mansion had 37,000 square feet and was estimated to have cost $200,000 to build. After being abandoned in 1924, it burned in 1959.
We had originally hoped to travel all the way to Sanford, FL which is about as far south that a boat our size can travel on the river but we were not able to get in the marina there as they are still recovering from hurricane Ian and had relocated a lot of boats to the marina. There were a few other places we wanted to visit but, after being told by a couple of other marinas along the way that the water was too low for us to get in, we decided to head back north and explore these areas by car. We debated continuing on and anchoring and using our dinghy to get to shore but ultimately decided that we did not want to leave the boat at anchor while we were not there.
We had a wonderful dinner at Velchoff’s Corner and breakfast the next day at Angel’s Dining Car. Angel’s is Florida’s oldest diner. It was built in an old railroad car and has been open since 1932. Curb service is also available.
It was a beautiful day for cruising on the river and we enjoyed a peaceful night at anchor. This was the first night that we noticed Venus and Jupiter in the night sky and we would then enjoy spotting them every night.
We decided to go somewhat off the beaten path and take a side trip up the St. John’s River and back. The St. John’s River is the longest river in Florida and one of only a few rivers that flow from South to North.
Once we left Ortega Landing, we had to be diligent about watching out for crab pots. With the sun shining in the water directly in front of us and the fact that the crab pots were black, they were not always clearly visible but we managed to dodge all of them!
Along the way we passed the massive Jacksonville Naval Air Station at Piney Point. The primary activities at this base are anti submarine warfare training, helicopter training and P3 Orion (four engine turboprop anti submarine patrol plane) operations.
Green Cove Springs Marina, which is just south of the City Pier where we docked, occupies two of eleven 1,000′ piers of a former WWII era naval base.
Green Cove Springs is home to St. Brendan’s Isle mail forwarding service, a popular service that many Loopers, including Kevin, use.
Spring Park overlooks the river and leads to the spring. The spring water is discharged into a 50′ by 100′ swimming pool and then flows about 450′ to the St. Johns River. About 1,346 gallons of water per minute constantly flow and cycle from the spring so chlorine is never needed in the swimming pool and the temperature is 77 degrees. The spring has a depth of about 30 feet and has a cave opening into a big cavern with depths of 120 feet.
Port 32 at Ortega Landing was a great place to provision and get our laundry done before venturing up the St. John’s River.
As we had spent so much time in St. Augustine last year, we decided to only stay one night this trip. This time we stayed at the municipal marina which is located on the south side of the Bridge of Lions and right in downtown St. Augustine. Stuart and Rod from Sea Turtle were also at the marina and we went to dinner with them at Columbia Restaurant, a Spanish/Cuban restaurant. The original restaurant opened in Tampa in 1903 as Columbia Saloon and became Columbia Restaurant in 1905 and there are now seven locations which are still run by the same family.
It was quite foggy on our journey to Palm Coast but, once the fog lifted, we saw several dolphin swimming in our wake.
Palm Coast was a new stop for us. It is a beautiful area but not a lot to do within walking distance of the marina other than a European Village with shops and restaurants which had condos above them. We had a delicious pizza at Mezzaluna Pizza.
Of all the “no wake manatee zones” we have been through the last several years we don’t think we’ve ever actually seen a manatee in these zones! But that certainly changed on our trip to New Smyrna Beach! We first started spotting them in the Haulover Canal north of Titusville and estimate we saw upwards of 30 manatee from there to New Smyrna Beach. They are heading back south after migrating to warmer waters for the winter. We are headed to Blue Springs State Park on the St. John’s River which is a popular spot where hundreds of Manatee choose to winter. We are hoping that some will still be there when we get there in a week but are beginning to doubt that after hearing the dock master here tell us that he was there a week ago and saw around 60 of these beautiful gentle giants.
We were excited to revisit New Smyrna Beach as we only had one full day there last year so we decided to stay several days this time around. We had a great time visiting Canaveral National Park! It was so beautiful! The park is situated on a barrier island which is the longest stretch of undeveloped Atlantic Coastline in Florida and covers 58,000 acres with 24 miles of pristine beaches. We walked around the Turtle Mound National Historic Site which is the largest shell midden on the mainland U.S. This turtle-shaped mound contains oyster shells and refuse from the prehistoric Timucuan people and extends 600 feet and along the Indian River shoreline. It was constructed between 800 and 1,400 A.D. but recent radiocarbon testing dates it at around 1,000 B.C. Archeologists have recently found 1,200-year-old pottery on the site. It is estimated that the mound was originally 75 feet high but it is now 40 feet high as a result of shell rock mining in the 19th and 20th centuries. It was difficult to get a good photo capturing the sheer size of the mound as it is now covered with trees but we were able to walk a boardwalk surrounding and up to the top of the mound.
We then visited the Eldora State House was built in 1913 and is the only house that remains in the Park. The small citrus farming and fishing community of Eldora was established around 1876.
Finally, we headed to visit one of the beautiful beaches. We were shocked to learn that one of the beaches was a nude beach – in a National Park! This is because the nude beach was already established prior to the National Park’s establishment in 1975. The beach was beautiful and it was so nice to visit a beach without any nearby hotels, restaurants or condos and see it much the same as it was thousands of years ago.
After leaving Canaveral National Park, our next stop was to visit the New Smyrna Sugar Mill Ruins. Once part of the Cruger-de Peyster Plantation, the steam-operated sugar cane mill and saw mill were built in 1830. The 17-acre site contains the ruins of the coquina sugar factory that was raided by the Seminole Indians in 1835.
We ate at several good restaurants while we were in New Smyrna Beach but were glad we were able to return to Riverpark Terrace which we had enjoyed so much on our first trip here.
We also enjoyed meeting new friends, Stuart and Rod, on Sea Turtle who are from the Birmingham area and have recently started their Loop adventure.
Cocoa Village was another town that we enjoyed visiting our first time around but we chose to only stay one night this time around. We enjoyed walking around the historic village and had dinner at the wonderful Italian restaurant, Villa Palma, where we had eaten during our first visit here. We did not mention Travis Hardware in our original post. Travis Hardware was founded in 1885 and is the oldest continuously operating business in Cocoa and one of the oldest hardware stores in Florida. This store has survived two world wars as well as numerous hurricanes and financial busts. The building was completed in 1891 and purchased by Colonel S.F. Travis in 1902 who added a second building in 1907.
Vero Beach was a favorite stop on our first time around and did not disappoint this time. We can certainly understand why it is nicknamed “Velcro Beach” since so many people do not want to leave. We had a nice dinner at the Riverside Cafe and had a wonderful walk on the beach the next day. The walk to the town and the beach from the marina takes you through beautiful Live Oak-lined streets. The trees make a canopy over the streets and most of the houses have Live Oaks with limbs reaching and bending in all directions. It is truly spectacular!
Docked in the slip next to us were Christine and Joe on Sabbatical. They completed their Loop a year ago and are still traveling! They invited us to go to dinner with them and we had a great time getting to know them!
We enjoyed watching dolphins swimming in our wake on our way to Fort Pierce. Fort Pierce is a city that we did not visit last year on our way north and we really enjoyed our visit. A special treat was running into Scott and Karen Duval from Capable Cruising. We had just sat down to dinner one evening as they were coming in the restaurant so we invited them to join us. They had stayed on our boat for a couple of days a few months before we started the Loop, mainly to help boost Ellen’s confidence level with what would be required of her once we were on our way. Karen was especially helpful to Ellen teaching her things like knots, lassoing and anchoring skills. It was so nice to see them again and catch up with each other!
Another treat was visiting the National Navy SEAL Museum. Fort Pierce is where it all started when the Navy SEAL predecessors, the Navy Frogmen, were trained during WWII. This is an excellent museum with fascinating artifacts and exhibits displaying the history of Naval Special Warfare from the beaches of Normandy, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam era up to the Global War on Terror with the fall of the twin towers and the capture of Osama Bin Laden. In addition to several watercraft displayed on the grounds, there is a complete SEAL obstacle course (which we did not attempt to complete!). We were able to dress up and hold weapons (they were so heavy!) and sit in a Black Hawk helicopter.
We had been told when we arrived at the marina the day before that there was a fishing tournament the next day and that we would not be able to leave until after 8:00AM once all of the fishing boats had cleared the area. What we weren’t told is that we would be awakened at 4:30AM by the loud speaker just outside of our boat as directions were being given to the fisherman and music was being played! It was quite a site to watch all of the 150-200 boats preparing for their departure!
Once all of the fishing boats had cleared the lock, we were able to get through before the lock master closed the gates. We had thought we were going to have to dodge all of those fishing boats for a while but most had gone either east or west of the lock and we went straight in order to cross Lake Okeechobee.
We locked through two more locks after we crossed the lake before arriving in Stuart.
In the meantime, we have decided not to try to go to the Bahamas as we had planned. The weather does not look promising for the crossing for the foreseeable future and, since we need to be back in Atlanta the beginning of April, we decided it would be better to try and go next year when we would be able to spend more time cruising the islands. Since we had just completed five straight days of travel, we decided to stay in Stuart for several days before making our way north.
There is a wonderful restaurant at the marina, Sailor’s Return, where we had dinner our first night in Stuart. We walked along the boardwalk the following day which took us to downtown Stuart where we had lunch and walked around the town. We went back that evening for sushi and ice cream!
Another “small world moment”! Ellen was relaxing in the boat when Kevin came in and said, “Come meet our neighbor, literally.” The man that had just pulled in to the slip next to us lives on the same street as us in Atlanta! He is not technically on our street as the street is separated by a creek and a golf course so it is the same street name but different neighborhoods.
We walked to town to a Farmer’s Market then had a late breakfast and learned there was also an Arts Festival.
We ran into (not literally!) Jenn and Elliot on Pivot at the Ortona Lock. We had first met this sweet couple in Little Falls, NY and they used to live within a mile of us in Atlanta before starting their Loop. They have a wonderful blog and YouTube channel, Scho & Jo, which documents their Loop. They will cross their wake in Stuart and then head to the Keys for a couple of months before starting their next adventure of touring the National Parks in a Sprinter van!
Before reaching Roland Martin Marina, we had to transit one additional lock which is not part of the actual waterway, the Clewiston Lock. After all the locks we have locked through, this was the most challenging as we got sideways in the lock before we were able to grab the lines due to the wind. We managed to get back in position before the gates closed but it was a little stressful for The Captain with two small bass boats also in the lock with us!
We were docked in front of Scotty’s Tiki Bar and had a wonderful dinner there.
We are now beginning our journey across the Okeechobee Waterway which will take us to the east coast of Florida without having to go down to and around the Keys. The Okeechobee Waterway is 154 miles long from the Gulf of Mexico at Fort Myers to the Atlantic Ocean at Stuart. The waterway was built in 1937 and there are 5 locks, three on the west side of Lake Okeechobee and two on the east side of the lake. Lake Okeechobee, which means “big water” in the Seminole Indian language, is the second-largest natural freshwater lake contained entirely within contiguous US with Lake Michigan being the largest.
As we passed by Fort Myers we could see what was left of the marinas which were so devastated by Hurricane Ian. Most of the boats that were destroyed have been removed but some still remain either half sunken in the water or on land where they were deposited by the surge. Most of the docks are gone.
We passed a fellow Looper who sent us a photo of Perfect Match:
The Port Labelle Marina is such a beautiful and peaceful setting with extremely friendly staff. We enjoyed the serenity by reading as we waited for our laundry to be done and later took a taxi to the LaBelle Brewing Company for a delicious dinner.
Proudly flying our new gold burgee!
Since it was a nice day, we decided to travel on the outside for our run to Cape Coral. We had cruised this area several times before starting the Loop and this would allow us to alleviate having to slow down for numerous no wake zones and waiting for bridge openings.
We had stayed at Tarpon Point Marina on our way down to the Keys last year but it was quite different this time due to remains from Hurricane Ian. The main basin of the marina was still closed so we stayed on a dock outside of the basin with no power or electricity.
We had a nice dinner at Pinchers Restaurant and enjoyed the beautiful views of the moon from our boat.
PERFECT MATCH HAS CROSSED HER WAKE!
While we did not stop in St. Petersburg, where we started this epic adventure, we did take a photo as we crossed our wake there (completed the Loop):
Once docked in Sarasota, we opened a bottle of champagne and swapped our white AGLCA burgee for a gold one and, just like that, we went from being “Loopers” to being “Gold Loopers”!
Misty and Darrel had made dinner reservations for us at the marina dining room and sent a gift card for us to celebrate our crossing in style! We enjoyed a wonderful Calamari appetizer, salads, and delicious filets along with a bottle of wine. Boy, do we miss those two!
Some statistics from our trip up to our wake crossing:
After waiting for a weather window in Carrabelle for 12 days, the time finally came for us to make our Gulf Crossing! We left Carrabelle at 1:30PM and arrived in Clearwater at 12:30PM the following day. We made the crossing with four other boats, Out of the Blue, Aries, Two by Two and GoGo. It was foggy the entire way except for about the last three hours so we couldn’t actually see our buddy boats other than on radar and AIS and, of course, we had radio contact with them. Visibility was only a couple of hundred yards in front of the boat. Around 9:00AM, the fog dissipated just in time for us to start watching for the crab pots as we neared Clearwater. It was definitely worth the wait in Carrabelle for nearly perfect conditions for a peaceful and “no drama” crossing! We did, however, miss the sunset, sunrise, moon and stars!
Kevin’s cousin, Jerry, lives in Clearwater and we enjoyed having dinner with Jerry, his daughter, Sarah, and her husband, Vinny, at The Bait House. Kevin and Jerry had not seen each other for about ten years and had a great time catching up with each other!
Jerry picked us up the next day and gave us a tour of Dunedin. We really liked this charming little town!
After our tour of Dunedin, Jerry took us to Tarpon Springs, the “Sponge Capitol of the World”. We visited the Greek area known as The Sponge Docks and had dinner at Hellas Greek Restaurant. After dinner, we rode the Jolly Trolly to downtown Tarpon Springs for First Friday, a monthly art, food and music festival covering several blocks. We took the Jolly Trolly back to Clearwater and walked to a liquor store to purchase our celebratory bottle of champagne as we would cross our wake the next day!
The sponge industry in Tarpon Springs dates from about 1890. The practice of sponge diving was very common in Greece and many Greeks immigrated to Tarpon Springs and opened restaurants, candy stores, coffee houses, taverns and grocery stores.
It was a nice, short trip from Apalachicola to Carrabelle where we will wait until the weather is favorable for our overnight Gulf crossing.
Carrabelle is home to the world’s smallest police station! In 1953, the phone company installed a phone in call box to the side of a building so that the two man police force could answer calls while patrolling the streets but they had issues with people making unauthorized long distance calls from the phone as well as vandalism. In 1963, the phone booth was moved to its current location where the officers could sit in their patrol cars and do paperwork and listen for the phone while watching for speeders and suspicious characters. They still had problems with unauthorized long distance calls being made and eventually removed the dial from the phone so that calls could be received but not made and it served the police of Carrabelle for decades.
We visited the Carrabelle History Museum, located in the Old Carrabelle City Hall, which was packed with history of this little town. One of the items was the original phone, a Western Electric Circa 1948, from the World’s Smallest Police Station.
The Carrabelle Bottle House was started in 2012 by Leon Weisner. Weisner traveled the world being an artist for the Miss Universe pageant. We visited the property during the day but later learned that the lighthouse and the house are lit up at night which would have been nice to see. We also did not know that we could have gone inside the house!
We have had several “it’s a small world” moments on our trip but this one takes the cake: Lynne and Earle live in Vinings and their daughter is dating a man that lives ACROSS THE STREET from us in Atlanta in the former home of a very dear friend of Ellen’s aunt!
Apalachicola Marina is simply a 150′ face dock in front of the old Apalachicola Ice Company but it is right in the heart of charming downtown Apalachicola.
Across the street was a wonderful breakfast “food truck”, Baked Apalach, driven by non other than Matthew McConaughey! We got biscuits there both mornings and the were delicious!
We had an amazing dinner at The Owl Cafe and ran into a couple we had first met in Little Falls, NY whose boat is named Blue Merle.
We had hoped to tour the Orman House but it was closed for preservation. Thomas Orman was a cotton merchant and was instrumental in making Apalachicola the third largest cotton shipping port on the Gulf Coast during the mid-19th century. The antebellum home was built in 1838 and the wood for this house was cut to measure in New York and shipped to Apalachicola via a sailing vessel which went around the Florida Keys.
We were able to tour the Raney House, also built in 1838. David Raney also made his fortune in the cotton trade and served two terms as mayor. He and his wife raised eight children in the home. Their bedroom was on the third floor which was closed.
In the late 1800’s sponges were Apalachicola’s most lucrative fishery. Sponges were taken to the Sponge Exchange and auctioned to dealers who later shipped them to St. Louis, Baltimore, San Francisco and New York. Today, there is only one dealer in Apalachicola. Below is a photo of one of two original sponge warehouses in Apalachicola, built in 1840 and restored in the 1990’s.
We had a nice dinner at Half Shell Dockside our second night in Apalachicola.
We enjoyed our trip from Destin to Panama City and arrived to find several Loopers already at Bay Pointe Marina. As we are nearing Carrabelle, the location from which we will start our overnight Gulf crossing, everyone is scouring the weather apps for a good weather window for the roughly 20 hour trip across the Gulf. There may be an opportunity to cross around the 28th but it may be the beginning of February before it is advisable to make the crossing. While some had planned to wait it out in Panama City, we decided to go on to Apalachicola for a couple of days and then wait it out in Carrabelle. We learned that there are usually only about 5 to 10 good travel days for the Gulf crossing during each of the months from November to February when most Loopers make the crossing, or only 25-32 good crossing days over the four month period. Many things must be taken into consideration, most importantly, wave height and wind speed.
It was nice to be back on the water after a wonderful trip home! The boat was not ready when we had planned to be back so we stayed in Atlanta an additional two weeks but she sure did look pretty after her detail and bottom paint job!
Perfect Match wasn’t the only thing that was put back in the water. The Lady in the Bay was also reinstalled at her home in the water while we were home.
We were anxious to get moving once we got the boat back in the water but decided to stay an extra day at Barber marine in order to get more settled and organized. It was a nice trip to Destin and, thankfully, everything came back to us after our extended time away from the boat. We did not do anything in Destin other than enjoy a wonderful dinner at Grand Vista Bar & Grill.
Today was just a short trip to get to the marina where the boat will be pulled out while we travel home for the holidays. While out of the water, the bottom will be painted, boat detailed and minor maintenance completed.
Barber Marina was built by billionaire businessman, race car driver, real estate developer and philanthropist, George Barber. Barber Marina has several whimsical attractions situated among the several thousand acres where the marina is located.
Bamahenge is partial replica of England’s Stonehenge. The structure is made of fiberglass. While it is not a complete replica of the 50+ stones at Stonehenge, it does have the same astrological alignment of Stonehenge which is thought to have been constructed between 3000 and 2000 BC.
Once Perfect Match was hauled out, she was placed on blocks and situated next to the Lady in the Bay. The Lady in the Bay is another fiberglass structure that was situated in the water at the marina before being nearly destroyed by Hurricane Sally. She had just returned to the marina after extensive renovation by her creator, Mark Cline, and was waiting to be placed back in the water. If the woman were a full standing figure, she would be taller than the Statue of Liberty!
There are also four dinosaurs, also created by Cline, on the grounds of the marina but, apparently, we only took photos of three of them – the fourth one must have been hiding deeper in the woods.
We also took a path and found several life-sized copper knights:
There were many other structures scattered about the property including a fountain influenced by the Neptune Fountain in Rome, a giant steel spider, an alligator, a giant sundial and more.
We are off to Birmingham and Atlanta for fun times with family and friends over the holidays! Kevin will also be in Columbus, OH for Thanksgiving. We will be back in January!
Shortly after we had docked at the marina, Kevin flew to Atlanta for the weekend in order to bring his car back to Gulf Shores. We will be here for a week and then will have the boat pulled out to have some work done. We will drive home and come back after the holidays to finish our Loop and cross our wake! It is hard to believe it has almost been a year that we have been living on the boat!
Our friends Kay and Don from Neverland invited us to docktails at The Wharf Marina which is just a few miles from the marina where we are staying. There were several couples there and we all had a great time! We had met one of the couples back in February in Marathon and never met up with them again until now. They had just crossed their wake the day before and there was another couple who were just starting their Loop the next day!
The Wharf is a huge complex with a lot of condos, restaurants and shopping in addition to a beautiful marina. When we arrived, one of the parking areas was filled with kids “trunk or treating” and by the time we left a few hours later it had turned into quite a block party.
We drove to Mobile each of the next three days for some sightseeing.
The Bragg-Mitchell House, built in 1855, is a 13,000 square foot Antebellum mansion surrounded by magnificent live oak trees that are over a century old. Only four families have owned the home since the Bragg family. The last family to own the home was the Mitchell family who purchased the home in 1931 for $20,000. The Mitchells restored the home and lived there until 1965. The Mitchell foundation donated it to the Explore Center in the late 1970’s. Photographs were not allowed to be taken of the interior which was beautifully decorated.
We toured the History Museum of Mobile which is located in the 1857 Old City Hall building. In addition to learning about the history of Mobile, we saw quite an impressive collection of miniature houses built by a man named Aaron Friedman. Friedman and his wife had four sons who fathered eleven grandchildren, including eight granddaughters. After Friedman retired, he built eight miniature houses, one for each of his granddaughters and one for his wife (two of the granddaughters were twins so he built a larger house for the two of them). The miniatures are modeled after actual houses and one of them was modeled after a house in Atlanta! The scale of the miniature houses is 1 inch to 1 foot so they are not as “miniature” as one would think. The miniature modeled after the Atlanta home is 6 feet long! Some of the many fascinating features included in the houses are: real Italian marble, hand laid oven-fired tile, needlework rugs, curtains, cushions and bedspreads made by Friedman’s wife and a friend, stucco walls, and hand casted stones made of plaster and sand. Each of the houses features a painting of the granddaughter for whom it was made. Our pictures of the miniatures did not turn out great due to the glare from the lights and the sun shinning through the windows but they can be viewed online.
Getting to and from Mobile from the eastern shore of Mobile Bay requires either taking a ferry or via an underwater tunnel which is 40′ below the surface of the bay.
Once we were back at the marina after our first day in Mobile, we noticed that our friends Caroline and Todd from Sunset Dreams had arrived. We met them for a drink at LuLu’s (Jimmy Buffet’s “Crazy Sista”) which is located in front of the marina where we are staying. We first met Caroline and Todd in Key West and have run into them several times since and always enjoy their company!
Back in Mobile the following day, we visited Bellingrath Gardens and the Oakleigh House.
Before discussing the spectacular Bellingragth Gardens, a very brief history of Coca-Cola and its relation to Belingrath: First invented by pharmacist John Pemberton of Columbus, GA in 1885, the drink was called Pemberton’s French Wine and was first sold at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta. Pemberton claimed “it cured morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headache and impotence”. In 1887, he sold the formula to another druggist, Asa Candler, who modified the formula. By 1890, Coca-Cola had become America’s most popular soft drink and soon Candler began selling rights to bottle the product on a franchise basis. Walter Belingrath took over ownership of the Mobile Coca-Cola Bottling Company in 1903. He began business with one mule, a wagon, an assistant and a hand-and-foot powered bottling machine. He and his assistant would bottle the Cokes and then drive the wagon around the city selling the drinks to local businesses and later retrieve the bottles, wash them by hand and refill them for the next day’s delivery. Three years later, Bellingrath married his secretary, Bessie Morse. Fast forward to 1948 when the Mobile plant is one of the most successful bottling plants in the country and Bellingrath is inducted into the “Half Million Gallon Club” for his plant having used a half million gallons of syrup in a year’s time. He would be inducted into the “Million Gallon Club” in 1970. In his first year of operation, Bellingrath only used 365 gallons of syrup.
In 1917, Walter purchased a rustic fishing camp on the Fowl River and named it Bellcamp. Bessie later got the idea to turn the Bellcamp into a country estate with beautiful gardens such as she had seen on a trip to England. In April, 1932, the Bellingraths invited the public to visit the gardens that they had created and an astonishing 4,700 people showed up to see the beautiful gardens. The couple decided to open their gardens to the public and charge a small fee to control crowds and cover the upkeep of the gardens. They later built their home on the property in 1935 all the while still welcoming guests to the property. Today the home is filled with all of the original furnishings and collectables just as it was when the Bellingraths lived there.
The Oakleigh House was built in 1833 on 35 acres by a brick mason, dry goods merchant and cotton broker named James Roper.
On our final day in Mobile, we visited the World War II battleship USS Alabama, submarine USS Drum and the Conde Charlotte House.
The Conde Charlotte House was built in the 1820’s with the portico added in the 1840’s. It was originally the courthouse and jail until it was purchased by Jonathan Kirkbride in 1849 to be his family home. Each of the rooms in the house is decorated to depict a distinct portion of Mobile’s History from the 1760’s to the mid-1800’s.
We spent the rest of our week in Gulf Shores relaxing and getting ready for our trip home for the holidays. We will be back in January for the completion of our Loop!
We are now off the rivers and back in saltwater and tides. It has been quite a while since we have encountered rough seas but crossing Mobile Bay was a little rough due to the high winds. We had a little rain on our trip which we also have not seen in quite a while!
We had a delicious dinner at Wok by d’Bay in Fairhope:
Included in our “welcome folder” from the marina was a recipe for Swamp Soup which is a popular dish around this area.
The following day, we had a wonderful breakfast at Warehouse Bakery & Donuts:
Next, we spent several hours walking around downtown Fairhope and visiting the Fairhope Museum of History and the Fairhope Storybook Castles.
Fairhope Pharmacy was built in 1916 and has been a pharmacy ever since. It is one of the oldest pharmacies in Alabama.
The Farihope Museum of History is a great museum! It is located in a 1928 Spanish mission-style building which served as City Hall and the Fairhope Police Department from 1928 until 2002.
Also inside the museum was the old town jail. The white stucco wall was originally the back wall of the building in 1928. The two jail cells contain the original iron bars and riveted walls which came out of a ship. The jail cells were still in use in 2002 and the graffiti was left by the prisoners.
Dean Mosher is a renowned artist who resides in Farihope in his hand-built home and studio, Mosher Castle (see below). Some of his paintings are included in places such as the Naval Academy in Annapolis, The Smithsonian (“Wilbur Wright Greets Lady Liberty”) and several National Park Visitors Centers among other places as well as in many books.
Fairhope’s “Storybook Castles” consist of Sheldon Castle, Mosher Castle and Boom Castle.
Sheldon Castle was hand-built in 1946 by Dean Mosher’s father-in-law, Craig Sheldon who is memorialized in the bronze statue posted above. Notice the patchwork-quilt design of the roof. Sheldon would bring home materials that were left over from construction jobs where he worked. The tower was built in the 1950’s for his children’s rooms and his office. The house was built of Clay City tile covered with Mobile Bay stone. Sheldon embellished the stone with items such as old tools, Civil War shrapnel, cookware and bottles.
Mosher Castle was hand-built by Dean Mosher, Sheldon’s son-in-law. Construction began in 1983 and is ongoing. Many of the features found in Sheldon’s castle appear in Mosher Castle as well. The stones of Mosher Castle are embedded with glass and pottery as well as objects from around the world, including the Great Wall of China and the Berlin Wall.
Boom Castle was completed in 2020. Long-time friends of the Sheldon-Mother families, Glenn and Sally Boom, purchased the land adjacent to Mosher Castle. Mosher designed Boom Castle and did much of the exterior trim and stonework.
We had dinner at Sunset Point which was right in front of where we were docked.
After dinner, we drove over to the Farihope Yacht Club where Summer Place was docked and had a glass of wine with Tracy and Joel. They left the next day and we stayed another day in Fairhope.
We started our final day in Farihope with amazing homemade beignets from Paninin Pete’s located in the French Quarter of downtown Fairhope.
Tolstoy Park, also known as the Henry Stuart House or Hermit House – In 1923, Henry Stuart was diagnosed with tuberculosis and told he had only a few months to live. He moved from Nampa, Idaho to Fairhope after his doctor advised him to move to a better climate to live out his final days. He purchased 10 wooded acres and built Tolstoy Park, a one-room round house which measures only 14 feet wide, is sunk 2 feet into the ground (to maintain a fairly constant temperature) and is made of bricks and hand-made concrete blocks. Stuart used a ladder to access his “bed”, a rope-strung hammock high above floor level. After being told that he had only a few months to live, Stuart ended up living another 22 years! Stuart is the inspiration for the fact-based historical fiction novel, “The Poet of Tolstoy Park”, published in 2005. The author of the novel, Fairhope resident Sonny Brewer, actually wrote much of the novel inside the hut. It is believed Stuart named his hut “Tolstoy Park” because his favorite Russian author, Leo Tolstoy, was a hermit in the years before his death. Stuart was known as the Hermit of Montrose, the name of the area that is now Fairhope, although he really wasn’t a hermit. He welcomed many visitors to his home and became a fixture in the community, teaching and inspiring others. The home is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is actually in the parking lot of an office complex which was later built around the hut.
The Grand Hotel, the “Queen of Southern Resorts”, originally opened in 1847 as a two-story building with 40 rooms. In 1864, it served as a hospital for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War and hosted key training operations during World War II. Every day, the Grand Hotel honors its wartime history with a canon firing on the edge of Mobile Bay. The hotel was renovated and added on to several times and was eventually sold to Marriott International in the 1980’s and now has over 400 rooms across five buildings covering 550 acres.
We enjoyed walking the beautiful trail around the grounds of the hotel and along the banks of Mobile Bay. We had planned to have lunch about a mile and a half down the street at Wash House Restaurant and discovered a wonderful walking trail in-between magnificent homes and their docks on Mobile Bay which led us to the restaurant. Once we got to the restaurant, we learned that it was only open for dinner so we walked back to the hotel where our rental car was parked.
We later stopped for lunch at Fish River Grill, a “Funky Junky Redneck Joint”. The restaurant offers patrons a sample of Swamp Soup. We were delighted to taste a sample of this soup since the marina where we are staying had provided us with a recipe for Swamp Soup. We will definitely be making this soup soon – it was delicious!
We were up early to meet the three boats that docked at Bobby’s Fish Camp so we could all lock through Coffeeville Lock together. This is our last lock on our Loop. It’s hard to believe we are so close to completing our grand adventure!
Bobby’s Fish Camp, located halfway between Demopolis and Mobile, has been a traditional stop for Loopers. It opened as a restaurant in 1956 to serve local river traffic but when the Tenn-Tom opened in 1985, traffic increased to include larger recreational vessels. Since some boats are not able to cover the distance without refueling, the Demopolis Yacht Basin asked Booby’s to add a fueling station. The restaurant reportedly had the best catfish dinner but is now permanently closed. Since we did not need to take on more fuel and there was nothing else to see or do around there, we had opted to anchor rather than tying up at the old, rickety docks but many Loopers do still decide to tie up there overnight.
Spotting alligators has become more common lately than spotting Bald Eagles. Kevin has become a master at spotting both and will radio to the boats behind us to let them know when he spots something. On this journey, we saw eight alligators and two deer. One of the deer was swimming in the river!
The Tensaw River Anchorage was wonderful! It was very large in contrast with the Okatuppa Creek Anchorage which was quite narrow. We set anchor about a mile upriver and Summer Place rafted to us again. Tracy and Joel invited us on their boat for a delicious dinner of cucumber and tomato salad and chicken fajitas and we took strawberry parfaits for desert. We had a great time getting to know Tracy and Joel better after having traveled with them the last couple of days.
We started the day with seven Loopers leaving the marina and locking through Demopolis Lock (40′) together before we all ended up at a few different anchorages. Perfect Match and Summer Place had planned to anchor at Okatuppa Creek and Summer Place ended up rafting to Perfect Match once we were in the anchorage.
There was a lot of tow traffic but they were smaller (6-9 barges) than the tows we were used to seeing on the Mississippi (15-18 barges). We also saw the smallest tow we have seen which was pushing only one barge.
We saw a pair of bald eagles and three alligators although we did not get photos of the alligators.
We saw a lot of wildlife today:
The White Cliffs of Epes, formed around the same time as England’s White Cliffs of Dover, are cliffs of sheer white chalk stretching for about a mile along the banks of the Tombigbee River. It was truly spectacular cruising past these stunning cliffs!
Once docked, we took a shuttle to town to have dinner at the Red Barn Restaurant with Herb and Sandy from Spirit of 76.
The marina has a courtesy car which we were only able to reserve from 2:00-4:00 which was right in the middle of the Ohio State game so Ellen had to leave Kevin on the boat to finish watching Ohio State beat the Iowa Hawkeyes 54-10. Ellen stopped at the grocery store and made a whirlwind tour of Demopolis in the two hours that she had use of the car.
Gaineswood is a National Historic Landmark has been called one of the most unusual Greek Revival houses in America. While a complete tour of the home takes about two hours, Ellen asked if she could have an abbreviated 30 minute tour since she was the only person there at the time. The wonderful young tour guide obliged and did an excellent job of condensing the tour while still providing a lot of interesting information.
Gaineswood was built over an 18 year period (1843-1861) by owner and architect Nathan Bryan Whitfield and was completed on the eve of the Civil War. The home remains filled with the family’s original antebellum furnishings.
Bluff Hall was built in 1832 and overlooks the Tombigbee River. Unfortunately, time would not allow for a tour of the inside of this home.
Trinity Episcopal Church was established in 1834 and the congregation met in homes until the first church building was completed in 1857. The original building was burned by Federal troops during their occupation of Demopolis after the Civil War. The present church building was built in 1870 and the bell tower was added in 1910.
Spirit of 76 had reserved the courtesy car from 6:00-8:00PM so we joined them for a ride to town and dinner at an Italian restaurant.
Today we traveled with two Loopers that we had just met at Columbus Marina. We transited two locks, both lowering us about 27′. We anchored with Spirit of 76 and the other boat decided to anchor a few miles past where we had stopped. As our generator is not working and we are waiting on a part to be delivered to get it repaired, Spirit of 76 had thoughtfully offered for us to raft up to them so that we could run an extension cord to our boat and use our space heater. Overnight temperatures were originally predicted to be in the high 20’s but, as it turned out, they were only in the low 40’s so we told them that we thought we would be okay without rafting up to them. It was very calm and peaceful in the anchorage and we did actually stay warm even with no heat!
Along the way, we saw something you don’t see everyday, let alone along a very rural area on the Tenn-Tom near the border of MS and AL:
It was a blistering 36 degrees when we left Midway Marina at 6:47AM. We traveled with the same group of Loopers that we had traveled with the day before and transited four locks which each dropped us 25′-30′.
There was a tow ahead of us at the second lock who very kindly let us all go ahead of him. As mentioned in a previous post, commercial traffic has priority and pleasure craft are normally required to wait until the tows lock through before they are allowed to enter the locks. Had the tow captain not been so generous, we would have had to wait a couple of hours for him to get in and out of the lock and for it to be filled back up so that we could enter. Additionally, we would have likely been behind him the rest of the day and would have had to wait for him to lock through at the third and fourth locks as well making an already long day even longer. We were all very grateful that he allowed us to lock through ahead of him!
Our first stop in Columbus was the birthplace of Thomas Lanier “Tennessee” Williams. Tennessee Williams, said to have been the most important American playwright ever, was born in Columbus in 1911. Williams won two Pulitzer Prizes for his plays “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1955) and “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1948). His maternal grandfather was the priest of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and the home, built in 1875, where Williams lived for the first three years of his life was the church parsonage located next-door to the church. In 1993, the home was in jeopardy of being destroyed to make room for the church’s expansion. Concerned citizens of Columbus rallied together and purchased the home. They then had it moved a couple of blocks and renovated it back to its original glory.
Next, we took a self-guided walking tour of the Southside Historic District. It was an absolutely beautiful day for a walk around the neighborhood! Columbus is filled with beautiful, stately homes from the 1800’s. Columbus was first settled in 1817, and became the Town of Columbus, Alabama in 1819. When the state line was surveyed in 1820, Columbus was found to be in Mississippi and was chartered as a city in Mississippi in 1821. Columbus was sparred much of the destruction that many other cities faced during the Civil War. The city was fiercely defended as a supply point for armaments and munitions and this protection led to its use as a hospital town. Many of the homes and churches were opened to nurse thousands of wounded on both sides after the Battle of Shiloh. Columbus was also home to Confederate General Stephen D. Lee who ordered the first shot at Fort Sumter which effectively started the Civil War.
Below are some of the homes that we saw on our wonderful walk through the neighborhood.
We then walked to Friendship Cemetery which was founded in 1849. Veterans of virtually every war from the War of 1812 to the Persian Gulf War in 1990 are buried there including 2,194 Confederate Soldiers who died of wounds suffered in the Battle of Shiloh fought in April 1862 (Union soldiers were reinterred in the Corinth National Cemetery in 1867). An early memorial ceremony honoring the Civil War soldiers buried in Friendship Cemetery has been credited as the inspiration of the modern day Memorial Day. On April 25, 1866, four Columbus women met to plan a day to honor the Confederate dead. In a spirit of unity and compassion, they decided to honor all fallen soldiers at Friendship Cemetery, placing flowers on both Confederate and Union soldiers’ graves.
Finally, we learned about the Buttahatchee Barn Quilt Trail which consists of about 60 quilt squares painted onto a solid piece of wood and often hung on barns. There are quilt trails in 43 states! While we were not able to take a driving tour around the trail to see the decorated barns, we did find three of the quilt squares in downtown Columbus. We will certainly be on the lookout for Barn Quilt Trails if or when we embark on our next bucket list item of traveling the country in a fifth wheel!
Below are a couple of photos from the Buttahatchee Quilt Trail FaceBook group:
We are still enjoying the beautiful Fall colors as we travel along the Tenn-Tom Waterway!
We saw several bald eagles on our way to Fulton and only a couple of tows.
We transited three locks: Whitten Lock – 84′, Montgomery Lock – 30′ and Rankin Lock – 30′. We had to wait about an hour and a half at Whitten Lock for maintenance to be completed but once we locked through we did not have to wait at the next two locks as the Whitten lock master had called ahead to them and their gates were open and ready for us to enter. We started the day out solo when we left Iuka, but by the time we finished waiting at the first lock, eight other boats had joined us. Seven of these boats were Loopers whom we had not previously met. Once through Whitten Lock we remained together as a group the rest of the day. It does no good to try to go fast to get to the next lock because the lock master will wait until all the boats are there to lock everyone through together.
Whitten Lock is the forth-highest single lift lock in the country and measures 600 feet long by 110 feet wide. Below are some photos of the massive Whitten Lock:
We took the courtesy car to Fogata’s Mexican Grill & Bar and had the most amazing made-to-order guacamole before dinner.
After this beautiful sunrise as we were leaving the marina, we cruised through very thick fog for about an hour but it then turned out to be another beautiful day on the Tennessee River.
We locked up about 55′ at the Pickwick Lock with only one other boat in the lock with us.
Just before we got to the marina, we crossed the Tri State Border of AL, MS and TN and then turned on to Yellow Creek, the beginning of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.
The “Tenn-Tom” is a 253 mile waterway that connects the Tennessee River at Pickwick Lake with the Tombigbee River in Demopolis, AL. It was a bigger man-made canal project than the Panama Canal. There are 10 locks on the Tenn-Tom and we will lock down 341′ over a distance of 450 miles before reaching Mobile. This is one of the most remote sections of the Great Loop.
There is a restaurant on site at the marina where we went for dinner our first night. While we were eating, the bartender brought us two beers that she said another couple had sent to us. Once we finished eating, we joined the couple at the outside bar and enjoyed talking with them for a while and hearing about their fascinating story. As with a lot of Loopers, they did not have much prior boating experience before they started their Loop. They spent three months in the Bahamas last year and quickly decided they wanted to be able to “go further” so they bought a sailboat. After only five hours of sailboat training, they were off on their new adventure!
Since we were going to be in Iuka for 10 days, we rented a car so that Kevin could drop Ellen off in Birmingham for a visit with her grandsons and he could then go to Atlanta, pick up our one spare prop (no resolution yet from UPS on the “lost” prop) and have brunch with his daughter, Becca. Grammy had a wonderful time with Luke and Levi!
Prior to our road trip, we spent a day at Shiloh National Military Park. Shiloh is one of America’s best preserved battlefields, covers 4,200 acres and there are 156 monuments and 217 cannons in the park. We began our visit watching a video reenactment of the Battle at Shiloh which was fought April 6 & 7, 1862 and then drove around the grounds while listening to an audio tour. It was truly fascinating to listen to the descriptions of the battles fought on various battle fields while looking at the very spots these battles took place!
The Shiloh Log Church, built in 1851, gave name to the Battle of Shiloh. It was a critical location in the Battle of Shiloh and the site of some of the fiercest fighting of the battle. Ironically, Shiloh is a Biblical term meaning “place of peace”. The original log church was destroyed but a near exact replica using 150 year old hand hewn logs from the area was constructed in 1999.
We also walked around the Shiloh Indian Mounds where the Mississippian Indians lived from the 1100’s to the 1300’s in one of the largest and most impressive communities on the Tennessee River. There were six large mounds and dozens of smaller house mounds. The large mounds served as platforms for civic buildings, temples and homes of prominent leaders. The largest mound had a spectacular view of the Tennessee River on which we had traveled just two days prior to our visit to the park.
The Shiloh National Cemetery is also on the park grounds and was established in 1866. Buried here are about 4,000 soldiers, over half of whom are unknown. There were also three other burial grounds in the park where both Union and Confederate soldiers were buried where they had fallen during the battle.
Once back from Birmingham, we visited Ivy Green, the beautifully preserved birthplace of Helen Keller. The home was built in 1820 by Helen Keller’s grandparents and the birthplace cottage, situated nest to the main house, is were Helen’s parents settled once they were married. Between the main house and the birthplace cottage is the famous well pump where Helen first understood that the letters she was learning to spell in her hands represented actual words. Prior to this discovery, she just thought she was playing a game. Both homes are furnished with original Keller furniture.
Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880 with normal vision and hearing but was left blind and deaf after a high fever at the age of 19 months. By the time Helen was seven, the family had moved into the main house and had hired Annie Sullivan to be Helen’s teacher. The birthplace cottage was then used as the school house.
Helen proved early on to be quite gifted. Once she had learned her first word, “water”, at the well when she was seven, she quickly learned 625 words in six months and had mastered Braille by the age of 10. She graduated ‘cum laude’ from Radcliffe College and was the first blind person to earn a degree. Helen Keller died in 1968. The ashes of Helen, Annie Sullivan and their secretary, Polly Thompson, are entombed in St. Jospeh Chapel in The National Cathedral in Washington D.C. Helen had said she would not be buried there if she could not be buried with Annie and Polly.
Also on the tour with us was a lovely woman who is traveling the country by car and whose only companion on the trip is “Helen Bear”. Helen Bear was made about 15 years ago by a dear friend (now 90 years old) of our new friend. She had taken all of her mink coats and made bears out of them for her grandchildren and also gifted one to our new friend. She is taking Helen Bear with her as she visits places and taking pictures of Helen Bear for her friend similar to the Flat Stanley Project that elementary students complete. Ellen’s son, Nathan, made a Flat Stanley doll when he was in 1st or 2nd grade and mailed it to his Uncle Douglas who was living in Chicago at the time. Douglas took Flat Stanley around the city taking pictures at various points of interest and, once Flat Stanley was shipped back to Nathan, he presented the story of Flat Stanley’s travels to his class.
We took a picture of our new friend with Helen Bear in front of Helen Keller’s birthplace cottage and a picture of Helen Bear in Helen Keller’s crib (placed there by the docent!).
We also visited another Frank Lloyd Wright home, the Rosenbaum House, built in 1939. This was a very different style house than the Martin house we visited in Buffalo. The Martin House was one of Lloyd’s famous and grand Prairie style homes and the Rosenbaum House is Usonian. Usonian homes were Wright’s creation for middle-class families after the Great Depression. Designed to control costs, these houses would start off small, 800-1200 square feet, and could be added on to as families grew making them 1500-2600 square feet. Common features of Usonian houses are horizontal lines, flat roofs with overhangs, use of natural materials and board and batten walls. Also included are Wright’s other characteristic features such as open spaces, a central hearth and a lot of windows although the Usonian houses do not have Wright’s famous stained glass windows.
One interesting contrast we noticed between the two Wright houses that we have visited is that in the Martin House, Wright would not allow books to be seen and created hidden bookcases to house all of Martin’s books while in the the Rosenbaum House, he created open shelving for Rosenbaum’s books. Presumably, this was due to the difference in costs associated with each house. Both houses were furnished with Lloyd designed furniture with the Rosenbaum House having much more simplistic furnishings as opposed to the grand built-in furniture in the Martin House.
The front of the Rosenbaum House was designed to offer privacy while the back side of the house is filled with windows.
Once the Rosenbaum family had grown (they had four sons!) they contacted Wright to design an addition to their home. He added a much larger kitchen, a laundry room, a guest room and a bunkhouse/playroom for the boys in 1948.
An added bonus to our trip to the Rosenbaum House was that we ran into our new friend and Helen Bear again!
After several days of traveling in a group, we have been traveling solo since we left Green Turtle Bay. There was one Looper at the marina when we arrived and three others came in later in the day.
We had a nice steak dinner at the restaurant at the marina (which took their last order at 6:00PM!).
It was such a pleasant day of travel on Tennessee River on our way to Cuba Landing! We enjoyed looking at more of the start of the Fall leaf color changes. Once docked, the couple that runs the marina offered to let us take their car to town.
Loretta Lynn had passed away, at the age of 90, at her ranch in Hurricane Mills, TN the day before we arrived. She was the most awarded female country recording artist and the only female Artist of the Decade (1970’s). She signed her first record deal and released her first single in 1960 and had only stopped touring in 2017. Last year, at the age of 89, she recorded her 50th album, “Still Woman Enough”. Her ranch, where she raised her children and lived with her husband until his death in 1996, was about 15 miles from the marina.
It was late in the day when we got to the sprawling 3,500 acre ranch so we were only able to drive through and take a few pictures of her beautiful and beloved home. In addition to her home, Loretta Lynn’s Ranch also holds a large RV Park, campsites, cabins, hiking tails, a swimming pool, a replica of the home where she was born and raised and a Western Town with museums and shops and an historic Grist Mill. The Ranch is one of Tennessee’s top tourist attractions.
After leaving The Ranch, we had a wonderful home cooked dinner at the Log Cabin Restaurant. The building was originally built as a private home nearly 100 years ago and has been a restaurant since 1966.
The leaves are just starting to change color and we are looking forward to when they peak in a few weeks.
We saw three Bald Eagles flying together:
Paris Landing State Park is where the 2022 Fall Rendezvous will be held the week after we were there. We biked over to the wonderful Lodge that was just completed in July to replace the existing Lodge. We had a great dinner at the restaurant while enjoying the stunning views of Kentucky Lake. The facilities there are top notch and we know that everyone will have a great time at the Rendezvous!
Five of us Loopers had to drop the anchor for three hours to wait for the commercial traffic to lock through Kentucky Lock.
When we were finally able to enter the lock, Perfect Match had to go to the very front about 4-5 feet from the lock wall. Kentucky Lock is huge and it was a little scary at first to be so close to the front of the lock but it was also thrilling to watch as the water rose to lift the boats some 57′. This is the second largest lock we will transit. The largest lock we will transit is the 84′ Whitten Lock where we will be in a couple of weeks.
Green Turtle Bay, which overlooks beautiful Lake Barkley, is a wonderful marina and a Looper favorite. There were over 30 Loopers docked at Green Turtle Bay when we were there. In addition to the 450 slip marina, there are three restaurants, a spa, a ship’s store, an indoor swimming pool and lovely vacation rentals. They have a courtesy van and golf carts as well as a shuttle that will take guests anywhere on the compound or to the town of Green Rivers which is about a mile away. We had lunch at The Thirsty Turtle after we arrived on Thursday, a wonderful Prime Rib dinner at the Commonwealth Yacht Club on Friday night and breakfast at Dockers on the Bay on Saturday. We enjoyed riding our bikes around the beautiful compound and to the town of Grand Rivers.
We saw deer each time we went for a bike ride.
Saturday was spent doing some boat cleaning, watching Ohio State beat Rutgers 49-10 and a bike ride to town for ice cream.
On Sunday, we took a golf cart to town and walked around Patti’s 1880’s Settlement which is a recreated historical log cabin village.
We stopped in Calvin Swine’s Moonshine & More for a moonshine tasting. This boutique liquor store was named by Patti’s husband, Bill, who had a pig named Calvin that he used to dress up, put on his leash and walk around the town of Grand Rivers and to the grocery store. He used to brag that Calvin liked to “down a little shine” in the evening. There were seven flavors of moonshine for us to choose from, four of them were inspired from the restaurant’s award-winning pies.
We went to dinner at Patti’s 1880’s Settlement on Sunday night with Never Land, Nice Landing and Gypsy. Patti’s was voted #1 for the Southern Living Magazine’s Readers Choice Award for Best Small Town Restaurant in the Southeast U.S. We had their famous 2′ thick Pork Chops and Flowerpot Bread. We both had enough Pork Chops left over to have for dinner the next night!
The Olmsted Lock, at the confluence of the Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland and Mississippi Rivers, was completed in 2018 and replaced two older locks which no longer met the demands of the shipping industry. More tonnage of things like coal, grain, rock and sand pass through this area than any other place on America’s inland rivers. The project was the most expensive lock and dam project in U.S. history, cost $3 billion and took more than 45 million labor hours to complete.
Paducah sits at the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers. After a devastating flood in 1937, the Army Corps of Engineers built 3-mile-long concrete flood wall to protect the city. The Paducah Wall to Wall is a series of over 50 murals covering Paducah’s history from the early native Indian heritage to present day. Famed muralist Robert Dafford and his team of other muralists began work on the murals, which span three blocks, in 1996 and the project was completed in 2010. We enjoyed walking along the sidewalk and taking in the spectacular beauty of each of the murals. It is worth taking a look on paducahwalltowall.com to see photos of all of the murals!
Paducah was founded in 1827 by William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. We really enjoyed walking around historic downtown Paducah! It is much larger than most of the towns we have visited lately. We ended the day with a beer at Doe’s Eat Place, dinner at Max’s Brick Oven Cafe and ice cream at Forever Sweet Creamery. We were disappointed to learn the Craving the Curls Rolled Ice Cream shop was only open on the weekends as we were looking forward to watching them make the hand rolled ice cream and, of course, eating it!
Max’s Brick Oven Cafe was originally built to be a men’s apparel store by Russian immigrants in the 1880’s. Since then, it has been home to a pharmaceutical manufacturing company, an attorney’s office and several restaurants.
We had breakfast the next day at the Gold Rush Cafe which had bread pudding waffles. We did not even know such a thing existed but, oh my, they were delicious! We are going to have to make some one day!
We visited The National Quilt Museum which opened in 1991 and houses an extraordinarily impressive collection of contemporary quilts. It was truly amazing to see the work that went into these quilts – Kevin enjoyed the museum as much as Ellen did!
All of the quilts on display were amazingly beautiful! Below are some of our favorites:
We ended the day with a delicious dinner at The Freight House with Kay and Don from Never Land and walked along the Wall to Wall Murals on the way back to our boats. Kay was brave enough to order the Carp for dinner which was surprisingly delicious.
Hurricane Ian hit Florida while we were in Paducah. It is impossible to put in to words how heartbroken we were to see the devastating destruction to several marinas in addition to all of the homes and business that were destroyed. We learned of several Loopers who lost their boats, one, a family of four that has lived on their boat for the past six years who are very active in the AGLCA, and many more who were combing through online photos and posting on Facebook to try to locate their boats.
Quite a lot was accomplished overnight by the dredging operators at the Kaskaskia Lock in contrast to what the area looked like when we arrived yesterday.
A few final pictures of Hoppies Marina before we departed:
It was a nice day of cruising with only a few tows and no locks!
We arrived at Kaskaskia River Lock and Dam with Barefeet and Blue Moon where we will anchor for the night. Never Land joined us later in the day as well as two other boats. Normally, boats can tie up to the lower guidewall rather than anchor but they are doing some dredging below the dam and that wall has been removed for dredge access so that was not an option for us. We went around to the left in the photo below and anchored in the area just in front of the dam.
It was pretty windy when we first set the anchor so we were swinging quite a bit. It calmed down around dinnertime and the temperatures were in the 60’s and 50’s overnight which was pleasant although the dredging operators worked all night long so it was pretty loud!. There were a total of six boats anchored by the end of the day.
We traveled through two locks with nine other Loopers today and passed in front of the Gateway Arch. It was a slow start waiting at the locks and then getting behind a tow on the Chain of Rocks Canal but once we passed St. Louis we were able to move along a lot faster.
Our first lock was the Mel Price Lock where 30% of the world’s grain passes through.
We saw a couple of bald eagles:
Our second lock today was the Chain of Rocks Lock which allows boats to bypass an unnavigable portion of the Mississippi River known as the Chain of Rocks. There is an 8.4 mile canal leading up to the lock. There were not enough floating bollards for all ten boats to tie up to so a couple of us had to raft up to another boat.
After we locked through, we all had to go slow for a while and stay behind a tow through the narrow canal until we were back on the Mississippi.
We finally made it to the Gateway Arch and were able to take a screenshot from a webcam of Perfect Match as she passed in front of the arch:
Hoppies Marina is an iconic Looper stop for several reasons. One, it is the last marina and the last place to get fuel on the Mississippi for 250 miles, two, the owners provide a route briefing for the rivers, and three, it is just so unusual! The marina is actually just several barges that are tied to the shore with chain and cable.
The small town of Kimmswick is a half a mile away and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at LaChance Winery with Kay and Don from Never Land. On the way, we passed the Anheuser Memorial Estate which was built on the banks of the Mississippi in 1867. The Anheuser family purchased the estate in 1945 and it was bequeathed to the city of Kimmswick, along with $1.5 million for the upkeep of the estate, when Mabel-Ruth Anheuser passed away in 2000.
LaChance Winery is located in The Old House, a 1700’s era log cabin. The second story and wing were added in 1831 and it was moved to this location in 1973. Ulysses S. Grant frequently visited the tavern.
It was SO tough saying goodbye to Misty and Darrel! They were having Star Dust pulled out and surveyed for the sale as we were pulling out of the marina. We sure hope that our paths will cross again in the future, possibly on the road next time rather than on the water!
We had lunch at the legendary Fast Eddie’s Bon Air in Alton. Anheuser Busch first opened the small town bar, Bon Air, in 1921 but had to sell the tavern ten years later when statutes changed and prohibited breweries from owning drinking establishments. It was sold and continued to operate as a tavern for 50 years until “Fast Eddie” purchased it in 1981 and later his son purchased it in 2008 when “Fast Eddie” retired. The two men expanded the bar over the years but it still sells quality food at cheap prices. A 500 seat patio was added as well as a large stage for live music.
We had the best tenderloin and peppers on a stick, peel & eat shrimp, a cheeseburger and fries between us, along with a couple of beers (required by the bar!). The food was so good we had to go back for seconds on the tenderloin and fries!
We found this beautiful mural painted on the side of a building in town:
We took an Uber the following day to St. Louis to visit the Gateway Arch National Park. Interestingly, while St. Louis sits on the Mississippi River, there are no marinas in St. Louis so the only way for us to visit the Arch was by car but we will cruise past the Arch when we leave Alton.
The Arch is a memorial for Thomas Jefferson and his role in the westward expansion set forth by Lewis and Clark and the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. It also celebrates St. Louis’ role as the “Gateway to the West”. It was completed in 1965 and measures 630 feet wide and 630 feet tall making it the tallest national monument in America.
We took the tram ride to the top for spectacular views of both the city of St. Louis and the Mississippi River where we will travel the next day.
There is a museum at the Gateway Arch which covers the 201 history of the westward expansion from the founding of St. Louis in 1764 to the building of the Arch in 1965.
The Old Courthouse is also part of the National Park but, unfortunately, it was closed for renovations the day we were there. The courthouse was built in 1839 and served as the site of several landmark civil rights cases including the Dred Scott case in 1846 which hastened the start of the Civil War and Virginia Minor’s case for a woman’s right to vote in the 1872. The building is one of only two buildings that survived the Great Fire of May 1859 which devastated 15 city blocks and 23 steamboats along the riverfront.
Situated in front of the courthouse is a sculpture of Dred and Harriet Scott who as the inscription reads, “filed suit for their freedom at this courthouse in 1846. Their case reached the United States Supreme Court and was decided in 1857. The court ruled that the Scotts and all African Americans were not citizens of the United States. Opposition to this decision was one of the causes of the Civil War and led to the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The Scotts’ struggle for freedom stands as a defining moment in the history of the Civil Rights Movement.”
Once back in Alton, we walked around town and stopped at the local family-owned grocery store who gave us a ride back to the marina.
STAR DUST CROSSED THEIR WAKE TODAY AND EARNED THEIR GOLD BURGEE!!!
Loopers fly a white AGLCA burgee and, once they have completed their Loop, earn the privilege of flying a gold burgee. Those that complete the trip a second time fly a platinum burgee.
Misty, Darrel and Roy started their Loop on September 4, 2021 from St. Charles, MO just ONE DAY after they purchased Star Dust! We first met them in May, 2022 on the Creech’s porch in Southport, NC and then saw them a couple of times on the Hudson River before meeting up with them again in Waterford, NY the end of June and have been traveling with them since.
We cannot say enough about these two wonderful people who have become very dear friends after spending just about EVERY DAY with them for the past three months! They have added SO MUCH to our trip and they will be sorely missed when we leave in a few days to continue our Loop. We are so excited for them for their achievement but we are terribly sad that we will no longer be traveling together.
We will SO miss the laughs, our dining companions, the laughs, our travel companions, the laughs, our tourist companions, the laughs, the docktails, the laughs, our laundry buddy, the laughs, consistently leaving a marina 30 minutes before the agreed upon plan, the laughs, the wealth of advice they shared with us, the laughs, keeping up with who is on the “injured reserve list”, the laughs, our planning partners, the laughs, the stories, the laughs, the jokes, the citizen’s arrests, the laughs, never knowing whether Darrel is telling the truth but always knowing Misty is, the laughs – did we mention the laughs??!!
We have had SO MUCH FUN with these two! The Loop is an awesome adventure but our Loop was made even better for the time that we got to spend with Misty and Darrel! They were the BEST BUDDY BOAT EVER!
Twelve Loopers locked through LaGrange Lock together after waiting for a tow to lock through. Once we exited the lock, there were four large tows waiting to lock through upbound. This is quite unusual as commercial traffic has priority over pleasure craft but we were all mighty glad we did not have to wait for all of that traffic to lock through as it would have taken HOURS for them all to get through the lock. We waited long enough that several Loopers had dropped their anchors until we got the green light to proceed into the lock.
We had a wonderful dinner of slow cooked brisket and vegetables at the restaurant and enjoyed talking with the owner.
We must have seen at least 20 Bald Eagles today!
We had planned to anchor at Quiver Island but decided to keep going to our next destination due to opposing wind and current.
Logsdon Tug Services is not a marina but simply a place to tie up for the night. There are a couple of barges where boats can tie up to and there is no power or water. Star Dust tied up to a barge so that they would be able to get their dog, Roy, off and we rafted to them because there were several other Loopers that were planning to tie up there as well. At the end of the day there were a total of 11 boats tied up to the barges and some were rafted three together!
We had dinner on Perfect Match that night with Misty and Darrel. Misty made Cole Slaw and Corn on the Cob and Ellen made BBQ Ribs. There was a beautiful sunset after dinner!
It was pretty foggy when we left Ottawa but looked like it was lifting so we decided to go ahead and leave. It did clear up some once we got out on the river but then it got very heavy for a while. We were glad when it finally lifted! We went through one lock today, Starved Rock Lock. We will need to stay in Peoria for three nights as the Peoria Lock which is downriver from where we are staying has scheduled closures.
The fog starts lifting:
and then, BAM!
The fog finally lifted completely and we locked through at Starved Rock Lock:
Below is a large tow with 3 barges across and 5 barges long. They are HUGE!
We saw several Bald Eagles.
The IVY Club has the friendliest bunch of locals whom we enjoyed talking with in the bar.
Misty went with us to a wonderful musical, “Little Shop of Horrors”, at the Peoria Players Theatre. The singing, acting and set design were all spectacular. This was the best play we’ve seen at a community theatre!
We went through two locks today, the Dresden Lock and the Marseilles Lock. We rafted up to Star Dust in the Marseilles lock as there were other Loopers wanting to lock through and only two floating bollards. We passed several barges and saw several bald eagles along the way. Heritage Harbor is a wonderful marina! They had a couple of loaner cars and we took one with Misty and Darrel to go to town for lunch. The DockMaster at the marina gave an excellent overview of the route from here to Paducah (about 360 miles) and provided several options for overnight stays. The water level on the Illinois River is currently low so several of the anchorages listed in the books are not viable options.
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Add cruising through downtown Chicago to our ever-growing list of favorite things on the Loop! It was truly spectacular!
It was a very long day and rained most of the day after we had cleared Chicago. We went through three locks and had to wait a very long time at two of them for tow traffic to clear. We had planned to stay overnight at the Joliet free wall but were concerned there may not be room for both Perfect Match and Star Dust so we decided to go further to Wilmington. In all, it took us over 11 hours to go 55.5 miles!
Since many of the buildings on our cruise down the Chicago River were also posted in the previous post, we will just post the photos of our cruise through Chicago here with no comments or captions. Interspersed throughout are pictures of Perfect Match taken by Star Dust whom we were following. There was also a rowing race going through the city.
Once we got through downtown Chicago, we passed the St. Charles Air Line Bridge and the Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge which both had to be lifted for us to pass.
Next up was the Lockport Lock where several of us tied up to a barge to lock through – in the rain!
The next lock was the Brandon Road Lock which had floating bollards that we put one of our lines around and, as the water level went down, the bollard went down with us.
We are starting to see a lot of tow traffic. The tow below is one of the smaller tows. Usually, the tow is moving 15 barges (5 long and 3 across) which can carry 1,500 tons each. On these, the entire tow and barge is 105 feet wide and 1,100 feet long. They move at eight miles per hour and can take a full hour to come to a stop. Tow boat operators live on the tows while working and generally work 21 days straight and then have 21 days off.
We arrived at Harborside Marina and had dinner with Misty and Darrel at the Big Fish Grille. We stayed another day due to rain and Misty and Darrel taught us how to play the card game “Pitch”.
Columbia Yacht Club is the most unique marina where we have stayed. Columbia Yacht Club has been in existence since 1892.The clubhouse is now housed inside a 1947 Canadian icebreaker ferry, Abegweit, which means “Cradled on the Waves”. Columbia Yacht Club purchased Abegweit in 1983 and moved her from Nova Scotia to Chicago.
We enjoyed a delicious lunch on the veranda outside of the dining room.
We took a short bike ride on the Lakefront Trail which runs between Lake Michigan and Lakeshore Drive. We stopped at Buckingham Fountain, one of the largest fountains in the world and also stopped at Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears.
We took panoramic night tour of the city with Misty.
The Chicago Water Tower is Chicago’s most treasured landmarks. It was completed in 1869 and is one of the few buildings to survive the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
Below is Ellen’s favorite nighttime photo. Much to the dismay of Kevin, she and Misty risked life and limb to get to the other side of the bridge to take this picture!
The next day we had delicious Chicago Deep Dish Pizza at Giordano’s:
After pizza, we hopped on the Big Bus again for a daytime tour of the city.
Some shots of Perfect Match leaving St. Joseph’s taken by Misty on Star Dust:
We found our favorite slot machine game that Ellen’s son, Nathan, introduced us to in Cleveland.
Horseshoe Casino was right at the marina and is built on six barges so that it is a floating casino – the world’s largest floating casino.
Some shots of Perfect Match leaving South Haven taken by Misty on Star Dust:
Windmill Island Gardens is home to De Zwaan windmill which is the only authentic windmill operating in the United States as well as the last windmill to leave The Netherlands. De Zwann (the Swan) was built in the Netherlands in 1884. The dismantling of the windmill began in 1964 and its seven thousand pieces weighing sixty-six tons were brought to the U.S. and reconstructed over a period of six months. The Gardens still grind flour in the windmill from wheat grown in Michigan.
In 1947, the city of Amsterdam gifted the city of Holland a 1928 organ which had played in the streets of Breda, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The organ, as well as a hand painted Dutch carousel, were given to the city of Holland in gratitude for the role of the United States in liberating The Netherlands in World War II.
Windmill Island is also home to several Fresian horses. Fresian horses originated in the Dutch province of Friesland. The breed dates back to medieval times when they were used to carry knights in battle. They are one of the world’s most expensive breeds and they are often used in Hollywood movies. There are only about 8,000 registered Fresian horses in the U.S.
We drove over to Saugatuck as this was a town where we had intended to stay but were not able to as we could not get a slip reserved. It was quite crowded as it was Labor Day weekend. We enjoyed sitting on a bench and watching all of the boat traffic, had lunch and walked around the town.
The Saugatuck Chain Ferry crosses the Kalamazoo River. The original chain ferry was built in 1857 and used until the 1940’s. The Chain Ferry is powered by a crew member or passenger cranking a handle at the center of the vessel. The chain is attached to each river bank and fed through a sprocket which pulls the ferry through the water. Saugatuck’s chain ferry is the last hand-cranked ferry in the United States.
It has been a while since we saw a big ship on the Lakes:
Fricano’s Pizza, opened in 1949, is touted as the original and most famous pizzeria in Michigan.
We took a week off and flew home to Atlanta to visit family!
Back in Grand Haven, we went to the beautiful Musical Fountain. The Musical Fountain has been playing nightly from Memorial Day through Labor Day since 1962.
The show was interrupted for several minutes while this huge freighter passed through the harbor. We couldn’t even fit the whole thing in the picture as it was about twice this long!
The S.S. Badger was originally built to ferry railroad cars across Lake Michigan and did so until 1990. It has provided passenger and vehicle ferry service between Michigan and Wisconsin since 1953. The trip is 60 miles and takes four hours. The Badger is the last coal-fired passenger steamship in the U.S. and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2016.
We left Frankfort at sunrise:
We had lunch and walked around the town and the riverwalk before ending the day with ice cream.
More photos of the dunes along the coastline:
Frankfort is yet another charming little town. We have really fallen in love with the Michigan coastline!
We biked a little over 10 miles along the Betsie Valley Trail to Beulah, MI with Misty and Darrel and stopped for lunch before biking the 10 miles back to Frankfort. It was such a beautiful ride around Betsie Lake where the marina is located and then along Crystal Lake to Beulah.
Once we were back in Frankfort, the boys opted for a nap while Misty and Ellen biked another 5 miles out to the Point Betsie Lighthouse.
The Point Betsie Lighthouse is considered to be one of the most photographed lighthouses in the country. The lighthouse is situated on the banks of Sleeping Bear Dunes and has been continuously operating since 1858 when it was built. It was automated in 1983 and was the last manned lighthouse on Lake Michigan. The Keeper’s Quarters (not part of the tour) is a two-bedroom apartment available for daily or weekly rental.
Views from the top of the lighthouse:
Views from the grounds of the lighthouse:
We spotted this little family on the way back from the lighthouse:
Finally, Misty and Ellen stopped at the Frankfort Art Fair before ending their 30+ mile bike journey!
Another boat, Blue Moon, left Leland behind us and sent this picture of Star Dust and Perfect Match:
Leland is a cute little beach town with several nice shops. The Leland Historic District, known as Fishtown, is adjacent to the town and has been a commercial fishing district for over a century. Fishtown is comprised of small fishing shanties and related buildings such as ice and smoke houses built in the early 1900’s. It is now a working fishery and home to several fishing charters.
The Leland Champion Cottonwood Tree, planted in 1901, watched over the entrance to Fishtown for more than a century. It has a 20 foot circumference, 76 inch diameter and stood 100 feet tall before it was taken down in 2011. Champion Tree Project International created sixty clones of the tree in 2008 by snipping off newly grown buds and using them to make genetically identical copies.
We chartered a fishing boat with Misty and Darrel and caught some trout. We had the fish cleaned and took four of the fillets to The Cove restaurant which they later cooked for our dinner and we took the rest of the fillets to our boats to freeze. We selected four different preparations and the restaurant brought the fish on a platter so we could all share the different preparations. They were all delicious!
There are a lot of sand dunes along the coast:
We saw this amphibious car parked in front of the restaurant and then saw it cruising in the canal as we were eating dinner.
View of Fishtown above the Leland Dam which was built in 1854 and raises the water 12 feet.
In contrast to our rough trip to Charlevoix, our trip from Charlevoix could not have been any smoother!
After a lunch with Misty and Darrel, we enjoyed walking around downtown Traverse City and sitting at one of the beaches.
Misty took a picture of the magnificent sunrise before we left Petoskey and a couple of pictures of Perfect Match as we were leaving the marina.
It was a short but very rough trip to Charlevoix. There wasn’t a lot of wind and the waves were showing 0-1 feet but they were easily 2-4 feet. We bounced up and down pretty much the whole trip!
The Charlevoix Waterfront Art Fair was directly behind where we were docked and we perused each and every booth!
Charlevoix is yet another charming town!
We ran into Susie and Mark from Rose Cottage, whom we had traveled with on the Eastern Erie and met the couple they traveled with through Canada, Elizabeth and Gary from No Agenda.
We rode our bikes to Castle Farms and toured the buildings and grounds. The president of Sears, Roebuck & Company, Albert Loeb, built the castle in 1918 as a model dairy farm featuring items found in the Sears Catalogue. It was later used as a concert venue from the early 1970’s through 1993 and hosted many of the popular rock bands of that era. It was purchased by Linda Mueller in 2001 who then did an extensive renovation of the property using the original blueprints and added several beautiful gardens. No detail was spared in the renovation. It addition to the tours of the property, Castle Farms is also a popular wedding venue. There are at least a half a dozen areas on the property that are used for weddings and each one is breathtaking. We visited on a Sunday and there were two weddings that day, four on Saturday and three on Friday. They can host as many as five weddings in one day!
There is a museum on site that showcases items from the 1918-1919 Sears Catalogue.
There is also a wonderful model railroad, the largest outdoor model railroad in Michigan, built by Linda Mueller’s husband and brother-in-law which features Charlevoix’s railway history from the 1890’s through the 1950’s.
This is not a great picture but it shows all of the bands that “Rocked the Castle” from the 1970’s to the 1990’s:
There is a hallway dedicated to memorabilia from the concert days.
After our tour of Castle Farms, we biked to see the “Mushroom Houses”. These houses were built by self-taught architect Earl Young who was influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The last night we were in Charlevoix, there was a gathering of other Loopers, including a couple who had just completed their Loop that day who live in Charlevoix!
A few shots of Perfect Match taken by Misty as we were leaving Mackinaw City:
Our dear friends, Darci and Steve, who joined us on Perfect Match as we started our Loop in January, finally found their perfect boat which they named “Balclutha, Too”. The boat was in Michigan and they are traveling up the coast to spend a little time in the North Channel before heading back down the Michigan coast. They met us in Petoskey and arrived shortly after we had docked. It was a wonderful reunion with them!
We introduced Darci and Steve to Misty, Darrel and Susie and had a delicious lunch at Chandler’s restaurant. Later, we all got together on our flybridge for docktails.
Darci cooked brunch for us the next day and Ellen and Misty prepared a dinner of salad and Rigatoni Bolognese that evening and took it over to Balclutha, Too.
Petoskey is a charming town off of Little Traverse Bay.
Misty, Darrel, Susie and us hit the nearby casino and contributed our money to some slot machines. Susie was the big winner – the rest of us had a dollar or less remaining when we left but we had a good time.
There are several other Loopers staying at the marina and several of us gathered for docktails before the six of us headed to the food truck court for dinner.
Darci and Steve headed out the day before we were to leave and Susie also flew home to Texas. We rode with Misty and Darrel to take Susie to the airport and stopped in Harbor Springs, which is across the bay from Petoskey, for lunch. We will all miss being with Darci, Steve and Susie!
We left Presque Isle just as the sun was rising and passed the Old Presque Isle Lighthouse on our way out of the marina.
We passed another lighthouse along the way:
We took the ferry from Mackinaw City to Mackinac Island (they are spelled differently but pronounced the same) with Susie and Misty and had a fabulous time touring the island together!
The Mackinac Bridge, “The Mighty Mac”, is longest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere and the fifth longest suspension bridge in the world at about 5 miles long. The bridge connects the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan and opened in 1957. It takes seven years to paint the bridge and, once completed, the painting starts over again.
The Grand Hotel was completed in 1887 and has the longest porch in the world. The hotel was built by three railroad companies and a steamship company. In the 1930’s, it was purchased by the Musser family who maintained ownership for nearly nine decades until it was sold to a private equity fund in 2019.
There are no cars allowed on Mackinac Island, only horse-drawn carriages and bicycles. The first car was brought to the island in 1898 but it was so loud that it scared all of the horses so a ban on automobiles was enacted and remains to this day.
Fort Mackinac was built in 1780 by the British during the American Revolutionary War and they held it until thirteen years after the war when it was turned over to the U.S. It was later re-captured by the British during the War of 1812 during the first land action on U.S. territory of the war and was returned to the U.S. after the war and remained active until 1895. There are currently 14 original buildings, including the Officer’s Stone Quarters, the oldest building in Michigan. Fort Mackinac was the second national park in the country second only to Yellowstone.
Fort Mackinac
The McGulpin House is one of the oldest private residences in Michigan.
There is an abundance of fudge shops on Mackinac Island. The first fudge store on the island was opened by the Murdick family in 1887, the same year that the Grand Hotel opened. We stopped in and stocked up on fudge and peanut brittle!
We had a wonderful private horse-drawn carriage tour of the island.
It was impossible to get full pictures of the Grand Hotel other than the one we took from the ferry.
The Grand Hotel Stable houses a magnificent collection of working carriages, most from 1890, as well as the horses used by the Grand Hotel carriages.
The Ransom Carriage was used to deliver the ransom for the first prominent kidnapping in the U.S. in 1900.
We picked up a hitch-hiker on our trip today:
We checked out loaner bikes with Misty and Susie and rode to the “old” and “new” lighthouses. The Old Presque Isle Lighthouse was completed in 1840 and is one of the oldest surviving lighthouses on the Great Lakes. It is also the shortest at 38 feet tall.The New Presque Isle Lighthouse was built in 1870! It is the tallest lighthouse on the Great Lakes that is open to the public and stands 110 feet tall.
The last keeper of the old lighthouse was Pat Garrity who was appointed by President Lincoln. Garrity’s wife, three sons and daughter all served as lighthouse keepers in the area making them the second longest keeper family in U.S. history.
New Presque Isle Lighthouse
We climbed the 138 steps to the top of the lighthouse for a spectacular view.
It was so calm and peaceful in the marina, especially since we did not have good cell or wifi service. Misty and Darrel had us over for a delicious steak dinner our last night there.
While we were here for three days due to weather, we only have one picture! We did go to the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center which has a lot of exhibits about the Great Lakes and about the many shipwrecks around the area. The Great Lakes are the largest freshwater system in the world and hold more than 20% of the world’s freshwater. There are about 6,000 ships that were lost on the Great Lakes and about 1,500 of them are in Michigan waters.
We enjoyed meeting and spending time with Misty’s mother, Susie, who flew in to Alpena to travel with Misty and Darrel for a week.
There was rain most of the day and not much nearby to explore. We had Misty and Darrel over for a Low Country Boil on our flybridge.
As we were getting ready to pull into the marina, we noticed the Coast Guard following us with their lights on. As we’d heard nothing from them on the radio, Ellen went to the stern to try to find out if they were stopping us to board for a random safety inspection. Still no word from them and the lights went off so we thought we were “good to go”. We pulled into the marina to get fuel and a pump out and two Coast Guardsmen approached and asked us when the last time was that we had been boarded by the Coast Guard to which we replied, “never”. They come on board and checked all of our safety equipment and registrations for the boat and the dinghy and we passed with no violations! All credit for that goes to our distinguished Captain!
We enjoyed walking around the town and having lunch and ice cream with Misty and Darrel. That evening we went to see the movie Where the Crawdads Sing and ran into Caroline and Todd from Sunset Dreams in the theatre.
Harbor Beach has the world’s largest man-made freshwater harbor which was completed in 1883 and is one mile by three miles long.
This was to be our first night at anchor! It’s hard to believe that we have not yet anchored though there will be a couple of spots on the rivers where there will be no option but to anchor so we were happy to get some practice in before then. We successfully set the anchor (and the anchor alarm!) and stayed put for several hours. Misty and Darrel on Star Dust were anchored as well but their generator was not running properly and they decided to move to the marina around the bend so we opted to pull up the anchor and join them at the marina. While we did not gain the experience of an overnight at anchor, we were anchored for several hours!
Besides being home to the largest man-made freshwater harbor, Harbor Beach is also the birthplace and town where Frank Murphy lived. Frank Murphy was born in 1890 and was an attorney, a judge, Mayor of Detroit, US Governor General in the Philippines, Governor of Michigan, US Attorney General and Supreme Court Justice from 1940 until his death in 1949.
Birthplace of Frank Murphy on the right with his father’s law office added on to the left.
The “Big House” completed in 1873 and where the Murphy family later moved.
The Port Sanilac Lighthouse was built in 1886 and the home has been privately owned since the automation of the lighthouse in 1928. While there are occasional tours of the lighthouse in the summer months, unfortunately, there was no tour when we were there.
Misty and Ellen toured the Sanilac County Historic Village. The village is a collection of historic buildings on the grounds of the Loop-Harrison Mansion. The village features a one-room schoolhouse, church, general store, barn and several other structures from the surrounding county which were donated to the Sanilac County Historical Society and moved to the site. The original 1880’s barn is now a theatre.
The Loop-Harrison Mansion was built in 1872 by Dr. Joseph Loop and is furnished with many original pieces of the Loop family.
The Huckins Schoolhouse was built in 1847 and housed eight grades of students for 100 years until 1947.
The church building was originally a general store and later a saloon before the addition of the steeple in 1911 when it was converted to a church.
The two bartenders in the photo below from when the building was a saloon in 1901 are the great-uncle’s of the charming docent who led our tour.
We finished traveling up the St. Clair River and into Lake Huron today.
We walked around the quaint town of Lexington and had lunch at Cadillac House, a hotel built in 1860.
We witnessed a gorgeous sunrise before leaving the marina and Misty sent us some pictures of Perfect Match as we were leaving.
We crossed Lake St. Clair and headed up the St. Clair River which was beautiful with the U.S. and Canadian borders on either side of the river. We saw a few freighters and Misty got a shot of Perfect Match after we had been passed by one of them. We look so small next to a freighter!
We ate lunch at Murphy’s Inn, a restored 1836 boarding house. The inn has 7 guest rooms with private bathrooms and is one of the oldest operating inns in Michigan. There is a dining room and an Irish pub on the main level.
Today was a short and pleasant trip on the Detroit River and we enjoyed a nice lunch at the onsite restaurant at the marina with Misty and Darrel upon arrival.
The next day we toured the Ford House, the stunning 60-room, 30,000 square foot home on 87 acres which Edsel and Eleanor Ford built in 1928 and where they raised their four children. Edsel was the only son of Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford and became president of the company at the age of 25. The home is filled with beautiful art including paintings by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Renoir, Matisse, Redon, Raphael, Chagall and Deigo Rivera as well as sculptors, Persian and Chinese ceramics and African and Asian artifacts. There are several original paintings left in the house but many were donated by Eleanor to the the Detroit Institute of Arts upon her death and replaced with reproductions in the house. Most of the interior woodwork such as fireplaces, staircases and wood paneling are from 16th, 17th and 18th century English manors.
The onsite museum features exhibits about the Ford family as well as three cars from the 1930’s:
Michael (Gratitude) and Heather met Misty, Darrel and us to tour the home. We later went for ice cream and then to Mike’s for drinks and a light dinner (since we’d already had desert!) Michael lives in St. Clair Shores and just crossed his wake (completed his Loop) a few days ago. We first met him in Annapolis but have run into him several more times since then. We will surely miss seeing him as we continue on our Loop!
Travel on Lake Erie was a little rough for about three hours but then calmed down and was quite pleasant. We crossed Lake Erie and began our way up the Detroit River where the Canadian border was a stone’s throw from our starboard side. We just stayed at the marina rather than venturing out into Detroit and Misty and Darrel joined us for dinner on Perfect Match.
We saw several large freighters:
It was pretty rough most of the day on Lake Erie as we traveled with Star Dust to Put-In-Bay. Put-In-Bay is a lovely town on South Bass Island. While there are cars on the island, the majority of vehicles used is golf carts. We shared a golf cart with Misty and Darrel and toured the whole island.
A new sign had just been installed a few weeks ago at South Bass Island State Park.
Heineman Winery was founded in 1888 by German immigrant Gustav Heineman and is the oldest family owned and operated winery in Ohio. It is currently run by 3rd, 4th and 5th generation Heinemans. We took a tour of the winery and sampled the wine. Crystal Cave was discovered on the property in 1897 while digging for a well and is the largest geode in the world. During prohibition, when many wineries closed, Heinemann Winery was able to stay in business by providing tours of the cave, producing unfermented grape juice and providing taxi service.
Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, built in 1915, is part of the National Parks System and honors those who fought in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812 in addition to celebrating the long lasting peace among Great Britain, Canada and the U.S. that followed the war. Three American and three British officers are buried together in the rotunda of the 352 foot column. The memorial is the largest Doric column in the world and is 47 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty and a few feet shorter than the Washington Monument. The Battle of Lake Erie was one of the most decisive naval battles of the war as Perry’s defeat of the British fleet established control of Lake Erie. The views from the top were absolutely gorgeous!
We rode the ferry over to Middle Bass Island and rented a golf cart to tour the island.
Lonz Winery was established in 1884. All that remains now are the wine cellar, the facade and the tower after a terrace collapsed in 2000. Exhibits featuring wine making equipment found on the property are displayed in the wine cellar.
The marina where we stayed in Cleveland was right in front of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We had a great time touring the “Rock Hall”!
We walked around downtown Cleveland and went to Jack’s Casino and were happy to find the Lock it Link slot machine that we had played in Buffalo. Ellen was able to turn her $20 into $101.33 and Kevin turned his $100 into $244.95, even after he was down to $16.95 just before that! Unfortunately, Nathan wasn’t as lucky this time but he had won big in Buffalo!
After the casino, we went to Progressive Field and watched the Cleveland Guardians defeat the Detroit Tigers 6-5.
Ellen and Misty had a great time at the musical “ain’t too proud The Life and Times of The Temptations. The theatre was beautiful and the acting, singing and dancing were superb. We were sorry that the boys had chosen not to attend as they really missed out on a wonderful show.
The boys may have missed out on a great show but we all enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Blue Point Grill afterwards.
Our final full day in Cleveland and Nathan’s last full day with us was spent at Cedar Point. Cedar Point opened in 1870 and is the second oldest amusement park in the U.S. It is world-renowned for its stellar roller coasters. We had a blast but were wiped out after riding the roller coasters and clocking over 16K steps!
We had a beautiful sunset our last night in Cleveland.
We passed two lighthouses today, Presque Island Lighthouse and Ashtabula Lighthouse.
Ellen and Nathan biked to Geneva On the Lake which is like a 1950’s vacation town with restaurants, shops and arcades lining the Main Street. It is quaint but touristy and we imagined it to be a nice family vacation spot for those that live nearby.
There was a nice beach next to the marina where Ellen and Nathan spent some time. We weren’t used to seeing rocks on the shore rather than shells! Nathan even went swimming in Lake Erie.
We went back to town for dinner and, of course, ice cream!
Linda and Ron from Gypsy Soul were kind enough to send photos of Perfect Match as they were leaving Canalside shortly before we left.
It was a long but pleasant travel day to Erie. We had lunch with Michael from Gratitude at Oliver’s Rooftop which overlooks the marina and Presque Isle Bay.
Later we took the dingy across the bay to Presque Isle and then went to Oliver’s Beer Garden to listen to some live music and have a beer.
To Canalside including lock and fuel stop:
Today was our final day on the Erie Canal. We also had to bid farewell to Star Dust and Off Leash with whom we have traveled with, toured with, eaten with, had several ice creams with and laughed a whole bunch with this past week. They are both stopping in Tonawanda and we are going about 7 miles further to Buffalo. We sure hope to meet up again with them on the Great Lakes.
The final two locks on the Erie Canal are locks 34 and 35, often referred to as the “Siamese Twins”. These locks replaced the original “Flight of Five” in 1918. The Flight of Five was built to carry the canal over the steep Niagara Escarpment at Lockport, NY. There were two sets of 5 stone locks, one set for eastbound traffic and the other set for westbound traffic. One set was replaced with the current locks and the other set remains, with the gates removed, and functions as a spillway. The locks raise or lower boats a total of 49 feet and the upper door of Lock 34 is also the lower door of Lock 35.
Ellen’s son, Nathan, was waiting for us at the marina and will travel with us for a week. Ellen and Nathan went to Thin Man Brewery and had a delicious Buffalo Chicken Pizza while the Captain rested from our journey to Buffalo.
We spent Monday at Niagara Falls, America’s oldest state park, and had a great time! We got soaked on the Maiden of the Mist boat ride and the Cave of the Wind. We rode the trolley some but also managed to get in just over 10,000 steps while we were there!
We saw several rainbows throughout the day but failed to find a pot of gold.
We traveled about 5 miles to Canalside to dock Tuesday night because there is a lock, Black Rock Lock, that we needed to go through and their first lock through is at 8:30AM. We had decided to drop our planned stop in Dunkirk, NY and make the full run to Erie, PA on Wednesday so moving allowed us to be able to leave earlier from Buffalo.
We visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House which was stunning. The Martin House is one of Wright’s earliest and most important works and is classified as a Prairie style home. Unfortunately, photos of the interior are not permitted. In addition to the beautiful art glass windows or, as Wright called them, “light screens”, Wright also designed pieces of furniture and built in units.
On the 1.5 acre estate are also a Gardener’s Cottage, Carriage House, Conservatory, and the Barton House which is a home Martin had built for his sister and brother in law.
Nathan and Ellen later walked to a casino and played some slot machines. Both walked out with a little more than they walked in with!
We went under several more lift bridges today. The scenery changed to a lot of farms and crops. We saw a couple of bald eagles perched in a tree but not one of the three boats was able to get a picture of them!
The canal crosses over Culvert Road on an aqueduct and this is the only place where cars can drive under the Erie Canal.
Just after the Culvert Road crossing, the canal also crosses over Orchard Creek.
After a nice lunch at a Zambistro which had tablecloths (when have we seen those!), we took a walk to see Medina Falls and later toured a magnificent Railroad Museum.
Medina is known for its beautiful sandstone as seen in the following two churches.
The Medina Railroad Museum houses one of the largest model train layouts in the country at 204 feet long by 14 feet wide. The layout is a timeline of how transportation of goods in Western New York began with the Erie Canal and progressed to trains.
We ended the evening with ice cream at Rudy’s.
This last 100 or so miles of the Erie Canal most closely resembles the original canal which was a ditch with towpaths on each side although the original canal was not as wide as the current canal. Boats were pulled through using ropes attached to mules and horses as the animals walked along the towpaths.
There were several lift bridges through the next several towns. The one in Fairport is in the Guiness Book of Records for several reasons. One end is higher than the other, it is built on a slant and no two angles on the entire bridge are the same.
We spotted a deer on the bank of the canal.
This section of the canal is known as the “Rock Cut”. Some of the most extensive excavation of the entire canal took place here through solid rock, long before modern machinery.
We went through 5 locks and many more low bridges today.
We were up and out of Brewerton by 6:30AM. We went through two locks and had an early lunch with Misty and Darrel at San Miguel Mexican Restaurant and walked around town. In the evening, we went to JessiCakes for ice cream. It rained lightly off and on all day.
We saw a beautiful swan on our trip to Baldwinsville.
We went through two locks today. Both locked down which we had not done before. We stopped at Sylvan Beach for a couple of hours on our way from Rome to Brewerton. We had breakfast and walked around a small craft fair.
We’ve been staying on free walls for most of our time on the Erie Canal but Brewerton has several marinas so we chose to stay in one. We had docktails on the marina pavilion with about 10 couples before watching the fireworks which the city set off on July 3. So many funny stories were exchanged and the evening was filled with much laughter! The marina had decorated for the 4th and had also put out two gorgeous flower arrangements.
On the 4th, Kevin played golf with Rob and Darrel while Ellen worked on route planning for the rest of the Erie Canal with Karen and Misty. Later, we took a loaner car from the marina and went to the grocery store and Home Depot. We ran into Susi and Mark from Rose Cottage, who were staying at a different marina and also had a loaner car. That evening, we removed the isinglass on the flybridge, lowered the bimini and lowered the radar arch and other antennas in preparation for passing under some upcoming low bridges on the Western half of the Erie Canal.
Upon leaving Little Falls, there was light rain and a lot of debris in the canal (branches and logs). We were headed to Sylvan Beach, NY but decided to stop in Rome, NY instead so that we could visit the Fort Stanwix National Monument. On the way, we also saw that there was a beautiful theatre in Rome and purchased tickets to what we thought was a play for that evening. After purchasing the tickets online and marveling that the tickets were only $8, we realized we had purchased tickets to a movie, not a play! The movie was titled Phantom of the Open which is the true story of Maurice Flitcroft, who, after never having played golf, was able to gain entry into the 1976 British Open qualifying rounds where he then shot the worst round in Open history (121 – 49 over par) and even went on to enter a few other times under different names after having been banned from returning. It was actually a cute movie although not shown in the grand theatre we had seen photos of on the internet but a tiny 1950’s looking movie theatre next door!
We saw a couple of Bald Eagles on our trip today. Our photos were not as good as one that Susi took so we are borrowing hers!
Fort Stanwix was originally built by the British in 1758 during the French and Indian War. and was captured by the Americans during the Revolutionary War. It later burned to the ground in 1781. The site of the original fort is now home to a reconstructed structure built by the National Park Service.
We had an early diner at the well regarded Franklin Hotel before attending the aforementioned movie.
We traveled with Star Dust and Rose Cottage again today. We went through 6 locks for a total lift of 95 feet.
Our last lock today was Lock E17 which is the highest lift lock on the canal at 40 feet. All of the locks we have gone through up to this point have gone smoothly. Once we had pulled into Lock 17 and Ellen had grabbed her rope, the boat began moving backwards. Kevin came around and yelled, “Ellen, what are you DOING?” to which Ellen replied, ” What do you MEAN what am I doing?” It turns out that as Kevin was leaving the lower helm to come out and grab his rope he had inadvertently shifted from neutral to reverse! He quickly corrected and saved us from running into the back gate.
Some more phots taken by Star Dust and Cottage Rose:
There was just enough room on the wall at Little Falls for the three of us to tie up but we had to move a boat forward a little bit for Kevin to be able to dock our boat. The lock master and our friends moved the boat, not thinking there was anyone on it. Actually, the man was napping and the woman was working and neither of them even knew the boat had been moved!
Later, we were sitting on the boat and unwinding from the day of travel when Ellen spotted Jane and Tony on Clean Cut passing by outside the window. We had not seen them since New York City so she jumped up to go shout “hello” to them as they passed. They had planned to stay here and weren’t sure where they would go since the wall was full by the time they arrived. We offered to let them tie up to our boat which the marina does allow. So they turned around and did just that! After they were safely tied up to our boat, we enjoyed talking with several other couples on the wall and then the four of us went across the street to a food truck and had dinner.
The next day we biked to the quaint town of Little Falls and had a wonderful breakfast at That Little Place on Main.
We then biked on the Erie Canalway Trail to the Herkimer Home which was built in 1764. General Nicolas Herkimer was an American Revolution hero who led the defense of Fort Stanwix (which we will visit at our next stop in Rome, NY) at the Battle of Oriskany in 1777. This battle was one of the bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War and had families fighting against each other. Herkimer’s leg was wounded during the battle but he kept command of the battle. His leg was later amputated and he died 10 days later from complications of the surgery. He is buried in the cemetery on the property.
We stopped at Lock 17 on the way back to get a view from the top. We noticed on NEBO that Michael from Gratitude, whom we had met in Annapolis, was on his way to the lock so we waited to watch the lock masters empty the chamber and take pictures and videos of Michael locking through.
Pivot was docked just north of the lock and we met the cute young couple, Jen and Elliot, and their dog, Ollie. It turns out they live only a couple of miles from us in Atlanta. We didn’t realize it at the time but they are Scho & Jo who have a great vlog detailing their Great Loop adventure. We have heard about them from several Loopers but had not yet watched any of their videos on YouTube. A while later we saw them pass by where we were tied up.
We spotted our first deer across the canal from us.
Every Thursday in the summer at the marina there is a Cruise In where many antique cars are on display. We enjoyed walking around and looking at all of the beautifully restored cars. There was even a 1918 Harley Davidson motorcycle. After we looked at all of the cars we biked to town for dinner and a flight of beer at The Copper Moose and later watched the parade of cars drive by.
The following day we had a full day of boat cleaning and laundry followed by an amazing dinner at Beardslee Castle. We had a dickens of a time getting an Uber to the restaurant and no luck getting one back to the marina. The owner of the restaurant was kind enough to let the hostess take us back. We were extremely grateful we did not have to walk 6 miles back to the marina in the dark and rain!
Beardslee Castle was built in 1860 as a replica of an Irish Castle. It survived two fires before being purchased by the current owners in 1994 who renovated it and opened it as a restaurant. It is also a popular wedding venue.
We were up early in order to make the first lock opening at 7:00. Today we went through 9 locks between Waterford and Amsterdam! The total lift was 241 feet. We traveled with Star Dust and Rose Cottage all day.
The Erie Canal was built to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes. The original Erie Canal was built between 1817 and 1825 and the current canal was completed in 1918. The canal runs about 360 miles between the Hudson River in Albany and to Lake Erie in Buffalo and raises and lowers boats over 570 feet.
The first five locks (E2-E6) are known as the Waterford Flight. The Waterford Flight, built in 1907, raises boats 169 feet from the Hudson River to the Mohawk River. Each lock has a lift of 33 to 34.5 feet and the distance from lock E2 to E6 is only about 1.5 miles which makes this the greatest lift in the shortest distance on any canal in the world and greater than the total lift of the entire Panama Canal. As mentioned in the previous post, these locks were built so that mariners could bypass the Cohoes Falls. Ellen took a screenshot of Google maps when we were at the falls that shows why the Waterford Flight was necessary and how it diverts marine traffic around the falls. It took us about two hours to go through the Waterford Flight.
Next to lock E2, is the site of the 1823 Side-Cut Locks which were built to allow boat traffic from the Hudson River to the Champlain Canal. Mules were used to pull boats through the locks with ropes.
Some photos of Perfect Match taken by our buddy boats:
Today was a short trip that included our first big lock other than the two smaller ones we went through on the Dismal Swamp Canal.
Before arriving at the lock, guess what we passed? More barges! We also passed Albany, the capitol of New York.
Lock 1 on the New York State Canal System in the Troy Federal Lock. Planning for this lock began in 1903 and the lock opened in 1916. This is technically the first lock on the New York State Canal System but it is not actually on the Erie Canal so the first lock on the Erie Canal will be lock E2. Lock 1, the Troy Federal Lock, is 520 feet long, 45 feet wide and 17 feet deep. This lock raised us about 14 feet.
Shortly after Lock 1, we entered the Erie Canal.
Just after the turn to enter the Erie Canal is the town of Waterford which has a first come, first serve free dock along the wall on the edge of the canal and directly in front of Lock E2 which is the first lock on the Erie Canal. When we were about 2 miles out, we texted Misty and Darrel from Star Dust, whom we had first met in Southport and saw again at our last stop in New Baltimore, to make sure there was still room on the wall since they had arrived there earlier. They scoped it out and found one spot that had 50 amp power and waited there to help us tie up. It turns out this was the best spot on the wall as it was directly under a bridge and remained shaded throughout the day which was nice.
There were several Loopers tied up at the Waterford Docks, including a couple that is currently on their 32nd Loop! We met the 82 year old man who lives aboard with his wife and dog. They bought their boat new in 1987 and have been traveling the Loop ever since with no plans to stop!
Fellow Loopers Salty Peacock and Varlabania were passing by shortly after we had docked. They were going ahead to Amsterdam which will be our next stop. Since Lock E2 is directly ahead of the Waterford Dock, Ellen walked up to the top of the lock to take pictures of the two boats locking through and get a glimpse of what was in store for us when we lock through here.
We walked around the town and later had docktails on our flybridge with Misty and Darrel from Star Dust before cooking dinner on the boat.
The following day, we walked to the local grocery store after a morning of rain. Later, we took a 3 mile bike ride to see the beautiful Cohoes Falls. Once there, we had to descend (and later ascend!) about 100 feet, including about 86 steps on a steep stairway but it was well worth it! As it is now summertime, the falls are dried up compared to their peak Springtime flow but still stunningly beautiful. The falls span the 1,000 foot width of the Mohawk River and drop as much as 90 feet in height. These waterfalls were a barrier to mariners on the Erie Canal which led to the creation of the Waterford Flight which will be explained in the next post.
We had dinner in town at McGreivey’s with Misty and Darrel from Star Dust.
We are really enjoying our cruise up the Hudson River! Again, we practically had the river to ourselves most of the way. We passed some smaller boats and a few big barges but no other Loopers. We enjoyed watching trains move along the bottom of the mountains at the waters edge and admiring homes perched on mountains above the river. Freight trains would move along the western side of the river and passenger trains would move along the eastern side. Having been on the beautiful Hudson River and out of New York City for several days, we are still amazed that it is only a short train ride from here to New York City! We did have to keep watch for large tree limbs and logs in the water as we traveled.
Walkway Over The Hudson is the world’s longest elevated pedestrian bridge. The bridge is 212 feet high and 1.28 miles long. It was completed in 1889 and served as a railroad bridge until 1974 when it was damaged by a fire before being reopened in 2009 as a pedestrian bridge. We did not have time to walk across it because we had to return the rental car but we enjoyed the views of it from the river.
We also passed by the Culinary Institute of America which we had visited a few days earlier. The picture below is the main building but it is really quite a large campus.
Again, we passed several barges:
A highlight of the day was passing by several beautiful lighthouses on our way to New Baltimore.
Esopus Meadows Lighthouse was completed in 1871. It is the only surviving wooden lighthouse on the Hudson River and is only accessible by boat. There was once a meadow in the middle of the Hudson where cows could even graze at low tide. The lighthouse was installed to warn mariners of the mudflat during high tide and direct them around the shallow area. The lighthouse thus got the nickname “Maid of the Meadow”. The Coast Guard took over operation of the lighthouse from civilians in 1939 and the lighthouse was closed in 1965 when it was replaced with an automatic solar powered system.
Saugerties Lighthouse was constructed in 1869 replacing an earlier 1838 lighthouse on the same site. It ceased being staffed in 1954 when the Coast Guard automated the light. It fell into disrepair, was restored and recommissioned in 1990. It is now a two-bedroom Bed & Breakfast which can be booked for $525 a night for the two bedrooms and breakfast.
Hudson Athens Lighthouse was constructed in 1874 to guide mariners around the Middle Ground Flats which would be submerged and not visible at high tide causing boats to run aground. The lighthouse was automated in 1949 and housed light keepers and their families until 1966.
Another really big barge we passed. The second photo is the tug pushing it.
There were about a dozen other Looper boats at the marina when we arrived. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the onsite restaurant overlooking the river, Boathouse Grille.
Marlboro was an unplanned stop as this is where we would have the boat hauled out for additional repairs such as repacking the stuffing boxes on the prop shafts, replacing the battery for the generator and replacing zincs. The wonderful mechanics that repaired our air conditioning in Croton-On-Hudson made arrangements for the haul out at the marina and drove there to meet us. We want to give a special shoutout to Brendon and Pat from On-Site Marine Service as they truely went above and beyond to get the necessary repairs made, working long hours while at the same time trying to save us as much money as they could but still do the job right (which included fixing previous mechanics’s work). Another shoutout goes to Dan, the dock master at the marina, who drove us to town so that we could eat lunch and explore the town and came back to get us once we were ready. Dan also took Brendon across the river in his boat to get supplies, saving precious time over what it would have taken him to drive in a car.
It was a short but beautiful trip to Marlboro. It was a little foggy when we first left Croton-On-Hudson but visibility was still good. We passed a few barges and enjoyed watching trains run along the bottom of the mountains.
We also passed West Point Military Academy which we had visited while we were in Croton-on-Hudson.
Photos of the beautiful scenery on the Hudson River today:
After we got the boat hauled out, we had lunch at the Raccoon Saloon and walked around the small town, stopping at the bakery for some treats and walking through the market. Once Dan had picked us up in town, we sat on the porch overlooking the Hudson for the rest of the afternoon while the mechanics completed their work on the boat. The weather was perfect and the scenery was beautiful. It was such a peaceful afternoon!
The Raccoon Saloon overlooks a pretty stream and waterfall with the Hudson River in the distance and is much nicer than the exterior photo below shows! We glimpsed fellow Loopers on the Salty Peacock passing by below and took a picture.
The marina is home to about 80 local boats and many of them were having a potluck dinner which they all invited us to attend but we graciously declined. This was the nicest group of people and many of them asked that we just let them know if we needed anything. This is not usually a place where Loopers stop but we highly recommend it, particularly if they are in need of service.
We enjoyed our final views of New York City as we started up the Hudson River. Our trip was only about 36 miles but we were going against the current so we went slower rather than burning up precious fuel. It was a great day for cruising and, after we got out of the New York City area, we practically had the river to ourselves. The scenery quickly changed from skyscrapers to tree covered mountains.
The George Washington Bridge is the world’s busiest vehicle bridge and connects Manhattan with New Jersey. The bridge is 4,760 feet long and has two decks with 8 lanes on the upper deck and 6 lanes on the bottom deck. Just under the bridge on the Manhattan side is The Little Red Lighthouse which was built in 1880 and is one of the few surviving lighthouses in New York City. Hildegarde Swift wrote a children’s book in 1942, The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge, which teaches children that no matter how small they are, they can still make a difference.
Once docked at the marina, we stayed on the boat and waited for mechanics to come look at one of our air-conditioning units which had not worked for about two weeks. Thankfully, the one that cools the stateroom works great and it hasn’t been too terribly hot in the salon with the windows open. The mechanics were able to come back the next day and repair the unit without having to replace the fan. In the meantime, the mechanics and Kevin decided we should have the boat hauled out to repack the stuffing boxes on the prop shafts which we will do in a few days.
We later walked to the Croton Colonial Diner for dinner.
The next day we shared an Uber with new friends, Karen and Tony from Long Recess, and visited the beautiful Croton Dam which supplies water to New York City. Construction of the dam began in 1892 and was completed in 1906. This dam is actually the New Croton Dam which replaced the Old Croton Dam which was completed in 1842.
We hiked up to the top of the dam and back down.
After our visit to the dam, we shared a rental car with Karen and Tony to run errands. We hit the T-Mobile store, CVS, and laundromat before having dinner at Los Abuelos Mexican restaurant followed by ice cream at The Blue Pig.
We went grocery shopping the next morning followed by a tour of West Point Military Academy and dinner at the Culinary Institute of America in Poughkeepsie, NY in one of three restaurants there, American Bounty, which features products of the Hudson Valley.
West Point was founded in 1802 and is built on the grounds of where Fort Clinton was constructed in 1778. The fort’s name was later changed to Fort Arnold, after Benedict Arnold, but changed back to Fort Clinton after he committed treason and defected to the British Army. Upon graduation from West Point, cadets serve 5 years of active duty as an Officer in the Army followed by three years in the Army Reserves.
The organ in the Chapel is the largest pipe organ in a religious institution in the world. It contains 23,511 pipes.
The Protestant Chapel at West Point
The Culinary Institute of America’s prime campus is in Hyde Park, NY and is quite spectacular. Within the campus, there are four restaurants that are open to the public where the students prepare the food and serve the customers, The Apple Pie Bakery, American Bounty, The Bocuse Restaurant (French) and The Ristorante Caterina de’ Medici (Italian).
We chose to dine at the American Bounty as it features products of the Hudson Valley. We had a wonderful meal and received excellent service while being able to watch the student chefs prepare the food.
On our final full day in Croton-on-Hudson, we drove back to Hyde Park and toured Springwood, the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as Hyde Park, one of about 40 Vanderbilt mansions. Both homes are part of the National Park Service.
Roosevelt was born and raised in this beautiful home on the banks of the Hudson River and later lived here with his wife Eleanor where they raised their family. He visited the home over 200 times during his presidency and hosted many foreign dignitaries there, including King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the current Queen’s parents), who were the first British monarchs on American soil, and Winston Churchill. He and his wife, Eleanor, are buried on the property in his mother’s rose garden. The home already had a trunk lift to raise luggage to the second floor and, once Roosevelt became paralyzed from polio, he used this lift to get himself to the second floor where his bedroom was located as the lift was large enough to accommodate his wheelchair. The lift could have been electrified but Roosevelt was deathly afraid of fire and preferred to raise himself up using ropes contained in the lift. Roosevelt was an avid stamp collector from his childhood through his adulthood and amassed a collection of about 1.2 million stamps in his lifetime.
About 2 miles down the road from Springwood is the Vanderbilt Mansion known as Hyde Park. This was the spring and fall country home of Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt. Frederick Vanderbilt was the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, America’s first multi-millionaire, who built the Vanderbilt fortune from a $100 loan from his mother to start a ferry operation between Staten Island and Manhattan. The mansion was built over two years by 300 European craftsmen and was completed in 1898. With 57 rooms covering 50,000 square feet, it is the smallest of all of the Vanderbilt mansions, most notably the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. As Frederick and Louis had no children, the mansion was left to his niece upon their deaths. She did not need the mansion as she had one of own and put the entire estate up for sale for $350K and reduced the price to $250K a year later. As she was still not able to sell the estate due to the Great Depression, Roosevelt approached her and asked if she would be willing to donate it to the National Park Service as he planned to do with his home. She agreed and this is the only Gilded Age mansion in the National Park Service. Frederick and Louise were well known for their tremendous generosity. The would allow the school children to play on their grounds, they paid their servants much higher wages than anyone else in the area, they bought Christmas presents for the children in the town and, when Frederick died, there were 57 people named in his will, 37 of which were his servants.
We left early (about 6:00am) with buddy boats Happy Daze and Clean Cut and again traveled on the outside. It was pretty foggy when we first left Atlantic City. The fog soon dissipated but then reappeared and we could no longer see our buddy boats. Thank goodness for radar and AIS which enabled us to know exactly where they were as well as any other traffic we may have encountered. We also had to keep a keen watch out for crab pots. For a while, we could only see about an eighth of a mile in front of us.
We had planned to stop in Brielle, NJ which is about halfway between Atlantic City and New York but it turned out to be such a nice day that we all decided to make the full run to NYC. It was a long 10 hour day but we were happy to take advantage of the good weather and to have two other boats to travel with.
We stopped in front of the Statue of Liberty with our buddy boats and took photos of each other.
It was so exciting cruising up the harbor and into New York!
Once we were docked, we Ubered to White Star restaurant in Jersey City and had wonderful burgers. Later, we walked to the end of the marina for nighttime photos of the NY skyline before retiring after our long but magical day.
The border between New Jersey and New York actually runs down the center of the harbor and the marina is actually in New Jersey so we are able to see both the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline from the boat. To top it all off, there was a full moon!
The marina has a ferry which takes passengers across the harbor to New York. On our first full day in New York we visited the World Trade Center Memorial, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and strolled through Central Park. Of course, we stopped at a street vendor in front of the museum for hot dogs!
The World Trade Center Memorial consists of two pools that sit on the footprints of the former North and South Towers. The pools are surrounded by bronze parapets that list the names of the 2,983 victims of the 9/11/2001 attacks as well as the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The pools are the largest manmade waterfalls in North America.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) first opened in 1871. It is the largest art museum in the Western Hemisphere and contains over two million works.
Of the collections that we saw, one of our favorites was the Egyptian Art collection and its focal point is the Temple of Dendur. The Temple of Dendur was built around 15 B.C. and was commissioned by the first Emperor of Rome, Augustus Caesar. The Temple was gifted to the US by the Egyptian government in 1965.
Some of the other collections we viewed were Musical Instruments (from 300 B.C. to the present), European Paintings, 1250-1800, and Greek and Roman Art. I’m sure we are leaving some things out and we did not come close to seeing all there is to see but what we did see was absolutely amazing!
Next, we strolled through Central Park and sat on a bench for a while to “people watch”.
The next day we had lunch with Kevin’s daughter, Emma, whose office is at 7 World Trade Center. After Lunch we took the subway to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum which is home to the aircraft carrier, USS Intrepid, the space shuttle, Enterprise, and the submarine, USS Growler. Later, we walked around Times Square and enjoyed a New York pizza for dinner on the boat.
The USS Intrepid was launched in 1943 and fought in World War II, the Cold War and the Vietnam War. During World War II it survived five kamikaze attacks and one torpedo strike. It also served as a NASA recovery vessel in the 1960’s.
The space shuttle Enterprise was NASA’s first space shuttle and was flown five times in 1977. It was built to be a test vehicle but not built to travel into space.
The USS Growler was launched in 1958 and is now the only American guided missile submarine open to the public. Its purpose was to be a nuclear deterrent off the coast of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Day three was spent doing some boat cleaning and planning for the next several legs of our trip. That evening we took the subway and had a delicious dinner at the Hourglass Tavern on Restaurant Row (46th Street) in Hell’s Kitchen before attending the fabulous Broadway show Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre.
In addition to becoming what we think are pretty good subway riders, we walked over 30,000 steps over those two days! We spent the next day taking it easy and doing some more cleaning before Kevin took off to spend the weekend with his daughter, Emma, son in law, Andrew, and precious granddaughter, Margaret in Brooklyn. Ellen stayed on the boat and went to visit them for several hours on Saturday. She was quite proud of herself for navigating from Jersey City to New York via the PATH train and then the subway to Brooklyn all by herself!
Brooklyn is a charming town with block after block of stunning Brownstones surrounded by beautiful trees. Emma and Andrew’s lovely apartment is in a Brownstone and they have a wonderful garden area in the back where they grow vegetables and flowers. While Ellen was visiting, we had delicious burgers and beer at Brooklyn Burgers and Beer and walked around the Park Slope neighborhood and through Prospect Park. We went back to the apartment so Margaret could take a nap and then went for an ice cream before Ellen headed back to the boat.
Our final day before departing New York was Father’s Day and Emma, Andrew and Margaret came back from Brooklyn with Kevin to see our boat. We had Father’s Day Brunch at one of the restaurants at the marina and then walked around Liberty State Park. We walked through the historic Central Railroad Station and viewed Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
We decided to leave Cape May a day earlier than planned in order to have a better weather day for our trip to Atlantic City since we would be traveling outside (in the ocean) versus the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway (NJICW). There is much debate among Loopers regarding traveling via the NJICW. Some say it is too shallow in some areas and others, most of whom are more familiar with the area, say it is beautiful and not to be of concern. We opted to take what we thought would be a safer route given that we had a good weather window to travel on the outside. We traveled with two other Looper boats, Happy Daze and Clean Cut.
We saw a lot of dolphin as we were approaching Atlantic City, probably the most we had ever seen at one time. It is just not as exciting as it was on the west coast of Florida where they would follow along with us in our wake!
There were several other Loopers at the marina which is part of a the Golden Nugget Casino. Ellen had emailed our friends Zuby and Ilyas, Non-Loopers whom we had met in Brunswick and Charleston, who live in Atlantic City to see if we could get together with them while we were there before we noticed that we were in a slip across the fairway from their boat, Rehmat. We made plans to get together Monday evening but we ended up leaving Atlantic City a day early and were disappointed we did not get to see them. They had made a nonstop run on the outside from Charleston to Atlantic City in THREE days! We traveled from Charleston to Atlantic City making 17 stops in 32 days!
We took a jitney to the Boardwalk and walked around, had lunch and saw the beach before meeting up with the other Loopers for docktails.
Thanks to Tim’s advice at Delaware City Marina, we had a great day to travel to Cape May and traveled with several other Loopers. We passed a lot of large ships and barges along the way:
Once we arrived in Cape May, we had a terrible time getting the marina to respond to both radio and phone calls. Once they finally responded and gave us our slip assignment, we began to pull into the marina only to meet another Looper boat, Clean Cut, heading to the same slip from the fuel dock. Kevin had to maintain our boat in the fairway with another boat behind us and strong cross winds while they figured out where to put the two boats and docked Clean Cut. It was quite a mess but we were both finally docked.
We walked to the town and passed a lot of beautiful houses before ending up at the Washington Street Mall which is several pedestrian only blocks of shops and restaurants in the heart of Cape May.
We stopped in a Five & Dime which had a soda fountain in the back.
After walking through Washington Street Mall, we walked to the Jersey Shore.
We then walked to see the famous “Painted Lady” houses although they were not near as pretty as all of the homes we passed earlier in our walk.
We ended the day with dinner at the Lobster House restaurant and decided the weather was favorable the next day for our trip to Atlantic City.
We crossed the Chesapeake a final time before entering the 14 mile long C&D Canal which connects the Chesapeake Bay with the Delaware River. It was another calm and beautiful day!
Some sights along the C&D Canal:
Delaware City is a popular stop for Loopers as the marina owner, Tim, offers a daily weather briefing for the Delaware Bay which we will transit to Cape May. Delaware Bay is another body of water where boaters benefit from a good weather window and, during the briefing, Tim thoroughly explains his criteria for a “go” or “no go” day taking the wind and currents for the entire trip to Cape May into consideration. We stayed two nights in Delaware City as travel was not recommended after the first night.
The marina is a long dock alongside a canal which was the original end of the C&D Canal.
Delaware City is a 5 block by 8 block town with a very small waterfront downtown area. Once we had docked, we walked around town, had an ice cream and cooked dinner on the boat.
The trip to Havre de Grace could not have been more calm on the Chesapeake. We followed Off Leash most of the way until they turned off for a different destination. We hope to meet up with Karen and Rob again along the way.
After docking, we walked along the promenade and had lunch before heading back to the boat to rest. We were able to get our generator fixed which had not worked since we were in Belhaven and had the oil changed and the engines serviced. The self proclaimed “expert” in Belhaven assured us that it was nothing they had done and that we needed a new fuel pump for the generator. He also said they don’t usually just quit working like ours had. Kevin ordered a new pump and we were able to find someone here that could replace it. It turns out, however, that rather than needing a new fuel pump, the previous worker had disconnected the fuel supply during the service and failed to reconnect it. Needless to say, Kevin was livid and sent a scathing email to the “expert”. At any rate, we are glad to once again have a working generator.
Havre de Grace is a lovely town but, as we’ve noticed with some of the other smaller towns we have visited, many of the sites and restaurants are closed during the week. The one thing that was open was the Decoy Museum. Who knew that Havre de Grace is the decoy capital of the world?!
We had a delicious birthday breakfast for Kevin at Vintage Cafe and scrumptious birthday burgers for dinner at Abbey Burger.
One of the interesting things we learned while visiting the Decoy Museum was that hunters used to use a type of blind called a Sinkbox Boat. A Sinkbox is a flat, wooden, weighted structure that enables the hunter to hide at water level among decoys that are placed on the Sinkbox. Due to the success of the use of Sinkboxes and the subsequent decline in the duck population, Sinkboxes became illegal in 1935.
Concord Point Lighthouse was built in 1827 and decommissioned in 1975 as. the oldest lighthouse on the Chesapeake in continuous service. The first light keeper was John O’Neil who served from the age of 58 until his death at age 70 in 1838. O’Neil is known for his bravery during the War of 1812 when the British attacked Havre de Grace and he single handedly defended the town until he was injured and captured before subsequently being released. Four generations of the O’Neil family maintained the lighthouse until 1920 when it became automated.
The Keepers House was also built in 1827 and had several additions added over the years. The restored building shows the outline of the original house on the side.
There were about a dozen or so ships anchored just outside of Annapolis.
There is a 753 mile sailboat race from Annapolis to Bermuda which would start the day after we arrived. To mark the beginning of the race, the sailboats participate in a parade around Annapolis Harbor. We arrived at the harbor just after the parade had ended but there were still a good many sailboats in the area which we had to maneuver around as sailboats that are under sail have the right of way.
As we made the turn into the channel for the marina, we passed the US Naval Academy.
The first evening that we were in Annapolis, Karen and Ellen contacted the other Loopers at the marina to meet for docktails. We have attended or hosted several docktails but this was the first time we actually got together on a DOCK! There were about 20 of us at one point and it was great fun talking with everyone who are in various stages of completing their Loop.
After cocktails, Karen and Ellen walked to town for much needed pedicures and the boys met us afterwards. Karen and Rob had already had dinner so they went for an ice cream while we went to dinner. Annapolis is a beautiful, bustling town and is much larger than the small fishing towns we have been in lately. There are SO many restaurants.
We had an amazing tour of the Naval Academy with Karen and Rob and attended church at the Naval Academy Chapel on Sunday. The US Naval Academy was founded in 1845 which prepares midshipmen to become officers in the Navy and Marine Corps. Upon graduation from the Academy, graduates serve a. minimum of five years in the Name or Marine Corps.
Below is a photo of the Herndon Monument. First year Naval Academy students are called plebes. At the end of the first year, the monument is covered with vegetable shortening with a “Dixie Cup” hat placed at the top. The class must work together and form a human pyramid until someone reaches the hat at the top of the monument, 21 feet high. The “Dixie Cup” hat is replaced with an upperclassman’s hat signifying that they are no longer plebes but fourth class midshipmen.
It was really interesting to hear the reasons for all of the things that plebes are required to do their first year and that it is not a form of hazing but rather teaching them necessary skills.
Another very calm day on the Chesapeake for which we were very grateful.
Ellen spent some time in the pool with Karen and Rob from Off Leash and Caroline and Todd from Sweet Dreams (whom we had first met way back in Key West) while Kevin relaxed on the boat. That evening, the six of us piled into Karen and Rob’s dingy for a short trip over to the restaurant.
The next day we walked around town, went in several shops and had lunch with Karen and Rob. That evening Karen and Rob invited us to their boat for dinner.
We have made it to Maryland! We have been spoiled thus far with wonderful weather and calm water for our first two days on the Chesapeake and it looks like it is going to continue to be good for us. After we docked, the dock master took us to the grocery, liquor and drug stores. Thankfully, we had some leftover Mushroom Risotto for dinner because we were wiped out after three days of travel.
Solomon’s Island was established in 1867. We visited the Calvert Marine Museum and the Drum Point Lighthouse which was built in 1883, decommissioned in 1962 and moved to the Calvert Museum in 1975. One of the lighthouse keepers raised five children in the tiny house!
News flash – Kevin has officially retired and will no longer be working from the boat!
Our first stop on the Chesapeake Bay was mostly just a stop over on our way to Solomon’s Island.
More ships and barges that we passed on our way out of Norfolk and on the Chesapeake:
The Dismal Swamp Canal is a 22 mile canal that was hand dug by slaves starting in 1793. The canal opened in 1805 and is the oldest operating man made waterway in the US. There is a lock at the top (in Virginia) and bottom (in North Carolina) of the canal. The Cypress, Gum, Red Maple and Juniper trees release tannins into the water which prohibit the growth of bacteria. As a result, the water is very pure and the color is very dark which makes the surface very reflective. It is often hard to tell where the surface meets the water. The canal is 50 feet wide except in two areas where it is 25 feet wide.
This was our first time transiting through a lock and, by the time we have completed our Loop, we will have transited about 150 more of various types and sizes. Stay tuned as these first two locks are very basic. and a few of the locks are not to be missed! Once we had pulled in to the first lock, told the lock master we had never been through a lock before and gotten instruction from him, he told us a sailboat was coming in and would tie up to our boat. WHAT? We don’t even know what we’re doing! No worries though, everything worked out just fine. Kevin held the bow line that was wrapped around a post and Ellen held the stern line so that we would be up next to the wall of the lock while the sailboat was tied up to Perfect Match.
We often joke with each other about not remembering things – like what city we were in the day before – but we hope to never forget the absolutely breathtaking beauty of our trip through The Dismal Swamp Canal. This is a route that not all Loopers take but we are so glad we decided to take this route!
Once we exited the second lock in Virginia, we were on our way to Norfolk. We passed by a lot of large ships!
We decided to only stay one night in Norfolk since we have been there a couple of times for AGLCA Rendezvous.
Next up: The Chesapeake Bay!
We had planned to leave Alligator River Marina early for our Albermarle Sound crossing but there was quite a lot of fog so we delayed our departure about an hour. It was still very foggy (our first time traveling in foggy conditions) but we decided to leave and travel with a couple of other boats, one of which did not have radar so they really needed to follow someone who did! We all kept about a quarter of a mile between us and there was only one time that we could not see the boat in front of or behind us for a short distance. Crossing the Albermarle Sound definitely needs to be done on a good weather day as it can get quite rough. Our crossing was very smooth but there were a lot of crab pots to dodge. It was so much better than our trip on the Alligator River the day before.
We got directions to the grocery store and set off on our bikes. It ended up being about twice as far as we had thought and bike lanes and sidewalks would just randomly end in places and leave us on a highway. That ride was a lot more dangerous than any of our boat trips thus far!
We had planned to only stay one night at Lamb’s Marina but decided to stay an extra day so we would have a better weather day for transiting The Dismal Swamp Canal. Two other Looper boats arrived, Four Pikes and Nowhere Fast, and we hosted cocktails on our flybridge. We had the best time exchanging stories and the other couples did not leave until 9:00!
We were up and out of the marina by 6:00 am in order to make the first bridge opening and lock for the Dismal Swamp Canal. After we had left we realized we had not paid for the extra night we stayed there. This was by far the least expensive marina where we have stayed at $35 a night, including electricity. Ellen called the owner later to make payment and his wife answered and said, “Oh, don’t worry about it.” Ellen insisted that we wanted to make payment to which Mrs. Lamb replied, “Honey, one time I walked out of Belk’s with a blouse on my arm because I couldn’t find pants to match”. So the cheapest marina just became even cheaper at $17.50 a night!
We saw a beautiful rainbow followed by a gorgeous sunset.
Alligator River Marina is just a stop before crossing the Albermarle Sound. Our trip to Alligator River Marina started out so calm in the Pungo Alligator Canal which was about 21 miles. Once we got to the Alligator River, it we had about 2 hours of pretty rough waters before making it to the marina.
The marina is nothing but some docks behind a gas station with a convenience store. The convenience store is known for their fried chicken so most Loopers will place an order, which we did and it was good!
After docking, we took one of the marina’s golf carts to town. While in town, we ran into Becky and Keith from Cat Bottomed Girl whom we had met when we were leaving Oriental and invited them to join us for dinner. While we were talking at the dinner table, another couple who were sitting at the bar, Daniel and Donna from Syzygy, overheard that we were Loopers and we invited them to join us. They have done the Loop twice (Gold Loopers) and are on their third time around! We all had the most wonderful time and closed the place down at 8:00 with plans to all meet again for dinner the next night.
We all met at Belhaven Marina for drinks and were also joined by another couple, Katja and Sven from Rykher. We then went to the Mexican restaurant, El Mariachi. The marina had called ahead to make sure they were open so, when we got there, a server announced very loudly in the very crowded restaurant, “Are you the boat people?” The city manager was eating at a table nearby and came over to welcome us and tell us that they loved having “boat people” come through town. As we were leaving after our meal, we announced to the restaurant that “the boat people” were leaving!
