"The whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing!" Kenneth Grahame
For weeks leading up to it, I dreaded the nighttime Gulf crossing from Apalachicola to Clearwater Beach. To identify a good weather window (with few to no waves and little wind!) for a full 24 hour period is tricky. And running at night is risky, even though my experienced sailor-captain and instrument-rated pilot enjoys it. …
After the long, arduous months in the rivers, we finally received the pay off: the powdered sugar sand beaches and the clear, sea green waters of Florida's Emerald Coast. From Pensacola to Panama City Beach, this strip of glorious coastline served up its healing powers to my hungry heart. Glorious beaches by day and spectacular …
Holy smoke, we are finally at the end of the Midwest river system. We cruised 1,251 nautical miles (1,438 statute miles) from Chicago to Mobile, Alabama. It took us two months, but for one month of that we rested & and took care of a sick kitty. If we ran hard, we could have finished …
A challenging but fascinating part of traveling as we are is the fact that one can never plan very far ahead. Weather, marina or anchorage availability, and various other things must be considered. As a result, we rarely truly know where we are going to be more than a day or two ahead. Indeed, it …
Ahhh, we've now spent three weeks relaxing from the heat and busyness of the rivers in Kentucky's Land Between the Lakes. With 2400 miles of shoreline, this giant body of water is the largest manmade lake in the eastern US. We docked in marinas, anchored in quiet coves, and visited with friends and family. Dealing …
We just spent two weeks sludging our way down the rivers. We'd heard tell of many boat nightmares in these parts: propellers and anchor chains snagged on submerged branches, hulls torn up by wingdams (man made rock walls in the river to push the current to the middle), Asian Carp jumping into your boat then …
While I was in Colorado, Craig diligently studied our new drone, a DJI Mavic Pro Platinum. What an amazing machine - it's highly intelligent, intuitive and takes stunning 4K video. Between Craig's good teaching and the drone being so easy to use, I was able to create this video on my first day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIOGSakXUu0&feature=youtu.be With …
Some of you may be aware that we learned about the Great Loop from my parents, Mike & Fran Moran. When Craig started dreaming about buying a boat, they handed him the book "Honey, Let's Get A Boat", written by Ron & Eva Stob, founders of America's Great Loop Crusing Association. Craig is not usually …
We are back in Wisconsin now after steaming up and around the tip of Michigan. We cruised a few long days to make up time, since we'd already seen many of the sights and our focus is now on getting down to Chicago. We had one of our roughest days ever while traveling to Port …
Wow, we just finished up a fantastic week! We traveled down Lake Huron, on the east side of Michigan and past Detroit, which, with all due respect, is not the touristy side of Michigan, but the more industrial. Not super exciting towns and, frankly, well...a little redneck. We were serenaded by horrible rock bands, surrounded …
