Dawn Watch on America's Great Loop Adventure

 Final paperwork happened 3/30/22. So, now the plans are for Ben and I to load up a trailer full of boat gear and drive 18 hours straight, if we can, to Burnt Store Florida. Then we spend a few weeks fixing up the boat, especially deficiencies found in the surveys. Dawn will come out to Florida in a couple weeks. Then she and I will drive my truck back to Texas. Our plan is to throw a Bon Voyage come and go party Saturday April 23. Then the following week fly to Florida. After a few more days or week aboard we will cast of east across Florida officially starting the big journey.

How can you follow us? In a few weeks I will be upgrading the electronics on the vessel. Once I do that you can follow our AIS (automatic identification system) via our boat name here:  https://www.marinetraffic.com And also we will be equipped with a NEBO tracker. The NEBO tracker will prepare a daily log of our boat moves along with just a few pictures we upload to that system and limited text notes. More on that soon.  https://nebo.global/?v=7516fd43adaa Also, Dawn will upload things to her Facebook page. And finally, just call us to chat. We can video chat. We won't be doing any complicated YouTube videos or extensive blogging. This blog might get updated, might not. But NEBO is probably best.  I'll update this post when everything is live.   Next Post:

 The "average" boat doing the loop is about 40 feet. Mainship brand is most popular. Sea Rays are in the top 10 boats on the loop. We looked a both brands. The boat buying world is as nutty as RV's and houses. Made offers on three boats before getting and accepted offer on a Sea Ray. This involved a trip to Alabama, three trips to Florida and one to Houston. Thank goodness for Dawn's AA flight priveledges.  So, first the name. Our 30 foot Sea Ray owned for two years was called The Dawn Watch. We decided to call the new Sea Ray 40 MY Dawn Watch rather than The Dawn Watch 2. And as revealed it is a 2007 Sea Ray 40 Motor Yacht. It sort of looks like a high top Converse shoe. The boat is powered by two Cummins diesels. Has two cabins one fore one aft. Two heads, a galley, 4 air conditioners and all the comforts of an RV. Next Post: Can you follow our journey?

 Casting off! Dawn and I have been dreaming and planning to do America's Great Loop boat trip for a few years. Well, in mid March of 2022 we found a boat, after 6 months of serious looking and years of dreaming. What is the loop you ask? Per the America's Great Loop Cruisers Association it is: "The Great Loop is a circumnavigation of the eastern U.S., and part of Canada.  The route includes the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, the New York State Canals, the Canadian Canals, the Great Lakes, the inland rivers, and the Gulf of Mexico. "Loopers" take on this adventure of a lifetime aboard their own boat." More from the AGLCA: https://greatloop.org/page/FAQs Here's a map: https://greatloop.org/page/Map  We purchased our boat in west Florida near Ft. Meyers. So, that will be our starting point as soon as we fix a few things and do some provisioning.    Next Post: The Boat.