Dawn Watch on America's Great Loop Adventure

  Did the Delaware Bay north to south today. Good smooth trip. Spending the 3rd and 4th at a marina in Cape May NJ avoiding the weekend warrior boaters. There should be fireworks tonight and tomorrow night. On schedule to be in NYC to see Sarah and Zach for four days. But first, Atlantic City in a couple days. Some new Relive trip videos: to Rock City MD to Chesapeake City to Delaware City to Cape May Don't forget the interesting Nebo trip logs Nebo Trip logs And our photo album. Photos And and starting to put some videos up on the YouTube YouTube

  Hi friends and family, The adventure continues. From the free town dock in Portsmouth VA we did a short trip to an anchorage near Hampton VA. It was actually near the Ft. Monroe National Monument, which we walked around one evening. My goal was to be in clear water so that I could dive under the boat and inspect the propellers and rudders. We had hit several submerged logs, "deadheads", in the Dismal Swamp Canal and I was worried. But, thankfully there was no discernable damage so the trip continued. However right after I got out of the water a wicked storm swept through. There were about 5 boats in the good sized anchorage. When the winds hit, maximum about 38 mph, disaster almost struck. Our anchor held perfectly. But the boat upwind was dragging. Dawn said "do you see this?" I tried hailing the boat on the VHF radio and also started blasting my horn. The boat got within 50 to 75 feet right in front of us before the captain got control and moved away. That was c...

 Soon after we were anchored and I grilled up some chicken a wild lightening storm with high winds and rain hit us. Storm Don't forget trip photos and Nebo Maps Photos Nebo

 We continue to push north. We want to meet up with some family in New York City. Since we will be back through the east coast two more times we will have plenty of opportunities to see things. The other day we did a 13.5 hour run of over 100 miles putting over 1000 miles under the keel since we left. Summary of trips below this. The last couple Relive video's: Epic To Belhaven NC A Note on the Neo trip summaries and Marine Traffic AIS: Sometimes both tools loose connectivity and you will see gaps or that the boat is missing. Nebo will show a straight line if it gets lost. Marine Traffic AIS relies on shore based receivers to collect our broadcasting AIS signal. It will frequently show a last position several hours ago. Here's the trip summary of the first 1000 miles:

Charlestown SC to anchorage Church Cr   To Georgetown SC Georgetown To North Myrtle Beach SC N Myrtle Beach To anchorage Bird Island Anchorage To Carolina Beach Carolina Beach NC

 Hello everyone, We are about 750 miles into our Loop trip. It has been awesome. The way the loop commonly works is by season. Our "late" start from Florida puts us way behind the majority of the Loop pack. Many are up in New York by now and we are still in South Carolina. While every part of the Loop has its beauty and interest Canada and the Great Lakes in the summer are definite high points. We are rushing north a bit, but mainly for the goal of getting away from heat and hurricanes common to the Southeast. Now in South Carolina and the temps are in the 80's. Much better than back in Florida. Since we don't want to rush our Canada experience this year we are going to go north as far as possibly Maine, then before it gets too cold come back down the east coast as far south as we want. There is a plan to go back home to Texas for the Christmas holiday period and spend a month there. Then, in late January possibly go to the Bahamas before going back north completing a...

 At the Charleston MEGA DOCK

 Check out this part of our trip on Relive Darien GA to Thunderbolt GA (near Savannah) Relive Thunderbolt to near Hilton Head To Hilton Head Beaufort to Church Cr To Church Cr Church Cr to Charleston Mega Dock To Charleston

 Photos of our trip here: 2022 Loop

 Dawn at the helm.

Tracks in May May Summary

 So we planned to travel from the mooring field in St. Augustine to near Jacksonville on Friday 5/27. This is the Memorial day holiday weekend and boat travel is likely to get crazy. We are staying at a nice free dock near the mouth of the St. John's River. I'm going to look into a mooring ball or anchorage or dock in either downtown Jacksonville or Fernandina Beach. We have confirmed marina reservations in Fernandina Beach Sunday through Tuesday. But, back to getting here in the Jacksonville area. There is a popular free dock at a place called Jim King Boat Ramp. We got tied up in pretty strong tidal current, no other boats on the dock. Then some pretty nasty storms went through and we were so glad to be safe. A few hours after our arrival I saw a single handed sailor making nearly no headway against the strong current. He pulled into the creek where we were and I went out to help him tie up and miss the sunken boat taking up some of the dock space. His story was that he bough...

 What a spot.

 Started 5/17. Ho Ra!. See attached Nebo reports. And some pics. Long days boat driving. But so so cool. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MSvPIqjyYnXduM0UiFazjg_nXLdSuyXj/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IzFdPPdoHxE50Gq1Mlbke8OJYUTPIcmE/view?usp=sharing 

 As of Saturday 5/14 we are still in Ft. Meyers. Using the time to continue to provision and learn the boat, so not a waste of time. It does mean we are running "late" for a full Loop this year. No Worries. The latest, and hopefully final immediate issue-need an alternator rebuild. That should be complete Monday with a departure east for Tuesday. What has been done to the boat? There are two lists. One the mandatory repairs based on survey. That list was long and increased but I did a lot of the work myself. It included: New master cabin A/C New refrigerator. My tech said he is waiting on fridges for six months. But, I found one in Miami with an outfit that had 10. Was there the next day in a rental truck to get it. All new fuel filters and a fuel polishing. replace 2 batteries rebuild one alternator  new horn new compasses: electronic for autopilot and analog for helm all new fire extinguishers Then there was the want to have stuff: find and purchase a used RIB (rigid inflat...