April 27th & 28th Days 286 & 287

April 27th
We all took the bikes and went to the drug store and Grocery store. We decided to stay here till Friday due to storms in the area for tomorrow. We went to lunch out and decided to Bar-B-Q some tuna on the grill.
It was a relaxing day with everyone getting caught up on laundry and boat work. We cooked the tuna on Seamoore's jenair and all ate on our own boats.

April 28th
Everyone prepared for the bad weather. We are on a tornado watch and there are warnings all around us. The winds have picked up but according to the radar the bad storm may have went north of us. We lowered Jerimiah's mast so he can get under the two 20' bridges tomorrow. One opens on the hour and the other on the half hour. We are just hanging out and waiting for the storm. We went over the charts and will do a 67 mile run to Casper's Marina at 230mm on the ICW. We plan on being underway by 7am but things could change over cocktails as we now only have to wait for one bridge to open. It is time to move on as there is not much to do or see here but the price is right at $30.00 with electricity a night. We are 297 miles from Norfolk, where Lin and I will leave the lopper train and head out on our own to the Chesapeake Bay.
We will miss the company of the looper train and our new friends. We will see them again when they reach Waterford on their way to Canada.

Lin & Rich
Carolina State Park
Wilmington, North Carolina

April 26th Day 285

We decided last night at docktails to stay here today to visit and get some work done. Carlton, Jeff and I rode to the local hardware store for needed things and then to the grocery store for supplies. We helped Carlton with his forward air conditioner and between us and the factory rep found out it had a bad circuit board. Luckily the local supply company had the board and the owner brought it over to Carlton. We reconnected the new board and fan and the air seems to be working fine. We decided at another meeting to stay here one more night and see what the weather has in store for us. Looks like we may get bad weather Thursday so decision was do day by day. Lin and I are now starting to plan our schedule so we can see what we want and still be back in our home port by mid to late June. As I write this it is starting to rain.
Looks like from now on it will be day by day planning. We enjoy traveling with Seamoore, Dream Catcher and Jeremiah and will really miss their company when we will depart, but we hope our  friendship will last for a long time. 

Lin & Rich
Carolina Beach State Park
Wilmington North Carolina 

April 24th & 25th Days 283 & 284

April 24th
Spent the day at Barefoot Landing looking at more shops with the same stuff but just a different name on the t-shirts. Heather,Carlton and Becky's daughter took the women to the outlets in her car. We also decided to cook Easter dinner on the boats. Linda(from the Jeremiah boat) said she could make a fish dish, The other women made something to add to the feast. On the way back from shopping they stopped at a few grocery stores to pick up the needed supplies. All said and done the meal turned out great. At cocktails and dinner we made plans for tomorrows travel day. Another great day on our great adventure.

April 25th

We were up and off the dock at 7:30. The weather was great for traveling. We crossed the boarder into our 13th state North Carolina slowly making our way North and to our home port at Lock One Marina, Waterford New York. We  saw many new houses along the way and a few small towns. We came across two guys on stand up surf boards heading to Maine. They left Key West in March and are padeling their way to Maine via the ICW and Atlantic when it was calm. They are doing it to raise money for Wounded Warriors. We traveled thru Cape Fear sound and up the Cape Fear river. We are in Carolina Beach State Park Marina in Wilmington. It is run by North Carolina and was just rebuilt after being closed for 2 years. The docks are all new and only accept 40' boats or so the ad says. The main problem was the width of the slips 15' and we are 14'9". As we entered the small opening the wind picked up and Seamoore in the lead encountered shallow water. We were third and Jeremiah was behind us with Dream Catcher second. We and Jeremiah pulled back as Dream Catcher felt their way in and found deep water. While we waited Jeremiah got blown onto a sand bar which he was able to get off. All things said and done we all made it into our slips with out further problems. Once tied and secure the wind stopped, just Mother Nature reminding us who is in charge. We all took the bikes out and headed to dinner a mile away which was more like two miles. Dinner was great and we headed home in the Dark with Jim in the front and Brenda at the back, both had front and rear lights. The rest of us had flash lights in hand. The great thing about this park is the price $30.00 with electric and there are only two other boats here.

Lin & Rich
Carolina Beach State Park
Wilmington, South Carolina

April 22nd & 23rd Days 281 & 282

HAPPY EASTER to all.
April 22nd we spent a rainy day in Georgetown did not stop raining till late afternoon.
We did laundry and the normal engine room maintenance. Dream Catcher pulled into the marina in the late afternoon they spent an extra day in Charleston. It was good to have everyone in the Looper train back together. Carleton and Becky's daughter Heather came to ride with them to Myrtle Beach.We had a great dinner at Big Tuna a real quaint place. It was a relaxing wet day.

April 23rd
We all left, except Dream Catcher, left at 7:30 for a 55 mile trip to Barefoot Landing in Myrtle Beach. We stopped at Osprey Marina on the ICW to refuel price was good at $3.649. We took 188 gallons and our all topped off for a few more miles. There was a place in Beaufort that had fuel on the 22nd for $3.15 but we were already a day past it. During our trip to Myrtle Jeremiah had a leak in one of the engines water pump that feeds the heat exchanger. We were about 5 miles out of our fuel stop when he noticed the leak. Jeff had a spare pump so he decided to try to make the fuel stop before replacing it. Engine stayed cool and the bilge pump kept up with the leak. We let him fuel first then they put him in a slip to replace the pump Seamoore and we refueled while Jeff replaced the pump. It took us 2 hours to refuel all three boats which gave Jeff plenty of time for repairs after he refueled. All fueled and repaired the Looper train headed back out. While fueling Dream Catcher went by us on the way to Myrtle, they left 3 hours after we did but travel faster than us. We arrived at Barefoot Landing 5:30 8 hours of travel and 2 hours of fueling and repair. We will do the shop thing today and head North in the morning not sure where but will leave that decision for cocktail hour today.

Lin & Rich
Barefoot Landing Marina
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

April 21st Day 280

The days and miles are flying by. This morning we decided to hit the waterway again and head to Georgetown SC. The trip took us thru a lot of desolate area with only a few houses along the way. It was nice to see some docks and houses every once in awhile. Today we did see some bald eagles and our first alligator. It was about 6 to 7 feet and was just swimming along the river bank. Got some pictures but not real good ones. Later we did see the head of another gator. So Bob and Ann we did finally get to see our gator. We were about five minutes out of the marina when a huge storm cell came on Seamoore's phone radar/ We decided to hang in the channel till the storm passed the docks. It got dark, with lightening, rain and hail the size of dimes. It passed over in about 15 minutes and when it broke we headed in. All three of us Dream Catcher decided to spend more time in Charleston, got in without incident. The storm did delay cocktail hour by an hour but we made up for it. We traveled for 10 hours today and logged another 70 miles to bring our total to 4,888. We will probably spend the Easter weekend in Myrtle Beach.

Lin & Rich
Harborwalk Marina
Georgetown, South Carolina

April 20th Day 279

We planned on traveling the 70 miles to Charleston so we were all up and ready to get underway at 7am. Problem Dream Catcher could not get her starboard engine running. We all gave our opinons and ideas but none seemed to work. Jim and Brenda decided we should move on without them and they would get a mechanic in to look things over. We all decided there was not much we could do except give them morale support. At 8am the Looper Train got underway with mixed feelings about leaving Dream Catcher behind. There was not much to see on this leg of the trip which made the day very long. About mid morning we heard from Dream Catcher and they were fixed and underway.It turned out the stud in the starter had been replaced and was loose. We would have never found that but the mechanic started there and found it right away.He told them hey I am chargring for an hour have anything you want so Jim had him check a few things out. We traveled 69miles in 10.5 hours and arrived at Charleston City Marina. Dream Catcher pulled in about 30 minutes after we got there they can travel faster than we trawlers can. We did cocktails, bar-b-qued on Seamoore and then ate on our boat. We were all pretty well beat after the long day. Not sure what tomorrow will bring us on our adventure.

Lin & Rich
Charleston City Marina
Charleston, South Carolina 

April 19th Day 278

With all the excitement of yesterday I forgot to mention we passed into our 12th state, South Carolina. This morning at 8am a diver came over to check out the props on Dream Catcher, good news there was still crab trap rope wrapped around the prop and shaft. This is what was causing the vibration, there was no other damage. At 9am the Looper train of 4 boats was underway headed to Beaufort, SC. It was a tough day of travel all 19 miles. We pulled into the Downtown Marina at 11:30, checked in and headed out for lunch. The marina and near by park are really nice. The tide here looks about 10 to 11 feet it is great to have floating docks. Lin & I walked in the historic district and viewed the old houses. Just by chance we came across a chocolate factory, could not pass it up with out getting some chocolate. We may stay one more day before heading the 70 miles to Charleston. May find an anchorage in between but not sure will probably be a cocktail decision.

Lin & Rich
Downtown Marina of Beaufort
Beaufort, South Carolina

April 16th, 17th, 18th Days 275, 276, & 277

16th  Lin did some laundry and I did boat maintenance. We walked the village and saw some real nice old houses. We used the cutesy car and went to Sams, CVS and of course to the hardware store. At cocktail hour we had cocktails on SEAMOORE with the crew plus Heather, Carlton and Becky's daughter who came for the weekend. It was a day of relaxation after our busy day in Savannah.
17th We headed out to the local Methodist church for the Palm Sunday service. It was a small church and to our surprise had a wonderful musical service with a great choir and small orchestra. It was great and the people were very friendly and we enjoyed it very much. We used the car again and got groceries for the next few days. We had cocktail hour on our boat and have now increased our boat train to 5 boats, Goofin Off, Seamoore, Dream Catcher, Jeremiah, and Crawdad. We made our plans for the next few days great decisions are made during this serious time. Another great day
18th Up and out of the marina with our 5 boat loop train. Real nice morning but a little cool first thing. We were headed to Skull Creek Marina about 30 miles to the North. About 5 miles from Skull Creek Dream Catcher radioed he hit some thing I was following him so we went into neutral and drifted over the area. It read 40' depth. Dream Catcher had a vibration so he went into reverse and up came parts of a crab trap float. Each time he went into reverse more parts came up. He ran up speed but still had a vibration. We reached the marina and called a diver to check the props and see what was causing the problem. Diver can not come till the morning. We are all hoping it is just line around the prop but time will tell The main reason Lin & I  decided to stop at Skull Creek was that Bob & Ann Chetwynd now live here I worked with Bob & Ann at thr Research Foundation at SUNY for ten years. I had not seen Bob in 5 years and had to travel 4,700 miles to see him as he never ventures North to often. They came over to the boat then we went to their house for cocktails. To top it off Bigs their son and his family wife Christine,son Cam and daughter Cat were there.
It was great seeing them all. Bob and Ann took us all out to dinner which was just great, we talked of old times and what the future would bring. It was great seeing them after such a long time. It is always nice to see good friends when you are far from home.
  
Lin & Rich
Skull Creek Marina
Hilton Head, South Carolina

April 15th Day 274

Today was a nice day warm with a nice breeze. My sister Lynda and her husband Roger with their friends Nancy and Don came over to pick us up about 9am. We showed the boat to Nancy and Don and then headed out to see Savannah. We took the 90 minute tour of the city which was really nice. There were many movies shot in this area one was Forrest Gump. They showed us where the bench was that he sat on to tell the story. We went from there around the corner and the bus stopped and Forrest got on. They have this guy who looked like and acted like Forrest. Had the cloths and the suit case. Really did look like Tom Hanks. He had the Forrest act down and even ran like he did when the little show was over, it was real nice. The town was nice and we did the tourist thing. We had a nice lunch and on the way back to the boat stopped at a rib place for dinner. Great day was had by all. Tomorrow might be stormy. We will probably leave here Monday and cross into South Carolina our 12th state. Lin & Rich Isle of Hope Marina Isle of Hope, Georgia

April 13th & 14th Days 272 & 273

We were up early to leave during high tide. Tom & Elizabeth stayed with us last night and left this morning. We were underway by 7:15 under tired eyes. Last night I could not get the depth finder to work or it seemed not to work. Tom & I worked on it till midnight. I worked on it longer and got up at 4am to try again. I checked everything but it would just blink the depth. With the problem we decided to follow the other three boats and the would keep us in deep water. Once we started the engines the finder started to work. Not sure what was wrong but we were sure glad it was working. We traveled 67.8 miles in 10 hours a very long day after not much sleep the night before. We traveled thru a lot of shallow water which kept the heart beating. We anchored in a creek behind Walburg Island. It was a great anchorage but the no seeums were there by the thousands. They are so small they go right thru the screens and give one heck of a bite. They come out in the morning and evening. Great sleeping night. April 14th Day 273 Up with the anchor at 8am and underway. The tides in this area are 8 to 9 feet, got to make sure when you find a spot to anchor there will be enough water under you in low tide. Today was a short day only 31.7 miles to bring our total to 4,696 miles. Again today we went thru a lot of shallow water but we all made it with out any problems. We draft more that the other three boats so usually Carlton leads the way and keeps us all in deep water. We are in the Isle of Hope Marina outside of Savannah. Once hooked up Lin cleaned inside and I gave Goofin Off a good wash down. We used the courtesy car and went for supplies and then we all went to dinner. Tomorrow my sister and brother-in-law are coming by and we are going visit Savannah. Lin & Rich Isle of Hope Marina Savannah, Georgia

April 12th Day 271

We have left Florida after four months and have entered our 11th state Georgia. We left Palm Cove Marina at 6:30 for a long day and headed to Jekyll Island. The morning was great with a warm breeze and the sun off our starboard beam. We went thru a lot of open swamp areas and a few small villages. We cut across two inlets to the Atlantic. The one at the St Johns river had a strong current with the tide going out and we dropped from 10 mph to 6.5 mph crossing the inlet. We went by the Navy's submarine facility, Kings Bay Naval Station. We passed Cumberland Island with the wild ponies and did not see any. As we passed a small Island just before St Andrews Sound we did see two ponies on the beach also ran into hundreds of jelly fish. St Andrews Sound is big and can be rough we lucked out and only had small waves. Out of the sound we headed to Jekyll Island. We are docked at Jekyll Harbor Marina right off the ICW. Tom and Elizabeth, freinds from back home and our marina along with their friends Bob & Lyn came over to visit and we all went out to dinner. It was great seeing them and will visit with them today. Our plans are to head out towards Savannah tomorrow with a stop in Kilkenny which is about 70 miles from here. Then we will head to the Isle of Hope south of Savannah. We picked up fuel at Palm Cove at a cost of $3.94 per gallon. Glad we our on the downside of the adventure with the fuel prices rising so quickly. Lin & Rich Jekyll Harbor Marina Jekyll Island, Georgia

April 10 Day 270

Up and out of Rivers Edge at 9am with the sun shining and in the 70's. We traveled 35.3 mile thru some beautiful waterways with great houses from small to HUGE. The weather was great and the bright sun was on our starboard side as we headed North. Heading North the sun never gets really in your eyes which is great. We rolled into the Palm Cove Marina around 1:30 and had to fuel. We picked up another Looper on the way so we had 4 boats to fuel one at a time. Took us about 2 hours to get us all fueled and docked. Air conditioner on and getting cooled down. The fuel was $3.93 per gallon and the dockage was $1.55. We went to publix to pick up a few things then we all went to a nice Mexican Restaurant for dinner, it was very good. We talked with our friends Tom and Elizabeth and plan on hooking up with them tomorrow. Looks like Lin and I will travel 60 miles to Brunswick Georgia tomorrow to meet with them. Carlton, Becky, Jim and Brenda will stop at Cumberland Island to see the wild horses. Hopefully we will meet up with them again around Savannah or some where along the way home. We will miss their company but we must push toward the cold North and hope it is warm when we get there. Lin & Rich Palm Cove Marina Jacksonville, Florida

April 9th Day 269

We headed over to town early this morning to make the 10 am tour of Flagler college. The college is an old hotel which was built by Henry Flagler for the rich people from the North to come. It was only open January thru March and you had to pay in advance for the three months weather you stayed 1 or 12o days. It was built in the late 1800. The place is beautiful and hard to describe in a blog. The tour was great and well worth the price of $5.00. The Tiffany glass in the dinning area was just beautiful. Tuition for a year is $21,000 which includes everything except books. The dinning hall was not like most college dinning halls it was more like a fancy hotel dinning area. Today it was in the 90's and it now feels good to be sitting on the boat with the air conditioning on. We will leave here in the morning and head to the Palm Cove Marina in Jacksonville. Lin & Rich Rivers Edge Marina St. Augustine, Florida

April 7th & 8th Days 267 & 268

April 7th Thursday We went into town and took the trolley tour. There are 23 stops on the tour which the driver told you about. Our first stop at 10am was San Sabastian Winery. Took a short tour of the place which had a movie and then saw some wine barrels and vats. The best part was the wine tasting. They told how to look, smell, and taste wine. We tried about 8 different types, the problem I could see was we used the same wine glass without rinsing it. We wobbled out of the winery and rode the trolley to decided what we wanted to see. We walked down St. George Street which was shops and Restaurants. At 5pm Jim and Brenda arrived at the marina and are docked in front of us. Carlton rented a car to drive to Alabama tomorrow to get his drivers license. The car was a small SUV so we all piled in and headed out to dinner at Barnacle Bill's Beach Side. Lin & I had salmon which was great. April 8th Friday Carlton and Becky headed out to Alabama early this morning. Lin did a load of laundry while I did engine checks and washed the dockside side of the boat. We headed to town around 11am and went to the Fountain of Youth. We drank the water and to our surprise we did not change or feel any younger as of yet. Maybe it takes awhile to work. We went to an old time drug store and toured some old homes. This is the oldest town in the USA. It is really nice and old. Tomorrow we will tour the Flagler college and take in some more sights. We will have a nice dinner at the bar & grill at the marina. We plan on leaving on Sunday and head to Jacksonville. Lin & Rich Rivers Edge Marina St Augustine Florida

April 6th Day 266

The days are ticking down to fast. We left Daytona at 8:30 after the sun warmed up the 50 degree weather. Maybe we are heading North a little to soon, but the Grand kids wait for our arrival and we wait to see them again. We traveled 53.7 miles today to bring our total trip mileage to 4,498. We are in St. Augustine in a nice marina off the inter coastal called Rivers Edge Marina which was previously called Oyster Creek. Last night they had a cookout where the marina provided the meat(chicken) and boaters bring sides. It was pretty good with about 16 people there. The marina also has a deal with the bar on the property to give boat owners a drink deal. After dinner we stopped for a drink, 2 beers and 2 shots total $7.89 could be habit forming. Today we are going to take the trolley tour of the area three days to ride the tour for $20.00 each. We also got a good deal at the marina being loopers you pay for two days and get one free, Carlton talked the guy into giving us a fourth day for half price. Carlton and Becky are heading to Alabama tomorrow to get new drivers licenses. As I write this the sun is coming up over the bow and looks like it is going to be a nice day in the 80's. Lin & Rich Rivers Edge Marina St Augustine, Florida

April 4th & 5th Days 265 & 266

Yesterday I did the oil and filter change and should be close to getting home on this change. I will pick up another set of filters just to be prepared if the hours call for a change. Lin got caught up on laundry and boat cleaning. It was a productive day for us. We took a walk uptown and it is hard to believe all the places closed and buildings for sale. Maybe over at Dayton Beach things are different. We did stop at a chocolate factory for some great chocolate. We had a great bar-b-que rib dinner last night to finish off the day. April 5th Severe thunderstorm warnings were in affect this morning so we decided to hang here one more day. We made it thru the storm in good shape and it was not as bad as predicted, but it sure cooled things down it is noon and only 64 degrees. Carlton had to pull the pump out of his washer/dryer and hopes to get a new pump delivered today. I will help him get the washer/dryer back in its place once the pump is in. We will probably head out tomorrow if all goes well with the weather and washer. Might do the 50 miles to St Augustine or anchor in between, time will tell. Our friends Tom & Elizabeth are headed our way looking for a boat and some warm weather. It will be great to see them, they are the friends who found us in Mackinaw City on their way out to Oregon. We hope all is well with those who are following us. It is hard to believe our adventure is coming close to an end. Lin & Rich Halifax Harbor Marina Dayton, Florida

April 3rd Day 264

It was an easy run today only 15.3 miles from New Smyria to Daytona. We are in the Halifax Harbor Marina great place and a HUGE marina. I gave Goofin Off a great wash down to get rid of the Florida salt. You can really feel the salt after a long few days. Am working on a way to figure out a way to sell it as sea salt. Had a relaxing day and we went up to town and had a nice dinner. Tomorrow I will do an oil/filter change and should be good for another 200 hours. Will have to start to look for another set of Cat filters. This marina has a place to get rid of the oil and filters. Tomorrow we(Carlton,Beck) and us will cook up some ribs. They have a Mainship with a Gen-air bar-b-que(electric) on the back deck. The farther North we get the COOOOler it gets. We better slow down and wait for warmer weather. Lin & Rich Halifax Marina Daytona Florida

April 2nd Day 263

Got up early and had our rental car back at the Cape Canaveral Hertz rental car at 7:00 am Needless to say no drivers to take us back to the boat. Well finally a ride back and we were ready to get underway at 8:30. It was a long day for us as we traveled 52 miles to The Fishing Store marina at New Smyrna Beach. It is right on the inter coastal waterway. It was a 52 mile trip today with about 8 miles of no wake zones. We also had a few boaters who did not know what a slow pass was really some boaters should be required to take classes. If I see them and I know who they are (boat names) I will have Goofin Off give them a ride of their lives. We will have an easy ride tomorrow only 20 miles to Daytona. Today we got to see our first sea ray which crossed our bow. We also saw a couple of manatees during our travels today. This marina is small but real nice and the people are great. They have a deer mount on the wall one which made NY State records it was taken around Syracuse in 2000 and I remember it from the Conservationist magazine. It is an 18 pointer really nice. We went out and had a great dinner. We are looking forward to a short day tomorrow. Lin & Rich Fish Store Marina New Smyrna Beach Florida

April 1st Day 262

WE ARE SINKING HELP April fools Today is a great day We went to the Kennedy Space Center What a great day we saw the second to last shuttle on the launch pad # 39 WHAT A SIGHT The whole center and tour was GREAT We spent close to 8 hours there and there was not any time spent that we regretted Tonight the 6 of us went to a local raw bar and had a great dinner. Jim & Brenda are leaving at day break for Daytona Carlton and I will take the rental car back and then we will leave the marina for somewhere Tomorrow we will return the car then be ready to get underway Who knows what is going to happen SO ENJOY THE DAY Lin & Rich Cococa Villiafe bmariba