Archives April 2024

Day 331 – 333; 4/19 – 4/21: From our last post you will recall we arrived at Wexford Yacht Club at Hilton Head Island on Thursday, 4/18 passing through a tiny lock to get to there. The lock was 19’ wide and we took up 17.5’ of it! Length wise we had a few feet to spare on both the bow and stern….but not much! Gary’s sister Diane arrived by car at the same time. At dinner that night, we battled dive bombing caterpillars finally retreating to the boat to cheer the Red Sox on to a victory over Pittsburgh!

Friday, 4/19 we were ready for a boat ride since Diane had been on the boat, but never in motion. Today would be a very special yet solemn day as we planned to sprinkle Gary’s Mom’s ashes off the coast of Hilton Head, one of her favorite places. Jane passed away in 2012and this was one of her wishes that we would now be able to fulfill. We left WYC around 10:00 am and found the perfect spot in the Atlantic Ocean between Hilton Head and Tybee Island. Jane used to visit Diane when she was in the army and stationed in Fort Stewart; they would visit Hilton Head. Diane told her “This is a beautiful place for a wonderful mother. Rest in peace, Mom. We love you and miss you“ as we set her ashes into the ocean and watched them disperse.

It was a short and quiet ride back to Hilton Head where we anchored off of the 18th hole of the RBC Heritage PGA Golf Tournament. At anchor we enjoyed lunch and watching the players finish their rounds on day 2 of the tourney. It was exciting to hear the crowds roar at some great shots, notably one by Carol’s favorite Jordan Spieth. We stayed until around 4 pm and headed back to WYC. We hoped when we watched the rebroadcast, we’d be able to see ourselves off in the distance on TV! Sure enough, there we were… look closely for Legacy!

It was a beautiful sunny day and so peaceful at anchor. Alas we headed back to WYC, through the lock and enjoyed dinner at their clubhouse before again returning to our beloved Red Sox to see them victorious over Pittsburgh!

Saturday, 4/20 we opted for the car and roadtripped to Bluffton, SC to check out the town. This town was also on our list as a potential winter home, post Great Loop. We walked the old town wandering in and out of the shops and checking out the public pier and beautiful parks. Bluffton was once a “planter” community with a public dock that enabled the shipment of rice, cotton and pine resin. The wealthy built summer homes on “The Bluff” to escape the hot, unhealthy conditions of the low-lying rice and cotton plantations. Bluffton’s high ground and cool river breezes from the May River provided relief and easy-access to other waterways. What is now known as the Calhoun Street Dock was once a rest stop for boat travelers between Savannah, Beaufort and Charleston. 

The planter economy collapsed after the Civil War without the forced labor of enslaved people. Within one year of the capture of Fort Sumter, Bluffton became a safe haven for residents fleeing Union occupation. Bluffton was a headquarters for Confederate forces. Later, Union forces on Hilton Head Island ordered the Town’s destruction in 1863. Approximately 60 structures were in the Town before the attack. Only the Town’s two churches and fifteen residences remained standing after the attack. After the Civil War, Bluffton slowly returned as a center of commerce and tourism.

Preserving history and the town’s remaining buildings from the Antebellum/Reconstruction Era has resulted in a surge of tourism. While time marches on, the reasons why people come to Bluffton haven’t changed much since its early days. People relocate to Bluffton for its beauty, culture and high quality of life. The Historic District is still the hub of businesses, shopping and community gatherings. The May River is where people still go to fish, oyster and shrimp. It is a town known as the place to get the Lowcountry’s best seafood. Tourists and residents come to Bluffton to see oystermen harvest May River oysters the old-fashioned way, using their hands, gloves and small boats called bateaus.  Oysters are brought to the historic Bluffton Oyster Company where employees, many who have worked there for generations, hand shuck the oysters. The Bluffton Oyster Company is the last hand-shucking factory in the state.    

Since 1998, Bluffton has exploded from about 750 residents and a jurisdiction of one-square mile (i.e. the Historic District). In 2019, Bluffton is 54 square miles due to multiple annexations and has more than 20,000 residents. Bluffton is the fastest growing municipality in South Carolina. We enjoyed a visit to the Montage Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton – a 20,000 acre development with gorgeous resort village, marina, restaurants, golf course, homes and cottages as well as nature preserves and walking trails. The resort is ideal for large and small weddings with a sweet chapel and waterfront park. We enjoyed sitting on the bench and watching the kids play on the jungle gym and swings, the adults pay bocce and the wedding parties pose for photos.

We found a great place for lunch – Calhoun’s Town Tavern – and later returned to the boat late in the day to grill some steaks on board and enjoy the live entertainment playing at the WYC pool. Then, it was back to New England sports and watching both the Red Sox and the Bruins play that night; we felt Jane with us in spirit (she was a devoted Red Sox fan) as the Red Sox beat Pittsburgh again and the Bruins beat Toronto in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs – one down and 15 to go for a Stanley Cup for the Bruins!

Sunday, 4/21 we said good bye to Diane as she embarked on her 7 hour drive home. We left Wexford around 9:45 am for our 3.5 hour trek to Beaufort, SC. It was overcast, but a nice breeze with just a little chop in the water. We enjoyed 3 dolphins in the bow who stayed with us for some time. Check them out below and how close they are to the bow! We sent photos and video to Diane, who unfortunately didn’t get to experience that although we did get to see a single dolphin pass by us off of Hilton Head.

We arrived in Beaufort around 1:15 and Tracy (Carol’s college roommate) pulled in around 1:30 after starting off in Maine with a flight at 5:50 am. Yikes that meant the alarm clock went off at 3:00 am! It was great to sit on the back deck in the sun for a couple hours (it’s still dang cold in Maine) until the skies opened up and it started to rain…. Really Hard! It was dinner on the boat (Gary made an awesome shrimp and pasta dish) and Looper midnight (with some sympathy for a traveler from Maine) came early so it was off to bed by 9 pm to get ready for some Beaufort sightseeing in the morning!

333 days on the loop. 18 US States plus Canada. Awesome to have Diane and now Tracy with us. We’ve come so far yet still several weeks before “crossing our wake.” Just a few more days marks 11 months on the loop and we are conflicted between wanting to get home and not wanting this grand adventure to end.

Day 324 – 330; 4/12 – 4/18: Friday 4/12 we arrived in Savannah, GA at Thunderbolt Marina after a fairly uneventful 4.5 hour trip. It was a bit cool with variable winds between 20 and 30 knots. It was a twisty-turny path to get there, arriving around 2:00 pm.

Consulting with the dockmaster, he thought it unwise for us to ride our bikes to the local grocery store just a few miles away. The streets were too narrow and busy, so he encouraged us to wait until tomorrow when we had the rental car. Deferring to his local knowledge, we walked to dinner at Tubby’s Tank House just a few hundred yards away on the bluff across from the shrimp docks in historic Thunderbolt. It was a great local spot with outdoor seating, good food and cold beer.

Saturday, 4/13 we were up and out early to get our rental car, provision and explore. We were particularly interested in this area and a community called “The Landings” as consideration for our winter home, post Great Loop, so we met with a local realtor to get the lay of the land. We spent some time just driving around the area afterward returning to the marina late in the afternoon to find a new neighbor docked in front of us — Blue Moon.

Blue Moon is a 198’ Feadship built in Holland in 2005 and completely retrofitted in 2021. She accommodates 12 guests in 6 cabins across her 4 decks and carries a crew of 16. You can charter her for a mere $329,000 plus expenses for 1 week! WOW!! She is HUGE and made us feel tiny!

Back to the Landings – we loved everything we saw including the 6 golf courses, multiple pools, clubhouses/restaurants and 2 marinas. Our visit gave the realtor a great idea of what we were looking for and we agreed to return the next day to see a house he thought we’d be particularly interested in, being just a few hundred yards from one of the marinas. Unfortunately, we weren’t impressed with this one, but it again gave the realtor better intel on our desires.

After our visit to the Landings we were off to the City Market area of Savannah where we enjoyed an outdoor cafe with live entertainment and an afternoon snack followed by the Prohibition Museum. What a fascinating time in our American History.

Prohibition is the period from 1920 to 1933, when the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibited the manufacture, sale, transport, import, or export of alcoholic beverages.  Protestants, Progressives, and women all spearheaded the drive to institute Prohibition as a response to social issues like domestic violence, child abandonment, and absenteeism – all whose presumed cause was alcohol.

Prohibition, while well-intentioned, had far-reaching consequences that significantly impacted American society. Initially, it led to a decrease in alcohol consumption and related issues such as public drunkenness and alcohol-related crimes. However, the unintended consequences soon became apparent. It crippled the American economy throwing hundreds of thousands into unemployment.  This was followed by the illicit production and distribution of alcohol, giving rise to a flourishing underground industry run by bootleggers, speakeasies and the rise of organized crime.

Prohibition exacerbated social divides and fueled political tensions. The enforcement of prohibition laws disproportionately targeted marginalized communities, particularly immigrants and people of color, leading to widespread corruption within law enforcement agencies. The fervent debate over prohibition also polarized American society, pitting “drys” who supported the ban against “wets” who advocated for its repeal. Ultimately, the failure of prohibition to achieve its intended goals, coupled with its detrimental social and economic impacts, led to its repeal with the ratification of the 21st Amendment in 1933. The era of prohibition left a lasting legacy, highlighting the complexities of attempting to legislate morality and the importance of considering the unintended consequences of sweeping social reforms. When repealed under the leadership of President Roosevelt, it was billed as “a return to individual freedom.”

We ended our day with dinner at the Pirates House, the most historic spot in Georgia being the oldest house in Georgia. The Pirates House first opened in 1753 as an inn for seafarers and fast became a meeting point for pirates and sailors. Here, seaman drank and discoursed sailor fashion on their exotic high seas adventures from Singapore to Bombay and from London to Port Said. Stories still persist of a tunnel extending from the old rum cellar beneath the Captain’s room that lead to the river. Drunk and unconscious men were carried through the tunnels to ships in the harbor in need of crew. Indeed many a sailor drinking in carefree abandon awoke to find himself at sea on a strange ship now “under the employ” of the captain, able to return home years later! Oh the stories those walls could tell!

Again we returned to the marina to find a new neighbor – this one an 80’ Paddle Wheel boat named Anna Maria Princess tied about 3’ off of our transom. The captain assured us they walked her back to get that close to us and he didn’t attempt to bring her in under power that close! She’s powered by 2 diesel engines that turn the paddle wheel for her sole source of propulsion. You often see paddlewheels that are just for show with other more robust propulsion…not this one! She tops out at 4 knots! Her crew of three had already been on board for 21 days with at least 9 more to go before they arrived in Manteo, NC. The crew was great and gave us a little tour.

Monday 4/15, we left Thunderbolt and moved to Savannah Yacht Club (SYC) and headed back to the Landings to look at a few houses the realtor had lined up. One house really piqued our interest and we needed to sleep on it a bit – was this the place for us? We headed back to SYC where we looked forward to reconnecing with Leo, the former assistant club manager at AYC and now General Manager at SYC. SYC is a beautiful club on 24 acres of prime waterfront with a very large marina, large club house, 2 pools, sailing center, and tennis center complete with tennis and pickleball courts. The restaurant was closed on Monday and Tuesday so we’d have to wait until Wednesday to chat with Leo about this amazing club, the Savannah community and enjoy a meal.

Michael and Darlene from Riversong had arrived back in town, so we all climbed into our rental car and headed downtown to the Savannah waterfront on River Street. Historic River Street is situated along the Savannah River where the colony of Georgia was founded in 1733 and the location of the original Port of Savannah.  In the 1700s it was the main location for goods coming into the city and by the mid-1800s Savannah was the leading exporter of cotton in the world.  The four and five story buildings along the waterfront were cotton warehouses. 

Located between Bay Street and River Street is a series of iron and concrete walkways, known as Factors Walk, connecting the buildings to the bluff. The people who set the prices for cotton and many other exports were called Factors, which is how this area got its name. The first commercial house below the bluff opened in 1744. 

The hand-laid cobblestones that pave the ramps leading from Bay Street down the bluff to River Street were originally used as ballast material on the many ships that sailed into Savannah’s harbor. The ships collected chert, quartz, granite, basalt and other rocks from their initial locations and deposited the stones upon unloading in Savannah. The stones originated in a number of exotic locales including Madeira Island, Spain, Canada, France and the British Isles. Savannah settlers found the stones to be an affordable and abundant building material and used them throughout the Historic District.

Tuesday 4/16 took us back to the Landings to see the house “one more time” before we would head back to Savannah for a ‘Hop On Hop Off’ trolley tour of the city, which was fabulous! We ended the day at one of the stops: the Six Pence Pub for an authentic Irish meal and a pint. Six Pence Pub was the pub in the movie “Something to Talk About” starring Julia Roberts. Grace (Julia Roberts) sees her husband Eddie (Dennis Quaid) out with another woman and confronts him – in the middle of the street in her nightgown. Let’s just say lots of tourists try to recreate the scene in photos!

Our 2 days touring Savanna by trolley and on foot was fabulous! Savannah is known for its historic district adorned with cobblestone streets, picturesque squares, and impeccably preserved architecture. This charming district takes you back in time, with each square (there are 22 of the original 24 left) telling a story of the city’s rich history and Southern heritage. The largest and most popular is Forsyth Park created in 1840. Its 30 acres is home to the city’s most famous fountain installed in 1858 and modeled after the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Of course a popular rival is Chippewa Square where the famous park bench scenes from the movie Forrest Gump was filmed. In the opening shot of the film, a feather floats high above the trees, then sweeps down past the Independent Presbyterian Church and makes its way toward Chippewa Square, eventually landing at the base of a park bench. Tom Hanks, who plays the role of Forrest, sits on this park bench for about 80% of the film telling his life story to anyone who will listen. The bench that Hanks/Forrest sat on was actually a movie prop, so is not there, but the location of the bench for the movie in Chippewa Square is still a popular spot for photographs.

Our stay in Savannah was finally coming to an end. We fueled up and pumped out at SYC and threw off lines around 11:30 am. Carol had a couple more meetings while underway while Gary enjoyed a couple dolphin escorts. We arrived at Wexford Yacht Club in Hilton Head, SC around 2:30 where we got to do another small lock. Yup – you have to pass through a very small lock that raises you between 1 and 2 feet to get to the Wexford Yacht Club. We barely fit both length and width wise, but the dockmaster Mark skillfully locked us through and helped us secure the boat just minutes before Gary’s sister Diane arrived by car from Destin to spend a few days with us.

With the benefit of Diane’s car, we were off to dinner at Black Marlin Bayside Grill where the food was fabulous but the caterpillars falling out of the trees on our table, food and heads was a bit distracting. Carol kept her menu to partially wear as a hat partially use as a weapon! After dinner it was back to the boat to catch the Red Sox game (good guys won!) and plan our day on Friday.

Hilton Head was hopping with the RBC Heritage PGA Golf Tournament in town. Not having tickets, we thought we’d anchor off of the 18th hole and watch a bit! But that’s for the next post.

Oh yah….. we are under contract on a house in Savannah, GA!

Day 324. 329; April 7 – 12: Sunday, 4/7 we said goodbye to Puffin and No Rush at Jekyll Island and departed for St. Simons and Sea Island. It would be short run (about 2 hours) so we took our time in the morning with a leisurely breakfast and lines off around 11:00 am. Had lunch underway, arriving around 1:00 pm having fought the current the whole way. We normally cruise at about 10 knots and the current slowed us down to just over 8.

We had a strange (and noisy) following of birds just about the whole way that we’ve not seen before; sort of like you see behind a shrimp boat. We saw just one dolphin on the way, although he/she only swam along with us for a few seconds. We do miss the playful pods of dolphins we enjoyed in FL, but did read that boaters are starting to see dolphins in the Chesapeake, so we look forward to that.

The Village of St. Simons with its cute shops, restaurants, pier, parks and lighthouse was just a short 2 mile bike ride away, so off we went. There was a wonderful bike path the whole way making the trip a breeze. We poked around downtown and of course, found some ice cream! We decided on a quiet dinner on the boat to use some of fresh veggies we had gotten at the farmer market and watch some of the MASL playoff games. Even though our beloved Baltimore Blast are on the sidelines, we still like to watch.

Monday, 4/8 we picked up a rental car and tooled around St. Simons checking it out as a possibility for a winter home. We stopped in and spent some time with a local realtor who gave us the lay of the land of St. Simons and Sea Island. There are many gated communities on St. Simons we couldn’t wander into, but Sea Island is entirely a private island that we’d need to wait to see on Tuesday, when Carol’s friend Jon provided us with a pass. He also provided some restaurant recommendations, the first of which was Halyards on St. Simons that we went to on Monday. Tuesday, Jon treated us to dinner on Sea Island at Tavola – which was fabulous! We could definitely see ourselves on Sea Island and it was great to get some insights from him on his experiences there. Sea Island has great golf for Gary, ocean for Carol but limited places to keep Legacy. Jon reminded us that it does get down right cold in the winter, so to keep that in mind.

Wednesday, 4/10 it was time for us to move on and head further north. After picking up our free muffins from the coffee shop, a perk of staying at the Morning Star Marina, we threw off lines around 10:00 am for a planned 3.5 hour run to Tea Kettle Creek where we planned to anchor for the night. With heavy rain and wind forecasted overnight, we decided we’d skip the anchorage and press on all the way to Sunbury making it a 6.5 hour run, but we’d be much safer at the marina. It was a twisty, turny day through Georgia’s marsh land, creeks and rivers where we needed to be ever mindful of water depth.

We are thankful for the amazing electronics on Legacy and wonder how the first looper managed this back in 1906. We arrived around 4:45, just in time before the dock hands went home for the night. There were 2 or 3 other looper boats there, but with the rain coming in, no docktails. It was just as well since Carol had a BOD meeting at 6:30 pm. The winds picked up to about 35 knots and the rain was very heavy overnight and most of the morning.

The sun came out and dried things off a bit just after noon. The heavy rain gave Carol a chance to jump on a several hour zoom call with Jane and begin to hammer out a budget for FY 2024/2025 for A Little Compassion and the Nest Coffee House. With the rain finally stopping, Gary grabbed a bucket and brush to give Legacy a good scrub on the outside. Carol got off the boat and stretched her legs a bit before getting on another BOD call that would go from 4:30 – 6:15. Then it was off to dinner at the Sunbury Creek Crab Company right there at the marina. It was quite the rustic looking place with ‘rustic’ being a generous description, so our expectations were low. The service and food were actually exceptional with Gary commenting it was the best pecan pie he’s ever had….I guess that means it was better than Carol’s….Hmmmmm.

Tom and Susan aboard Mona Lisa hailing out of Connecticut were also there, so we enjoyed chatting with them. We never did meet Chris and Lisa on Cool Beans who were tied up right behind us. Between the heavy rains and several meetings, we only saw each other through the rain drops. They were up and out earlier than us on Friday, 4/12 but we can see them on Nebo ahead of us also headed toward Savannah and Skidaway Island.

We left Sunbury around 9:30 am, a departure time coordinated with a rising tide. There are a few ‘skinny spots’ (that’s boater talk for shallow water) we needed to traverse on the way to Skidaway, so tide matters. The tidal swing here is a remarkable 6-7 feet! Check out the photo of Legacy above and note how tall the pilings are – that’s because those are floating docks that rise with the tide and need to ride up and down those pilings. It was a bit cool with winds between 20 and 30 knots on this leg of the trip to Thunderbolt Marina in Savannah. We arrived just after 2:00 pm and look forward to exploring this area, particularly a community called ‘The Landings.’

Read on for some St. Simons history if you are so inclined:

St. Simons has an interesting history as the second-largest and most developed of Georgia’s barrier islands; approximately twelve miles long and three miles wide (roughly the size of Manhattan Island in New York).  The resort community of Sea Island is separated from St. Simons on the east by the Black Banks River.

 The Georgia coast was considered “debatable land” by England and Spain, even though Spain had fully retreated from St. Simons by 1702. Thirty-one years later General James Edward Oglethorpe founded the English settlement of Savannah. In 1736 he established Fort Frederica, named after the heir to the British throne, Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, on the west side of St. Simons Island to protect Savannah and the Carolinas from the Spanish threat.

 Between 1736 and 1749 Fort Frederica was the hub of British military operations along the Georgia frontier. A town of the same name grew up around the fort and was of great importance to the new colony. When the British regimen disbanded in 1749, most of the townspeople relocated to the mainland. Fort Frederica went into decline and never fully recovered. Today the historic citadel’s tabby ruins are maintained by the National Park Service.

 By the start of the American Revolution (1775-83), Fort Frederica was obsolete, and St. Simons was largely uninhabited as most of its residents joined the patriot army.  The island played almost no role in the war.

 Following the war, many of the townspeople, their businesses destroyed, turned to agriculture. The island was transformed into fourteen cotton plantations after acres of live oak trees were cleared for farmland and used for building American warships, including the famous USS Constitution, or “Old Ironsides.” Although rice was the predominant crop along the neighboring Altamaha River, St. Simons was known for its production of long-staple cotton, which soon came to be known as Sea Island cotton.

 Between the 1780s and the outbreak of the Civil War (1861-65), St. Simons’ plantation culture flourished.  One of the largest owners of land and enslaved laborers was Pierce Butler, owner of Hampton Point Plantation.  By 1793 Butler owned more than 500 slaves who cultivated 800 acres of cotton on St. Simons and 300 acres of rice on Butler’s Island.  

 The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 put a sudden end to St. Simons’ plantation era.  After the Civil War the island never returned to its status as an agricultural community. The plantations lay dormant because there were no enslaved laborers to work the fields. Union General William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 15 in January 1865 demanding that former plantations be divided and distributed to formerly enslaved workers.  This was overturned by President Andrew Johnson less than a year later, and freedmen and women were forced to work as sharecroppers on the small farms previously occupied by the sprawling plantations.

 By 1870 economic recovery began with the re-establishment of the timber industry. Lumber mills were set up on the former Hamilton Plantation. The lumber mills provided employment but also provided mail and passenger boats to the mainland. Such water traffic, together with the construction of a new light house in 1872 marked the beginning of St. Simons’ tourism industry. The keeper of the lighthouse created a small amusement park and the island became a summer retreat for families from the mainland.

 The island’s resort industry was thriving by the 1880s. Beachfront structures, such as a new pier and grand hotel, were built on the southeastern end of the island, accessible by ferry. Around this time wealthy northerners began vacationing on the island.

 The opening in 1924 of the Brunswick–St. Simons Highway, today known as the Torras Causeway, was a milestone in the development of resorts in the area. More than 5,000 automobiles took the short drive from Brunswick to St. Simons via the causeway on its opening day, paving the way for residential and resort development.

 In 1926 Howard Coffin of Detroit, Michigan, bought large tracts of land on St. Simons, including the former Retreat Plantation, and constructed a golf course, yacht club, paved roads, and a residential subdivision. St. Simons remained a small community with only a few hundred permanent residents until the 1940s.

The outbreak of WWII (1941-45) brought more visitors and residents to St. Simons. Troops stationed at Jacksonville, Florida, Savannah and nearby Camp Stewart took weekend vacations on the island, and a new naval air base and radar school became home to even more officers and soldiers.

 With a major shipyard for the production of Liberty ships in nearby Brunswick, the waters of St. Simons became active with German U-boats In April 1942, just off the coast, 2 US flagged oil tankers were torpedoed by the Germans, bringing the war very close to home for island residents.

 Due in large part to the military’s improvement of the island’s infrastructure during the war, development on the island boomed in the 1950s and 1960s. More permanent homes and subdivisions were built, and the island was no longer just a summer resort but also a thriving community.  The island continues to be a major vacation destination as its development boom continues.

Days 319 -323; 4/2 – 4/6:

Tuesday 4/2 we were off to Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach – our last stop in Florida before we cross over into Georgia. It’s almost 4 months now that we are circumnavigating FL, so time for a new color on our pin board. You may remember every month is a new color! April is white.

We left around 8:30 am for what should have been a very uneventful 4 hour run. For the most part it was uneventful, except for touching the bottom twice. The first was right in the middle of the channel! It’s always disconcerting when your boat touches bottom. Fortunately, the first was just a graze but it was strange; we sort of bounced off a ridge on the starboard side and it threw us a little to port – like bumping into a soft guard rail. Come to find out, many boats reported the same bump in the same spot, so the channel markers need to be moved.

The second bump was our own fault where we wandered out of the channel ever so slightly and just grazed the bottom. We were at near idle speed, so it was easy to back out of the shallow area back to safety. Legacy is constructed with a fiberglass keel reinforced with stainless steel that extends 12” below the propellers, so unlike may other boats, the props are protected. We’ve heard stories of lots of bent props and shafts, the worst being stories of pods that if you strike bottom, they literally fall off! Thankfully, we’ve not seen any damage yet.

We’ve said this before and repeat it again, if you’re doing the loop and say you haven’t touched bottom, you’re either lying or you will! You just don’t want to do it at speed!

As we pulled into Fernandina Harbor Marina, it was great to see Puffin tied up on the end of the pier. We walked the cute little town, poking into the shops and finding some ice cream. We especially enjoyed “Trailer Park Collectibles” – talk about an eclectic collection of stuff you’d find in an antique store, Good Will or at the dump! Good clean fun wandering through – just be careful what you touch! We enjoyed dinner at the Boathouse downtown with Tony and Shirley and their friends Dwight and Melinda who now live on Amelia Island, but were previously their neighbors in NC.

Wednesday, 4/3 brought heavy rain and gusty winds. Gary found a barber shop and Carol worked on budgets for the non profit her sister Jane runs; Carol is on the board of directors. Here’s a shameless plug if you’d like to support us…. It’s been a tough year on donations and grants! I know because I just did the finance report and budget. Check out or mission and impact here: https://alittlecompassion.org/

The rain made for a good day to catch up on email, paper work and other mundane stuff so we hung out and decided to have dinner on the boat. Tony and Shirley (with their pup Sophie) joined us for Carol’s homemade pesto and shrimp over pasta. They brought a salad and some amazing carrot cake! Yum all around! Sophie didn’t get any – not good for doggies.

Thursday, 4/4 brought more spitty rain but much more intense winds. It was a good time to get off the boat for a little while, so we borrowed Dwight’s truck with Tony and Shirley and headed to the local grocery store for provisions. The wind was pretty steady at 35/40 knots all day, generating 1-2 foot choppy seas that pushed us onto the pier. Our fenders stood up well, although other boats reported some of theirs had popped. It was howling! Legacy weighs in at over 100,000 lbs so doesn’t bounce around as much as the other lighter boats.

We were docked on the west side of the island on the ICW, so the winds were coming directly at us broadside (windward side.) We decided to take a bike ride 2 miles directly east across the island to the ocean side and the beach. This would be the leeward (protected from the wind) side. What a difference! There was a pretty steady breeze with people sun bathing, walking the beach and playing beach games like frisbee or volleyball. We found a beach bar and enjoyed a snack and a beer before heading back to the 35/40 knots winds. One island, two different worlds. This would go on most of the day and finally calmed a bit around 7:00 pm.

During our downtown strolls, we came across a German Biergarten that looked to have a pretty interesting menu, great variety of beer and cute outdoor seating. 13 loopers headed there and took over 2 tables for dinner. A great time was had by all with crews from Legacy, Puffin, Finito, Never Home, No Rush, Journey…. And of course Dwight!

Friday, 4/5 it was time to head to Jekyll Island so Puffin, No Rush and Legacy left together around 9:35 with a plan to anchor at Cumberland Island for a couple hours and tour the ruins of the old Carnegie mansion and see if we could find some wild horses. 90% of the island is now a national park so it was a fun hike. Here’s a little history:

In the 1880s, Thomas M. Carnegie, brother of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, and his wife Lucy bought land on Cumberland Island for a winter retreat, eventually owning 90% of the island. In 1884, they began building a mansion, though Carnegie never lived to see its completion. Lucy and their nine children continued to live on the island, naming their mansion Dungeness. Dungeness was designed as a 59-room castle. They also built pools, a golf course, and 40 smaller buildings to house the 200 servants who worked at the mansion. The last time Dungeness was used was for the 1929 wedding of a Carnegie daughter. After the Crash and the Great Depression, the family left the island and kept the mansion vacant. It burned in a 1959 fire, believed to have been started by a poacher who had been shot in the leg by a caretaker weeks before. Today, the ruins of the mansion remain on the southern end of the island. That is where we hiked. Today, Cumberland Island has just under 40 habitable dwellings which are used by owners and guests. Fun fact: John F Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette were married on Sept. 21, 1996, during a small private ceremony at the First African Baptist Church on Cumberland Island, filling the 8 pews with family and friends, with no press!

Back on the boats, it was time for lunch underway and we heard over the radio of 2 boats hard aground a few miles ahead of us. They attempted to pass a dredge and swung too wide, especially on an outgoing tide. That’s a bad day! As we approached, Puffin (who draws 4 feet) was in the lead. The dredge operator told them where to pass and they should be okay. As Tony proceeded exactly as instructed, he reported scraping the bottom. Not a hard hit, but a scrape he was able to push through. That was good news for Puffin, but bad news for Legacy who was next in line to pass. Because we draw 5 feet, and we knew Puffin scraped, going through was a no go. At first, the dredge suggested we wait for the tide to rise and as we backed away and he saw 4 or 5 other large boats behind us, he offered to pull up his anchor and move closer to shore to give us deeper passage. That took about 10 minutes and then it was our turn to thread the needle between the grounded boats and the dredge with a huge boom. The dredge instructed us to stay close to him, but about 10-15’ away and we’d be fine. Get beyond the boom and cut to the starboard away from the shoal. With wind on the port side, it pushed us to starboard far closer than 10-15 feet he suggested….. okay maybe it was only about 4 feet from the boom, but there was no unwanted touching involved, although we did invade his personal (safe) space quite a bit! All good, we made it through and had plenty of water (about 14’ lowest), as did No Rush and the other boats.

We arrived around 4:30 pm at Jekyll Ilsand and once all were secure, enjoyed a safe arrival drink on Legacy as we waited for our name to be called at the Riverhouse restaurant right there at the marina. It was several hours later, after waiting for the tide and the tow boat, that the two grounded boats arrived looking quite tired from the day. They pretty much kept to themselves and the rest of us gave them their space to do as they needed to do from a bit of a harrowing day. They left early the next morning, so we didn’t get any more insight from their grounding but we really didn’t need it…. We could see exactly what happened.

Saturday, 4/6 we got out our bikes and rode with Tony & Shirley (Puffin) and Trish & Jamie (No Rush.) We left around 11:00 am and rode the trails on Jekyll Island all day, stopping for pizza around 2:00 and returning around 4:00.

A little history on Jekyll Island: Christophe du Bignon and his family arrived on Jekyll Island from France in 1792 as refugees from the violence of the French Revolution against the elite. Du Bignon developed a prosperous plantation based on African slavery. After he died in 1825, his son Henri Charles Du Bignon inherited the property. Under the new ownership of Henri Charles, the plantation continued to prosper. Interestingly, on November 28, 1858, fifty years after the importation of slaves to the United States was prohibited, the ship the Wanderer landed on Jekyll Island with 465 slaves. This was the next-to-last ship to bring slaves to American soil from Africa.

By 1860, the plantations on Jekyll had declined in productivity, as the markets had changed and the soil became exhausted. By 1862 when Union Army troops arrived, the Du Bignon plantation was completely deserted. After the American Civil War ended, the Du Bignon family returned to the island. Henri Charles divided the island among his four children.

In 1875 John Eugene Du Bignon, a nephew, became owner of property on the island. He inherited the southern third of the island from his father and intended to build a house.

Du Bignon purchased the rest of the island from his siblings, with the help of his brother-in-law Newton Finney and an investor. Their plan to market the island as a winter retreat for the wealthy came to fruition on February 17, 1886. They decided to construct a clubhouse which was completed in January 1888. Fifty-three members purchased shares for $600 each; a limit of 100 members was imposed to preserve the club’s exclusivity.

From 1888 to 1942 the club opened every January for the winter season, accommodating some of the world’s wealthiest people – the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Goodyears, Pulitzers, Morgans and Cranes, for example. Members and their families enjoyed activities such as biking, hunting, horseback riding, tennis and frequenting the north beaches. Some of the wealthiest members built their own “cottages”, mansion-sized residences that are mostly still standing in the 21st century. The government ordered the island evacuated when the Germans torpedoed a tanker nearby in 1942, placing the island under protection of the coast guard.  The club closed at the end of the 1942 season and the owners paid for a staff to keep up the buildings and property until 1947, when the island was sold to the state of Georgia. For a while, the state operated a resort in the club but it closed in 1971.  The club house still stands as a hotel and resort while the “cottages” have become private homes or museums.  The state of Georgia owns all of the land and instead of purchasing a parcel of property and it’s building (fee simple ownership), the state of Georgia leases the land to owners for a fee known as leasehold ownership…… fascinating!

It was a long day on our regular, non electrically assisted bikes. Tony and Shirley had been telling us how much they love their Tern folding electric bikes. Come to find out, Trish and Jamie have the same bikes. They were kind enough to let us try them and wow – what a difference. Well at least one of us is sold and wants one! With just 2.5 months left on the Loop, is it worth it? Well one of us says yes! The loop isn’t the end of needing bikes, and if it were a little easier, we’d likely use them more and go further…. Right?

Having such a late (and large) lunch, we decided on a later dinner…. Later being 7:15/7:30 which is creeping right up on looper midnight of 9:00! Dinner was fish tacos on Legacy with yummy apps and dessert provided by our bicycling buddies. It as a fun time by all!

Sunday, 4/7 we would part ways with Puffin and No Rush as they pressed on to Sunbury Harbor – a 10 hour run and Legacy had plans to stop in St. Simons/Sea Island GA for a couple days. Puffin will cross their wake in NC, and will likely be ahead of us the rest of the way. We will see them again, however, when they come to Annapolis to go to the boat show. No Rush is heading up the coast, hopefully as far as Maine and we will plan to see them as they pass through Annapolis on the way.

Day 311 – 318; March 25 – 4/1: Hard to believe another week has gone by. March 25 marks a full 10 months on the loop and we’ve nearly fully circumnavigated Florida. As we thought about that, we wondered which was longer: the trip from Chicago, IL to Mobile, AL down the river system or circumnavigating the coast of Florida. Hmmmm… how to figure that out? We took a piece of string and wove it through the pins on our map for a measurement. Which is longer? Turns out, according to our very precise string measurement, the coast of FL was longer by a little over an inch (about 100 miles.)

It took us a slightly less than 2 months to go from Chicago, IL to Mobile, AL and a little less than 4 months to circumnavigate FL. Why twice the time, you might ask? Well, there wasn’t as much to do or see on the rivers and the weather was cold, so we moved from port to port much more quickly. In FL, we stayed in certain ports longer, having guests aboard, visiting friends in certain towns or enjoying the warmer weather. We also left the boat for a week in Punta Gorda, FL to go to Myrtle Beach, SC and in Stuart, FL for a week to go to Scottsdale, AZ.

The map (24” x 27”) below is displayed in the pilot house of Legacy and while we always thought we’d put some fancy-schmancy piece of art there, this piece has really grown on us and is likely going to stay forever! The stories it will tell!

3/25 was our last day in St. Augustine and Gary and Chris enjoyed a round of golf while Tricia and Carol shopped and enjoyed a girls lunch. Alas, the Chitts headed home that night and the Z’s had a quiet night on the boat.

3/26 (Tuesday) we were off to Sisters Creek (part of Jacksonville) to a free dock there. It was about a 4 hour run, passing by an open inlet to get to the ocean; we stayed on the ICW.

When we arrived, the dock appeared to be full with no room for us. Fortunately, that was a solvable problem as each of the boats tightened up the space between them making room. That’s what loopers do! Of course that act of kindness called for docktails and appetizers to celebrate all of our safe arrivals, after which we all retired to dinner on the boats.

Sisters Creek was just a one night stop to break up the full trip to Jacksonville. 3/27 (Wednesday) we were off to the Florida Yacht Club (FYC), upriver/south of downtown Jacksonville. It was about a 2 hour run and we got to see the lay of the land in Jacksonville as we passed by. FYC was a very welcoming club undergoing a huge remodel/upgrade. Being in such a state of construction, they graciously didn’t charge us for the night but welcomed us to use their club for dinner, which we did. The Blast had a game that night, so we watched on board as the Blast beat the Harrisburg Heat in overtime 5-4. Nice win with Michael in goal.

A few fun facts about Jacksonville:

• Jacksonville was named for General Andrew Jackson, the first military governor of Florida who, incidentally, never visited Jacksonville.
• Jacksonville is the largest city by landmass in the Continental US (840 square miles).
• The longest stretch of the St. Johns River runs through Duval County – and YES, the river runs from south to north and NO, it is not the only river that does.
• Jacksonville boasts the largest urban park system in the nation, it is 4x the size of the island of Manhattan! 80,000 acres of parks, including 405 City Parks, 7 State Parks, 2 National park sites and an Arboretum. 
• The Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve, covers 46,000 acres.
• It’s almost always Sunny in Jax with 270 average days of sunshine per year!
• The military employs over 30,000 active-duty personnel and nearly 20,000 civilians in the Jacksonville area and is the largest employer in the county.
• Jax is Florida’s youngest city with an average age of 36 – the state of Florida average age is 42.
• Jax is home to 1,100 miles of shoreline, more than any other city in the state – 22 miles of white-sandy beaches!
• And of course – it is home to the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team with Clemson stand out Trevor Lawrence as their Quarterback. Ever wonder why the Jag supporters shout ‘Duval’ during a game? It’s to recognize the county that makes up the majority of Jacksonville….. ok… a little strange but whatever!

3/28 (Thursday) we headed north to a marina called Port 32, just south of downtown Jacksonville. Carol had to split her meetings between the two ports, but it was only a 30 minute run. Port 32 was a very nice marina with a heated pool and hot tub, free laundry, courtesy bikes and a clubhouse. We took advantage of all of them, including a short 1/2 mile bike ride to the grocery store to provision.

3/29 (Friday) we had the best laid plans to go to downtown Jacksonville and stay at the Metropolitan Park Marina (MPM) – a free dock including power; centrally located in downtown right at the EverBank Stadium where the Jaguars play. The marina allows you to stay for 3 days. It was highly recommended in all the looper books and forums, except….. it was under construction! In fact nearly all of the public docks and parks on the river were torn up and under construction. When they are done, they will be amazing, but for us….it was back to Port32 hoping they still had room for us (which they did.) The beauty of MPM was it was right downtown where we wanted to be to go to the Farmers Market on Saturday morning, to restaurants and to the fountains, etc. No worries, we came up with plan B!

Enterprise car rental was just over 2 miles away, so needing some exercise we decided to walk there. Having wheels allowed us to explore the area a bit (beautiful homes in Avondale and Murray Hill) and have dinner at a highly recommended German restaurant.

Saturday, 3/30 we drove to the Farmer and Art Market which sets up under the route 95 overpass every Saturday. It was a very fun collection of food trucks, vendors of fresh vegetables, baked goods, honey, and more as well as various artsy items (jewelry, cards, clothing, art, etc). We arrived right when it opened at 10:00 am, hoping to find some sort of breakfast food. The food trucks, however, were mostly oriented to lunch so….we went with it! Chicken ranch baked potato for Carol and Hawaiian hamburger for Gary! Funny how Gary has a strong opinion that pineapple cannot be on a pizza, but it’s okay on a burger. Whatever!

We returned to the boat, with all of our purchases in hand and headed to the pool again. It was dinner on the boat and a Blast Game at 6:00 pm; the Blast beat Utica City 15-10 and Michael had another throw in goal. Great way to end the season, despite missing the playoffs.

Sunday, 3/31 was Easter Sunday. He is Risen, Indeed! It was a quiet day of touring the area, catching up on boat things and finding the Friendship Fountain that we wanted to visit on Monday for the evening light show. Had an amazing lunch at the Bearded Pig (BBQ) and made our traditional baked ham, scalloped cheesy potatoes and green beans for dinner. Gary reminded Carol that we ALWAYS make a couple different pies on Easter, but this year we did not….neither of our waist lines need pie. Next time!

Monday, 4/1 brings a new color of pin to our map where we track our Great Loop progress! It was also time to say goodbye to Port 32. In our exploring to find the fountain, we did find a free dock directly in front of it so we were off to that dock for the day and planned to see the show in the evening. We met two other looper boats there – Tara & Allan on ‘Follow Your Arrow’ out of Ontario, Canada and Pat & Sandy on ‘Gettin Nauti’ out of Midland, Michigan. It was great to go to the light show with them and hang out afterwards on the dock.

Pat and Sandy, after completing most of the loop (including a couple months in the Bahamas) have decided to hang it up and go home to have more time with the grand babies. Their boat, which has pods instead of outdrives or propellers on shafts is going up for sale….too much trouble with the pods and big draw home to the kids! Tara and Allan will continue up the east coast and finish their loop in Ontario, Canada. We hope to see them in Annapolis!

So why are there cows painted on the supports of a bridge you might ask (See pic above)? Well it seems these murals pay homage to Jax history prior to its founding in 1822. Natives called the narrow St. John’s River crossing at today’s downtown Jacksonville ‘Wacca Pilatka’ meaning place of cows crossing. Apparently, before 1822, Jax was known as ‘Cowford’ and this spot was where ranchers could get their cows to cross the water. Who knew!

Tomorrow, 4/2 we are off to Amelia Island (Fernandina) which will be our last stop in Florida. Tony and Shirley on Puffin are there so we look forward to reconnecting with them. Last we saw them was in February in the Keys. We met Tony and Shirley on ‘day minus 4’ at the Annapolis Yacht Basin – we had just moved out of our house and onto the boat, but still had 4 days before leaving on 5/25. They were 15 days into their loop and Shirley looked petrified! It’s been such a pleasure Loop-frogging with them! They are very close to crossing their wake in New Bern, North Carolina. We hope to plan many more adventure with them!