The Crossing

The longest stretch of open water needing to be crossed on the Loop is the Gulf of Mexico in Florida's panhandle to west coast.  It can be terrifying or boring, depending on weather conditions.  We had been watching the forecast since leaving Pensacola and saw a good 48 hour weather window coming up. During the winter it can easily be a week or two before another good chance might occur.  Our anxiety rose as the engine problem delay was chewing up the days before the window would close.

We had been lucky to find Tony and fortunate that he came out on Christmas Eve Saturday to help us.
The holidays caused another delay by not getting our replacement pump delivered Tuesday morning as expected.  A couple of other looper boats we met at the marina left Tuesday headed down the ICW to join a larger group for the crossing together the next day.  Our anxiety level rose.

After explaining our urgency, Tony drove 2 hours to Mobile, AL to retrieve an available pump and brought it Wed morning to install.  It was in an awkward position and took 3 hours, plus a few cuss words, but the dreaded "check engine" light was gone and she again purred like a kitten.

Since the good weather window was open, we decided to go for it. There was a heavy fog that made looking for channel markers very difficult and there were many reports of shallow areas to avoid. So instead of threading our way carefully down the ICW, we opted for going straight out into the gulf.

We left at noon and the fog stayed with us until sundown.  But once clear of the inlet, we encountered only one other boat about a mile away, and few other obstructions to avoid.  We relied on our radar both in the fog and at night and it proved quite reliable.  It was a moonless night, so very dark with lots of stars to watch march across the sky.  Our only cause for concern was when a boat light on the horizon did not show up on the radar.  Peace and calm were restored when it was determined to be a new rising star and not a stealth boat.

The forecast proved correct as we found calm water (1-2' waves) and light wind (4-9 kts)for the entire crossing.  Angie and I traded off piloting and napping about every 2-3 hours.  Happy Daze performed wonderfully.

We arrived at the Clearwater inlet at 9 am and took another hour to get to our slip and tie up.  The trip from Panama City to Clearwater covered 240 miles, took 22 hours, and consumed about 140 gallons of diesel.  We spent about 4 hours at 17-20 mph and the rest at 8-10 mph.  Below is a track log since we left Pensacola on Dec 20 and 340 miles into our Loop.  We are over 1/20 of the way!

Christmas in Panama City

Merry Christmas everyone!

We are in Panama City Marina, with sunny skies and warm temperatures. It took us two easy days to travel about 100 miles from Pensacola on the ICW (Inter Coastal Waterway) and we saw few other boats moving.  It was a combination of open bays and narrow channels.

All was fine until we tried to leave the marina the next day.  We had a "check engine" warning light come on and found that we could not get up to power, only idle.  So back to the dock and attempts at troubleshooting began.  Changed the primary and secondary fuel filters, because that has been our experience in the past of what most commonly causes problems.  But no help.  Called around for a mechanic, but found out only an authorized Cummins service person with electronic diagnostic equipment would be able to help.  Eventually found Tony White out of Destin who came to help on Sat morning, Christmas Eve.

He says our fuel pump needs replaced and he will try to get one but holidays are problem, so shooting for install on Tues, Dec 27.

So we have an unplanned layover and are left to enjoy the local area.  We have walked a lot and are enjoying funky eateries with scrumptious seafood. 

And we can take the dinghy over to a nearby island that has miles white sugar sand and clear gulf water.

We are expecting 75 deg today and sunny skies.  I just checked and Durango had a low of 7 deg and is snowing. 😄

Overland transport

We had debated leaving Happy Daze in Anacortes for the winter and then moving her to the East Coast next spring.  This would allow us to re-start our Loop experience where we left off from our earlier attempt.  But the thought of leaving this beautiful boat just sitting and exposed to the elements was depressing and wrong.  So, we opted for transporting her down to FL, where we could expect to enjoy her a bit over the winter.  It would mean retracing our tracks on Snow Bird, but there are much worse tasks to take on.

So out of the water she comes:

and on to the transport trailer:

She had to be winterized, bimini and side curtains removed, mast, radar, spotlight, and antennas all taken down and stored inside.

She left Anacortes on Nov 22, but was held up for Thanksgiving holidays and a snowstorm in Wyoming.  She arrived in Pensacola, FL on Dec 7.  She is now "on the hard" in the Pensacola Shipyard, getting put back together and cleaned up from the road trip.

We fly out Dec 18 to join her and see how she likes warmer waters.

Anacortes, WA

Early in Sep, soon after purchasing Happy Daze, Angie and I (Admiral and Captain, respectively) took a few days to get to know her better and enjoy the Anacortes area.  Quite a lovely town, clean and "real" feeling, maybe half the size of Durango, and very oriented to boats and fishing. Unfortunately, mother nature was in a stinky mood, so we spent much more time in the marina than we did out on the water or anchored in quiet bays.  When we did go out, we encountered few other boats and Happy Daze performed flawlessly and was a joy to operate.

This is Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes, where we found Happy Daze.

One of the resident seal lions enjoying a sunny day on the docks.



The marina had loaner bikes and a 5 mi or so biking/walking path that came right by the docks.



This is the town of La Conner, it is on the Swinomish Channel, which separates Fidalgo Island from the mainland. Anacortes is at the north end of Fidalgo.

And this is a view of the ever present snow on Mt. Baker.  It is 32 miles from shore, 10,780 ft high, and last erupted in 1880.

Love at first sight

To abuse a line from Robert Burns, "the best laid plans of mice and men, oft go awry".
And so it is with our well researched boat purchase plans.

Right after our week cruising the San Juan Islands on a trial of our top choice American Tug 395, we decided to skip looking at any more boats in WA and will look for that exact model on the East coast, where we intend to use it.  So this gave us couple days free and we decided to visit Anacortes.  We had heard it is a nice small town on an island that we could drive to.  Of course they also have a couple of very nice marinas with lots of pretty boats to look at.  And we did.... And...pow!...awry went our plans.

We met Korey Scott, a very nice yacht broker who showed us a beautiful boat that really captured our attention .... and won our hearts!

She is a Back Cove 41, built in 2014, well cared for and tricked out with everything we would want.
Yes, very different from the tug style we had decided on, but still met our main criteria;  made in Maine, with a single Cummins diesel engine, side thrusters, double cabin, enclosed shower, and has a door from helm to deck.  She also has two extra important features; (1) a low profile for getting under bridges and allowing truck transport, and (2) 600 hp that lets her cruise at 15-20 mph!  Both features will help us on the Loop.



No flybridge, but does have a spacious cockpit with teak flooring, full bimini cover and removable clear plastic side panels.

She has a large master stateroom in the bow, smaller guest quarters, and two heads, one with enclosed shower stall.

The galley is up, with sink, propane stove, microwave/oven, freezer, and 2 refrigerators,

 

We purchased a new dinghy with 20 hp electric start motor and real steering wheel!  You can also see the hydraulic lifting davits, very sweet!

The helm is fully equipped with dual Garmin touch screen chart plotters, compass, depth gauge, thruster controls, automatic trim tabs, engine monitoring readouts, and winch controls that even have a chain counter.  

Fully adjustable Stidd helm seats

She has radar, a controllable spotlight, a KVH satellite receiver, and four 55 watt solar panels.

Ok, one last picture, here is the boat layout:

Boat search

Having sold Snow Bird in 2012, we've been getting our boating fix by chartering.  And it is without a doubt the easiest and most economical way to enjoy cruising.  Since then we've chartered boats in Alaska, Australia, Bahamas, Canada, and several Caribbean Islands.

But you can't find anyone who will charter you a boat to do the Great Loop.
So, the search for a new boat began.

It took a couple of years; reading boating magazines, researching on the internet, and walking miles of docks looking at boats, but we eventually narrowed down on the model and features we wanted.  This included: made in America, single diesel engine, side thrusters, double cabin, enclosed shower, and helm access to the side deck.  This narrowed the choices considerably.  Our top candidate emerged to be an American Tug Mdl 395.  They are built in a small town just north of Seattle, WA, and have an American manufactured Cummins diesel engine.

Showing good judgement, we toured the factory and then chartered a 2013 model for a week this July cruising around the San Juan Is.  All was wonderful and highly recommended.

Prologue

As many of you may know, we first had this idea of doing the Loop back in 2008.  You can look up our blog for that adventure at:  http://durango-snowbird.blogspot.com






Here are pictures of Snow Bird, our 37 ft power catamaran:

The short version is that we tried twice to do the loop with Snow Bird, but ran out of time each attempt.  Several issues contributed to our failure to complete:
1.  The boat we chose was a brand new design and had many issues that required fixes.
2.  Weather is the controlling factor when on the water, so time schedules fell apart.
3.  We had work and family responsibilities that pulled us home and off the water.
4.  It takes a long time to go anywhere at only 8 mph!

But we had a wonderful time, learned a lot about boating, and saw some beautiful country.  We spent weeks in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas, visited many historic cities on the east coast, cruised past the statue of liberty, around Manhattan and up to Connecticut.

SO STAY TUNED, WE ARE GOING TO TRY AGAIN !