Daydream Crosses Her Wake and Goes Gold!

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's)

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 226 - November 13, 2017

November 13, 2017, was Patty's birthday, and she got the birthday present she was really hoping for - for us to have crossed our wake and to see Daydream on the trailer ready for the long drive back to Birch Bay!

Daydream on trailer and ready to roll!

THE STATISTICS

Start date: April 1, 2017 at  Ortona Lock Boat Ramp
Crossed wake: 9:54 a.m. November 13, 2017 at Ortona Lock Boat Ramp
Total days on Loop: 226
Non-travel days: 89
Locks transited: 108
Statute miles traveled: 5,428
Engine hours: 844.5
Outboard maintenances performed: 4 
Fuel used: 1,114 gallons
Cost of fuel: $4,200
Nights in marinas: 82
Boat cards collected:75

Ortona Lock Boat Ramp, where we launched April 1, 2017, and crossed our wake November 13, 2017

SPECIAL THANKS

Jonathan Arthur and Rosa Cross in Florida. Jonathan allowed us to stay at Honest John's Fish Camp for a few days, and loaned us his car to go shopping. And for stopping to say hello each time they passed us on the Loop!

Benton and Ann Blalock in North Carolina. They hauled Daydream out, let us crash their family gathering, fed us and put us up, took us shopping, arranged a grooming for Baxter, and showed me how to do the engine maintenance.

Charlie and Sally Vinroot in Virginia. They gave us refuge from a storm, fed us and put us up, took us shopping, and took us sightseeing.

Mary Israelow in New Jersey. Mary put us up, fed us, took me to the eye doctor, took us shopping, and took us sightseeing.

Bob and Maureen Clark in New Jersey. They put us up and fed us and took us sightseeing.

Evan and Jeanne Chiligirs in Chicago. They took us shopping and took us out for the best Greek meal we have ever had.

Bob and Marie Austin in Pensacola. They had given us all their Loop guide books before we started the Loop, and on the Loop they put us up and fed us and took us sightseeing.

Marc and Anita Grove in Apalachicola. They helped us in many ways! They took us on a river cruise, allowed us to use their slip at Battery Park Marina, and loaned us their golf cart. Marc and the crew at Wefings made it their mission to get Daydream able to plane and run fast enough for a short crossing of the Big Bend (and succeeded).

Cecil and Danny Hazen in Cape Coral. They put us up and fed us, repositioned our truck and trailer, and took us sightseeing.

THINGS WE FOUND MOST USEFUL

The iPad mounted on a RAM mount at the helm. It was our main chartplotter with Garmin Blue Chart Mobile, our access to weather information with SailFlow, and our FaceTime connection to the grandchildren!

Skipper Bob books and Active Captain via Garmin Blue Chart Mobile. We consulted these resources daily, and often multiple times per day. Don't leave home without them!

The ARB freezer and Pelican cooler. We kept a frozen gallon of water in the cooler and swapped it daily between the ARB and the Pelican cooler. The ARB kept us well stocked with frozen food and most importantly, ice for our drinks!

The Coleman one burner propane stove for when we had no shore power, and the NuWave induction cooker for when we had shore power.

The Verizon Jetpack MiFi. Our T-Mobile iPhones had no service most of the time, and the Jetpack gave us both internet and cell phone connectivity.

Our iPhones. They were our cameras, our calendars, our backup chartplotters, and everything else an iPhone can do, including  being used for phone calls! They would have been useless most of the time without the Verizon Jetpack, but WiFi calling worked great whenever the Jetpack could connect to the Verizon network.

Our Chromebooks. The blog photos were edited on the Chromebook, the blog text was written on the Chromebook, and the blog was published on the Chromebook. We used the Chromebooks for paying some bills online, email, web browsing, online shopping, and news. I have Ubuntu Linux on my Chromebook, which really extended its capabilities.

Our Kindles, Patty downloaded many books from the library and read her Kindle almost every day, me less so but I read my Kindle quite a bit too.

The Camfrano 12 volt fans, one fixed mount, and the other one portable.

The Endless Breeze 12 volt box fan. We put this on a little folding table aimed into the vee-berth, opened the vee-berth hatch, and that was almost always all the cooling we needed.

The Sea Eagle kayak. This was a great substitute for a traditional dinghy. Much lighter and easier to get on and off the roof. Baxter approved!

The Airhead composting toilet. Never needing to pump out was a huge benefit.

The Helio shower. This is a little marvel that lets two people shower. We heated up some water and added it to cold water in the Helio tank until it was the right temperature. The foot pump pressurized the tank and the 7 foot long line to the shower head worked great.

The Magma grill. Sometimes you just have to grill something - a steak, some fish, bratwurst sausage, Polish sausage - we did not use it every night of course but when we needed it, it was just the ticket. We also used it to bake tortilla pizzas!

8" and 10" cast iron frying pans and a 2 quart stainless saucepan. These were the only cookware we used.

The stainless French Press and stainless Thermos vacuum bottle. These items made that wonderful morning coffee on the cockpit possible.

THINGS THAT WERE MARGINAL

The Coastal Explorer laptop and AIS. Coastal Explorer was unusable with the USB monitor I had originally mounted. Then I discovered Duet Display and was able to use the iPad as the monitor for the Toshiba laptop, and Coastal Explorer was usable, But it did not give us anything that the iPad and Garmin Blue Chart Mobile also gave us except AIS. The AIS was somewhat useful when encountering tows on the rivers, but even when it was not turned on, we  did fine dealing with the tows.

The butane stove. It got used occasionally when we had no shore power and didn't want to cook on the cockpit, but those times were few and far between.

THINGS WE BROUGHT AND NEVER USED

The inside curtains for the camperback. We thought we needed privacy curtains, but as it turned out, we really didn't care if anybody saw us shower!

Our ukuleles. We brought them but never took them out once, and they just used up valuable storage space!

Cat carrier. Don't know what we were thinking! Lucy never got off the boat once!

Stainless cookware set. We bought an expensive set, but only used the 2 quart saucepan. The rest of the set used up valuable storage space.

The air conditioner.  We bought it in St. Augustine and carried it around the Loop but only used it three times.  Of course, we would have used it more if the weather had been hotter, which it certainly might have been.

The 7 gallon Aquatainer with emergency water, We made it just fine with the 20 gallons in our fresh water tank. The Aquatainer just took up space and added extra weight.

DeLorme In-Reach. With Facebook, we really did not need the In-Reach, and never activated it.

DJI Phantom 3 Standard Drone.  DJI changed the control program so it no longer worked on my iPhone 5. I got a new control program called Litchi, but I was reluctant to fly until I could do tests over land instead of over water!

FAVORITE PLACE

Chicago, without a doubt, but Mackinac Island was a close second.

MOST STRESSFUL EVENT

Our night in St. Joseph, when we got slammed into the concrete wall all night and destroyed our starboard rub rail.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The days we got off the boat staying with friends and our night at the Blackstone in Chicago were really rejuvenating. Everyone should get off the boat now and then.

The size of our boat was not a handicap but a benefit on the Loop. Daydream was big enough that we had everything we needed and were comfortable, and small enough that both Patty and I could handle her safely. It allowed us to go under many bridges without waiting for an opening, and the shallow draft allowed us to go into many places larger boats could not go. 

Not being able to plane was not a problem for the most part. We were slow cruisers before we started the Loop, and we will be slow cruisers when we go back to our home waters. We were, however, very glad Wefings Marine made the changes necessary so we could get on plane for the Big Bend crossing at 15 mph!

No matter what anybody says on the AGLCA Forum, the only ESSENTIAL things for navigating on the Loop are an iPad with Garmin Blue Chart Mobile, an iPhone as a backup for the IPad, a depth sounder, a VHF radio, and enough knowledge and experience to be a safe boater.

Skills we acquired or improved on the Loop were using the available weather resources, figuring out our own criteria for go / no-go decisions, and the patience to wait for acceptable weather conditions.

SIGNING OFF

This, my friends, is the final installment of our Daydream's Loop blog. We want to thank those of you who read it daily, posted comments, or contacted us through the Contact Form. We are absolutely humbled and amazed that enough of you enjoyed our blog enough to push it to more than 74,000 page views, It has truly been the adventure of a lifetime!

We will proudly be flying the AGLCA Gold burgee from here on out!