It’s great to lose the past ten months’ usual routines: get up early, make sense of the weather, radar, and wind-prediction apps, plan logistics, select a destination and a Plan B just in case, then enter and double-check electronic track lines.
For a while anyway, we won’t need to troubleshoot, or break and stow water and power shore ties, or cast off and secure fenders and mooring lines – at this marina, four on either side to secure IH between pilings and slip.
We’ve replaced our bedraggled AGLCA burgee – the first-time Looper’s standard – with a crisp, new gold one. We haven’t decided if we’ll make this trip again. Because of Covid, we bypassed Canada – the Trent-Severn Waterway, Georgian Bay, and the North Channel. We’d love to make that passage. The future will tell.
We’d also like to check out smaller loops that eddy away from the main route — to the Dry Tortugas, the Bahamas, Montreal, and Maine.
But today we are satisfied to be docked in downtown St. Pete. The Pier Park’s undulating aerial sculpture is a quarter mile to port. South Straub Park and downtown’s glitzy skyline are astern. The North Shore Trail pedestrian parade passes a hundred feet from our sun deck vantage point. Tampa Bay is just beyond the breakwater, off of our bow. Irish Hurricane is docked bow to the sea, ready to leave again when we are.
In the meantime, we wish seafarers everywhere fair winds and following seas, and a safe arrival home. Without you, and dozens of families and friends who have followed along on emails, texts, and Facebook posts – traveled with us vicariously – we may never have begun our journey, let along been able to return home intact.
In particular, we’d like to make special shout-outs. To Awilda, Kenny, and Ricky – we’d have been lost without your patience, good will, and caretaking of house, home, and pets. To Janet and Holly – who kept diligent track of our progress, ready to notify the authorities if we disappeared. To Julie and Shantell, who offered tremendous moral support and moving help after my Mom died in April. To Captain Bill for getting IH through the Welland – and us to Buffalo! And many, many others.
Here are our 2021 stats:
6250.61 Miles Traveled
6.1 MPH Average Speed, including lock and dock delays
34.3 Statue Miles Average Daily Travel
18 States
2 Countries – USA and Canada (innocent passage)
72 Locks Transited on 11 Inland Waterways
297 Days/ Nights AFHP (Away From Home Port)
182 Days Underway – 115 In Port
162 Marina Nights, 10 Mooring Ball Nights, 20 Free Wall Nights, 105 Anchor Nights
841.4 Engine Hours Each (Port and Starboard)
105 Nautical Miles (Longest Day, from Hoppie’s Marine to Burnham Light on the Mississippi River)
Along the way, I managed to swim 141,030 yards in America’s waterways: ocean, lake, swamp, canal, and river waters plus the occasional pool.
It’s good to be home!
Irish Hurricane 