Epilogue

Now that I have had a chance to reflect on the trip and add up some numbers, I'm ready to put this blog to rest along side Westin. We traveled just over 2200 statute miles in an elapsed time of 33 days. Of those days, three we had to hunker down for bad weather, and three others for R&R or prop repair. So, we spent 27 days underway at various speeds depending on a variety of circumstances . For the total trip we burned 1627 gallons of fuel, so that averages out to 1.35 mpg. When we cruised at 10 mph, our fuel burn was a little over 2.0 mpg, and on plane it was under 1.0 mpg. The price for fuel continually decreased as we progressed. The highest was $4.09 when I filled up at Sunnyside a week before we left, the lowest $2.74 here at Burnt Store Marina. Only twice did we pay more than $3.00/gal.

The only major boat problems we had were the two prop mishaps, both of which were the fault of marinas not posting any warnings about shallow water depths at the gas dock! We replaced the raw water pump for the AC which went bad on us, but we never did have to use the AC, even down south. When we needed heat we just plugged in electric space heaters which are a lot easier and more efficient to use than cranking up the Cruisair(s). We didn't have to change oil or service the main engines until we reached Burnt Store with just a little over 200 easy, clean hours. The new Raymarine C80 GPS was great, even when navigating the rivers - we could always look ahead for the next green and red buoys on the screen when the visibility wasn't the best. The river tow captains are a really great bunch. After you get comfortable communicating with them on the VHF, they are extremely friendly and helpful. The knowledge they have of where the uncharted shoaling areas are located is amazing.

There were no favorite parts of the trip because it was all interesting and challenging, but the best had to be when we reached the entrance to Burnt Store Marina (pictured above). The upper Mississippi and lower Tennessee were the most scenic river cruising, and of course the ICW along the western coast of Florida rates right up there. Crossing the Gulf of Mexico was a first for me, and because we were doing it one engine, it was the most stressful segment of the trip. No wonder I didn't sleep until the next night. Probably the least favorite times were when we had to wait for a tow to clear a lock. Negotiating the locks themselves became pretty easy once Jeff and I got the routine down. It was actually fun to go through the locks that were over 50-60' high.

Today is Thanksgiving Day, 2008, and the immediate thing I am thankful for is that our trip was completed safely with no threats to our well beings. I am thankful that Jeff Janacek was with me for the trip and provided very valuable advice and suggestions that obviously came from his experience and background of traveling many miles on these same waters. I can't think of a better shipmate that I would like to have had for this trip.

Finally, I am most thankful for Patty who, when we were discussing this change in our lives last summer, simply said "make it happen." That is her way of expressing her approval for major things in our lives. At the time, I don't think she realized that she would be home alone for almost six weeks. To say the least, we were both very glad when the journey was finally completed.

Also, thanks to all of you who have followed our adventure and have provided comments along the way. Now..............it's time to go sit by the pool.

Events Leading up to Crossing the Gulf

Due to a set of circumstances that involved weather, another dinged prop, and friends with radar we decided to leave with three other boats to make the Gulf crossing on Wednesday afternoon about 3:00pm. Since we were travelling at around 10 mph, this turned out to be a 16 hour ride. We departed from Carabelle, FL and eventually pulled into the northern tip of Longboat Key around noon on Thursday. Jeff and I had an early dinner and crashed so we could finish the trip on Friday.

From Longboat Key we cruised down the ICW to Boca Grande and then turned east across Charlotte Harbor to our final destination of Burnt Store Marina. We finally pulled in about 4:30 and went off to have an end-of-cruise celebration dinner.

Jeff left for home on Sunday, where he will be reunited with his family. Patty and her mother drove down from MN and arrived Sunday about noon. We plan to stay here for three weeks while we get the boat prepared to enter into the charter business.

After cruising all kinds of waters, both fresh and salt, for five weeks, Tricia Ann is about as dirty as a boat can get. We have our hands full getting her cleaned out and cleaned up. I will have some details about distances and fuel burn in the epilogue and soon as I get my adding machine warmed up.

We have ALL arrived....

"Tricia Ann" puled into Burnt Store Marina today, proud as can be after about 2200 miles of some serious boating. Jim and Jeff were quite excited to have to whole trip turn out successfully, but none were more proud than Tricia Ann, who will really have something to put on her Christmas card. She can brag about her "big adventure" to Florida, while her neighbor boats in Stillwater hunker down in shrinkwrap.

But the big news came from Westin, apparently written while Jim and I ate a celebratory dinner. We came back to find a note inside the boat from him explaining the whole story. He said:

"Thanks so much for all the food (it really wasn't that much or that good) and for getting me down here. It was great to listen to your fascinating and intelligent perspectives about religion, politics, boating, economic issues, building techniques, boating, nuclear chemistry, philosophy, fabric design, boating, art history, dentistry, prehistoric medicine, modern weaponry, boating, inorganic duplicity, hypoalergenic regeneration, rhino horns and boating. My life will never be the same, let me tell you.

I guess you are due an explanation. I left Minnesota for a number of reasons, including cold weather, high taxes, the closing of Circuit City stores and the fear that Norm Coleman would be re-elected. I heard about your trip from a number of sources that reported how excited you both were about the venture and decided to stow away. I couldn't tell either of you about what I was doing because I thought that Jeff would have me arrested, flogged and deported or that Jim would adopt me and send me off for higher education.

I can't figure out why he was looking for a bigger boat, but think it might just be a desire to get a bigger boat; boaters are goofy about these things. It sure didn't have anything to do with me. And who had the crazy idea that I had a whole family down there? It sounds like as good a reason for a bigger boat as any one else comes up with. Why I once heard about a guy who bought a motor and then said he had to buy a boat to go with it. Can you imagine that?

Anyway, I finally got down to some warmer weather and left. And I was getting tired of Jeff's gas issues and Jim's snoring. I hope to write when I find work and will pay Jim for all the food I stole someday. Also I am missing a green sock, a 25000 watt inverter and a pack of AA batteries. Please hold them for me until I write.

You guys are wierd,

Westin Marino"

Thursday, Nov 20, The Crossing

It is 3:00 p.m. on Thursday and Jeff and I just docked the boat in front of a restaurant on Long Boat Key, FL. We began this portion of our trip yesterday at 2.00 p.m. This was the leg of the trip where we crossed a rather large section of the Gulf (164 miles), plus the 30 miles of getting to the starting point of Carrabelle, FL plus travelling an additional 25 miles to an overnight dockage once we reached the end point of our crossing at Clearwater, FL. During the night crossing we each grabbed about two hours of sleep, so this will be just a short update since y'all haven't heard anything from us since Monday night.

I will post a more detailed report on the last three exciting days after we get a really good night's sleep. Our goal is to pull into Burnt Store Marina tomorrow afternoon after travelling just two days short of five weeks.

Monday, Nov 17, Panama City, FL

This morning we woke up in Ft. Walton Beach to a beautiful sunny morning and a temp of 28 degrees. Today was a pretty easy cruise; there were long stretches across Choctawhatchee Bay which is a bay actually made up of many small bays. Then we traversed about 20 miles of a canal that is almost a duplicate of the Tenn-Tom (as you can see in the picture here).

The winds were again very calm, so the dolphins were very easy to spot. But, the manatee was a different story - one crossed directly in front of the boat and I expected to hear a loud thump as I put him out of his misery but he in some way got out of the way. It's pretty easy to get mesmerized out in a large bay of the water while looking for greens and reds off in the distance. The minute you think you see the next buoy, it gets up and flies away!

We made really good time, cruising at a constant 1100 rpm that gives us a fuel burn rate of 2 mpg. We covered about 70 miles and pulled into the Panama City Marina about 2:00 p.m. The town is pretty quiet at this time of year, but during the spring break months the number of visitors balloons to 1.5 million and the economy hops. Everyone is hoping it continues during the economic slow down this year. Here we are tucked away in the marina.

There are a lot of unique boats here. Jeff is always on the lookout for the next best looper boat and here he is checking out one that he just made a down payment on. He thinks Sally will like it because it has an automatic water maker.

Finally, when we went over to the neighboring marina restaurant for dinner, we were able to pick out some really fresh seafood. We went on board this brand new shrimper and picked out what we wanted!

Sunday, Nov 16 - Continue on to Ft Walton Beach

This morning we woke up to a much calmer sea so we didn't waste any time in slipping the lines to get on our way. Working our way out of the narrow, shallow channel leading from Dog River Marina to the main north-south shipping channel was an adventure once again. Low tide with a cross current makes for some pretty challenging navigation, but with Jeff's expert guidance and my piloting we made it again without a prop ding.

We made our way to the south end of Mobile Bay and were finally in the Intercoastal Waterway that would take us eastbound. This is where we began to see the waterfront condos with marinas like the one above. We passed by LuLu's, which is a very popular waterway restaurant owned and operated by Jimmy Buffet's sister. We also encountered our first dolphin that came out to meet us, but then ducked and swam away. Guess we didn't look like a good swimming partner.

We pulled in to the free public docks at Ft Walton Beach for the night and were greeted by a few young fishermen who were busy harvesting their catches. This is the grouper that one of the boys had just caught. I guess he was the expert because just a few days ago he had bagged an 8 pounder! If these are so easy to catch, why are they so expensive in the restaurants?

Speaking of restaurants, after our customary exploratory walk through the new town we found a friendly little sports bar by the name of Fokkers, where we had a really great pizza. First one of the trip. As you can imagine, some of the specialty pizzas had rather unique names!

Tomorrow's plan is to make it to Panama City. This is really nice cruising - just what boating in Florida is all about.

Saturday, Nov 15 - Laying low in Mobile

All Friday night the winds were howling from the northwest at 25-30 mph and didn't let up at all on Saturday. So, since we couldn't go cruising, we toured the east side of Mobile Bay with Bob and Peg Olsen as Jeff mentioned in his blog. We visited Fairhope, a quaint little town that reminded me of Venice Fl, with the streets lined with shops, lunch spots, etc. We also went to the Eastern Shore Marina to deliver some West Marine purchases to some other traveling friends of ours, Dan and Sarah Vegter from Illinois. With the wind out of the northwest, Mobile Bay was really churning as you can see in this picture. As the wind blows across this very shallow body of water which has an average depth around 9 feet, this is reduced to an average of about 7, and then the low tide drops it even further. Needless to say there were NO boats out on the bay that day.

Jeff and I took this opportunity to get caught up on some boat projects that had been languishing. The AC seawater pump failed us a couple of weeks ago, but since we haven't really needed AC, getting the replacement installed hasn't been a high priority. (Ron - we finally can do without the space heaters on the bridge). Krista from the great West Marine store in Stillwater had the new pump sent ahead to meet us at Demopolis, so we have had it for a few days. Our burgee staff also bit the dust after getting whipped back and forth for several days in the winds that beat us up on the way down. We are also still working on an improved method of hauling the dinghy up on the weaver davits.

Other than these minor things, the boat has been performing really well. Boating is a never ending job................