A Year at Sea

GREETINGS! Yes, believe it our not we have now been on this adventure one year. Seems impossible that it was a year ago already that we shoved off from good old Burnham Harbor, Chicago but time flies when your whipping the crew of a sailing vessel. It's funny, I guess, that on this, our anniversary, we are holed up at my dad's house in Tampa while Enee Marie is strapped down to her moorings in Clearwater awaiting Alberto. Just a little wind and rain but we came here to be safe.

This map roughly shows our route. The website is really for logging your running routes but I liked that it calculated miles for me so I used it. When you go to the site you can move the map by clicking and dragging or zoom out. The program automatically puts in mile markers but only up to 99. That's why when you are zoomed out you see that fat looking line across Lake Michigan. Along the path there are 92 places where we actully anchored or moored the boat for at least one night. You'll notice a leg going from Baltimore up to Long Island. That represents us moving to the new boat via truck so those miles shouldn't be counted. In any event we sailed around 3200 miles.

It's funny to read the log for the early part of the trip. I was so possessed! We spent exactly 5 days "exploring" Lake Huron...and that includes a day with a breakdown! Remember...lakes freeze in the wintertime so we HAD to keep moving! I'm lucky Sue is still with me on this trip! Apparently I calmed down along the way as we spent over a month enjoying Key West!

Now for some awards...

Favorite Places: New York City, Baltimore, Savanah, Manhassat Bay (Long Island), Key West
Worst Places: Rome, NY on the Erie Canal
Favorite Sail: Hawk Channel along the Florida coast. 15-20 knot wind from the east with 1-2 foot waves. Whee!
Scariest Moment: The day I mistakenly put my bathing suit on inside out without noticing (ok...it was backwards too!).
Funniest Moment: (See above)
Longest Sail: 57 hours from Long Island to Portsmouth VA
Best Deal: Elizabeth City. Free...two nights with wine and cheese party.
Worst Deal: Atlantic City $4.00 per foot per night PLUS they make you lose another $300 in the casino!
Favorite Anchorage: anchoring off into the 'weeds' along the intercoastal in South Carolina. Just us and the dolphins.
Worst Anchorage: St. Augustine - bad holding...really crowded
Most Loyal Readers (not including family nor former friends from Chicago or nearby suburbs nor people we worked with when there...my friend): Sally from Lorain, OH and Stan from San Diego

Now we are sticking around Clearwater for awhile. Where will we be next year at this time...we'll just have to wait and see! Maybe we'll become Scientologists!