“ …from Tedium to Apathy and back; about five days each way. It makes an occasional trip to Monotony, and once it made a run all the way to Ennui…”
Mr. Roberts”

― Thomas Heggen

Its been over two weeks since our last post. Now we are 34 days into the cruise. We started with the excitement and adventure of a new phase of our life. It was great for about ten days.

The stress of six to eight hour days following the waterway, listening to the drumming hum of the diesel engine, the biting flies, and the movement of the boat began to leave us extra tired at the end of the day.

And now, something wonderful is happening. Our muscles are accommodating. They aren’t sore anymore. When one of us asks “Are we having fun yet?” the answer is likely to be yes.

The second boat in the photo is the Solitude. We met the owners, Mark and Teresa Carpenter last evening. Then last night our air conditioner threw an error code and shut down. Today, Mark gave a master class in marine air conditioner maintenance and we are cool again. He cleaned the raw water strainer and found an air pocket in the line that kept the A/C unit from receiving cooling water.

The Belhaven Grand Manor Marina is the best we have encountered. Reasonable dockage ($2.00 per foot per night) is offset by free golf carts. The carts are allowed on the streets throughout Bellhaven. We have gone to Ace Hardware and to a grocery store a mile and a half away on the cart. Today we used one to have lunch in town. No Uber fees!

We’re only 15% into the 6000 mile great loop and this is what we’ve learned so far:

• Don’t cruise through Georgia in the spring without a vacuum cleaner in the pilot house. This is ours. It runs over ten minutes on a charge.

The biting horse flies love it. It gives them good exercise playing hide and seek with the inlet, and when they are ready they dive in and get a carousel ride round and round. When we step out on deck and open it, some fly away to tell their friends who soon show up on our windows. Others like it so much they stay.

• Never drop more anchor chain than the distance from the boat to the nearest shore. We learned this when the hook was dropped in the center of the channel at a secluded anchorage. Wind and current placed us near the shore as the tide went out. Oops! We were up late that evening waiting to refloat.

Three weeks ago our lifestyle changed. We left land, found ourselves becoming more focused, taking the challenges of boat travel in stride, laughing together and enjoying life.

Tonight we are anchored in Church Creek, SC, a mile off the intercoastal waterway. Its quiet and peaceful. Should be a beautiful sunset.

Dolly is talking to her daughter in Michigan to whom our mail is being forwarded.

Part of that enjoyment has been meeting with old friends and partners over a delicious meal at Hudson’s Seafood on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

George, Paul and I plus several others formed what became a very successful engineering consulting company in 1984 when our employer, Allied General Nuclear Services, shut down in Barnwell, SC. George and Paul found their nuclear expertise in high demand. I was a financial guy and left on good terms after about a year.

Now on day 23 of our great loop cruise around the eastern third of the United States we have dropped the hook on seventeen evenings. Six nights at marinas is about what I anticipated at the start. The goal is about two nights per week.  Marinas are required for fresh food provisioning, fuel, water and laundry.

Hope you enjoy reading our adventure log.

Karl