On Tuesday morning, 07/07/20, we pulled anchor at Swallow Bluff Island about 10:00 am in more perfect weather.  We planned to cruise about five hours to Cuba Landing, located beneath the I-40 bridge over the TN River.  Kristin rode in her favorite perch – to the right of the fly bridge helm up on the dashboard platform.  We passed beautiful riverside home after beautiful riverside home along the way – all elevated on really high stilts to allow for flooding.  As we cruised past Savannah, we saw some of the wreckage from last year’s flood, where several houses had washed away toward the river when the bank eroded right out from under them.  We also noticed more houses that seem not far from this same fate, as the river is washing away the banks beneath them as well.  We also saw many lots along the river where high roofs over concrete pads had been constructed for RVs to park out of the sun, and with a riverfront view.  Cell coverage was spotty, but we were able to view on our cell phones the heat thunderstorms popping up all around us; but along the river, the weather remained lovely!  It was another warm day, but still we persevered and remained up in the fly bridge, rather than coming down below to helm from the air-conditioned salon.  Steve reiterated his intent to purchase a mobile a/c unit he found at Home Depot that he thinks would be perfect for our enclosed fly bridge.  Stay tuned for more information on that idea!  As Legacy approached Cuba Landing, Skipper decided it was now Gilligan’s job to contact the marinas ahead of time to check minimum depths (Legacy requires at least 5 feet of water to safely enter) and transient slip availability for our size boat.  Sadly, Cuba Landing did not answer the call, and it was eventually determined they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  Go figure!  Time for a change of plan.  Gilligan contacted Pebble Isle Marina (two hours further down river) and received favorable information.  We mainly wanted to spend this night at a marina (rather than anchoring-out again) so we could refill our water tanks, give the generators a rest, and hopefully enjoy some sort of internet access.  We found the water and electricity, but not the internet access.  Kristin is having to deal with going back in time – technology-wise – during this adventure, and it is not her favorite thing.  Docking at Pebble Isle’s transient docks proved to be relatively easy, even though Kristin was disappointed there was no one standing ready on the dock to grab her lines as she threw them.  This meant the boat hook had to be utilized by Kristin to loop the bow line over the cleat on the dock, as Steve maneuvered Legacy close enough for her to do so.  Kristin has a true love/hate relationship with the boat hook, so this was not the smoothest feat, but we were eventually successful.  Have we mentioned how much we love our bow and stern thrusters?

Position tonight: N 36° 03.700, W 87° 57.049

Distance traveled second day NM: 63

Total distance traveled NM: 121.9

Time underway: 7:28

Total time underway second day: 21:18

Total marina nights: 8

Total nights at anchor: 1

Locks second day: 0

Locks Total: 3

Left Aqua Yacht Harbor on Lake Pickwick about 10 am on Monday morning, 07/06/20.  Again, we had stellar weather and water like glass.  The temps were in the high 80s – to low 90s, but we were able to spend most of the trip up in the flybridge without suffering heat-stroke.  It was like cruising down memory lane as we left Yellow Creek, passing Grand Harbor Marina, one barge on its way to the Tombigbee Waterway, and then another, very-well loaded barge up ahead of us on Pickwick, heading down river just like us.  As we approached the Pickwick Lock and Dam, Steve commented that we might get to experience our first solo lock with a barge!  Neither of us were excited about that prospect, but knew we’d do what we had to do.  We soon found-out, however, that not only would we not be going down in the lock with the barge, we would have to wait until the barge was finished locking through, and then for another boat coming up river to lock through before we would have access to the lock.  Our lock-master wasn’t as polite as the ones we encountered last week, in fact he was very closed-mouthed.  He told us we’d have to wait and that was that.  So we idled around above the dam for not one, not two, not three, but FOUR hours before those ahead of us were completely finished and we received the green light to enter the lock.  We entered the lock with absolutely no problem, with Kristin exhibiting the stellar skills of preparing and looping a mid-ship line around the skipper-designated pin, just as she’d learned from the expert, Mike Wehrle.  Steve made Kristin’s job easy, by keeping the boat next to the lock wall, using our wonderful bow and stern thrusters as our boat slowly lowered down 63 feet to the river on the other side of the dam.  A ski-boat locked through with us and tied to the opposite side of the lock.  Because we were going down-river, the turbulence inside the lock was all but nil.  (Per Steve, going up river through locks is a much different experience… oh, joy – can’t wait for that!)  We had planned to cruise to Clifton Marina that day, but because we were delayed at the lock for so long, we decided to anchor-out for the night at an anchorage recommended by Skipper Bob in his book.  The anchorage was behind Swallow Bluff Island, off the beaten path, and had a grassy bottom.  We anchored with no problem and enjoyed a calm evening with a beautiful sunset.  Steve grilled chicken breasts on the grill for dinner.  We’re noticing a lot of boats on this part of the TN River are either unaware that they are responsible for their own wakes, or just don’t care.  We did some rocking in our anchorage as pontoons and fishing boats flew right past us at top speed, but all boats carried smiling skippers and passengers who waved big as they zoomed by.

Position tonight: N 35° 23.302, W 88° 09.610

Distance traveled: 59.7 NM

Total distance traveled: 118.6

Time underway: 7:11

Total time underway: 15:57

Total marina nights: 7

Total nights at anchor: 1

Locks today: 1

Locks Total: 3

Maybe we should add a little something to our blog. Our short term plan. Many know that we’re planning on doing The Great Loop beginning this fall. However, for the summer, our plan is to spend it at Green Turtle Bay Resort in Grand Rivers, KY. This marina is on Lake Barkley, which is actually on the Cumberland River. The Land Between the Lakes is formed by Lake Barkley (part of the Cumberland River) on its east side and Kentucky Lake (part of the Tennessee River) on its west side. There is a small, man-made channel that connects these two lakes to ease transiting between them. We will be traveling north on the Tennessee River, and will cut through this channel to get to Grand Rivers, KY, where Green Turtle Bay is located.

We left the marina in Florence, AL, on Thursday morning, 07/02/20, traveled under the Natchez Trace Parkway bridge (over which we’ve driven many springs in the convertible) northward toward Aqua Yacht Harbor, which is on Lake Pickwick (part of the TN River) at Iuka, MS, not far from the northern end of the Tombigbee Waterway, which connects the TN River to the gulf of Mexico. Many loopers stop at Aqua Yacht Harbor, as it is right on the loop itself. About 14 years ago, when we lived in Collierville, TN, east of Memphis, we were introduced to the world of sailing on Lake Pickwick, itself, and slipped several different sail boats at Aqua. We made many dear friends during our time on Pickwick, belonging to the Pickwick Sailing and Cruising Association while we were there. We’d hoped to hook up with some of those friends when we came through Aqua this time, but we erroneously timed our 4-day stay for the 4th of July holiday weekend, and also with very short notice to our friends, so we missed them this time. We plan to stay at Aqua again on our way to the AGLCA loopers rendezvous at Joe Wheeler State Park this fall. We will then give our Aqua friends greater notice of our plans, so hopefully at least some of them will be free to meet up with us. Our trip from Florence to Aqua took us about 5 hours and couldn’t have been more pleasant. The water was smooth as glass, there was very little traffic, and the skies were mostly sunny; the humidity a bit on the lower side. All the popup thunderstorms that had been plaguing us earlier in the week stayed to our south the entire day. We did not have to traverse any locks on this travel day, which was just fine with Gilligan (aka Kristin)! In fact everything went so swimmingly (not literally, of course – we did both manage to stay onboard this trip) on this leg, that the travel time just flew by. We both enjoy this boat the most when it is underway and conditions are stellar. We arrived at Aqua about 2:30 pm on Thursday. We were pleased to learn that Aqua had an actual transient slip available for our stay, rather than out on the transient wall. We entered our slip and tied up with very little effort. A small marina store and a restroom are literally right next to our boat, which is convenient! However, we quickly noticed a list of pros and cons about this particular slip, which I’ll list here. PROS: 1) proximity to marina store and restroom for convenience, 2) transients are positioned on the most eastward dock, so we had THE BEST view of the fireworks the night of the 4th, 3) our slip is not covered, which means far fewer spider-droppings to accumulate all over the outside of the boat overnight, 3) we are literally right beside the fuel docks, which provides us with both convenience and a never-ending parade of boaters/people to watch from our salon windows! 4) Pickwick is a beautiful lake with sunsets and scenery to dazzle any nature lover. 5) We were able to park our personal vehicle on a nearby parking lot for easy use and errand runnings as needed. CONS: 1) proximity to marina store, restroom and fuel docks, which means absolutely no privacy or quiet at any time (specifically on a holiday weekend – DUH!), 2) transients are positioned on the most eastward dock, which means we are right beside all the holiday weekend comings and goings of boats in and out of Aqua to and from Lake Pickwick, so our boat has not stopped rocking from wakes ever since our arrival 3 days ago, AND the marina store’s outside lights stay lit 24/7, so our aft berth is brightly illuminated throughout the night. (We finally eliminated this problem by taping dark green bath towels to the outside of our aft berth windows on the third and fourth nights of our stay here – ingenious!). 3) The other side of our slip is occupied by a lone boater in a large, beautiful Jefferson trawler who likes to play his music at TOP VOLUME, so that our entire dock can “enjoy” his music, whether we wanted to hear it or not. (Until 9:15 pm at night, when we finally expressed some frustration, which prompted him to end his concert.) Oh, AND the roof on the docks next to us completely blocks our satellite TV signal, so we can’t watch any TV at all. None. (Oops – lesson learned for the future!)

Position for this visit: N 34°59.502, W 88°14.831

Distance traveled: 37.9 Nautical Miles

Total distance traveled: 58.9

Time underway: 5:12

Total time underway: 8:46

Total marina nights: 7

Total nights at anchor: 0

So it begins. Sunday, June 28, we had our good friends, Mike and Brenda Wehrle, join us at Joe Wheeler State Park Marina. They accompanied us as we cruised Legacy on a fairly short cruise to Florence Harbor Marina at Florence, AL on Monday, the 29th. The marina at Joe Wheeler is on Joe Wheeler Lake on the Tennessee River, and is located just above the Joe Wheeler lock and dam. Monday morning, we called the lock master and gave him our location, he told us to come on to the lock and he would begin raising the water to pick us up and lock us down river. Having helped to bring Legacy all the way home from Sturgeon Bay, on Lake Michigan to Joe Wheeler, Mike became an expert at locking through. He patiently taught Kristin the steps to successfully secure the boat to the side of the lock, while Steve was at the helm using the engines to help keep the boat in one place, throughout the entire locking process (which – depending on the size and mechanics of the lock – can take from 10 minutes to more than an hour). Once the lock master had lowered us down to the bottom of the dam, and opened the exit gates, he sounded his horn, which was our queue to release our loop from the securing pin on the side of the lock, and for Steve to maneuver the boat out away from the side, to exit the lock. After slowly leaving the lock, we enjoyed a leisurely cruise through Wilson Lake to the Wilson lock and dam, as Mike and Steve regaled Brenda and Kristin with memories of their US river cruise southward last summer bringing the boat home. This particular lock features the largest change in elevation east of the Rocky Mountains, at 94 feet. As we entered the lock chamber and began the drop (this time with Kristin taking the lead as Gilligan – er First Mate – and Mike supervising), we watched a popup thunderstorm brewing to the west. In the 20 minutes or so it took to get through the lock, the storm had moved much closer to us. We had about two miles to cover to get from the lock to our new home on the transient dock at the Florence marina for a few days, and the race was on to get tied up before the storm, which was exhibiting a judicious amount of electricity. Thankfully, we made it. Got a little wet tying up, but the worst of the wind and lightening came just after being safely secured. Talk about great timing! Later Monday evening we drove the Wehrles’ vehicle, which we had shuttled down to Florence the day before. After a delicious meal at Ricatoni’s in downtown Florence, before heading back to the boat. We enjoyed adult beverages up on our flybridge that evening and people-watched. The Florence marina is adjacent to a nice city park, so there was quite a bit of comings and goings (even on a Monday night) until later in the evening. During the night, several more traveling boats tied up to the transient dock, so we had surprise neighbors the next morning! We spent Tuesday driving around the Florence/Muscle Shoals/Sheffield areas, searching for musical history. Unfortunately, our options were limited due to the COVID restrictions, but we made the best of it and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Tuesday night we had another tasty dinner at Ray’s At The Bank, in Florence, which came highly recommended. The Wehrles left us on Wednesday morning and drove back to their home in Nashville. The boat seemed awfully still and quiet after their departure.

Position for this visit: N 34° 47.17′, W 87° 40.42′

Distance traveled today: 21 Nautical Miles

Total Distance traveled: 21 Nautical Miles

Time Underway Today: 3 hrs 34 minutes

Total Time Underway: 3:34

Total Marina Nights: 3

Total Nights at Anchor: 0

Well, it’s over. At least land life is over for the time being. One year, two years, or more – we’ll figure that out as we go. We moved on board full time on May 11, the day after my birthday. The house in Franklin, TN has sold, we closed on May 26. Estate sale has completed, that was held on May 15 and 16.

We are now in the process of wrapping up lots of loose ends before heading out. We use a mailing service out of Green Cove Springs, FL. With them, we actually have a street address that all our mail is sent to. After establishing that, we have now gotten our boat registered in the state of Florida, which is necessary before you can declare Florida as your resident state. Choosing Florida as our resident state was mostly the result of two points. The first and VERY important one was that it is a state that, like Tennessee, does not have income tax. The second point is that unlike the state of Tennessee, there was a mailing service located in Florida that can provide a physical mailing address, as opposed to a mailbox number, which is a requirement to declare residency if you don’t own or rent a physical residence. We don’t physically have the boat registration in hand yet, but the Clay County tax office did call me Friday and told me that it was completed and being mailed to my Green Cove Springs address. After it is received there and it has been forwarded to us at the marina here, then we will drive to Green Cove Springs to the court house to get drivers licenses and declare residency. Then it will be on to register to vote and get our trust that was set up in Tennessee reworked for Florida requirements. At the same time, we have told the marina here at Joe Wheeler State Park in Rogersville, AL, that we will be leaving here at the end of June. So it is going to be a very busy two weeks. With the apocalypse going on at the same time, it has really added challenges to say the least.

And so it begins, a slow cruising start, but a very busy time getting ready to go. By the end of June, the plan is to start a slow run down the Tennessee River to Green Turtle Bay Resort and Marina near Grand Rivers, KY. And no, that wasn’t a typo, going downriver on either the Tennessee River or the Cumberland River means that you will be traveling north. Tennessee rivers run north. For some reason. Anyway, we plan to stop in at Florence, AL , only about 20 river miles from this marina, for a couple days, we would like to visit some of the musical sites around the Muscle Shoals area. A lot of famous 60’s and early 70’s music was recorded in that area, and even though we’ve been located near there for almost a year, we haven’t had the time to really visit. After that, a couple days stopped at Aqua Yacht Harbor marina near Iuka, MS about 60 river miles from Florence Harbor Marina. We’re hoping to meet up with some old friends that we made in years past when we had sailboats at that marina. After that, we plan to leave AYH and make our way to the Pickwick Lock and Dam which is about 10 river miles from AYH. After we lock through there we will actually be in the Kentucky Lake pool, but about 75 river miles from Green Turtle Bay.

So this is where we are at this point. For now we’re busy getting ready for this life while living it.

Legacy is slipped at Joe Wheeler State Park Marina at Wheeler Lake, which is on the Tennessee River, in Rogersville, AL. She has been here since July of 2019, as this marina is about an hour and a half drive south of our home in Franklin, TN. We spend just about every weekend down here on the boat in this lovely park and will until we move onto her full time in late May. The sale of our house closes on 5/26/20, with our planned estate sale happening the weekend before that.

Even though the weather is absolutely spectacular this weekend, there are very few people enjoying this beautiful place, thanks to COVID-19 limitations our country is under at this time. We are writing this blog to be informative and also as a sort of cruising diary for ourselves. I decided to post some pictures from this beautiful place on this lovely day.

Since it will be a while before we can start down the flooded river system, I’ll take a little time to tell about the boat itself. She is a 1999 Ocean Alexander Classico 48/51, meaning that it is an OA Classico 48 that was stretched to 51 ft. The original owner, who at the time owned the Ocean Alexander dealership in Sturgeon Bay ordered the boat and had her built to his specifications, adding about two feet in the master bedroom, and an additional foot in the salon. She was named Noble House, for the owner’s wife’s favorite book. We were to change her name to Legacy.

She is equipped with twin 370 hp Lugger Diesel engines, (detuned from 425 hp for reliability), and twin 8kw Northern Lights Generators. Top speed is around 12 knots, but cruising speed is roughly 9 knots. Stabilization was a must have on this boat, as my wife Kristin can be prone to sea sickness occasionally. Stabilizers are two hydraulically operated fins that protrude from both sides of the boat, rotating as needed to minimize the dreaded side to side roll. The starboard stabilizer is shown below during the out of water inspection.

The boat is also equipped with both bow and stern thrusters, making her not only the largest boat I’ve ever driven, but at the same time the easiest boat to dock. Between having two engines to help maneuver, adding the two thrusters to the mix almost makes it too easy! A HD DirecTV satellite system keeps cable TV at our beck and call, and a watermaker helps tremendously.

She carries 300 gallons of fresh water and a total of 760 gallons of diesel fuel.

For navigation, she has two totally separate sets of electronics for redundancy. One set is in the flybridge up top, the other is at the helm in the salon. Simrad chartplotters, Furuno radar, autopilot, Micro Commander electronic engine controls with auto engine sync, along with the usual array of depth finders, compasses, VHF radio, etc. I could go on, but this gives everyone but the extreme boat geeks such as myself a good overall idea of the vessel.

After deciding that yes, this is what we’re going to do, we had to decide on the boat. We already knew that a sailboat was out of the question. Sailing was fun, we had enjoyed it for many years, we had even raced, but the joy of pulling on sheets and lines to keep the boat on course and sailing efficiently had faded over the years. Therefore, a diesel trawler it was going to be! We needed to consider that we were going to be cruising many miles, and fuel economy had to be taken into account. We weren’t going to be in a hurry anymore, (since we aren’t going to have to be back at work on Monday!), so a slow trawler was the only choice for us. Next decision, how big of a boat do we want. If you are determined to do the loop, the loop forces a few mandatory restrictions on your choices. There is a famous bridge (for Loopers), just south of Chicago that you must be able to clear. It is a fixed bridge, and you must be able to go under that bridge. From the water at normal depth, it is 19 ft, 6 inches to the structure of the bridge. (Our boat can clear that by dropping the radar mast). Also 4 ft. draft, (depth of the keel below waterline on the boat) is ideal, but up to six ft. is possible. Legacy draws 5 ft., so that will limit a few possible side trips, but won’t jeopardize the journey in any way. Knowing that we were going to be living on this for at least a year and hopefully more, we knew we were going to need to live comfortably. In October of 2018, we attended the Great Looper Cruising Association’s Fall Rendezvous in Rogersville, AL. This is an event for people that area actually doing the loop, as well as those who are planning on doing the loop. This is a four day event, with training and learning sessions all day each day, and social interaction at night. They also hold a Looper crawl, in which Rendezvous attendees are able to tour the boats that the owners agree to participate. It was during this “crawl” that we realized that we needed to move up from what we had been considering, (40 ft.), to something more in the 50 – 60 ft. range. At the rendezvous, I made contact with a broker with Curtis Stokes and began some discussion with him about what I was looking for. I took his information, and we agreed that in the near future we would be speaking.

A few months passed, Michael Martin, (Curtis Stokes broker), and I talked over the phone and email several times. I had a pretty specific list of items that were must haves on the boat I was looking for, (stabilization was a BIG must have,), and a pretty large list of nice to haves, (a water maker was somewhere between a must have and a nice to have as water can be fairly expensive in the Bahamas). There weren’t a lot of boats that fit the specifics we were looking for, and many that did had problems that turned us off. I had seen a boat on yachtworld.com several times that had all the must haves, all the nice to haves and even some nice to haves that we weren’t specifically looking for. It was an Ocean Alexander 51, and Ocean Alexander was one of the two or three make of boats that we were interested in. Only problem was, the boat was in Sturgeon Bay, WI – northern Wisconsin and it was wintertime. I talked to Michael about it, it was now March, and he suggested that we might want to go up and take a look at the boat if we really were interested. Since the bays and lakes up there freeze, boats are hauled out for the winter and stored inside buildings, some heated, some not heated. Luckily, our boat was in a heated facility. Michael made the arrangements with the selling broker for a date to view the boat, Kristin and I bought plane tickets to Green Bay, rented a car to drive the hour to Sturgeon Bay, met all the players and entered the building, climbed the ladder to get on the boat and have a look around. The boat was immaculate. Everything looked brand new, clean, and obviously this boat had been meticulously cared for. We spent about three hours crawling all over the boat, down in the bilges, in the engine room, back in the rear bilge/generator room, this thing was perfect. We all split up, Michael, Kristin and I all went to a local restaurant for a snack and to be able to chat a bit. A decision was made that we were going to make an offer on the boat that day. Kristin and I had a hotel room at the Green Bay airport for that night, (Saturday), so Michael worked up an offer while he was waiting at the airport for his flight, sent it digitally to my iPad, we signed it and the negotiations began. We didn’t hear anything that day or night, Michael was flying home, so he was out of touch for a while. Sunday morning, Kristin and I turned in our rental car, went into the Green Bay airport to wait for our flight home. Alas, it wasn’t to be. The FAA had grounded the plane due to an overdue maintenance item, and mechanics were driving from Detroit to fix it. Yes, I said driving. I pulled up Google maps, did a quick search and realized that in the amount of time it was going to take these mechanics to drive from Detroit to Green Bay, we could almost be home if we rented a car and took off. And since this flight was our only chance to get out of there, (Green Bay is a tiny airport), if there were any delay at all, we wouldn’t be getting home that night, we decided to rent a car to come home. It probably was a good thing too, as negotiations began that morning as well. As we were driving south, Michael would call with their counter offer, we would counter back, and this went on for several calls. Finally it was becoming clear that we were not going to get anymore concessions out of the owners, an agreement was made to accept their last offer as we were driving through Milwaukee, WI, contingent upon a sea trial that would take place some time after Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan were clear of ice. Now all we had to do was wait, and during the wait try to find surveyor, (inspector), for the overall boat, as well as an engine surveyor to inspect the engines during the sea trials. There were four engines to inspect, two generators, and two propulsion engines. And in a place as small as this area was, it wasn’t going to be easy.

For those that may not know about purchasing a boat of this size, a short explanation of the process. None of this is mandatory of course, in reality, you can walk up to the owner and without even looking around the boat, offer a check and sail away. Of course, you wouldn’t do this with a house, and with a boat of this type, you’re literally buying a small city. You will be producing your own water, you will be producing your own electricity when away from the dock, you have your own waste treatment plant, there are a lot of complicated, (meaning expensive), systems, and you want someone knowledgeable to inspect these items and put them through the paces. An inspection usually begins with a haulout. This means that the boat is lifted out of the water so that the surveyor can inspect the hull beneath the waterline for damage, water intrusion, etc. At this time, he can also check props for any prop damage, check prop pitch, etc. Usually at that time, the boat is placed back into the water, taken back to its slip and the inspection of the rest of the boat begins. In this case, since the boat was already in its carriage for the winter, the need for haulout wasn’t necessary, I just needed to make an extra trip to Sturgeon Bay for the hull inspection as well as the overall boat inspection. I found a surveyor, we all agreed on a date for the survey, my broker, Michael Martin, the selling broker and I all traveled to the boat for the inspection. As was expected, everything went perfectly. Some minor issues, nothing to break the deal. Now we just had to wait for the bays and lakes to thaw so the boat could be placed back in the water and we could take it out on the sea trials. This is where all the systems are given a work out, making sure all work as expected. By the time the sea trials were scheduled, I had found someone in Milwaukee that could do the engine surveys, so another trip up for all parties, and a couple hours out on Lake Michigan putting the boat through the paces. Again, everything went as expected, and when the oil samples from engines and transmissions came back a few days later showing all was well there, the paperwork was signed and the deal was negotiated over the following week. It was time to bring our new baby home. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas. Extreme flooding on the River system that we would be using to bring her home had locks closed all through the middle of the country, on the Illinois River as well as the Mississippi. So, we had to leave her in Sturgeon Bay for a couple months before we could begin the journey.

It all began in Bonaire, a small Dutch owned island located not too far off the coast of Venezuela, in 2001. My wife Kristin and I are SCUBA divers, and Bonaire is a SCUBA diver’s paradise. One afternoon after a day of diving, we were having drinks by the water’s edge at the Buddy Dive resort’s bar enjoying the view of the water and the many sailboats anchored nearby. Kristin asked me if when we retired if I would ever be interested in doing something like cruising the world on a sailboat. My reply was, of course! Now, at this point in my life, the only sailboat I’d ever been on was of the booze cruise variety where the sails were only deployed to make the half looped tourists feel like they really were sailing. Somewhere in the conversation, she mentioned that if we were going to do this, then we would need to know how to sail. We discussed this dilemma for a bit, when I finally told her, “when we get back home, if you’ll find someone to teach us to sail, I’ll learn to sail”. At that time, we lived in Collierville, TN, a suburb of Memphis, and Pickwick Lake on the TN river wasn’t too far away. She accepted the challenge and after we got back home she found an extremely patient and trusting man, Ned Smith, to teach us how to sail. He had a small, and very fast racing sailboat that we spent the weekend learning the basics on. He even sent us out on our own that Sunday afternoon. (Remember I said he was a very trusting man?). Anyway, long story short, I loved it, and vowed that I was going to own a sailboat, and it wasn’t going to be very long before I owned one.

The search began. Kristin was envisioning a small Hobie Cat style sailboat, but my sights were on something a little bigger. We ended up finding a 23 ft. Santana sailboat that we could actually sleep on, and it even had a porta-potty on board! Very soon, the need to be able to stand up inside the boat started becoming a priority, so we ended up buying a 34 ft. Catalina. After a fire destroyed that sailboat, we moved to a Catalina 380.

Now, during this time, we kept our boats at Aqua Yacht Harbor, which is near Iuka, MS on the Tennessee River. It is also right at the entrance to the Tennessee-Tombigbee waterway. Every year, starting mid summer through fall, we kept meeting these folks that were passing through, doing something called the Great Loop. The more I heard about it, the more intrigued I became. (For anyone that doesn’t know what the Great Loop is, just google it, there are mountains of information on it). Anyway, I told my wife that someday we were going to do that, to which her answer was always a good-natured, sarcastic laugh. A job transfer moved us to the Houston, TX area, we had our Catalina 380 shipped to Galveston Bay, and our sailing continued. Unfortunately for Kristin, cancer returned for her a couple years after getting the boat to Galveston Bay. (She has now been cancer free for 12 years). It was going to be a long year, and not much if any boat usage was going to happen. We really hadn’t discussed the sale of our Catalina 380, but as I was sitting in Houston’s rush hour traffic coming home from work one Friday afternoon, my phone rang, and it was a yacht broker. Someone had seen our boat, talked to some of our dock neighbors and found out about our situation and he was interested in buying the boat. The broker wanted to know if we were interested in selling, to which I answered, no. She replied that if I changed my mind to give her a call back. I got home, told my wife about it, and we had a laugh about it and didn’t think anymore about it…..yeah, right. I had laid awake that night thinking about things, and apparently Kristin had too. We talked about selling the boat the next day, and it seemed to really make sense. For the next year, we would be paying dockage fees, insurance and electrical usage on a boat that we weren’t going to be able to use much at all if any. And anyone that has been around boats knows that if you don’t use ’em and maintain ’em, they go to crap very quickly. I called the broker back on Monday, a deal was made within a couple weeks and we were boatless.

Fast forward a few years. Another job transfer had moved us to Franklin, TN, a suburb of Nashville. Still not too far from the TN River, just a different lake. And understand that throughout all these years I had been constantly talking about doing the Great Loop for a year and after that, spending the winters in the Caribbean, and the summers up in Canada. I wanted to follow 80 degrees. Just like my father before me, I absolutely HATE cold weather. At this point it had been about 8 or 9 years since we’d owned a boat, but I still was pushing a plan to live aboard for a few years after retirement. And retirement was approaching fast. One beautiful Sunday spring day, we took a ride in the convertible and ended up stopping at a marina on a lake nearby. We walked the docks, had lunch, and headed home. Over the next few weeks, Kristin kept talking about the marina, and the boats as well as the boating life. I said, “you’re actually missing the boating life, aren’t you?”. She replied that indeed she was. A light came on in my head, and it was shining brightly. Over the next year or two, we talked a lot about it, and she finally decided that it was something she was interested in doing, the Great Loop year 1, then (if I can make sure she’s happy), do the Caribbean and Canada thing after that. I will tell you that she made me a very happy man over the course of that decision! Those are the beginnings of this dream of mine, and somewhat reluctant tolerance of hers. My goal is to make her wonder why she ever resisted in the first place!