Thoughts of Lesson Plan

This is Lesson Plan. I know that Doug has been doing the writing up to this point, but I thought it was time for a recap from my point of view. 

Overall we have had a great trip, but there are a few highlights I thought you should hear the truth about. We have gone to areas that I have never seen before, some I am not sure I was meant to see (since I had to have my mast stripped from me to get there).

Travels of Lesson Plan

We started off with an overnight sail from Jacksonville to Beaufort, SC. Sailing at night is always a special time, but Doug didn't tell you how nervous he was about his first overnight sail.  I have made this trip north several times with my previous owner. So I knew it would be ok, if  he just let me get him through it. It all went well and there were only a few problems. Doug and John took turns sleeping in the cockpit. Doug fell out of the cockpit seat once when a particularly big wave hit us in the side. It was pretty funny.  Almost as funny as when he fell in the water in the Lock on the Erie Canal.

After we stayed a couple of months in Beaufort, Doug took me up through the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). There were a lot of interesting sites along the way.  The water sometimes shallow and very narrow.  One time Doug got my keel stuck in the mud. He was on the phone talking to a marina and not paying close enough attention to the charts. Another time he ran my keel into a sand bar. He tried to blame Otto for that one, but he knows Otto doesn't react with sharp turns. 

We spent several beautiful nights at anchor along the intracoastal, nice snug anchorages.  And then we sailed out on the ocean again when we got to NC. It was his first trip with solo on the ocean, but we had a buddy boat with us. NC was great for sailing, even on the ICW there were straight runs that lasted 2 or 3 hours without a course change. It was a lot different than what I am used to, but it was still sailing.

But then there was the night the anchor didn't hold in those 60 MPH winds of a squall came through. I tried to warn him, I know he saw that we moved a bit on the chartplotter when we were backing down on the anchor, but he convinced himself it didn't happen. He'll never make that mistake again.

Going past the Navy ships in Norfolk, VA was awesome. They may be bigger and look a little different, but we are all the same in that we provide protection to our crew.  

Anchoring behind the Statue of Liberty did not disappoint. Doug droned on and on about this night. He told everyone we met for weeks before we got there he was looking forward to anchoring behind the Statue. I have have to admit, it was pretty good. The only other boat there that night was a huge megayacht. It was so big some of the locals were complaining about it blocking the view of the Statue of Liberty. How rude, we were behind the statue, we weren't blocking the view.

Going through the Erie Canal was nice (even though I had my mast down). The pace is pretty relaxing. There is a town every 20 to 40 miles so you can set a nice pace. However we have to rely on Genny (Iron Genny) a bit more, since we have no sails. Doug ignored checking her belts for several days in a row and it caused her to lose her cool. It would have been better if it wasn't in the middle of a cross river (one of the few cross rivers on the Erie Canal). But she thought that would be the most effective place to teach him a lesson. He won't forget that lesson any time soon either.

The trip through the Great Lakes was fun. We found out that the waves in the Great Lake are like Albemarle Sound, Chesapeake Bay, and Delaware Bay, short wavelengths make for a lumpy ride. We got to anchor out several nights and made nice progress along our way.

We met fellow Loopers along the way. We saw two fellow sailboat loopers as we started the Erie Canal, but we got separated from them when we ran into high water and we were in the last group they let through the lock for the day (turns out it was 3 days).

We met a couple of Looper friends who I think we will always remember, Richard and Herb. We first met Richard in South Haven, MI and ran with him until we reached Hammond, IN. In Hammond we met Herb and then caught up with him again in Alton, IL and ran with him to KY Lake. Herb made sure we made it through those swift flowing waters of the Ohio River. It was comforting having Phantom (a 53', twin engine boat) looking over us. Both of these Richard and Herb are single handing their boats and are staying young by cruising. They remind me of my former owners (before Doug took ownership of me), they were in their early 90's and stayed young by sailing. I heard some others boats talking about a 94 year young lady who was Looping. The video is 2.5 minutes, she is about 45 minutes into the news article.

As we were going down that dreaded Mississippi River we were dodging logs and other river debris. After a few dodging maneuvers without fully releasing Otto's clutch, Otto finally had enough and went on strike. Well he really had no choice three of the plastic gears in his mechanism stripped out, but the point was made. Don't go yanking on the wheel while Otto is still partially engaged.

I am looking forward to getting out on the Gulf of Mexico.