11/19/18 Monday: Hallelujah! I felt great when I woke up! Woo-Hoo!!! The dawn of a new day brings great promise! Today – we’d travel 65 miles from Clearwater to Sarasota and CROSS OUR WAKE! That’s what loopers call it when you complete and close the loop, so to speak, crossing your own starting point. For us, that will be marker 59, just south of Stickney Point bridge on the ICW in Sarasota.
Ahhhh! It is great to be back in the land of warmth! High temps in the 70’s for the next week. YAY!
Captain got to get back into uniform: short sleeves, shorts and no socks!
We said ‘see you soon’ to our “Bay boat buddies”, and cast off lines for the last time. Phratt House sent us this picture of us as we tootled out of the marina. That’s me at my post in the stern because of my Frankenboot, and Wayne tending lines on the bow.
This is Clearwater. We will have to come back sometime when we can enjoy it!
It was nice to be back in the Intracoastal. We went fast in a few places so that Laverne & Shirley could stretch their legs. They’d been cooped up at 9mph for way too long, and they liked getting up and running at 20 for a little while. By 11:00, we were going past the Sunshine Bridge at Tampa Bay. From here on we would be in familiar water…. for the first time since we made that defining left turn to go up the Atlantic coast in Stuart Florida back in March. It was a bit cloudy, but don’t let that fool you. It was warm. 😁
Some familiar scenery … pelicans roosting in trees. Yep – this was home.
We didn’t have any bridges to open. All of them are 18’ or taller and we fit under just fine. This is the Stickney Point bridge – the lowest at 18’, so we put our antennas down for this one. The only bridges on this ICW that we need to have opened are south of here – south of home – which we did when we first left on the Loop. We wouldn’t be going there today.
Just past Stickney Point bridge is MARKER 59!! This is where we turn east into our home channel. This is exactly where we cross our wake!
So we got out the champagne! Notice how Kenny is guarding himself from my reckless abandon trying to pop the cork?
Our home channel!
I poured our celebratory beverage – the only time we’ve had alcohol while underway. I can’t believe we’re here!
We pulled up to our home slip to tie up. In some ways it seemed like we hadn’t been gone for 8 months, because it is so familiar.
Our good friends Wayne & Cynthia came out to greet us and give us hugs and congratulations. We got out our GOLD burgee to celebrate and for pictures. Love the boot, huh? This picture was to prove that Island Girl is a Bayliner. Yes – Bayliners do the Loop!
But this one is better, since it shows her name.
And then we celebrated with a final Little Beer!
And here it is – we closed the LOOP!
What an amazing journey this has been for us! We met so many wonderful people all along the way. We learned more about geography and history than we ever learned from a book. We saw big cities, monuments, war memorials, little towns, villages, settlements, old friends, new friends…. such a fantastic experience. It seems odd to think it’s over. We are certainly looking forward to the holidays and seeing our families. Yet, I know it won’t be long that we will long for the adventure and new surprises that each day brought as we found a new port, new town, fun places, and people. The Looper family is just that – family. We were all on our own journey, but had so much in common. We all had familiar experiences, shared a common sense of adventure, dealt with similar challenges, and helped each other in any way. I’m really thankful that we chose to do the Loop. We kind of feel like we encountered the soul of America. There are so many great people in every town. People who care, are friendly and helpful. And I’m thankful that I did this blog! That was one of the best pieces of advice that I got from someone. If you do a blog – keep with it! Sometimes it’s a pain because it takes a lot of time – especially the way I did it with so much detail. But how thankful I am now, because we have such a great story to go back and read to help us remember all the amazing adventures! Thanks for sticking with me and encouraging me to keep writing. I will post another episode with a bunch of data for y’all who like that kind of stuff. You know who you are. 😉
We, too, are thankful that you did this blog. Looked forward to it every evening and closely watched your progress. Originally thought the southbound portion would be the Mississippi River but then found you on other rivers, canals, lakes and up and down numerous locks. (We’ve experienced but one, the Seattle Ballard Locks, that you know so well.) Thanks for doing this. It is worthy of a one-hour PBS NOVA presentation.
Thank you Ned – You were one of my faithful encouragers! It made me smile each time I saw a comment!