Thanksgiving Week: We are thankful for so many blessings, including new friends to spend the holiday with! All of our family is in Washington State. It seems like we’re never home long enough to make many good friends around our neighborhood here in Sarasota. Our dirt here is really just a home base for our many adventures. We were only home a total of 17 weeks in 2017, and this year we’ll only be here a total of 14 weeks by the time we get to 12/31/18. But we have a whole new Looper family, and there are a lot of loopers that spend the winter in Florida! It was our pleasure and fun to host Thanksgiving dinner at our home with our “Bay boat” friends – Bay Tripper and Parrot Bay. A delicious dinner with all of the traditional fixin’s, along with lots of laughter, conversation, and friendship.
And now – the long awaited Loop statistics!
- Island Girl is a 39 foot flybridge motoryacht – 3988 Bayliner with twin diesel 5.9 330 Cummins, built in 2000.
- We had her for three years prior to starting the Loop, and will continue to enjoy additional adventures with her.
- We generally cruise at about 9.2 mph, but will put her up on step and go 20 mph occasionally.
- Total days from Home to Home: 252 days (36 weeks exactly)
- Total days of actual boat travel: 133 Days
- Total hours of travel time, per Garmin: 707
- Total boat miles traveled, per Garmin: 6040 (this doesn’t count all of the rental car, Uber, and courtesy car road miles)
- Total number of Locks: 112
- Total number of times ‘docking’ in an unfamiliar place: over 400… including marinas, fuel docks, pump outs, locks, and even twice at most locks in the Erie Canal and Trent-Severn due to waiting on the wall.
- Total number of nights at anchor or free docks: 29 (which is 11.5% of our total nights)
- Average price per foot for marinas, including electric and taxes: $1.65/ft
- Total cost of marinas: $14,350
- Average price per gallon of diesel: $3.12/gal
- Total gallons consumed: 3,009
- Total diesel cost: $9755
- Most expensive diesel: CND$1.54/liter = CND $5.83/gal ~ US $4.37/gal : Queen’s Cove, Georgian Bay, Ontario
- Average miles per gallon: 2.01
- Average gallons per hour: 4.25
- Average miles per hour: 8.54 (general cruising speed ~ 1250 RPM)
- Number of oil changes: 3
- Major maintenance while on the loop: 2 Cutlass bearings (including a haul out), 1 alternator, 2 turbo rebuilds ~ $5000 (These were all due to Island Girl’s age, not due to any damage)
- Number of repairs due to damage – ZERO!!… we consider ourselves extremely lucky!
- Number of trips home: zero
- Number of times we had additional crew come visit us: 3
- Number of times we rented a car: 11
- Number of Loss Time Injuries -2 (Karen! 😳) : Sprained ankle and twisted knee; broken foot. Thank goodness for extra crew in times of need!
We did not keep track of the cost of groceries or restaurants, because we would incur most of it at home anyway. We did eat out at restaurants more than we would at home because of the social aspects of being with friends, or to explore a brewery or two. 😉 But we’re going to eat anyway, so we didnt’ track it.
Best advice that we received:
- 1) If you do a blog, keep it up!
- 2) Don’t over-provision. There is access to grocery stores everywhere!
Best investment for the trip:
- 1) Gladys the iPad Pro 12.9, with cellular connectivity and a keyboard cover case.. She did everything from navigate, show us tides & weather, reserve cars, GoogleMap our land excursions, and write the blog.
- 2) A bowthruster. Captain didn’t use it as much as he thought he would, but it provided a great sense of confidence, security and control. And it was quite helpful in many situations…. like the 112 locks!
Some of our favorite Apps and websites:
- Navionics
- Garmin Helm
- Active Captain
- Nebo
- Weather Underground
- AyeTides
- Windy
- AGLCA
- Waterway Guide (for fuel prices & hurricane damage updates)
- http://corpslocks.usace.army.mil — lock queue report
- https://marineweather.net
- https://www.ingrambarge.com/resc.php (Lock operating conditions on the inland rivers)
There were many more that we used along the way, some very specific to the region we were in.
Other costs of not being home: Yes…. just like a neglected boat, the house and cars threw their own “I’m neglected and forgotten” temper tantrums. The house A/C unit wasn’t working when we got home. No telling how long it had not been working, but at least nothing seemed smelly, mildewy or damp except the toilets and bathtub. A serviceman came right out and discovered that our drain pipe for condensation collection was clogged. He fixed us right up for a couple hundred bucks. The washing machine was leaking. The more loads I did, the worse it got, and the water all backed up into the big washtub in the garage and on the floor in the laundry room. Kenny the plumber went to Harbor Freight and bought a snake to clean out the drains. That seems to be resolved. My car battery was well beyond dead. Thank goodness it was the car in the garage, and not the one that had to be moved out of the driveway when we were still up in Mississippi! A new battery solved that. The TV was dead. The power light came on, but that was all. No picture or audio would come on. So we switched it out for another smaller one we had. That didn’t help much, because the cable didn’t work either. Comcast was connected and working because we did have internet connectivity. After two hours on the phone with Comcast trying every conceivable option, they admitted the TV box was not functioning correctly. A new box from Comcast, and a new TV from Costco, and we were able to watch a variety of movies, sports, and parades like we haven’t seen for 8 months!
It’s funny – after eight months of spending an average of $65/night to park Island Girl in marina, some of these costs seem negligible. My sense of materiality needs to get adjusted back to normal life! As my boys would say “Just the cost of doin’ business”. So yes – there are unplanned costs all along the way. But it truly is the trip of a lifetime, and what a blessing to have been able to do it. So get out there and explore! Find your adventure and go for it! Life is short and every day is a gift. Live it. Love it. See it. Explore it. Feel it. Taste it. Smell it. Touch it. Share it. You only go around this universe once – make it a GOOD TRIP!
And now…. what will our next adventure be?