Its Not Quite Winter and Its Not Quite Spring.

 Its SPLINTER!

Among the many gifts of global climate change is a new season we are calling SPLINTER.  Not quite Winter. Not quite Spring. Always painful.  YUCK! 😝

 Hey, it's April freaking 15^th!   Taxes are filed, skis are stored, the snowblower is “summerized”, the snow shovels are hung with care, and the lawnmower is tuned up.   And it's still 40-some freaking degrees with freaking sub-freezing wind chill and freaking snow flurries.   What gives? Who’s responsible!  It ain’t fair!

But still, we huddle wrapped in fleece and down to consider the upcoming boating season.  As you may recall, IRISH LASS has spent her winter under the care of Eldean Shipyard near Holland, MI.   We are developing a plan to retrieve her this summer and commence to begin to start to complete our Loop.   Here is how we see the upcoming cruising season coming together:

The first part of the voyage is all about timing our arrival to the Gulf of Mexico.   Common sense (and Chubb Insurance) dictate that we don't get too far south before November 1, the official end of hurricane season. 

We will depart Spoklahoma on the 11^th of  July and drive to Michigan where the boat is stored.  Our time thru  August will be spent in boat preparation and commissioning, plus a cruise of the Wisconsin/Illinois shore of Lake Michigan.

On or about Labor Day, we will head down the Illinois River to the Mississippi River as far as Cairo, IL, where we will jog east up the Ohio River past Paducah, KY to the mouth of the Tennessee River.  We don't expect to spend much time on this stretch.   With limited services, challenging currents and debris, huge locks, and barge traffic, best to get it behind us.  Even St Louis is disappointing when approached by water.

From the Ohio, we will turn back south into Tennessee and enter the Kentucky Lakes Region, where we expect to spend a month or so.  Maybe run up the Cumberland to Nashville, (but fuel prices make this unlikely) and then begin to work our way south on the Tennessee River.  More likely doing some Civil War tourist-ing and enjoying the fine lock and dam infrastructure of the TVA.

November 1 should find us poised at Demopolis, AL (approx 32 degrees north latitude) on the Tenn-Tom Waterway, locked and cocked and ready to head for the Gulf.   We are back in the saltwater at Mobile, AL and with thence head east and south along the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway.  Rather than cutting the corner across the Gulf, we expect to follow the curve of the Florida Panhandle.  By later November, look for us in the Tampa area. 

We have a marina reservation in Ft Meyers for all of December, and another at Marco Island for the first two weeks of January.  We have decided to skip Key West (been there and its  SUPER expensive for fuel and moorage)   So we will cross the Keys to Marathon, FL (about halfway between Key West and Miami) for another multi-week stay into February 2023.

From Marathon, we will make our way north into Biscayne Bay and enter the Atlantic Intercoastal Water Way. Our rate of progress will be somewhat weather dependent.  Side trip to the Bahamas is possible, but again not likely due to fuel costs.   

Going north, we will likely hit Ft Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Savanah, Charleston, Hilton Head, Wilmington (NC), Cape Hatteras, etc. with a goal of "crossing our wake" at Virginia Beach, VA some time in March.  (And there will be much rejoicing.) 

Final tasks will be to  (hopefully) arrange a quick and fruitful sale of the Irish Lass and one more, long-distance, one-way car rental home.   

Sounds so simple, don’t it? 

(Pause here to listen for God’s laughter.)

More to follow 😉

Thanks for following.
Wade and Kathleen and fur-Admiral Maggie