THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES......FINALLY ANOTHER BLOG POST.

So, where do I begin?  Actually, I really don't need to bein as this is a continuation of the blog, The Adventures of M/V Abreojos; only this time, the focus is on the new second part of the title, "The Adventure Continues.  On December 29, 2011, Brenda and I completed a nearly 10,000 nautical mile journey around America’s Great Loop.  The journey involved travelling on a variety of different waterways to accomplish a circumnavigation of the eastern half of the United States including, but not limited to, the Gulf Coast Intercoastal Waterway, the west coast of Florida ICW, the Okechobee Waterway, the Atlantic ICW, the Chesapeake, the Delaware, Long Island Sound, the Hudson River, the Erie Canal, the Great Lakes (excluding Ontario and Superior) and the Western River System, including the Illinois River, the Mississippi River, the Tennessee River, the Cumberland River, and the Tenn-Tom Waterway.

After completing the loop, we spent the next three months making our way all the way back around to Deltaville, VA and spent a few months working in a marina. We had some good times and met a lot of wonderful people.  However, working in this marina got old pretty fast, so we left Deltaville and headed south to berth Abreojos at a wonderful little marina called Lambs located on the Pasquatank River near the mouth of the Dismal Swamp Canal.  She has been resting quietly there since July 1, 2012.

We have been “boatless” for almost a year and it has been difficult to say the least.  Some of our finest moments over the last 23 years of marriage have been aboard our own boat.  We have travelled over 40,000 miles aboard Abreojos and love her very much.  Why did we leave her on the east coast?  That is an interesting story.

When we planned our trip around the loop, I secretly hoped in my heart of hearts that we would continue cruising for a much longer time; that we could stay afloat indefinitely and continue to enjoy the benefits of a cruising lifestyle.  Roughly translated, it never occurred to me to budget for a return trip home for the old girl.  You see, it is very easy to say, “cut the lines and just go.”  It is entirely a different thing to get back home again. (I’ll speak to this phenomenon in a subsequent post.) It is no easy feat to move a 25 ton boat across the country.  And it is not cheap either.  Perhaps we could sell her on the east coast.  We tried, having listed her with two different brokers.  Not a serious bite.  One guy apparently contacted our broker and offered to trade Abreojos for a couple acres of land in Puerto Rico!  I don’t think so.  Ultimately, to make a long story short, we decided that, she had been sitting long enough and that, the downside to leaving a boat like Abreojos sitting unattended significantly outweighs the cost of bringing her home where we can provide her with the regular care and maintenance she deserves.  The question was, however, just how to do it?

Originally, I contracted with a company called Moger Yacht Transportation to bring her from California to Texas to begin the long adventure.  So, naturally, I called them again when we decided we would bring her home on a truck from Norfolk, VA to Marina Del Rey, CA.  Moger provided me a quote that was within our budget and we accepted the proposal.  However, they would not commit to a date.  For five months, I contacted them bi-weekly for updates.  I was given the run-around by a woman named Carmen who told me over and over again that she would “talk with Warren (Warren Moger) and get some information”.  Ultimately, it was I who called again and again and she never once actually returned a call.  Recently, Carmen told me that Warren was just too busy and that I should consider getting someone else to do the job.  Can you say breach of contract?  I have a few other choice words of description which I shall defer at this point.  Brenda and I were crest-fallen to say the least.  Suffice it to say, I can no longer in good conscience recommend Moger Yacht Transportation to anyone looking to transport a yacht via truck.

Lemons.  Lemonade.  Lemon Meringue.  Lemon Tarts.  I developed a new idea.  What if we brought Abreojos home via an alternate sea route?  The Panama Canal was out of the question.  It would take too long, cost too much, and would have me out of touch with the world for a minimum of three to four months. I started to wonder if there was another way.  Another way might be to bring her to Superior, Wisconsin and put her on a truck to the nearest point on the Columbia River where Abreojos could be loaded back into the water and then come home via the Columbia River to the Pacific Coast and then turn left.  Zumba!  That’s the plan. 

I shall bring Abreojos from Camden, NC to Superior, WI.  How you ask?  It’s easy.  I will leave Camden and turn right.  I’ll take the Pasquatank River north and merge onto the Dismal Swamp Canal, pass through two locks and then float out onto the Elizabeth River to Portsmouth, VA where I will stop for bottom paint.  Then I will leave Portsmouth and turn right to the Chesapeake Bay, and then turn left and head north to the C&D Canal.  There, I’ll turn right and follow the Canal to Delaware Bay and run on down to the southern end of the State of New Jersey.  Then, I’ll turn left onto the Atlantic Ocean and head north for New York Harbor.  There, I’ll pass Lady Liberty and head straight on up the Hudson River to the Troy Lock.  I’ll pass through the lock and then take the first left onto the Erie Canal.  I’ll head to the three rivers intersection and take a right onto the Oswego Canal and head north to Lake Ontario.  Then, I’ll cross the lake and try to find the mouth of the Trent-Severn Canal in Trent (in Canada not far to the right of Toronto). I’ll take the TS Canal and it’s 40+ locks all the way to Severn Bay way up in Georgian Bay.  There, I’ll turn right (west) and cross Georgian Bay to the North Channel (northern Lake Huron) to the St. Mary’s River.  There, I’ll take another right up to Sault St. Marie and the entrance to Lake Superior.  Then, all I have to do is cross the entirety of Lake Superior to its western banks and the town of Superior, Wisconsin.  I’ll meet the truck there.  Then, Abreojos will be lifted onto the back of a really big truck and delivered to Umatilla, Oregon, a small hamlet on the Columbia River where a crane at the Port of Umatilla with slings will gingerly lift her from the back of the truck into the cool, clear waters of the Columbia.  Then, it’s just a down river run to Astoria, Oregon and the Pacific Ocean.  This is where I will conclude this leg of the trip.  There may be some additional decisions to be made:  turn left and come home, or turn right and cruise in the PNW for a spell.  Also, we could turn left and head for the California Delta region and cruise there for a spell before coming all the way down the coast.  Suffice it to say, there is still plenty of time to make that decision.

The part of this journey that really sucks, however, is that my second captain, Brenda, will not be able to make this trip with me.  I have journeyed on the water with a number of good captains, but none give me the same level of confidence Brenda does.  So, to say I am experiencing some trepidation would be an understatement.  Hopefully, she will be able to join me for some of the trip later.  Nevertheless, not having her along is stressful.

Thus, I have decided that what I must do is peel off the layers of anxiety, one layer at a time.  To start, I will be on the boat for about 5 days before she moves an inch making sure all systems are ship-shape and ready to make what is going to be a nearly 2000 mile passage from Camden, NC to Astoria, Oregon on the Pacific Coast.  Most of it should be pretty easy, but there are parts of this trip I have not done before and which present some significant challenges, especially since I will be single-handed for most of it. 

There are various other layers to peel off, but I will take them one day at a time and describe them as I go.  I have spent the better part of the last year thinking about this day and what it would be like.  I have had some amazing experiences after coming home.  I have practiced law, taught school, catered parties, brokered insurance, coached sports, raced on a sailboat; I spent quality time with family and friends, and did several other weird things I cannot think of at the moment.  But now, I finally get to go back to what I love the most – facing the challenge of the unknown.  For many of the next 2000 miles, I have never seen the water or travelled over its surface.  The charts are new, some new techniques will have to be learned, and ultimately, for most of the miles ahead, I will be relying totally on me to get it done.  I am confident that I am up to the challenge.  I just wish Brenda were going with me.

I’ll have a lot more to write about over the next couple months.  I hope you’ll follow along and enjoy the ride with me.  It gives me untold comfort knowing that someone is reading this dribble and experiencing inspiration or wondering what it would be like to do it, too.  

Post script:

I got back to Abreojos yesterday.  My friend Jerry picked me up at Norfolk Airport.  It was great to see him again.  Jerry was one of those great friends we made working at that marina in Deltaville.  It was fine that there was some traffic.  That just made it possible to talk a little longer.

WHAT A MESS!  While the inside of the boat was very clean like we left her, the outside, on the other hand, is going to take a lot of work just to be presentable.  She wasn't as well cared for as we had hoped.  So, you might not hear from me again for a couple days.  There are a couple resident hornets that seem to have made mud nests in some rather interesting places.  In the interim,  I'm working on arranging for fuel and the removal of used engine oil.  Fortunately, there is a courtesy car at this marina and I'll be able to get around to find the bits I need to get this show back on the road.