I’m writing this post as I reflect on our first week of travel. The first few days had some incredible sights, stars filling the entire sky the first night, dolphins checking us out the first time we ventured from an anchorage in our dinghy, sighting of more dolphins playing at our bow, bald eagles, narrow cuts to navigate and wide open rivers. There are a lot of items to consider as we plan for each day: the tides which change the depth of the water and determine when we can traverse some areas; the predicted winds which are usually lower in the morning and can determine our time of departure; our destination for the day – an anchorage or a marina? Then we have to plan a halfway place if the weather craps out (yes, that is an approved mariner term), or a more distant point if it’s a great travel day.
As an example, we pulled into the Isle of Palms Marina (North of Charleston, SC) to stay for one night. High winds off the beam of the boat, pushing us against the dock, kept us there for four nights. What do you do on these non travel days? There is a list of maintenance tasks on the boat (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly). We have a supply of books we want to read and DVDs to watch. We can search for things we have already misplaced on the boat. The one thing we like to do on these days is meet other boaters. We were very fortunate that Mack and Vicki on Confetti, notice our burgee (Looper flag) and introduce themselves. Over the next three days we had many conversations with them, some about boating, some about life in general. They are loosely doing the Loop, many side trips for them They have a lot of experience in the Bahamas, multiple trips with fellow Kadey-Krogen owners. Yes, some boaters travel in packs with like boat owners.
View of Vitamin Sea from the marina’s restaurant. 
Enjoying lunch on a windy day.
Mack and Vicki shared weather information apps with us. There is a lot of weather information available on the web, although not all is applicable to mariners and may not be localized enough for our current location. One app we learned about from them is Windy, a wind prediction app that consolidates the information from four forecasting models into one place. Along with wind speed we get gust predictions, direction, rain percentage, and cloud coverage. Another way to get weather info is from emails that contain small-boater specific observed data. We are thankful that we met them. The information from theses sites will make our daily trip planning easier and decisions can be made with boater specific information.
Kathy at the helm. We both took lessons on how to operate the boat. Usually one drives and the other navigates but sometimes its good to see how the waterway appears on the chart.
I think we’ll look for another dock. 🙂
Thanks for the information Ed and Kathy. It is A very enjoyable read. It is wonderful to have health and the freedom to enjoy and control what we want to do.
What a way to spend tax day – blogging on the Sea! Missed you today at our meeting.
Love reading your blog. Enjoy your trip and stay safe. We miss you!
Love the photos!! Thank you for posting.
Great update. You worry about skinny water, we worry about low bridges (and you will too). We didn’t have to many days where we were “stuck in a place” that we had to sit too long finding something to do. Our dingy allowed us to travel, although we are/were on dry land. Keep the updates coming. Be safe. Enjoy.
We’ve been so curious about you guys. Sounds like you are getting your sea legs and becoming more experienced every day. Happy Easter.
Rich and Pam
I will inform Rich of what is the latest update for me. Havn’t checked much this week.
Have a blessed Easter. Hoping for many fair skies in your future.
Continued wishes for smooth sailing. This has been a VERY windy year for all parts of the US. Over the last year up here on our mountain in the Texas Hill Country, we have had wind gusts to 68mph. On a normal day, we have 15-20mph continuous winds. I probably would never have known that winds affected your style (non sailboat) of travel so much. That is very interesting. Good that you have some experienced boaters to share their knowledge with you. Happy Easter!
Well I don’t know what happened to my comment that I left here yesterday! Went something like this…
Wishing you continued smooth sailing. Here on our mountain top we have experienced winds in excess of 60mph over the last year. I never gave a thought to how winds might affect a large causing vessel like you have. That was very interesting to hear about. Happy Easter!
Happy Easter from Joe and Alta and the rest of the family!
Your blog and the details of your travels on the Loop will be huge learning experience for me! Sometimes I have no clue what your talking about and sometimes I have to look up the meaning of certain terms. Navigation is much more complicated than I ever thought . I’m impressed with all your knowledge. More impressed with your patience!
The photographs are great!
Travel safe. Always you are in my thoughts.
Barbara