Segment #7: From Baltimore, MD to New York City, NY My sister Liesel suggested to reprint my diary instead of writing separately for the Blog. Hopefully my readers do not mind the longer comments and the more immediate impressions. On June 15th my new crew, Karl and Christel, and I left the Baltimore Harbor early. There was hardly any boat traffic although according to the radio the automobile traffic was busy. When we got into the open Chesapeake Bay the seas became a littler rougher, which did not bother Karl or Christel. We headed north and turned towards Worton Point and a few hours later in calm seas docked at the Green Point Landing Marina. Nobody answered radio or telephone but the son of the owner happened to be on the dock to help us. The ... read more

Steve Spear, my companion for the fifth segment of the cruise, arrived on the 14th of May and we had breakfast together before we took the courtesy car from the marina to a drug and a grocery store to re-supply the Marilsnick and my personal pharmacy. During the early afternoon I briefed him on the boat and was impressed with his sailing knowledge. He will not have to be reminded to store the lines and take in the fenders once we are underway. Steve spent the afternoon and evening with an old friend in Charleston while I rested and prepared the route. The Marilsnick also received a new dinghy, which hopefully will be financed at least partially by State Farm, my insurance company. It is sitting on the deck and sometime, hopefully when Skip and Barbara ... read more

Daytona Beach, FL to Charleston, SC May 3rd to May 14th Marianne threw off the lines as we left the dock in Daytona Beach. We did not realize that it would be the easiest maneuver of the day. We sailed up the ICW and I began to realize that my new partner Glenn Shipman was an experienced mariner. He had crewed on a 62-foot Northhavn between Spain and Marocco in heavy seas. Besides that he is a retired airline captain, who is used to a certain commando structure. In other words he repeated what he just had done, i.e. “fenders taken off” or “lines stowed” to let me know. That made it easy in a way but he probably expected equally precise commands from the captain and they were not forthcoming. We journeyed on another perfect ... read more

We left Indiantown and followed the eastern portion of the Lake Okeechobe Waterway. The next and last lock had a height difference of some 14 feet and it took quite a while to lower us to the Atlantic Water level. By now we had no apprehension going through the locks and even 14 feet did not intimidate us. We admired several mansions along the shore and always wondered how people earned all this money to own not one but two such expensive houses. Most people who can afford it leave Florida during the summer months. The ride to Stuart took only three hours. The municipal marina was filled so that we had to choose the Wayside Marina, which is not geared to transient boaters. All other boats at the docks were for sale. When we asked ... read more

The Great Loop on the Marilsnick The Marilsnick is a 36-foot Grand Banks trawler. Between 1995 she cruised the San Juan Islands of Washington and the Gulf Islands of British Columbia. In 2008 and 2009 she made two journeys up the Inside Passage as far north as Juneau, Alaska. But the skipper had bigger dreams... He read about the Great Loop: a journey along the Gulf of Mexico from Mobile, AL to Fort Myers Florida, transiting Florida by the Okechobee Waterway, then sailing the Intercoastal Waterway along the East Coast of the USA, up the Hudson River, along the Erie and Oswego Canals through Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan, along the Illinois into the Mississpi River then to the Ohio River into the Tombigbee Canal back towards Mobile, Al., a journey of 5000 miles. Planning: December ... read more