Okay ---- let’s start this right. Let me introduce myself. My name is Grianan, which means summer or sunny place in Gaelic for those of you who didn’t know where the name came from. Anyway, I am a Mainship 40 trawler and I can do 8 knots comfortably. I have a main cabin where my owners stay and a galley, head, and even a fly bridge (Greg likes to drive from up there). So, this is my voyage on the “The Great Loop”. That is a trip around the eastern USA and Canada. If you want you can look at the Great Loop Cruisers Assn. website at www.greatloop.org and get an idea of where we are going and follow along I’ll try to keep you informed on where we are, what were doing and most of all, what my owners say about the trip. It will be a blast!
So, anyway – we didn’t just start this trip on the 20th of June, @ 6:40 AM. We really started it in Oriental, NC at River Dunes Marina. That’s where we will cross our wake. (That means we’ve finished the loop around.) We traveled from Oriental to Tilghman, MD with Jany K, Dream Chaser, and Deep Devocean. You can read all about this on Jany K’s blog at www.jany-k.blogspot.com.
Soooo – we left Tilghman-on-Chesapeake at 6:40 Am on Monday, June 20th. Waved goodbye to Jan & Bob Keebler (in the rain), then headed through Knapps Narrows (waving to the Podboys as we went thru) to the Bay. We were lucky to get a 2knot push up the Bay – we were under the Bay Bridge by 9:00 AM! Rain stopped by 10 AM and the sun came out. No problems in the C&D Canal and we were tied up @ Delaware City by 3:20 PM.
My people went to dinner (and had lobster and a burger), then came back to keep me company. They went to bed pretty early! You’d think they had a rough day!
June 21,2011
Spent another day tied to a dock in Delaware City while they did laundry, cleaned me a bit (thank God!), and then went out for lunch. When they came back they just loafed around before leaving again. They said they were going for a walk, but I just know they went for ice cream!
At least they stayed on board for dinner. Another early night, though.
June 22, 2011
They had me untied from the dock and we were leaving Delaware City by 7:08 AM. It had rained, with lightning, earlier. It was just a bit cloudy by this time.
We didn’t have too bad a ride down Delaware Bay. There was only a bit of chop. The sun came out and it got hot & muggy!
We got in and tied up @ Utsch’s Marina in Cape May, NJ, by 1:15 PM. Not too bad.
Kate called their friends Tim & Lorrie Walsh, who came by to see the boat. They talked for a while (I stopped listening when they started about school days), I was watching the guy in next slip almost hit me twice trying to get out and turn. Then they left (again!) to go see the Walsh’s house and get some dinner. I heard them say later they had gone to the Rusty Nail. They told me they had a good time. I’m so glad, even though I was a bit lonely, the old Grand Banks next slip over just didn’t want to talk.
June 23, 2011
Sunny today and hot already @ 6:30 AM. After breakfast and talking to their son Greg (in Shanghai), they finally got ready to leave. We were clear of the dock by 7:40 AM. We’re heading to Atlantic City today. I get to go in the Atlantic Ocean and play in 4 foot following seas! Funny, but Kate doesn’t seem to enjoy this. Oh, well.
We get to Kammerman’s Marina in AC at 12:30 PM. Greg wants me to have something to eat, so we stop at the fuel dock first. Hmmm—getting a bit pricey--$4.05 a gallon.
They are resting, talking on the phone, etc., so I thought I’d let y’all know what was happening.
Hope everyone is well – talk to y’all again soon!
