There was a birthday going on over here....

Happy Birthday Ben!

Ben had a birthday this weekend! He treats his birthday the same every year..."I don't know what I want to do, it's just another day" he will proclaim in a 'it's a normal day' tone. I don't know about you, but when my birthday comes I certainly know what I want to do! It happens once a year, let's celebrate! Aaaaaallllll weeeeeeeek...at least! No, not Ben! He may not want all the hoopla of balloons and hats but I know he would love to have the house garage (We are off the boat for a week and back at our place until we leave from the city to make our way down the river) filled with his buddies AND lots of food, er meat and libations for all! Well, in true Ben style, he loaded the smokers with beef brisket, pork shoulders and ribs and sent the smoke signal out. All his friends stopped by and gorged themselves! Even better, Ben loves his Moscow Mules, and he got hooked up with copper mugs and the best ginger beer...but best of all... time with great friends...just what he ordered! By the way, the meat was delicious, as always! Lots of leftovers will go to great use on our travels down the river! Huge smiles from this guy! As much as we are itching to get back on water, it feels wonderful to be home near our family and friends!! And the celebrations are still happening!!
Happy Birthday Babe! I'm thrilled and ecstatic to take this journey with you, what a team we make!

Crocket loves to deliver gifts... 

and help open them!

Nice looking new mug! Ben's mug is pretty handsome too!

I'm excited, I'm sad...we left our slip!

It’s been a couple weeks since we left our slip in Door County. I had no idea I was going to be so emotional! My stomach was in knots, I was wavering on tears the whole day before we were to leave and It didn't help that we had a huge storm come through that tore our canvas and knocked power out in Door County. The excitement of our travels a mere hours away, which also meant hours away we would be leaving what we had come to enjoy as our “home”. We are very lucky, not only do we have wonderful friends/family in Door County, we also have some of the most spectacular sunset views…boy I’m gonna miss sitting at the end of the dock, food on the grill, shared laughs with our harbor mates and watching the sun dip into the water (people actually clap and cheer each night watching the amazing site)! Knowing we are going to be waking up in a new location almost every day drives us to leave, yet not having the amazing ‘family’ we have at our harbor with us, makes me feel like we are moving away forever. Pretty dramatic I know, I guess I like being in one spot more than I thought, or maybe it's just that we hit the jackpot with our harbor! I was already having a hard time thinking about leaving and everyone kept coming by with gifts, (a friend gave me a travel journal with directions…She wants me to only write the times Ben asks me “What the heck were you thinking?!”...hate to say it but I’ve already made an entry!) wishing us safe travels, offering up some great advice and even some invites to visit while in the south! We are blessed to have such great friends and family all supporting us on our travels, and we are excited to share them! We miss all our EYH buddies…until next year! 

Sooooo....Where have we been?? 

We started our trip a bit early with a last minute vacation to meet up with our friends Max and Samara across Lake Michigan. We left Door county and stopped for a night at Kap’s Marina on Washington Island. We were greeted with two Chicago hot dogs and chips! We watched the ferry boats dropping off/picking up passengers to/from the island. We dined on a great fish dinner at the ShipsWheel restaurant (the owner came out in his wig…this guy is a hoot!!). We settled in for the night knowing we had a good weather window to cross, and readied ourselves for the 9-hour run to Elk Rapids, MI.

Washington Island Ferry

We had a great ride to Elk Rapids, we were feeling extra great since Ben’s cousin happened to be vacationing with her family nearby. Not only were we able to meet up with our friends, but cousin Brittany (check out their awesome, actually #1 sailing blog here) came by for a visit with her husband, Scott, sister-in-law, Julie…AND her cool friend, Jesse, who at the age of 23 did The Great Loop with a friend and her dog on a 27ft sail boat! What a trip! We were able to pick her brain a bit and enjoy lots of laughs, and food! What a special gift to have the universe place us all together, yet so far from home! 

Cousin Love

So much love and fun! Wish I could put her in my pocket and take her everywhere!

Elk Rapids River

Next stop Northport, MI. The plan was to spend one day then move onto Leland. Since weather is a major factor in our travels, we are sometimes at the mercy of storms and wind. With wind comes waves and the bigger the waves the more uncomfortable the ride. We made it to Northport no problem, but a system came through and we were stuck at Northport for a few days. This can sometimes be annoying to be stuck in a location especially if there isn’t much around…BUT, Northport is cute! We hung out at the beach one day, we seem to catch farmers markets every town we go and sure enough we stocked up on some organic meat, veggies and even a fresh pie! We shopped, ate, found an arcade (and whoopee cushions!) and rented a car to visit Leland (our friends had not been here, and were leaving the following day to go home). I also got a tremendous surprise!! I knew that my friend from middle school, Melissa, was nearby but was supposed to be heading home. She was very sneaky and showed up for a quick little visit! I feel so blessed! The universe at it again!

Northport with Samara...and Verner's!

Great friends...Max and Samara

Cute town of Northport

We had too much fun at the arcade! Sam rocked the tickets!

Whoopee cushions, the cheapest laughs out there! 

Poor people that walk within earshot!

The best surprise so far!!! So great to see Melissa!!!

Farmer's market fava beans 

Our farmer's market dinner! YUM!

Sutton’s Bay was our fourth stop. What a hidden gem! The marina is small, located across from a public beach with a park. The town is adorable with great food and higher-end shopping. We enjoyed walking around and have plans to return and spend a bit more time. We stayed long enough to have lunch and dinner and off to our next destination!

Leland was next! And we had another great ride! Leland happens to be a favorite stop for us, not only do they have THE BEST potato salad around, they have great shops, and good bloody mary’s! We love to stop by the fish market and see what the fisherman caught that morning. The smell of smoked fish permeates the area. We met a nice couple from the Pentwater area. They had us over for appetizers and story telling. It was great to know we have some new friends following along on our journey!

Final stop…Frankfort! We love Frankfort too! We stay at Jacobson’s Marina. The owners, John and Laurie, really cater to boaters. With a pool and hot tub (that they drain every night), and dinner delivered to your boat who wouldn’t feel spoiled by them? We spent time (probably too much time) at the pool and chose to eat out the 2-nights we stayed here. Something that is hard to find in Wisconsin is sushi and Chinese…Frankfort had both so we indulged!
We took Crocket to the beach, we walked along the break wall while he swam next to us.

We crossed Lake Michigan from Frankfort to Sturgeon Bay in 6-hours. We had some 3 and 4-foot waves but nothing the boat couldn’t handle, and it seems I'm now able to handle the waves much better than the beginning of the summer, thank goodness! We suffered some canvas damage from the bad storm the night before we left our harbor, ‘Seamstress Ben’ temporarily sewed the major tear, but it needed to be repaired before we head south. We will stay in Sturgeon Bay (not a bad place to be stuck for a while! I love this town!) until the canvas is complete and until we have a good weather window to start making our way south to chicago. Next stop sounds like it will be Manitowoc…

Making the necessary repairs before we head out in the morning

I think I have my emotions under control (I think), as long as I don’t think about everyone I miss. We are having a great time exploring new and old places and meeting new faces! I’ll be keeping you in the ‘loop’ with our travels more often now that we are actually traveling!! You can also follow us on Facebook…Jamminjanetravels.

The Great Loop...What is it?

What is it called you guys are doing? Something like the big circle? I can't believe I haven't dedicated a post to the great adventure we are about to conquer, The Great Loop. The Great Loop (also called the Great Circle Route) according to Wikipedia is "The circumnavigation of Eastern North America by water." The trip can vary somewhere from 5,000 miles to 7,500 miles depending on several route options. We will lean toward 7,000 miles as we will be spending time in the Florida Keys, dry Tortuga's and the Bahamas (which is not part of the loop). We have spent time in The North Channel, Ontario, Canada, which is the body of water located on the North shore of Lake Huron, and will not be taking this route on our return leg (more about this in a future post). 

The Great Loop is mostly traveled counterclockwise, and to avoid hurricanes and ice, you spend the summer in the Great Lakes, head south in the fall, winter in Florida and head up the east coast  around April/May. This is our plan anyway.

We leave the Door County area beginning of August and take some time to travel across Lake Michigan to some of our favorite spots; Elk Rapids, MI, Northport, MI and Leland, MI to name a few. We will then start to pick our way to Chicago where we will be entering into the river system beginning of September. We hope to accomplish this endeavor in one year, but have the time to take if we find that we absolutely love a certain spot and want to stick around for a bit. 

So far what we have planned gets us to Florida. We will travel downstream on the Illinois River, Mississippi, up to the Ohio River, to the Cumberland which will get us to the Tennessee and Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (Tenn-Tom). We will come out in the Gulf of Mexico from Mobile, Alabama. Then the Intercoastal Waterway to Florida we go! From there, I'll have to post about later!

We joined the America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association (AGLCA) a few years ago to begin planning. We have great resources at our fingers and as members we fly a white burgee that shows we are active "loopers". Once we complete the loop we will be able to fly the coveted gold burgee (we can't wait for that day! Huge party in my future!). Being members we have access to all other members who are in the process of doing the loop through discussion forums and live feeds. Also flying the white burgee is recognizable amongst other loopers which is a nice feeling to know someone else is out there to buddy boat with if we want. The AGLCA organizes two reunions a year, we were not able to get reservations for these events so you NEED to sign up EARLY!  

Check out the AGLCA website here.

Hope this helps explain where the heck it is we will be traveling the next year or so. Stay tuned to future posts to follow us along our trip. Emotions are high over here, I'm having a hard time controlling both my excitement and nerves...but this is what life is about. Taking the adventure together and learning while growing along the way. I CAN NOT WAIT to share this journey!