First In!

2 years ago Ben and I were approached by a local artist wanting to know if he could use our boat as the subject in a painting. We happened to be the first boat in our harbor for that season and it was a beautiful day, he wanted to title it "First In". We were thrilled, "Of course you can paint our boat!!" I exclaimed but, "Can I buy the print?" I continued. "Why yes, the print will be for you." said Jim Leatham, local outdoor painter who specializes in oil.
We came home and within days were pulling up to the Jim Leatham art gallery picking up our treasured painting of our beloved first Grand Banks. Jim captured our boat Jammin Jane, on a perfect day in the harbor with our little boy, Crocket, sitting in his usual spot waiting for someone to take him for a boat ride.
This painting hangs above our bed on our new Grand Banks, reminding us of all the memories we had traveling with her.

One week home & still on the boat!!

Nothing compares to the sunset views we have here 

In all the months we have been traveling on the Loop, I never woke up wondering where I was. UNTIL NOW!!!
This has happened twice since we have been back in our home port. I'm guessing that is because on the Loop I knew exactly where we are at all times. We planned our stops several days in advance, I would call the marinas to confirm our reservations (we never just pulled into a marina looking for a slip), Ben routed our course and I would document the locations in my notes. I always knew where we were located. So it has been a crazy feeling to wake up wondering where we are, then I look out and remember...we are home!
So, how has life been this past week?? Pretty awesome!! We have family near and friends close so we have been enjoying our time with everyone. We have a vehicle to drive to the store WHENEVER we want! That has been hard to get used to. I'm so conditioned to have everything I need on hand to make dinner that when I realized I forgot an item for our meal, I started to get all worked up. Ben brought me back to reality, "Um Babe, you have a car and the store is up the road." he shared as if saying duh, what's wrong with you?
We have been enjoying our time in our harbor, grilling out almost every day and visiting all our favorite spots here in Door County. Ben's mom, Cathy came for a wonderful few days and our friends Bob and Liz sent friends of theirs to our boat for a visit as they were vacationing here in Door County.
Crocket is in his glory! Every time he goes potty he gets to go swimming! He is free to walk all over the harbor off his leash (he didn't like having to be leashed 80% of the trip), he loves our walks in the woods, gets to visit all his buddies, ride around with the dock master on the golf cart and go for car rides. We have family living close by so visits to them have been fun for us as Crocket gets so excited he starts talking and shaking the closer we get. I think he is thrilled to be back!

All in all we have adjusted pretty well, I still miss the adventure and the travel. But I'm savoring land life for now!

My walking buddy

Look close, that's Crocket swimming with his toy 

Dinner with Cathy (Ben's mom), Aunt Tamara, Uncle Kevin and Ben

Loved meeting Jack and Phyllis

Car ride with the dogs! Crocket on the left and Hogan (Cathy's shitzu) on the right

We will be spending the next month here on our boat, looking for a house and enjoying all things Door County. We are excited to stick around for October Fest here in Sister Bay. We will take our boat over to that marina making it our last hoorah for the season!

Our unwanted guest got shot out of our exhaust this morning!

Our stowaway is no longer here

Our last night on the Loop, thinking about how drastic our lives are about to change while trying to fall asleep, I heard something crawl around our boat. I could tell it was very close. I yelled up to Ben who was watching TV "There's something crawling around on our decks!". He jumped up and heads outside, sees nothing, checks inside, nothing. Back to TV watching for him and my battle with settling down to sleep, I hear the scratching sound again!! I yell up to Ben, he checks outside again, listens again, no noise. Darn it! I swear I heard something!! Then the noise seemed to stop, or did I fall asleep??? Either way the next morning (the day we crossed our wake!) Ben was doing his engine room check and heard the critter! EEK! Only it was not on our decks but in our exhaust hose. Ben said he could actually feel it scratching the hose! At that he sends me to the aft deck to watch the exhaust for a critter, like a muskrat, to come out. Ben starts the motors and a bunch of 'critter things' came out such as twigs, grass, leaves and mud but no sighting of a critter. NOT GOOD! If there is, and we are pretty sure there is a muskrat in our exhaust, it will die in there from the carbon monoxide from our motors. We totally do not want that. If you have ever encountered a dead animal then you know the smell is so awful and rancid it could knock you out. That is the last thing we want happening on our boat.
We did not see the critter come out of the exhaust when we started the boat, but we had a three-hour run and hoped it would have been pushed out along the way. Well, this morning we got our answer! While Uncle Kevin was over checking out our boat which involved starting the motors. Kevin was outside listening to how quiet our motors are and yells inside to us "Hey, your stowaway has been evicted!!"...Huh? What? We run outside and there it was, a dead muskrat floating behind our boat. I felt sad for the poor ugly guy, he thought he found a nice spot for a home in our exhaust and we ruined it for him. We took him for a far ride from home and now there is probably some muskrat-missing-critter-poster out there asking for his whereabouts. I hope the critter Gods can forgive us.
As sad as it was, it was a huge relief to see him floating outside of our boat. We dodged a bullet on that one! We are just happy he is out of there.
We immediately ordered muskrat guards for both our exhausts. They make them specifically to prevent critters from entering into the exhaust without affecting the performance. For those of you boating in fresh waters, heed this warning...say no to critter stowaways!

Our new HurleyMarine Muskrat Exhaust Guard. This acts as a screen to prevent these critters from making our exhaust their home. 

Jammin Jane Crosses Her Wake!!!

Proud to fly the Gold burgee!!

WOW! We did it!! 

6,200 statute miles, 13 months (398 days total), 19 states, 126 different ports and we made it back to our home port of Ephraim, WI. 

We enjoyed our last three hours of our trip calling and texting all our fellow Loopers. The excitement factor was overwhelming, we were experiencing all ranges of emotions but the one that kept lurking for me was a bit of sadness. Just like when we left our home port 13 months ago. Sadness for ending our trip, sadness for missing our friends and sadness that we will be putting the boat away for several months before we get to do this all over again! But there is no denying, we couldn't hide our jubilation!! What a feat we conquered! 

We are one happy Gold Looper family!!!

Our trip involved so much about the beauty of our gorgeous country, the wonderfulness in all the lovely people we met along the way and the wonderment of what is around the bend.

How do you come away from this experience the same as when you started?? You simply do not. I feel proud and confident in our boating abilities now but personally I have changed. I had to learn to not be an introvert, I'm usually not one to put myself out there. I no longer get anxious having to introduce myself in crowds, and I'm enjoying the social aspect of being a Looper. Our relationship is stronger, we have spent so much time together that we sometimes don't have to speak to have a conversation!! hahaha, seriously things for us could not be any better. We are thrilled with this accomplishment! 

Some quick tidbits:

• We transited 70 locks (We traveled the Welland Canal to Cleveland)
• Anchored 6 nights (entirely by choice, we found marinas easier for us with our dog Crocket)
• Only moved 30% of the time 
• Averaged 50 miles per travel day
• Had a tachometer cable and a shifter cable give us trouble along the rivers
• Bought a new boat along the way (had to replace a motor on that, thankful for warranty)
• Two bee stings, one for each of us. Grateful it wasn't Crocket, he is allergic!
• Close to 1,400 dog poop bags used 
• 1 hospital visit (Ben had vertigo)
• 3 vet visits along the way (nothing but check-ups for Crocket)
• Took on approximately 4,000gallons of diesel
• Traveled 6, 200 statue miles
• Only 1% of boaters will do the Great Loop (about 150-200 boats a year)...

We were greeted at our harbor with balloons and decorations, sirens and horns blaring, family and friends yelling and tears running down our faces. What a welcoming!! This was the reason for our excitement, seeing our loved ones who we missed along our travels. We enjoyed our time celebrating and thankful for the love and joy we were able to share with everyone!

I can see the harbor!! But even better we can hear our family and friends!!

What a sight to see! 

Pulling into our slip...It's Uncle Kevin and Billy!

Our Great Loop travels were amazing, we are so proud to have completed this trip!

Popping corks!

Crocket and his girlfriend, Mazy

My niece Hannah

Joanne, Richie, JD and Andrea (Gianna is in her stroller)

My nephew Luke, could not keep him out of the water!

There were some dares and I believe some are in clothes

And in shoes...

Hannah, me and Sam

Martin and Ben

Some grilling and chilling

Me and Annie, aka Pee!

Ben, me, Hannah, Cathy (Ben's mom), Pee and Ethan (missing Luke, he was swimming)

Cousin Jenny and Hannah

Pee, Billy, Kelli and Jan

Ben and Charlie

Our spectacular view, I will never tire of this gorgeous sky

Setting off lanterns for Uncle Jim

This is not the end of our travels or our blog. Please keep following along, we have lots coming up before we start prepping to do the Great Loop next fall!! We have boat projects planned and more to add to the list. And I still have stuff to share about our first loop around...

Dragging Anchor...our last days on the Loop

Crossing Lake Michigan, heading to Washington Island from Northport, MI.

Why does it feel like when vacation is coming to an end, the last days fly by faster than all the others??! Well, this is exactly what is happening over here. We traveled 76 miles to Washington Island (The Inn at Jackson Harbor) for 5 days to spend our last bit of the Loop in a remote location, just relaxing. This couldn't have been a better spot for us to do that. We enjoyed dinghy rides to Rock Island, walking the island, going for a freshwater swim with my husband and no crocket. We were one of only 3 boats here, just how we like it! There is no water here (it's well water, we do not fill our tanks with that), so we have to conserve our water intake (or is it really out-take?). Washing dishes, showers and drinking water all come from our tanks. So, the lake provided some of the showers and the bottled water we have had on board was being used. I also let the dishes pile up a bit, which is hard for me to do, and would do a very controlled mass washing.

We see land!

The beautiful bluffs of Rock Island, look close you can see the lighthouse

Rock Island Lighthouse from land

F/V Seediver, M/V Lady Sam and M/V Jammin Jane, the green roof building in the background is a soup/sandwich shop new this year.

We stayed at the north end of the island putting us about 8 miles from town. We knew this and came totally prepared to be self contained but we lucked out tremendously. The owner of KK Fiske Restaurant let us borrow his truck for several days. We of course used the vehicle to dine at his establishment. We enjoyed eating the fresh Lawyer (burbit) and whitefish that Ken (owner of KK Fiske) caught hours before we were eating it. Even better is that Ken has his fishing vessel, Seediver, docked at the marina we were at. We loved meeting him on the dock and drooling over his fresh catch each day. Ben learned how to properly clean Lawyer and tips on catching our favorite fish from the Great Lakes...Lawyer is a white fish that prepared properly resembles lobster. It is delicious!

Crocket fishing

We woke up early to see this beautiful sunrise

And went to sleep with this gorgeous sunset

We were blessed to have our friend Max come to visit with our buddy Steve. It was a surprise to see Steve and he wins as the most seen friend along the Loop!!! We saw him in Sturgeon Bay, Milwaukee, Naples and now Washington Island...although Max wins for duration of time visited!! 

Max is here! This is Lady Sam, a Tiara 42 Open...she's beautiful and fast!

Max, playing host with some Moscow Mules...YUM!

Never leave your phone alone with these guys around

Breakfast of champions...bacon, eggs and bagels

Boys heading to Rock Island

Testing out the chair 

Looks like the hammock sucked in another!

Five days on this gorgeous island and it felt like two! 

OH MY GOSH!!! WE HEAD TO OUR HOME PORT NEXT!!!!

Hanging in Northport

The views of the lake are spectacular! We are blessed to have this water in our backyard!

Three days in Northport, MI was spent at the farmers market, enjoying live music in the park, eating yummy pizza, shopping, visiting with a friend who completed the Loop at the age of 24 and getting the best tour of the area. We did not run into any Loopers boats while here but we did meet a couple who are preparing to depart this fall (I'm jealous!). We have been enjoying our time together savoring our last days in some of our favorite places.

Ben and I leave here and make our way across Lake Michigan and park ourselves for a few days before heading to our home port (oh my! I don't want the trip to end!).

Ben and Crocket standing by the lovely Louise that our friend Jesse and Katie completed the Great Loop in a few years ago.  

We had a blast sharing stories and catching up! Jesse has a blog that we followed before we started our adventure, we felt honored to meet such an awesome Looper chick and blessed to be friends!! Check out her amazing blog: https://katieandjessieonaboat.com

Jesse's dad took us on an amazing tour of Northport...the views did not disappoint!!! 

Concert in the park, complete with great people watching!

How lucky am I? Pizza right across the parking lot! Thin crust even! 

Northport marina C-dock, we are docked here and it is hard to believe we were here a year ago just starting our trip...time flies and man do I want to do this again!!!