MILFORD, CT

After a peaceful night anchored in Manhasset Bay we and our boating buddies lifted our hooks and were under way at 0700 hrs.  The weather was cool but otherwise the conditions were near perfect on the waters of Long Island Sound.  Great conditions for the last day of our adventure originating in Padre Island, TX. It was also the last day of our boating buddies journey from Key West. Their destination was Clinton, CT.

We arrived in Milford shortly after noon and were greeted at the dock by several of our friends. A grand welcome home!

We covered nearly 2900 miles @ an average of 8 Miles per hour.  After departing Texas On December 4th, we had 62 days of actually moving the boat.  We spent a month in Ft Myers, three weeks in Ft Lauderdale and numerous weather days along the way but it all added up to a fantastic adventure and a great way to spend the winter months.  Joining the American Great Loop Association and flying the associations pennant opened the doors to meeting other 'loopers' along the way and a fantastic group of people they were from all over the U.S and Canada.  I'd say that the comraderie greatly contributed to the success of our boating adventure. While at this point Sue and I have no intentions of doing the entire loop it was nice participating in the portion from Mobile, AL to New York City.

It seemed to take forever, and very agrivating at times, to get the kinks ironed out in the boat when we first started the journey but overall our North Pacific 43 performed very well in all sea conditions.  The systems on this boat are quite different from our sailboat and sometimes the learning curve seemed steep for both Sue and I.  But here we are safe and sound at home and none the worst for wear.  We are actually looking forward to boating around New England this summer and may ever consider a trip as far as Montreal.

The big reason for pushing so hard toward the end of the trip was to attend Colby's graduation next weekend.  Originally we considered leaving the boat in a marina along the way and renting a car to be in Harrisonburg for the event.  However once we realized we could spend a few days at home before driving to Virginia we began to make our daily jaunts a little longer and skip some of the sightseeing.  We did get a little nervous when we had to spend five days in Portsmouth, VA due to weather but were able to make good time once we were underway again, except for the weather day in Cape May.  Our biggest issue the last two weeks of the trip was the constant winds.  Mother Nature couldn't seem to make up her mind what to due with warm and cold fronts and kept moving them back an forth along the east coast which created the instability.  Actually, condsidering the hellatious weather the rest of the country experienced recently we are thankful that wind was all we had to put up with.

Thanks for following along with this blog.

Our voyage was truly a great adventure.

Regards to all,

Capt John and First Mate Sue