Days 26 and 27 - Joe who? — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 0, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $50 each day, daily high temperature Friday 74*F, Saturday 63*F.

Days three and four of the AGLCA Rendezvous

The Looper Crawl was an amazing event. Fellow Loopers open up their boats for all to see. The type of boats range from an Azumit 62 and Beneteau Swift 52 to an SC 30. The Beneteau is for sale for $890,000. Let me know if you are interested and I will broker the deal for you. The SC 30 is a motor catamaran built in Poland and powered by twin 50 hp outboards.

Look at the different types of boat doing the Loop. This is an MC 30 from Poland.

Another small Looper boat with twin 250 hp engines

The other end of the Looper boat spectrum – Beneteau Swift Trawler 52

The seminars continued today with details on cruising from Tarpons Springs to Key West, Key to Fernandina Beach and crossing the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. Lots of local knowledge shared on where to anchor and the best marinas. There is also local knowledge shared regarding navigational hazards along the way.

At dinner tonight the prospective Loopers were invited to tell their stories. It was fun trying to predict which couples would actually end up doing the loop. We used the body language of the spouse as an indicator. If the spouse stood apart from her husband as he spoke and had her arms crossed and looked down, we gave them a low percentage of success. If the couple was standing close together, have already bought a boat and sold their house they got a high probability of success. Some Looper planners have been attending the rendezvous for five years or more.

Florida Keys Disease – several the Loopers warned us against catching the Florida Keys Disease. It can best be described by the following discourse between husband and wife. Wife to husband ” what are you going accomplish today.” Husband – “nothing.” Wife – “that’s what you did yesterday.” Husband – “yes, but I didn’t finish.”

Several boats are leaving the Rendezvous a day early to beat the rush to the locks on Sunday. Our friends George and Sue Newell on Quiet Time IV the Azumit 62 need to be in Mobile in 8 days to meet a friend that is flying in to meet them. George had the radiator business that he sold to his CFO. They will be in Key West over New Years so we will see them again. Their friend is also going to help finish the installation of their new electronics.

There was a “guys only” session to discuss whatever guys want to talk about. This included topics such as how often should oil be changed. Answer – it depends 100 – 250 hours. How can you remove the tannin stain mustache from the bow of the boat? Buy a quart of lemon juice at the Dollar Store and spray it on. When do you use Securite vs Pan Pan for VHF radio transmissions? Securite is the lowest level announcement for general information such as announcing you are entering a narrow channel.

When a marine radio transmission begins with the phrase “Sécurité, sécurité, sécurité” (French: sécurité), it means that what follows is important safety information. The most common use of this is by coast guard radio stations before the broadcast of navigational warnings and meteorological information.

After the awards banquet there was a gathering of Looper musicians. There was a hammered dulcimer, Autoharp, key boards, three guitars and two ukuleles. We sang Amazing Grace, Down by the Riverside and few more gospel favorites. Priscilla and I slipped in the Bob Dylan song Don’t Think Twice when they were switching between the hammered dulcimer to the Autoharp.

We have been staying at Joe Wheeler State Park after we locked through the Joe Wheeler Lock at the Joe Wheeler dam. Did you at all wonder who is this Joe Wheeler?
Joseph Wheeler (September 10, 1836 – January 25, 1906) was an American military commander and politician. He has the rare distinction of serving as a general during wartime for two opposing forces: first as a noted cavalry general in the Confederate States Army in the 1860s during the American Civil War, and later as a general in the United States Army during both the Spanish–American War and Philippine–American War near the turn of the twentieth century. For much of the Civil War he served as the senior cavalry general in the Army of Tennessee and fought in most of its battles in the Western Theater.

Between the Civil War and the Spanish–American War, Wheeler served multiple terms as a United States Representative from the state of Alabama.

General Joseph Wheeler

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.
“And after two days in civilization we realized we could never stay for long and started to plan our next adventure.”
– Bob Bitchin (Letters from the Lost Soul)