Day 1: September 5, 2012

Underway: 7:25 am         Motor Off: 5:00 pm        Miles Traveled: 34        Stayed At: Anchor

First Things First:  Lots of first’s on the first day of an adventure. The first minor thunderstorm (overnight), the first draw bridge, the first lift bridge, the first swing bridge (all within about the first 10 miles), passing the first upbound tow, getting passed by the first downbound tow, first marine radio call (see Wild Things below), first lock (Lock #2 in St. Paul), first tank of gas, first anchorage (quiet and peaceful night), and first blog post (one of many I hope).

We left the Watergate Marina about 7:25 am on the first day of a one year adventure motor sailing the Great Loop on our 22’ Hunter sailboat – a 6,000+ mile trip by water around the eastern third of the US – down the Mississippi, along the Illinois River, down the Tenn-Tom, along the Gulf Coast, around Florida, up the Intercoastal Waterway to NYC, up the Hudson, west on the Erie Canal, up the Oswego Canal, across Lake Ontario, through the Trent Severn Canal System, along the north shore of Lake Huron (Georgian Bay and North Channel), down Lake Michigan, through Chicago, down the Illinois River and back up the Mississippi. And what did you do on your summer, fall, winter and spring vacation? A long trip but we are trying to take it one day at a time. I will add some links to more information about the Great Loop later.

We had a great send off party at the dock with friends, family and random boat people (hi Carl – thanks for the tips) on Tuesday evening after launching the boat and packing (throwing) piles of essential items onboard. Our daughters, Jess and Sarah, helped design our boat cards, set up our new smart phone, design our web page and complete miscellaneous research projects. Our friends Cliff and Caroline helped (immensely) getting us ready and launched yesterday. Thank you to everyone for all your support, help, good wishes and goodies. We couldn’t do a trip like this without you. We are immensely grateful.

Spent the day learning the rules of the road, watching out for anything we might run into, worrying about everything, waving to friends standing on balconies in St. Paul and even enjoying the amazing scenery a little bit (a lot actually). Also tried to organize the mess but ended up just making enough room to sleep. Everything will find a good place eventually. Stayed at anchor at Lake St. Croix just north of Prescott Wisconsin.

Wild Things: Cliff, our friend who towed our boat to the Watergate, had a boat survey to do in Prescott this morning and happened to be driving over the 494 bridge and saw a small sailboat way downstream and called us on the marine radio (he has one in his truck) – talk about a random event. Took us completely by surprise to hear our boat name – “Aurora, Aurora, this is C-Quest over” – on the radio on our first day on the river. Also saw white egrets, a young eagle learning how to fish, cormorants, and many flocks of hawks riding the thermals.