We did it! We started the Loop. We left our home dock in Panama City early morning of December 17th and headed east on the ICW. As we pulled out of our slip, we saw another Loop boat just behind us. They reached out to us on the Nebo app, which is an app that allows you to share your location and see the location of others, and to chat with other boaters who are on the app. Nebo is used extensively by loopers to connect with other loopers (docktales anyone? Any thoughts on a nearby anchorage? What are fuel prices at the upcoming marina?) and we expect it will be a valuable tool as we make our way on this journey. AGLCA members are specially identified on the app by an AGLCA flag icon appearing beside the boat name, so you can see if there are other loopers in your vicinity. These loopers were Gold Loopers, meaning they have already completed the Loop twice (!), and it was neat to connect and trade information with them — we had local knowledge, and they offered tips learned from their years of experience.
We originally planned to go to Point South Marina at Port St. Joe and enjoy dinner at Provisions, one of our favorite restaurants, with plans the next day to make our way to Apalachicola. After checking the weather again (the rule on a boat is to check, and then check again, and then while you are underway check yet again), we saw that it was going to rain all day on the 18th, so we decided to push on directly to Apalachicola to avoid a wet ride the following day. Turned out to be a fantastic decision (plus one for Captain George). We are tied up snuggly at Apalachicola Marina (formerly the docks at Apalachicola Ice Company) and it started raining steadily in the wee hours of the morning and hasn’t let up since. We know there will be days where we will end up traveling in soggy, miserable weather, but it is so nice to not start the trip that way.
During the ride from Panama City to Apalachicola, we were treated to dolphins. Huge pods in East Bay came to play in our wake, and we even had some jump and flip for us in the Apalachicola River (in dozens of prior trips along this stretch of ICW we have never seen dolphins in the river). A real treat were the seven or eight bald eagles that we spotted swooping over the river and checking us out as we motored by. When we reached Lake Wimico (about halfway into the day’s journey), it was dotted with thousands of cormorants, most perched on branches protruding from the water; a reminder of just how shallow Lake Wimico is anywhere outside the marked channel.
Chris did not get to fully revel in the spectacular displays of nature, as she spent a good part of the trip on the phone with Garmin customer support trying to figure out why the “navigate to” auto guidance would not engage from our instruments. The mystery is not yet solved, but Garmin has sent us a ten-point troubleshooting guide (oh joy), and we expect that we have a few more lengthy phone calls with Garmin in our future to get to the bottom of the issue (what would this life be without new challenges every day).
Since our Ranger Tug is equipped with tools that would allow a small child to dock the boat (twin pod drives with joystick driving, docking mode, and Dynamic Position Stabilization) Chris eased us into the dock at Apalachicola just before sundown. Fortunately, we were wearing our “marriage saver” headsets, so Chris was able to hear in real time everything George thought she was doing wrong. George promptly announced that he was ready for bourbon. In theory he says that he is happy give up the controls and be the boat boy, but the reality has not quite aligned with theory; hopefully it will as we both get more accustomed to our new roles. Fortunately, we brought along the custom-made bourbon Advent Calendar that our son-in-law recently gifted to George, and so he was all set.
We walked a few blocks into town and enjoyed a lovely meal at The Owl Café and were back to the boat and in bed asleep by eight o’clock (eastern time, even though we started the day in Panama City central time and it was only seven o’clock there – oh well, big changes are stressful, even good ones).
When I was talking with a friend about using this blog to preserve memories of this great adventure, she suggested that it might be interesting to keep a list of the many things we learn along the way. In that spirit, I mention a few things we learned on our very first day: 1. After a boat air-conditioning repairman works on the boat, check to make sure that he reopened seacocks that he may have closed while working – especially since the seacock that allows water intake to supply the AC is the same one that supplies water to flush our toilets. 2. If you are going to get up in the middle of the night to secure the bow pennant that is flapping in the wind, give your wife a heads up since stomping all over the boat in the dead of night is going to suddenly, simultaneously, and loudly set off all the many security alarms and cameras that you recently installed to make her feel safe. Cheers to many more lessons, and to adventures to come!
We made a short video with some highlights from our Day One: