Apologies for the lapse in posts. We have been attending the 2016 Looper Rendezvous gathering in Rogersville, AL for the past 4 days.
We have learned so much - kind of scary how much we did not know, but now we do! Almost 300 people - many of whom have already blazed this trail - and so many conversations to understand what is ahead of us.
We met another couple from the Chicago area (our neighbours on the dock), who, like us, have very little boating expertise but lots of enthusiasm! Mary & Scott will be looper friends down the road ... hoping our plans come together in Florida. They are headed to New Orleans and we are headed to Panama City and east.
We are safely tied up in Florence, AL again ... a really nice stop with a courtesy car and just about every store you could need. I am flying home to Canada on Friday, Oct, 21 for a family gathering / baby shower for Orson on the 23rd in Oshawa. So looking forward to this! Eric will stay in Florence with Beau for the week.
We are almost 1/3 of the way around the loop and feeling confident about what we have accomplished and somewhat cautious about the 'unknown' ahead of us (this is not a bad thing). We are very cautious boaters an will not take any chances, so don't worry about us!
We had a Coast Guard representative aboard yesterday to inspect our vessel from a safety perspective and Catan passed with flying colours! The Canadian version of the inspection was much more invasive, so we feel pretty good. Hopefully we will not be boarded by the US Coast Guard given our inspection 'sticker' visible on our port side.
We also heard from many experienced boaters about the entire Florida coast (and Bahamas), so we have some great notes and references to assist. Feeling really good and enjoying a more relaxing tine now that we are on smoother waters! Oh, and it's stilt summer here - LOVING IT!
