We’re Back!

As many of you know, Sue and I are currently preparing for our next boat adventure. We’re bringing Odyssey to the ocean through the river system, arriving in Mobile, AL. From Mobile, we’ll head to the Florida Keys, provision one last time, and make our jump to The Bahamas. More details to come.

Our long term plan is to winter in The Bahamas on the boat. In spring we’ll come back to the US, haul out the boat, and spend summer at home in Park Ridge. Chicago has perfect summers that we don’t want to miss. Come fall, we’ll head south to prep the boat for another winter in The Bahamas. The only difference between us and other “snow birds” is the boat life.

There are 3 routes to take from the Great Lakes to the ocean: St. Lawrence Seaway, The Erie Canal, The Midwest River System. We’ve done 2 out of the 3 and have decided to do the Midwest River system this time around. Somewhere in Miami, we’ll have completed America’s Great Loop.

To make it down the river system, we had to unstep (take down) our mast. Our options were to carry it aboard like we did on the Erie Canal, or have it shipped to Pensacola. We opted to have it shipped. The Erie Canal was only 10 days, free of boat wakes, and smaller locks. The trip down the river system is much further, has many boat wakes, and larger commercial locks. Certainly more than we wanted to deal with for a month long trip.

We took Odyssey down to Crowley’s boat yard in Chicago to have our mast taken down and packaged for shipping. The reason we made the trek to Crowley’s is they’re very experienced and it’s a pick up location used by the shipping company. We got there the night before and were greeted at 7AM by a team of riggers with a crane ready to take our mast down. They were done by 9AM. By noon the mast, boom, and whisker pole were bubble wrapped, labeled and ready for shipment.

Crowley’s also has a well stocked chandlery (marine store) where I was able to stock up on hard to find items we’ll need.

More to come…