A soft rain bathes the Chesapeake today. Gloomy? A bit, but
at least it is warm and we have good foul weather gear.
We sit in the boat thinking about our trip. Today is Day
365! Hard to believe we have been gone for a full year. We spent so long
planning this trip, thinking about it, anticipating every possible detail. It
is not at all anticlimactic. Just disappointing to think we are almost done. By
sometime in the fall we will be home.
We are a bit homesick but we are happy.
Just because we are a little loopy, we put together some
statistics about this trip.
- 365 days away from home leaving from Venetian Marina on July 12, 2012, currently at York River Yacht Haven in Glouster Point, VA on our way to Irvington VA
- Total miles 5772
- Total engine hours 624
- Average speed 9.25 miles per hour
- 4380 gallons of gas at an average price of $4.60 per gallon for a total of $20,190. BTW we budgeted $4 per gallon, silly us
- Dockage $13,445 – many more nights in marinas than other loopers because Rusty can’t handle anchoring out like he might have when he was younger; this translates into $37 per night or about $1 per foot. We budgeted $1.50 per foot per night.
- 37 Locks with a cumulative 457 foot drop and a total of 800 feet up and down
- Preventive maintenance and repairs totaled $14,572, much more than we expected. Notable repairs included:
o
Generator repairs – $1100
o
Spurs $700 – these saved us twice that much
avoiding getting stuck and calling a diver to cut us out, which cost us $650 in
Lake Huron
o
Toilet repairs - $1000; the toilets HAVE to work
right! Salt water in a big problem for toilets. Ideally we will install two 10
gallon fresh water tanks to flush toilets so we don’t have salt water in the
toilet systems. This avoids bad smells and corrosion.
o
Windlass repair - $300
o
Rail repairs from our infamous rail damage in
St. Charles MO - $3000; this one was just carelessness. We won’t do that again
o
3 oil changes
o
3 fuel filter changes
o
New belts and impellers twice
o
1 tune up
o
1 Haul out and clean bottom
o
1 diver to cut us out of fishnets in Lake Huron
Katherine never made it into the dinghy... so far!! No major fights - we are as shocked as anyone - and we never got lost.
Overall we are very pleased with this trip. Everyone should
do it at least once. In fact, as we prepared this info, we got very nostalgic. We missed so much that we need to
do it again!
Status update about the trip home: Lock #12 on the Erie
Canal is still messed up from the rains and flooding. We hear there are about
50 loopers stuck at the start of the Erie Canal. Some decided to go up to St.
Laurence Seaway to go around the Erie Canal. There are probably an equal number
of loopers handing out in the Chesapeake. No sense moving up there till we know
the lock will open. Mother Nature is
trying her best to stop us from going home! We will see.
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