Summary - Waiting in Cincinnati/stats

We managed to get everything unpacked and made a trip to Kroger.  We were actually able to get most everything except for toilet paper.  I still don't understand why everyone is using the bathroom more due to the threat of Covid19.  Maybe it is just scaring the shit out of everybody.  We also decided to try to go to Costco, but when we saw the hour plus wait to get into the store, we decided it was not worth it.

On Saturday, we went to Washington Marina to check out Matt and Sarah's new boat.  Ran into Dave and Leeanne Brill and ended up having a few beers and a cigar.  We were not on the water, but we were on a boat.  Tony came by later for dinner and dropped Port off.  Port did not seem too excited so see us, but appears that he has settled back into his routine quickly.

So I thought that I would take some time and summarize our trip thus far.  We are thinking of it in 2 segments.

Segment One - 09/11/19 to 11/22/19
Cincinnati, Ohio to Punta Gorda Isles, Florida
Total days on boat - 76
Travel days - 40
Total miles - 2274
Total engine hours - 210
Total gallons of diesel - 2809
Average fuel consumption - .81mpg

• Ohio River - 450 miles
• Cumberland River - 35 miles
• Tennessee River - 688 miles (side trip to Chattanooga)
• Kentucky Lake
• Pickwick Lake
• Wilson Lake
• Wheeler Lake
• Guntersville Lake
• Nickajack Lake
• Chattanooga
• Back to Pickwick Lake
• Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway - 116 miles
• Tombigbee River - 117 miles
• Lower Black Warrior River - 198 miles
• Mobile River - 33 miles
• Mobile Bay - 47miles
• Intracoastal Waterway - 233 miles
• Orange Beach, AL
• Ft Walton - 63 miles
• San Destin  - 19 miles
• Panama City - 55 miles
• Carrabelle - 96 miles
• Tarpon Springs (Gulf Crossing) -170 miles
• St Petersburg (Tampa Bay) - 55 miles
• Bradenton (Manatee River) - 19 miles
• Sarasota (ICW) - 30 miles
• Venice (ICW) - 17 miles
• Punta Gorda (Charlotte Harbor) - 50 miles

Segment Two - 02/12/20 to 03/31/20
Punta Gorda Isles, Florida to Florida Keys to Bahamas, to Vero Beach, Florida

Total days on boat - 44
Travel days - 14
Total miles - 1025
Total engine hours - 70
Total gallons of diesel - 1573
Average fuel consumption - .65mpg

• Punta Gorda, FL (Charlotte Harbor)
• Ft Myers Beach (ICW) - 54 miles
• Marco Island (Gulf of Mexico) - 41 miles
• Key West (Gulf) - 105 miles
• Marathon (Atlantic Ocean) - 58 miles
• Key Largo (Atlantic) - 66 miles
• Bimini Bahamas - 87 miles
• Berry Islands - 100 miles
• Nassau Islands - 54 miles
• Exuma Islands - 38 miles
• Eleuthera Islands (Governors Harbor) -  61 miles
• Eleuthera Islands (Spanish Wells) - 48 miles
• North Palm Beach - 234 miles
• Stuart, FL (St Lucie River) - 34 miles
• Vero Beach, FL (ICW) - 47 miles

Total trip

Total days on boat - 120

Travel days - 54
Total miles - 3299
Total engine hours - 280
Total gallons of diesel - 4382
Average fuel consumption - .75mpg

We have secured a slip at Loggerhead Head Marina (Suntex Marina) in Vero Beach, Florida for the month of April.  I am still planning to drive back down in a couple of weeks to do some maintenance projects on the boat.  We are hoping to restart the trip up the East coast as soon as the marinas, amenities and restaurants open back up.  Not sure when that will be at this point.  We will need to go back down at some point to continue the trip or make alternate plans for the boat during the Hurricane season (July - October).    

Cincinnati, Ohio - Again

Tuesday, March 31st - 1034 miles.

You read the miles correctly, 1034.  It was in a rental car instead of our boat though.  With the state of Florida pretty much shutting down, we decided to rent a car and drive home.  We figured we would have more room and be more comfortable at home instead of just sitting on the boat.  Weather may not be as nice, but the leg room is.  

We had a local driver take us to the Melbourne airport which was about 35 miles north of Vero Beach.  We got lucky again with the rental car from National, getting a Suburban.  Was like driving a small bus, but it had plenty of room for the dinghy mount and Lucy seemed to like roaming around.  We packed and closed the boat up and headed home at 6:30am on Tuesday.  14 1/2 hours later, we pulled into our driveway.  Thanks to everyone we talked to on the way home, it helped pass the time.  For the most part traffic was pretty light.  Most of the rest areas were open and we were able to get McDonald's as well.  Only encountered 1 accident in the mountains that cost us about 15 minutes.  Rest of the time the cruise was set on 82mph.  

The boat's new home for at least the next 30 days.

 Highway leaving Florida

Our plan is to wait this thing out at home and then hopefully continue our trip.  As I said in an earlier post, it is harder to find open marinas, and when you do, the pools, restaurants and towns are all closed.  We will do some "what if" planning based on some projected timing of when things might open back up.  My plan is to still drive back down to the boat in a few weeks to repair the dinghy mount holes where the screws got ripped out, reinstall the modified (reinforced) dinghy mount and replace our salon air conditioner.  I say that this is the plan right now because Florida continues to add restrictions and curfews, so not sure if it will be possible for me to get back to the boat at this point.

For those of you that have been wondering, Cluck Norris is still with us and doing fine.  He did not like some of the rough water that we had to go through though.  He was sad to see us leave but said he would keep an eye on things until we got back.

I have some top line statistics of our trip so far that I will share in my next post.  Not sure how much there will be to talk about over the next few weeks, but at least you can look forward to that.  Hopefully we will be able to see and catch up with family and friends while we are home - from 6 feet away of course.