Underway for Great Loop #2

Here we are, April 19th 2011 and the Great Loop #2 has offically begun.  We left Green Cove Springs on Saturday and took two days to make it to Hooper's Island on the eastern shore of Maryland where GREAT ESCAPE spent the winter.  The boat looked very good for being out of the water for 6 months. It is amazing how much "stuff" we move each time we leave or go back to the boat.  Just look at the back of the SUV.

    The boat was launched on Monday, April 18th.  As you can see from the picture below, GREAT ESCAPE takes up most of the sling on the travel hoist.

    This morning, with an early underway, we made the 64 nm trip from Hooper's Is. to Pier 7 Marina in Edgewater MD on the western shore (just south of Annapolis) where we will spend a couple of weeks outfitting and doing some last minute maintenance.

February 23, 2011

Today is Day One for establishment of our blog for the upcoming trip.  Right now Great Escape is "on the hard" (out of the water) at P.L. Jones Marina and Boatyard on Hooper's Island, MD on the Chesapeake Bay.  It's present location is 38^◦19.3N, 076◦ 13.7 W.  This is the latitude we will be using to mark our completion of the loop.

This will be the second time for Great Escape making the loop.  Our 44 ' Gulfstar motor yacht began the first trip April 2007 from Norfolk, VA and finished in May of 2008. 

            Please meet the crew – Teresa is a retired Navy Captain who was raised in a boating family and provides most of the “common sense” along our trip.  Donald is also a retired Navy Captain who spent most of his career beneath the water as a submariner.  Shipmate and Mufasa are our faithful companions - a yellow lab mix and chocolate lab who take to the water and boating life as if it were second nature.

            We will continue our posting in mid-April when we return to the Chesapeake, launch Great Escape and start to outfit her for the Loop.