Captain's Log

Skinwalker Log, Friday, February 15, 2008

This is the first cruising log of 2008.

We are moored on Turkey Creek off the Caloosahatchie, at Ortona, Florida.

Here’s a pause that follows, a toast to my companion, my friend, my lover. A cup raised in admiration and pride offered with respect to Capt’n Lynnie. Exciting she is. I am an extremely lucky man.

I have a woman at my side that validates my existence, fertilizes my imagination, acknowledges the architecture of my dreams and transcribes them into the practical bricks and mortar plans of our life in the real world with hardly a whimper and never a bang. She paves the road between my dreams and our life that each of us enjoys so much. Lynn. This Bud’s for you.

We have been clearing our annual list of chores aboard and ashore. In the next couple of weeks we will haul the boat for cutlass bearing replacement, running gear inspection and repair as needed; align the new transmission & engine with the shaft, slap on some bottom paint, splash the boat and head north. In between there are still another 387 issues to deal with, tasks great and small to complete.
We have been drawing some serious cruising plans. We share with you now where our thoughts have flowed and current direction we have taken.
Our intent was to loop again this year and, when arriving back to Florida in December, outfit & re-provision then climb aboard for two thousand miles of passages south:

Turks & Caicos, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Virgins and the rest of the Caribbean down to Venezuela. From there our intent was to explore the various islands and rivers of Venezuela, Columbia and the countries of Central America including Guatemala and the Rio Dulce.

Upon review, we felt that was pushing, with not enough time to properly outfit before jumping off and further the short time interval and amount of work was mentally unsettling. We could do short cruises this year and have time to ready ourselves, but we have this lingering, unfinished tasty fruit of doing the loop again, tempting us. It feels right to pluck that fruit for several reasons. So as of now our plans included:

March - depart to loop again this year.
June - arrive Waterford New York.
July - Celebrate Canadian & American independence days on the Trent-Severn
August - Take Michigan in hand
September - Enjoy the offerings of Chicago
October - bask in the changing beauty of the Tennessee River
December - Settle into the casual living of the Florida Keys for the winter. During this time review our Caribbean, South and Central American options.
March 2009 - enjoy the gunk holes of the Bahamas starting in Georgetown of the Exuma Chain and working our way north through the Abacos.
July 2009 - spend July at a Marina in Washington, DC enjoying the wonders of our nation’s capital.
August 2009 explore the pearls of the Chesapeake

During this period we can adjust mentally, outfit and generally prepare for whatever we decide to do about cruising the Caribbean and further south. Gosh, there is the Panama Canal, the west coast of South, Central & North America and a whole world beyond awaiting our exploration.

Our ship handling & cruising skills are growing stronger, our confidence expanding, our understanding of weather’s delights and danger more intuitive, our fears reined in hand, our excitement tempered with caution and our knowledge of Skinwalker’s systems vastly improved.

Dear friends, the adventure continues...

Skinwalker & Capt’n Lynnie