Trip of a Lifetime: America’s Great Loop

By David Kennedy Barnes and Anna Marie Barnes

David Kennedy Barnes and Anna Marie Barnes were seeking a little adventure. Anna Marie thought an RV would fit the bill. David wanted a boat. In December of 2003, the couple purchased a three-year-old, forty-nine-foot DeFever trawler yacht. They learned to operate the vessel, navigate, and read maps. And the following April, the couple left their slip in Palmetto, Florida, with their two poodles on board to begin their cruise of the “Great Circle.”

In Trip of a Lifetime, David and Anna Marie share their story through a series of journal entries created during their sailing trip. With photos included, this travel log, initially written as emails to friends and family, chronicles some of the highlights of their experiences. From weather-related incidents, to the sights and sounds from their cruise, and the people they met on the journey, this story offers insight into a trip that afforded many memories.

A journey that took them from Florida to New York City into Canada, to Lake Michigan, to the Mississippi River, into the Gulf of Mexico, and to points in between, Trip of a Lifetime narrates the details of one couple’s adventures on their boat, Summer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Nov 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9781480881211

David Kennedy Barnes

David Kennedy Barnes worked many years as an attorney. After a heart attack at the age of forty-nine, he left his practice. He purchased and managed small strip mall properties. With his wife, Anna Marie Barnes, he embarked on a boat trip of the Great Circle.

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Copyright © 2019 David Kennedy Barnes.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-8120-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-8121-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019910614

Archway Publishing rev. date: 09/30/2019

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Contents

April 9, 2003 Our Boat

April 19, 2003 Cruise Begins

April 26, 2003 The Okeechobee Route

April 30, 2003 North on the ICW

May 1, 2003 Last Days in Florida

May 3, 2003 Georgia on Our Minds

May 9, 2003 Hilton Head to Charleston

May 11, 2003 Charleston & Georgetown

May 14, 2003 Leaving South Carolina

May 23, 2003 Bald Head Island

May 24, 2003 In the middle of North Carolina

May 28, 2003 Stuck in Beaufort

May 30, 2003 More about Beaufort

June 2, 2003 Finally out of North Carolina

June 3, 2003 Into Virginia

June 25, 2003 Beginning the Chesapeake

June 30, 2003 Crossing the Chesapeake

July 5, 2003 Three Bay Towns

July 13, 2003 Our Route

July 15, 2003 Annapolis

July 21, 2003 Last days in the Chesapeake

July 29, 2003 New Jersey

August 1, 2003 New York City

August 23, 2003 Locking through the Erie Canal

August 26, 2003 Two Days on the Erie Canal

August 28, 2003 Last days in the New York canals

September 2, 2003 Lake Ontario

September 6, 2003 Some extra Kingston pictures

September 7, 2003 The Trent-Severn Waterway

September 10, 2003 Peterborough Lift Dock

September 12, 2003 Peterborough to Orillia

September 14, 2003 More Trent-Severn pictures

September 16, 2003 Even more extra Trent-Severn pictures

September 17, 2003 The Marine Railway

September 22, 2003 The Georgian Bay

September 27, 2003 Our Route

October 2, 2003 The North Channel

October 5, 2003 Northern Lake Michigan

October 11, 2003 Southern Lake Michigan

October 17, 2003 Chicago to Joliet

October 20, 2003 End of Illinois River

October 26, 2003 Mississippi River

November 11, 2003 Into Kentucky

November 11, 2003 Our Route

November 18, 2003 Tennessee

November 27, 2003 Through the Mississippi into Alabama

December 21, 2003 Onto Mobile Bay

December 22, 2003 Our Route

December 27, 2003 The Gulf Coast

January 3, 2004 Florida’s Big Bend

January 4, 2004 Summer Completes the Loop!

April 9, 2003

OUR BOAT

Many people have been asking about our new boat so I thought I would send this message and bring everyone up to date. We bought a used (three year old) 49 ft DeFever. The DeFever is a trawler yacht, a boat designed to travel at displacement speed (a displacement boat will not go up on plane, i.e. lift the front end out of the water a high speed) with trawler-like styling. Our boat cruises at 8 knots (9.2 mph). We have two staterooms, a galley, a salon, a spacious aft deck, a flybridge and a cockpit.

The first picture shows Zelda and Zedlynn on the foredeck with Ray King at the side door.

We took possession of the boat on December 20 in Cambridge, MD. Cambridge is located on the Choptank River near the Chesapeake Bay. After provisioning the boat, Sue and I went first to Oxford and then to Solomon’s Island, going south on the Chesapeake. The third day we crossed the mouth of the Potomac River and spent the night at Smith Point, near Reedville VA.

Getting into the marina at Smith Point was difficult because of confusing markers and shallow water (and my inexperience) and we went aground for the first time. However, after a short struggle, we were able to get off the bottom and made it in to the marina. The marina owner and his wife took Sue and I to dinner in Reedville and afterward we had coffee and cookies in front of their Christmas tree. It was very nice of them.

The fourth day we went to Gloucester Point VA, a small town on the York River across from the historic city of Yorktown. I misjudged the distance up the river from the Chesapeake and came into the marina after dark, finding the markers by flashlight. It worked and we docked without incident. It was a good learning experience.

The second picture is another view of the boat.

The fifth and last day of this segment of our trip, we went from the York River to Norfolk VA. It was a very rainy, windy day with reduced visibility. A very rough trip on Christmas eve. We spent Christmas on the boat in Norfolk harbor and ate Christmas dinner at a nearby restaurant. The next day we rented a car and drove back to Cambridge where Sue’s van was parked. She drove to Michigan and I went to visit family on the east coast.

A couple of days later I returned to the boat in Norfolk with my son Chris. We traveled south on the intracoastal waterway (ICW). The trip from Norfolk to Great Bridge VA was very interesting with several bridges opening for us and a lot of tugboats and commercial traffic. At Great Bridge we went through our first lock. It was easy. We spent the night at a marina near Coinjock NC. The next night we stayed at Bellhaven NC and the third day we went to Morehead City where we spent New Year’s Eve. Chris went out while I, being the old man, went to bed before midnight. The next day we rented a car and Chris flew home from Wilmington NC and I drove to Florida.

On the third day of the trip with Chris we had a small school of dolphins swim along side the boat for several minutes. They were incredibly close and turned to look at us as they swam. It was great!

The third picture is Chris on the foredeck in Bellhaven NC.

Sue and I stayed in Florida until January 12. On that day, joined by our brother in law, Ray King, we drove with the dogs back to Morehead City to continue the trip. We had many interesting experiences as we went south in the ICW. We stayed at places like Surf City NC, North Myrtle Beach Yacht Club in Little River SC, Bohicket Creek SC and Savannah GA.

At Beaufort SC we were joined by my brother John who spent the night and then traveled with us to Savannah where we stayed at the Delegal Marina at the Landings on Skidaway Island, less than half a mile from John’s home. To get into Delegal we had to wait at the mouth of the creek for a couple of hours during the rising tide until it was deep enough for us to get into the marina. We had a good time visiting with John, Louise and their children.

Continuing down the ICW, some of the places we stayed were St. Simons Island GA, St. Augustine, Melbourne, Stuart and Palm Beach FL. The last 45 miles to Ft. Lauderdale we went out into the ocean and traveled a mile and a half to two miles offshore on a beautiful, sunny day. It was wonderful, especially considering the very cold weather we had been experiencing.

We spent five days in Ft. Lauderdale attending the DeFever Rendezvous which took place on Pier 66 from January 26 through 31. It was very interesting and worthwhile. On the last day, Ray King left and we were joined by Paul and Laura Martin. We were very grateful to have had Ray with us. He was very helpful solving some mechanical problems we encountered and taught me a lot.

With Paul and Laura we went north on the ICW to the mouth of the St. Lucie River where we turned west into the Okeechobee section of the ICW. The Okeechobee waterway goes across Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee Canal and then the Caloosahatchee River to Ft. Myers on the west coast of Florida. We went through five locks (necessary because Lake Okeechobee is about 15 feet higher than the sea level ICW). At LaBelle FL we anchored out in the canal for the night, our first anchoring experience. It was easy and a very peaceful night.

After four days we reached Ft. Myers where the Martins left us. Sue and I then spent two days going north on the west coast ICW to the Manatee River, near our home in Florida. We took the boat to the Cut’s Edge Marina in Palmetto FL to have the bottom painted. We had to wait for a high tide and went through several very shallow places getting in to Cut’s Edge. We made it and the last picture is the boat with the new bottom.

The next month the boat was at Riviera Dunes Marina. We have gone cruisng again and are going to issue periodic reports by email. I’ll put you on the list.

Dave Barnes

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Our Boat

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April 19, 2003

CRUISE BEGINS

As many of you know, we have decided to try and cruise the Great Circle route (also called the Great Loop): Starting on