Tuesday, June 26, 2012 - We made it!

Jennifer, Deb, Karen, Gary, Brad and Joe celebrate the completion
of Sea Catcher's great American adventure

Well, it was a lot of work getting ready and it took a long time to complete the trip. We will now reflect on it for a while. We had some great experiences and some not so great experiences. The good far exceeds the bad. We had two or three days out of 51 that were pretty miserable and that isn't too bad. I think the new rule is any waves over 1 to 3 feet or any winds over 15 miles an hour and we stay in port. Our last day wasn't one of our worst days, but it was far from one of the best. We started out with almost no wind, but by the time we got into the Burlington Harbor the wind was out of the northwest at 10 or more with gusts to 15. Docking was a one-shot deal. I was glad the owner of the boat next to us stood by with a boat hook. It worked out fine, but it was the second most anxious docking of the entire trip. We were glad we could share the trip with our daughter and some friends. We wish our son, Keenan, could have joined us and we are very thankful that we had no mechanical issues that impeded our trip in any way. We never felt we were in danger. We did feel that two tropical storms before the season was supposed to begin was a little unfair and that March-like winds for over a week off New Jersey wasn't right. Someone at the dock in Burlington told me I was lucky today and I asked him why. I thought he was going to say something about completing the trip or that we didn't have any major problems, but he said I was lucky to be able to do the trip. We do realize we were fortunate to be able to do this trip. Our last trip adventure was going to ReRa's Irish bar for a celebratory Guiness with Deb and Gary whom we met while going through Georgia. They started the loop from Michigan last August and are on their way north to Montreal and beyond. They joined us for a toast with Joe and Jennifer and it was nice way to end the adventure.