We cruised over on Saturday the 8th. Catching the tide and the fast current in the C&D canal got us there at 11:30 in the morning.

We ate fair food for dinner, with an emphasis on all things fried. It was a nice night and with the earlier sunset fireworks started at 7PM (much, much earlier than the 9:15 start in July.

As usual it was an amazing show. We had seats about a block from the launch point, so we could feel the big thumps as the larger shells rocketed skyward.

Breakfast on Sunday was at Sunday’s 64 Cafe. Its our goto place for Breakfast in Delaware City. It’s is fine southern cooking at it’s best. I normally get the savory waffle covered with sausage gravy. I’ve had the shrimp and grits which is also amazing. You can’t finish one of the breakfasts, so plan on eating it the next day.

We took off after breakfast, clearing the buoy at the branch canal about 11 AM. A very uneventful ride down the C&D. While the winds were about 15, being sheltered in the canal made it an easy transit. The last mile down the Bohemia was a little bumpy, but still an easy ride.

Looking forward to next years trip!

This year the 4th of July fell on a Tuesday so there was lots of opportunities to see fireworks.

We got the Granddaughter on Friday to have her for Friday and Saturday. As always it’s fun to do stuff with her like Lego (we have both the Duplo and regular Lego, playing with the cars and train.

We went down to our marina on Saturday afternoon where we were met by more of the kids. After a great chicken dinner on the boat we headed out into the Bohemia River to pick our anchorage.

I could see the firework barge along the shore by the winery. We pulled about 500 yards and got set. The kids and granddaughter went for a quick swim to cool off.

After some showers it was time for fireworks. The fire boat pulled up to us and asked us to move upriver about 300′. we did so and the then pushed the barge to where we had been sitting. So we had a front row view of the fireworks.

They were very cool, about a 15 min show. Lots of roman candles (my favorite) and some big star bursts. The show ended and we slowly made our way back to the marina. Everyone was pleased with their first fireworks of the year!

We are in Norfolk at the AGLCA spring rendezvous. If you are thinking about doing the Loop this the rendezvous to attend. There are three full days of activities and seminars covering all aspects of the loop.

Susan and I participated in the “Best Boat for the Loop” panel. We did some slides on how we picked our boat, some pictures and then a few slides on the importance of being able to be able to launch a dink.

In the afternoon we did a dock walk to catch up with some Loopers we had traveled with. It’s always nice to see old friends.

We then walked up Grandby street on a mini-pub crawl.

We stopped at Brick Anchor Brewery and ran into soon to be Loopers that lived in Norfolk, they are starting the loop this June. I had local Virginia beers, Green Flash Le Freak Inperial IPA, Licking Creek Magic Beaver and Angry Clown. Love the beer names.

We went down the block to the Norfolk Big Easy Seafood Company for some oysters. They had seven different kinds at pretty reasonable prices.

Up the street is Tappit Local, a new brewpub. A huge selection of local beers on tap and lots of bottles from all over the US. It was Big Ugly Brewing night, so I sampled the Mercy Killer, Ape Hanger both Russian Imperial Stouts. The bartender recommended the Licking Hole Heir Apparent Stout. Great combination of chocolate flavors.

From there we went to Hells Kitchen. We had awesome wings and steak nachos. It’s a popular place with the after work crowd, but is less busy after 6:30. It has an open kitchen, you can watch the staff make your food. There are a number of TV’s showing past parties and some interesting snark. My favorite was “If I end up in Hell it will take a few days to figure out I’m not still at work”

It was a great day, looking forward to the Wednesday sessions.

We are slowly getting unpacked and setup, but we have 90% of the stuff off of the Quo Vadimus, she is now sitting about 4″ higher in the water. Oh the stuff we took 6,000 miles and didn’t need.

Planning to have Thanksgiving with the family this year. We’ll drink a toast to last years group of Loopers that had dinner on the Apalachicola waterfront in 2014. Only a few that haven’t gotten the Gold flag, but I have Templeton’s here when they come through this area.

So if you are in the Wilmington Delaware area across the winter waiting for boating season, stop by and visit!

Tonight was a day of doing boat chores, Susan making a really cool cloth book for the grand-baby, and waiting for Fed-Ex to come and pick up a package. It was a nice day, the rain last night cooled the day down to the low 70′s. Very nice!!

Dinner was at Katana Japanese Restaurant in North Beach Miami. It’s a tiny “hole-in-the-wall” place. Down the center is a U-shaped serving station that has a water filled moat that has little 18” long boats. Each boat floats by with a different plate of food on it. Choices were different kinds of sushi rolls, steamed and fried dumplings, different sashimi, salads, etc.

You decide what you want and pull the plate off the boat. Each plate has a different color and price associated with it. Some items were hard to tell what they were, but we asked questions and figured things out. We were able to get lots of our favorites.

You can also order off the menu, so we got Pork Tonkatsu and Tempura Veggies. That and 8 different kinds of sushi and dumplings came to $40. It was a lot of fun and we had a great time. I was glad Susan made us get there when they opened, we found great seats next to the sushi chef and was entertained by how fast he could make rolls. The rest of the seats filled quickly and when we left there was a wait outside.

Sitting next to Susan was a young couple. When the woman got up I noticed the man hand the waiter a small box. In a few minutes she came back and a moment later a diamond ring in a box went floating past us. He says “Do you see anything else?” She looks at the boats, sees the ring and her mouth drops open. He pulls the plate off, snags the ring and proposed to her. It was a very magical and romantic moment. And she did say yes!

March is the start of the Looper season. We are at here at Mangrove Marina at Tavernier Florida. For awhile we’ve been the only loopers, in the last two weeks we’ve seen loopers heading from either Key West or Marathon northward. Some of the Loopers from the Western part of Florida are starting to come down and around.

Last week our friends on Serenity were here and tonight the crew of Midas’s Touch arrived for day to resupply.

Our friends on Lake Effect have gone for a few days to see some more of Florida and they will be back to head north.

We will also soon be on our way, this weekend will be the equinox so there will be more daylight than dark, that will make travel easier.

I’ve noticed that the winds are dropping and they weather is starting to get warmer here in Florida. There is snow coming for the Upper Bay this weekend, so there isn’t a need to hurry.

We are starting to pick up on our projects to get the Quo Vadimus back into sailing trim.

I have a pretty good collection of links back to the Army Corps of Engineer sites to track the locks down the middle of the county.

My favorite is this one: http://corpslocks.usace.army.mil/lpwb/f?p=121:4:0:::::

The ACoE Lock Performance System Montoring. It allows you to select what river system you want to look at. It then returns the current status of the lock. Sometimes there are additional comments by the lock master on the wall or gate status, or even a holiday greeting.

And sometimes there are pictures!! While many of us have been or will be through the locks during nicer weather, here is some pictures of locks across the middle of winter. Even though we are waiting out winter, the tows are still moving goods up and down the rivers. I’m sure crunching through the ice makes for an interesting ride.

O’Brien Lock

Upper

Lower

Lockport Lock

Upper

Lower

Dresden

Upper

Marseille

Canal view

Starved Rock

Upper

Lower

Peoria

Peroria Dam

Peroria Upper

People ask me why do the loop. I respond “It’s for the people” We’ve met my Bayliner friends (Hi Terry and Doug) who helped us out of rough places and treated us to great diners. Loopers too many to name. Random town or dock people like the Dockmaster that turned a blind eye to our 4 day stay in Fenelen Falls ON. Or like Pierre that gave us his three favorite fishing spots (and we caught lots in them!) Or like the Tow driver that gave me a tour of their boat.

The last 24 hours is a prime example. We got driven into Clearwater by a guy I met in Peoria, IL just because we were both loopers. We hooked up with two sets of crews on the Pier 60 boardwalk and had happy hour together. We were joined by a person that I worked with for 8 years back in the late 90′s She was one of my first employees and we worked together at 3 different companies. Back to the past to catch up and blast to the future to hear plans.

Dinner tonight was with one of Susan’s friends from 20 years ago and her husband. They brought Stone Crab Claws, Shrimp, Salad, fresh bread and drinks. And suddenly we were back in the past, and then in the future, and it was a great time.

Boating is nice, but the people are the best!

We both slept well, we had a king sized bed, that keeps us from waking each other up with our alleged snoring. Continental breakfast was at the hotel. They had raisin bread which was a treat for me.

First stop today was the post office. We had borrowed a guide book from the crew of Reunion and I wanted to get it returned. I’ve also been lugging around the cruising guide to the North Channel that I had promised to send back to our friends on Katya Looking in Canada. The post office I picked was in the Federal Building. Which means we had to go through a metal detector, etc. to be able to get into the post office. I think I would have cut a new door into the Post Office part to save the hassle.

From there we walked to the French Quarter, our destination Cafe DuMonde. When we got there we saw a huge line of people waiting to get in for beignets, and a longer “to-go line. We decided to pass, we would go on Tuesday.

We continued on into the French Market with a ton of little stores and galleries. Lots and lots of tourists looking for things to take home. Past the stores is a flea market where vendors have stalls that they sell out of. Almost anything with New Orleans on it could be purchased. Since we are touring and will be touring more in Florida I picked up a new belt pack. It even has a place for a bottle of water!

Walking away from the river we went to the St. Louis Cathedral, the oldest in the city. It is very beautiful inside with lots of stained glass and ornate sculptures.

From the Cathedral it was time to walk the famed Bourbon Street! It was just like the pictures, bar after bar for blocks and blocks. The pictures don’t really show how narrow the streets are. It’s a one way street, with not a lot of room to park on one side. The streets were semi-crowded, and almost everyone but us had a drink “to-go”.

One of the things to eat is a muffalato, a sandwich with ham, salami and cheese. What makes it special is the olive salad and the bread. The place to go is the Central Market, but they are closed on Monday’s. So the second best place is Napoleon’s. We met the crew of Mara Beel and had muffalatos for lunch. Very good, very tasty!

After lunch the two boat crews split off and we headed for Arnaud’s to see the collection of Mardi Gras costumes. Arnaud’s is a famous restaurant that has the exhibition in the back. But they are closed on Monday’s, so we missed out. Or maybe not.

Susan had seen a sign for Mardi Gras World, she called the shuttle and they came and picked us up. The driver had a cajun accent, luckily we had spent time with the captain of Moondance so we could understand him. He gave us a short tour of the area and suggested more places to go.

Mardi Gras is HUGE in New Orleans. Because of the number of Krewes that have floats and the number of floats there are 5 different parade routes in the city. In the 12 days before Fat Tuesday there is a parade every day on every parade route. Each krewe fields 14 or more floats for their parade.

The Blaine Kern Company makes floats for 12 of the krewes. They have almost two dozen warehouses across the city. They give tours of their design, sculpture and painting center. They call it Mardi Gras World and it is something to see. (www.mardigrasworld.com)

The first part of the tour is a chance to try on costumes and get your picture taken with some of their sculpture. (Think of getting dressed up for the Renfaire). Susan was purple and gold and mine has silver with a red cross on the front. We got some great pictures, and yes of course there were hats involved!

They show a movie that explains the history of Mardi Gras and how it has grown across the years. Surprisingly the major cost of a float isn’t the basic infrastructure ($20-40,000) or the cost of renting the decorations ($8-12,000) but the beads, doubloons, stuffed animals, cups, etc. that get thrown to the crowd. A single float will toss over 4,000 lbs of beads out.

After the movie we get slices of King Cake and go on tour. The sculptures are made of sheets of Styrofoam that are cut with knives and animal curry combs. The foam is then covered with a layer of paper mache to give a smooth paintable surface. Paint is a latex paint for the base white and the colors, then a clear coat to give it a shiny surface.

The reason the decorations are rented is that Kern removes, stores and then reuses the larger objects when possible. We saw an example of a head from a few years ago that had a “Napoleon Hat” added for a naval themed float for this year. The warehouse we were in had one krewes worth of floats under construction and thousands of decorations from prior years. It was really amazing. When the official tour is over, they let you wander through the warehouse. I could write pages about everything we saw, take a look at the pictures.

After all of that we were pretty beat, so we took the trolly back to the room and rested for 90 minutes. Then it was back to the French Quarter to “Irene’s”. On the trolly we caught up with the crew of Mara Beel our dinner companions.

“Irene’s” was a suggestion from one of Susan’s co-workers that lives in the area. It was an excellent choice. All four meals were great. Susan had escargot stuffed mushroom caps and soft shelled crabs papardelle. I had lasagna which had layers of sausage and veal parmesan with a bolognese sauce.

After dinner Susan and I walked down to Frenchmans street and the Maison Jazz Restaurant. There was a combo (drums, guitar, trombone, trumpet, soprano sax) that played old style New Orleans Jazz. We managed to get a table front center so we had a great view. We stayed for their first set and called it a night.

Rather than walk to the trolley, we opted for a $10 cab ride. We were back in our room just before Looper Midnight. Our second day in the Big Easy was a great success.

Hoping that I’ll run into them on the loop!