After some 30,000 miles of liveaboard cruising since that day in 2016 when Dana discovered America’s Great Loop, we’ve hung up our anchor. At least temporarily. Which means no more updates for a while.
For anybody who stumbles upon this site without the time or energy to read 800,000 words worth of blog posts, here’s the summary:
Doug grew up in Tennessee (Go Big Orange). Dana grew up in Texas (Hook ’em Horns). We met during a softball game between our Phoenix firms, and the rest, as they say, is history.
When we began our cruising adventures in 2017, we did so aboard Misty Pearl, a Selene 43 Pilothouse trawler.
We started off with two black dogs, but sadly lost Benny in 2019 and Oscar in 2022. If we believed in such things we’d claim that they’re with us in spirit. Either way, we miss them.
After hoisting our gold burgee to prove we finished The Loop, we kept going until we’d done the Down East Circle as well. Then Covid hit, we sold Misty Pearl, we got vaccinated, we bought a North Pacific 49, renamed her Tumbleweed, and took off again. Tumbleweed carried us back up through Canada, around the Great Lakes, and ultimately to the Pacific Northwest.
Sammy joined the family, so once again a little black dog enjoyed the boating life.
We didn’t start off to be bloggers. Mostly we planned to keep an online diary so our friends and family could follow along without incessantly bugging us for reports. Then a bunch of other people found the site, forcing us to up our game with stuff we hope was at least slightly helpful or entertaining.
Now that our cruising is on hold for a while we’ve made some changes to the site, but the menu still will lead to maps and posts documenting some of the things we’ve done and seen. Wooo!
Hi Guys, I spent a good chunk of my day reading the entire collection. Hilarious and inspiring all in one. Thanks for sharing. Charley
Hi Charley. Thanks for the kind words. We are loving life, although it’s hotter than blazes today.
Hi Dana and Doug! It was truly a pleasure meeting you yesterday! The girls (Emma and Addison) we’re thrilled to climb aboard your beautiful vessel while docked at Schuyler Yacht Basin overnight. We’re having a slower start today, but I’m certain we will be causing some confusion again very soon among the Lock Masters In Champlain Canal. We will give a honk and some exciting waves if we approach and pass by the Misty Pearl. We will be following your blog to keep track of your exciting travels.
Happy Boating,
Tom Krzycki & Wendy Corbino
(aka Captain & First Mate of the Mystic Pearl)
Hi Tom and Wendy and Emma and Addison! Great to meet fellow Pearls. Maybe we’ll see you up the lake somewhere. Take care.
Thanks to Jeff for putting me in touch with your blog. I will only lurk a little but will live a lot vicariously. Stay safe because selfishly I want to read lots more posts.
Thanks and no worries about lurking. Thats why we make our travel notes public. BTW, Jeff says your husband needs a drone . . . .
Enjoy occasionally droll commentary….. he either has incredible recall, or does a lot of googling to make the comments he does. I realize it takes a lot of effort and concentration to handle a boat of that size. What I would like is some short videos in your blog ….. kinda like “a day in the life of…… “. Like what it takes to get underway ….. how you have to account for wind, current and tides, and weather in general when planning a route. How you use your nav equipment … radar, etc. what you have to monitor when underway etc….. maybe some quick scans 9f the interior, the bridge, the flying bridge, and maybe so of the mechanical and electrical systems that you maintain. But don’t sacrifice any commentary or beaufitufl pictures … just tack one on as the occasion arises….hope others would enjoy something like that …and I do realize docking requires much attention …. So maybe not so much there. Good to see you guys last weekend … Pops
Thanks for the input Pops. We’ll try to work around to some of that.
Hey guys😃 glad to see you back on the water. Ken ,Belinda and Skeeter here. We started agin end of April ( more like first of May) We got a late start this year, to many issues came up. But, maybe we can catch up later. Right now sitting in Lock one marina in Waterford. Going up starting tomorrow, up the Champlain Canal, then back here again and getting on the Erie Canal. Wish us luck.
Great to hear from you folks! We wondered whatever happened to Into The Mystic and Skeeter the cat. We loved Champlain.