Announcement and congrats

Announcement we sent out to the AGLCA

Hello to all our friends we met along the way. We crossed our wake Saturday at 2:25 in Vermilion Oh on Lake Erie. It is a bittersweet homecoming. We will miss the cruising life, especially once the snow starts to fly. But it will be great to re-connect with family & friends.

Safe travels to all.

Jim & Mary Fitzgerald

M/V Sales & Nails II

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                            Congratulation messages from our friends                                                                     
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Congratulations, Mary & Jim! As you know, you've accomplished something very few people ever get to do.

I'm glad you're going to relax and enjoy the time back!

Nancy & Ted

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Jim and Mary,

Congratulations! What great news!! You should be very proud of your accomplishment and cherish all of your memories. I'll be sending your BaccaLOOPerate in the next few days.

Warm regards,

Janice Kromer
Executive Director
(877) GR8-LOOP, ext 7126
(877) 478-5667 Congrats on becoming a Goldie!

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Hi Jim & Mary
Unfortunately, once you do the loop, it can ruin ya. It did me. I am now obsessed with cruising!
SterlingLadyIII
See you in Paradise!
Capt. Sterling
305-394-7422

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Jim & Mary
Congratulations on your loop. what a nice area you live in--we were there in mid July on our travels. We talked with you some where in mid Florida in the spring don't recall exactly, but you were traveling with another boat. We were on similar timing for a short distance.

Howard H Cole

aboard the C Horse

314-691-2130, www.sailblogs.com/member/colehorse

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Congratulations! We ordered our gold flag last week and our excited about flying it. Andrew and I crossed our wake in Luddington MI. Tut crosses his wake in Grand Rivers KY, so that is where we'll celebrate.

I think we'll try a half and half life (water and land) for a while. We wish you well and much happiness.

Andrew, Sallyann and Tut
Looping Aboard: Freedom - American Tug 34

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Congrats Jim & Mary!! We met ya'll in Marathon at the music festival....we are in Chicago starting our run down the rivers tomorrow to home in about 3 weeks....

Steve and Carolyn Wood

Here and Now

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Hey Jim and Mary


So glad to hear you finally made it home. It was wonderful to have met you during your stay here. You made it out of the canals just in time. Enjoy being on the hard again. take care and thanks again.
 kim

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Hey Mary and Jim,

congratulations on your wake crossing. we will all have to see how we adjust to the land lubber life and hopefully the "class of 2010" will keep in touch.

Liz and Steve

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Congratulations Jim & Mary on your Gold Burgee. We met you in Calumet City.


Bill & Kathleen Root
formerly aboard MV TUCANDUHi Mary and Jim,



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Congratulations on completing the loop! We have been home about 3 months and are just starting to get caught up on visiting relatives, etc! A lot fell through the cracks but we had a wonderful year on the water. Nice meeting you along the way!

Alex and Cindy Shue

Tug Hill Tug

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Mary and Jim,


Congratulations on finishing up the loop. David and I are very jealous that we're not out on Magnolia doing the same thing!

We were sidetracked during the last year but hope to get back underway sometime in 2011.

Magnolia left the Wharf during the oil crisis and has returned to Columbus, MS. She will stay there for us until we can return to the Gulf Coast this winter.

We enjoyed traveling with you and wish you all the best! We hope to see you again sometime in the future.

Our best wishes,
David and Diane Martin
Magnolia (Endeavour 44)

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hello gold loopers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yea congrats welcome home you all were great to run with verry sleepy at night but the rest of the time youall were great job well done come visit us in marathon this winter we are staying on banana bay jan feb and march love to have ya again. sorry you have reached your wake but continue on don't stoppppppppppp! love you all dan and biddi



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Congrats Mary and Jim.


We enjoyed meeting you last fall. We crossed our wake in Nov and had planned to go back up to the Tenn River this summer, but the oil spill changed our plans. Guess it turned out ok since they have had beastly hot weather(unlike last year) and we have had one of the best summers here in Vermont.

Be careful, the cruising life has a way of luring you back.

Dolores and Rudy on True Love ll 390 Mainship

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We enjoyed meeting you last fall. We crossed our wake in Nov and had planned to go back up. Congratulations folks. We met you at Kentucky Dam Marina when you came thru the lock after dark and I sort of helped you in on the VHF after Steve Mayheu called me to say you were coming in. We understand what a nice feeling it is to have completed this voyage and earned the gold flag.


John and Pat Olson
FREE BIRD

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Hi Mary and Jim

Congratulations on crossing your wake. I am sure you are happy that you finished this adventure and will look forward to the next.

Danny and I are in Plymouth, Massachusetts and will have the boat hauled tomorrow and will start the drive home on Saturday after he goes to the Boat Show in Newport, Rhode Island. We will cross our wake next year in Montreal. Mind you it is not with the same boat or even the same year as we have done the Rideau System twice before. I am sure it will count.

We hope our paths will cross again as it was a pleasure meeting you.

Susan and Danny

P.S. We ran into Tug in Mystic, Connecticut

Please note that our email address has changed to dan@thegodins.com Please update your address books!

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Final Chapter

They say it's not the destination it's the journey.  I'd like to add, it's also the people along the way.  We have met up with old friends, made wonderful new friends, caught up with relatives that we haven't seen in a while, met relatives we had never met before, and have been befriended by people that came into our life for a short time.


Total Expenses

Fuel:  $18,549     Average $3.25 per gallon

Miles:  approximately 6,526.4

Marina cost:  $28,903.42

Restaurants, Groceries, liquor and entertainment.  Approx $18,000.

Boat repairs approx.  $3,000.

71 Locks

59 Marinas


Total cost  $68,452.42

Fairport Harbor & Home to Vermilion

The weather has been beautiful, little wind, blue skies and comfortable temperatures, a real treat on Lake Erie. Knowing how the lake can change, we have decided to head for Vermilion today from Fairport Harbor.  It is about 53 nautical miles, a good days run at 8 kts.  We are still in the "trawler mode" saving on fuel.

An overnight stay last night in Fairport Harbor would not be complete without a stop at Pickle Bills for all you can eat crab.  So we had a delicious celebration dinner, a day early, and stuffed ourselves with crab.

We will be heading into familiar stomping grounds today, no paper charts or waterway guides are needed now.  Such a gorgeous day to be coming home.

We crossed our wake in Vermilion at 2:25 P.M. and we are excited to be home, safe & sound.

Presque Isle & Erie, PA

Yea! We are once again in the good ole' USA.  The run from Port Colborne was about 65 miles across Lake Erie, we arrived in Erie, PA on Tuesday around 4:30.  Thankfully there was a break in the weather,  the lake was a little roley, but not bad.  Checking into customs was as easy as as a phone call.

Today is Jim's birthday, his second birthday on this trip.  We had a nice day walking around town, and his birthday dinner was pizza hut pizza!  Only the best for the captain!

Vermilion, our home port is approximately 120 miles from Erie PA, if weather holds and we travel everyday, we will be home in 3 days.  This is where it gets bittersweet, our adventure has been a great experience, but being away from family & friends for over a year has been tough. And now we are within days of being back home, and I think we will miss the boat.   When we have 3 ft of snow in the middle of February, I know we will miss the Florida Keys.

Pt. Breeze, NY / St. Catharine's & Welland Canal, Ontario

After leaving Rochester, we opted to travel about 30 miles to Pt. Breeze on Oak Orchard River.  The weather was calling for T'storms and there was a small craft warning issued for Lake Ontario, so we didn't go far. This was an interesting stop, with a few surprises.  The marina we stayed at had mostly fishing & charter boats.  Right off the bat Jim recognizes the fishing charter that he had been on a few times with his friends out of the Cleveland area.  About 10 minutes later there is another fishing boat  on the ramp going into the water, and it turns out to be Fr. Jenne, the priest that married us 32 years ago.  It was wonderful to see him again.  Then we get a call from our friends, Ed & Diane, who will be helping us on the Welland Canal.  A requirement of the canal is that a boat needs at least 3 people to transit the canal.  They were passing by Pt Breeze so they caught up with us there and spent the night before heading out to meet us in St. Catharines where our Welland Canal adventure would start.

St Catharines marina in St. Catharines @ Port Weller, is where we spent a few days before entering the canal.  Ed & Diane had a car, a real luxury when you travel by boat.  The four of us drove into Niagara on the Lake, a cute, quaint, small city, filled with gorgeous flowers, boutiques type shops, restaurants, and wineries.  This was our first visit to Niagara on the Lake, but Diane & Ed had been here many times.  So I guess we not only had  a chauffeur, but tour guides as well.  After the shopping, and exploring, there is only one thing left to do, visit the winery. We had a nice afternoon, and as we were leaving the winery, we bump into more friends.  Joe Box and his fiance Carol, they were there with another couple.  Incidentally, Joe was one of the guys that Jim went on the fishing charter with that I mentioned earlier. Diane & Ed knew Joe & Carol as well because in my real estate absence, Diane sold Joe's condo, as part of handling my business. 

The Welland Canal is primarily a commercial shipping canal.  It is 27 miles long and has 8 locks and 21 lift bridges.  All commercial traffic has priority over pleasure craft. We arrived at the canal at 8:30, tied up to the wall, and used the phone provided at the wall to call the lock master to request passage. They told us the wait would be about an hour and a half, we finally started our lock through at 12:30.  Once you start the Welland Canal, you must go all the way through, unless you are waiting on commercial traffic, then you have to wait outside the lock until you have the green light to move ahead.  We were on the Welland for 15 hours,  pulling into Sugar Loaf Marina in Port Colborne at 12:00 midnight.  It was a long day, with what we thought was needless waiting, since there was not any other traffic going our way except one large freighter. Trying to find a marina, and more specific, the assigned slip,  in the dark, is not an easy feat.  Jim did a great job of maneuvering around in the dark waters, where we temporarily tied up to an empty face dock.  Jim & Ed proceeded to walk around the marina to find " E-20", our assigned dock for the night. The security guard joined them, and finally we were tucked into a slip complete with electric and water. The day came to an end for us at 2:10 A.M.  Our friends, Diane and Ed left on Saturday morning to take a cab back up to St. Catharines to pick up their car, stopped back at the boat to get their belongings and were on their way back home.  I have said it before, what would we do without our family and friends.  We sure have some truly wonderful people in our life. Thanks again Diane & Ed for your help on the Welland.

We will spend a few days in Port Colborne, Ontario due to some forecasted storms over the next couple days.  At this point if we wanted we could be home in  2-3 travel days. Since we have never explored the east end of Lake Erie, we will take our time and see the other end of the lake. Crossing back to the States is a priority however, as soon as the weather permits, my cell phone bill will be outrageous if we don't get out soon. It is good to be in Lake Erie again and almost home. :)

Rochester, NY

Lake Ontario was a bit choppy when we started out, after a few hours it calmed down nicely.  The skies were cloudy and it was a bit cool.  By the time we entered the Genesee River going into Rochester the temperature warmed up and the sun was out.  We will spend 2 days in Rochester before moving west on Lake Ontario. 

The lighthouse was constructed in 1822 on a hill just west of the Genesee River and south of what once was a marshy area on the southern shores of Lake Ontario. The current Keeper’s House was built in 1863 to replace the original one which was just to the south of the current building. The Tower is 40 feet high with an additional 12 feet of height for the Lantern room. There are 42 steps and then an 11 rung ladder that takes you into the Lantern room.

Oswego NY

Today is Friday the 13th and we left the marina in Brewerton at 9:11.  Good thing I am not superstitious.  The  saga of the over heating engine on The Laura Lee continues.  Rich and Laura decided to continue travelling down the Erie Canal at a reduced speed of about 5 kts, it only overheats at 7+ kts.  So we wished them safe travels and fair winds as we parted ways. We will both end up in Lake Erie so we may meet up again.

The Oswego River is much the same as the Erie Canal.  Houses dot the landscape, along with small towns, bridges and locks.  Six hours on the water today,  we transited 9 locks
and 31 miles. 

Our destination today was Oswego Marina in Oswego NY, at the mouth of Lake Ontario.  We are officially back in the Great Lakes.  Notice how blue the water is now that the lake is in sight.  A nice change from the Erie Canal and further down on the Oswego river.