The Great Loop on a Classic Wooden Motorsailer
June 9, 2014
Our beloved Memsahib has been sold to a very nice fellow from Boston who is now living in Puerto Rico. I worked on her all spring on his behalf getting her in super shape for 1,100 miles of blue water between Miami and Puerto Rico. She’s a better boat now than she was on the Loop — and she was a great boat then.
Here’s Memsahib, the day we said goodbye. I still get a fair amount of traffic to this site, so I’ll keep it going. Soon there will be a link to the building of the “new Memsahib!”
December 23, 2013
To aid in the sale of the boat, I have posted another Memsahib website, this one telling the whole story of Memsahib and her life with the Kessinger family:
http://www.memsahibsstory.com/
December 13, 2013
I am amazed that folks are still logging in to Memsahibs Voyage. So, people, if any of you want a beautiful, affordable wooden boat built from a kit, please take a look at my new retirement business:
http://www.madisonkitbuilders.com
Building wooden boats is ALMOST as good as cruising on them, and it takes place in Guilford, CT rather than Demopolis, AL, where we were (pleasantly) stranded last year.
August 18, 2013
If anyone is interested, or knows anyone who MIGHT be interested, our beautiful, strong Memsahib is for sale and wants to Loop again.
You can find a description of the boat and pictures here:
http://boatworks.mobi/wooden-boats/
This is the official listing:
She just got back from a show in Mystic and is in the best shape ever.
August 18, 2013
John came back from his camp counselor job so we could attend the Antique and Classic Boat Rendezvous at Mystic Seaport. It’s a by-invitation deal for really classy boats, so we were honored to attend. Weather was great and hundreds of people visited Memsahib. It was her first time out of the slip since completing the Loop and it felt wonderful to be cruising again. I will post the story I’m writing for the Looper website.
Transitioning from the Loop hasn’t been hard, hasn’t been easy, it’s just been strange. After 50 years of total focus on school, work and the Loop, coming back to a great but disjointed life was confusing. Literally the day after we landed, it was off to Miami University of Ohio, a 1300-mile round trip for orientation. Then continued moving in to our new house, re-contacting old work friends, setting up my beautiful new shop, and a zillion other distractions. Wonderful to be home with Molly, but hard to shake that, “Weather’s good, ought to be getting going, ought to be on to the next port” feeling.
I tell my friends it’s like an old science fiction show: Two astronauts have an accident and land on another “earth” that is exactly, exactly opposite our earth from the sun. They think everything is okay until they start watching TV in the hospital and see an address from President Al Gore, an ad for Kentucky Fried Guinea Hen and a sports report about the Chicago Cubs sweeping the World Series for the third straight year. They get back, but it ain’t easy.
I have not even visited this blog since returning — too strange, too disjointing. But I’m better know. I really love the new shop and am building a cool wooden paddle board for a friend. I’ve done some consulting from the very best of my old vendors, and most of all, I’ve started planning a short cruise for the fall and more for next summer. We really need a smaller, lighter boat for the type of cruising we want to do in the future, but if it’s good old Memsahib, it’s good old Memsahib.
At the show with our official, 139-dot Great Loop map.
Memsahib steaming down the Mystic River all spruced up for the show.
June 9, 2013
We’re home. Pulled into our slip at Guilford Yacht Club today 350 days and 5,750 miles after we left.
So what’s the Loop about other than miles and days, and canals and rivers, storms and sunsets, and of course, Loopers? For me it’s the profusion compared to normal life of those moments when you experience euphoria: “A feeling of exceptional happiness and well-being.”
We all have such moments. They could be brought on by the birth of a child, catching one just right and pumping it 300 yards right down the middle, or just sitting by the fire contemplating your incredible luck in being born an American. I think the people I’ve known who are truly living are simply trying to maximize moments of euphoria through sports or a job they love or family or church or whatever.
If you like the water, boats, history and our wonderful country and it’s equally wonderful neighbor Canada, the Great Loop is a euphoria factory. Euphoria lies around every bend, across every bay and at every dock where the Looper flag flies. There were simply hundreds of times during our trip that I just FELT SO GOOD about what John and I were doing.
Here are a few euphoria-producing moments that come to mind right now, but every time I look at the Voyage map, I am flooded with so many more:
– Swimming with Bjorn in a perfect lake in a perfect anchorage on a perfect day in the Stony Lakes region of Canada prior to a martini and steaks on the barbecue.
– Dinner with John and Molly at a classic Chicago steakhouse after a beautiful day doing the sites in one of America’s great cities. It was so good to be a family again.
– The confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers – Memsahib cleaving the same waters as my boyhood heroes Lewis and Clark.
– Cold as could be, but motoring through the Tennessee Gorge at the absolute peak of the fall colors with my great friend Eric Brazil.
– Seeing all the Loopers in the Tiki hut at Green Turtle Bay after our tough Gulf crossing and being handed the by-now-famous Next to Me Bloody Mary.
– Skimming over the waves, rays and turtles on a seaplane to the Dry Tortugas.
– Anne Marie Sales was John’s nanny as an infant and little boy. Seeing her little three-year-old girl “driving” Memsahib just as John drove Memsahib at the same age was a special moment.
– Belting out “Moon River” ON the real Moon River.
– Motoring up the Choptank and Tred Avon Rivers into the heart of Michener Country. When I read “Chesapeake” 35 years ago, I said, “I’ve got to go there.” And I did.
– Taking a picture of John holding the Gold Looper flag in front of the Statue of Liberty. I could barely push the button.
That’s the end of the voyage and the end of this blog, although we will be adding pictures of the first two months of the trip before the blog began.
More practical thoughts on the Loop, future cruising tales and boatbuilding yarns will move to http://www.greatloopcoda.com.
June 7, 2013
Memsahib crossed her wake yesterday at the Statue of Liberty, the start and finish for us lucky New England Loopers.
It was a great moment during a hard 13-hour, 95-mile push from Manasquan, NJ to Norwalk, CT with Tropical Storm Andrea chasing us into Norwalk Cove Marina last night.
Thanks to Memsahib, a good old 52-year-old wooden boat who kept us safe and secure the whole way. And thanks to my crew — Molly, Fredi, Bjorn, Pat, Ray, Eric, Sparta and most of all John — my son, my friend and the best crewman I will ever have.
The Loop is done, but the Voyage continues, arriving at our home port of Guilford Yacht Club Sunday afternoon — Andrea permitting.
The best Looper crew ever.
For one nanosecond, this guy was the happiest person in the world.
It’s official — we’re gold loopers!
June 5, 2013
We’re about 45 miles south of New York on the Manasquan River in New Jersey, so tomorrow should mark the Loop completion, and Sunday the end of the Voyage.
A long but uneventful trip on the ocean today from Atlantic City.
I was only looking at Atlantic City as a stop to endure, not enjoy, waiting for good weather, but it turned out to be a pleasant visit. John and I took one of the very efficient jitney buses over to the Boardwalk and I was really impressed. It has been cleaned up (I guess due to the casinos) with top-flight retail stores, great beach access, food other than Nathan’s hot dogs — and mini-golf, where I beat John once again!!
But the highlight was a jackpot playing video poker last night at the Golden Nugget. I was playing deuces wild, had three twos, drew two more for FIVE of a kind! Bells rang and music played and my fellow players turned their walkers and wheelchairs to congratulate me. One fellow even gave me a tip of his oxygen mask.
Nothing like a free stay in a fancy marina.
On the Board Walk at Atlantic City.
The beach at Atlantic City has always been magnificent. The big building is the Miss America venue.
Atlantic City fades into the morning mist
June 3, 2013
We’re in Atlantic City at the Golden Nugget Casino, waiting for a break in the continuing line of fronts that has made getting north a challenge for the Looper Fleet.
We did have two great days getting up the end of Chesapeake Bay and down Delaware Bay to Cape May. I was really wistful passing by so many great places on the way north — Baltimore, Chester, the Sassafras River, etc — but John’s college orientation looms large as a hard date for the end of the Voyage. We were so glad that Delaware Bay wasn’t acting up. It’s a nasty piece of water full of giant ships, shallow waters and no ports. We actually enjoyed our last night on the Delaware a lot at anchor in the marshes of the Cohansey River, just about the only refuge on the entire bay.
Reprovisioned in Cape May at the very friendly, fancy and not-too-expensive South Jersey Marina, a sportsfishing kind of place that is trying its best to attract Loopers, since fuel costs have really been tough on the fleet of 50 gallon-per-hour hotshot fishing boats. Then with strong winds approaching we decided to try the protected New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway up to Atlantic City.
Got through, but should have done house tours in Cape May. Years of neglect and Superstorm Sandy have made the ICW nearly impassable. We ran aground twice (no damage, it’s all mud) and plowed a furrow through the bottom twice. It was scenic, but the white knuckles stress of no water beneath the keel was just not worth it. I was surprised at the degree of development — wherever there was a break in the marsh grass, there were thousands of summer houses “down the shore” and hundreds of speedboats waking the crap out of us.
John is warming to the thought of being back in the New York area, even at the cost of going back to school. Last night we ate at the Chart House at the casino — sleek surroundings, wonderful, sophisticated food, great views and a hostess who could have been Derek Jeter’s girlfriend.
“But John,” I said, contemplating the bill. “Don’t you remember that famous catfish restaurant that we went to in Mississippi?”
“Yes, plastic tables, plastic forks, catfish or pork chops, banana pudding for dessert.”
“Ah, but the catfish…”
“Greasy, salty and tasteless like all catfish.”
He has a point.
(Looks like Thursday for our Loop completion, but no promises.)
Delaware Bay Pastoral
Delaware Bay boating — we waved, but I’m not sure he saw us.
Cohansey River anchorage — our last
And the winner of tallest marsh grass on the whole trip goes to…New Jersey!!
Houses “Down the Shore”
After the trip we had, I was actually glad to see tawdry old Atlantic City.
Memsahib in her berth at the Golden Nugget Casino — nice to have all the casino amenities right across the street.
May 28, 2013
John arrives back tomorrow, so the voyage continues. He is reportedly doing fine, but we will take it easy at first.
I have been waiting in Annapolis at very nice Annapolis Landing Marina on Back Creek. There are two principal marina areas in Annapolis, Spa Creek right downtown and Back Creek further south in the suburbs. There was no way I wanted to be downtown over Memorial Day and it was the right choice. The only problem has been the horrific weather — five solid days of Small Craft Advisories. My former partner Jeff Myers was going to come down for a trip over to the Eastern Shore, but had to cancel, since we would never have made it out of the slip.
On our way up from Solomons, we dipped deep into Michener Country, heading on a dark, damp day up the Choptank and Tred Avon Rivers to Oxford. Oxford is just about perfect — surrounded by water, beautifully preserved and far enough off the beaten path to be very quiet. I did a lot of walking and we had a wonderful dinner at Salter’s Tavern at the Robert Morris Inn. On my walk, I passed the famous Cutts & Case Boatyard, well known to anyone who studies wooden boats. But like so many of these places that loom large in your mind, in reality it’s tiny. Same with Annapolis — it’s one of the Sailing Capital’s of the World, but sailing itself is such a small-potatoes deal in the great scheme of things that the role of Annapolis as Capital of Maryland is much more noteworthy.
When the weather finally broke on Saturday, I spent the best part of a day at the Naval Academy Museum. The Rodgers Ship Model Collection is absolutely superb. These are “dockyard models” for the most part, built at the same time as the actual ship and wonderfully detailed. Also got to take a look at the John Paul Jones Crypt in the Chapel during a break between weddings. The midshipmen became ensigns on Friday and many took the first chance available to them to become married men on Saturday. I could say a lot of smartass things about whether that’s a really great idea, but actually it was quite touching — brides and grooms all in white, most of the guests in white, the huge Chapel bedecked in flowers. Best of luck to these young people — it’s not an easy life they’ve chosen.
Also, given my penchant for historic homes, I found the Historic Annapolis Foundation and got set up with a docent-led tour of the home of William Paca, three-time Maryland Governor, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, and everything else that needed signing in those days.
Our taste of the Chesapeake has been smaller than a Baskin-Robbins sampling spoon. But I am absolutely sure I will be back someday for a triple scoop of the Jamoca-Almond-Fudge of small boat cruising.
Oxford — one pretty street after another.
This little building served as the Oxford Post Office until the 1930s.
Molly, can we buy this one?
Robert Morris Inn, formerly the home of financier Robert Morris, principal backer of the American Revolution.
Cutts & Case. Boat in the middle is the famous “Foto” owned by Morris Rosenfeld, the world’s foremost marine photographer. BEST marine photographer is Bejamin Mendolwitz in my opinion.
Main Street Annapolis at Academy graduation and Memorial Day weekend. Still fun, but what a zoo!
Annapolis City Docks, AKA “Ego Alley.” You have to have a high tolerance for noise and good curtains if you want to put your boat in admiration range of thousands of tourists.
When you get past the tee-shirt shops and pizza joints, Annapolis is a very pretty place.
This model of a French 100-gun ship is about eight feet long.
British frigate — workhorse of the age of sail. Modern equivalent would be a destroyer.
“Bone models” carved by French prisoners during the Napoleonic wars using bones, wood, thread from their clothes and whatever they could scrounge.
Having read something like 200 works of naval fiction, I spent a lot of time with the small models like this brig. The battleships are spectacular, but these really illustrate what the “Age of Fighting Sail” was all about.
Magnificent William Paca House of 1763. Beautiful Georgian symmetry outside, tastefully restraint in decoration inside.
“Summer House” at Paca museum. Equivalent of a pool house today, I guess.
Maryland Statehouse, smack in the middle of downtown. Statue is Thurgood Marshall, a truly great Marylander.
Memsahib's Voyage 