In this final entry of our Loop 2 Blog series, we review some statistics from the trip and give our overall thoughts on our Second trip around America’s Great Loop.
In this final blog of our trip, we leave Vero Beach and travel to Cocoa Village, FL, where our daughter comes to celebrate a belated Christmas with us. We make a quick car trip home to offload some of our stuff from our spare bedroom (to make room for our daughter). After a nice visit with her, we head home with one overnight stop in New Smyrna Beach. We make the final run home on April 2nd, 2024, crossing our wake at 12:39 and hanging our Platinum Burgee!
We are almost done with our trip! In this edition, we finish our travels in the Keys with a stop in Islamorada. While there, we took a dinghy ride through “Toilet Seat Cut!” Then, we travel through the chaos of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach before making a weekend stop in Vero Beach. Along the way, we visit the Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale and find a hidden gem among the highrises and hotels.
In this blog edition, we spend two weeks in Marathon in the Florida Keys. While there, we take a side trip to Key West for an overnight stay. We visit the Turtle Hospital, a craft fair, and the Marathon Seafood Festival and catch up with many old friends.
In this blog, we travel down the west coast of Florida, stopping in Sarasota, Cape Haze, Captiva Island, Fort Myers Beach (where we see the destruction from Hurricane Ian), and Marco Island. We then make a big hop to Marathon in the Florida Keys, where we will stay for two weeks.
We make our Gulf Crossing in two hops, then start down the west coast of Florida. We vist Steinhatchee, Tarpon Springs, Clearwater Beach with a side trip to Dunedin, and end up in Gulfport.
We spend a week in Apalachicola waiting for a weather window to cross the Gulf of Mexico. When it comes, we move up to Carrabelle, the jumping-off spot for our crossing to Steinhatchee, and wait for weather again!
We spend a week in Gulf Shores at LuLu’s waiting for our friends on Brand New Day to return and their boat to be fixed. We are also waiting out some rough weather. We then make a stop in Shalimar, FL, where we catch up with Wandering Winnie. Then, it’s on to Apalachicola, FL, where we get adopted!
After returning from our trip home for a few days, we did a bit of sightseeing around Mobile, then cast off and hung a right at the Gulf of Mexico, heading west toward New Orleans for Christmas.