We have finally continued our adventures on the Loop. We arrived back on the boat in Bradenton on January 5th. Had a wonderful time with family and friends over the Christmas holiday. We received an extra special gift as our youngest daughter Dee got engaged to Mason - we are so excited for the both of them….and for us in growing our family. We feel extremely blessed! We spent some additional time in Bradenton visiting with friends and family and left on January 15th. We are now on Marco Island for 8 nights and have finally landed in a sunny and consistently WARM spot. More details of our travels to Marco will be in our next blog post. We wanted to share with everyone a questionnaire we received from a 3rd grade Holy Angels class who have been monitoring our adventure with the assistance of their teacher Kelle Krcmarik. We had a lot of fun answering these questions and are so glad they are interested in our trip.
Moonshadow II Questions from 3rd Grade Class:
How often do you get off the boat?
We are finding that we are at Marina’s about 80% of the time and will often get off the boat to walk, shop and go out to eat. Approx. 20% of the time we are at anchor…..and often stay on the boat unless we go for a dinghy ride or visit other looper friends on their boats while at anchor.
Will you go through the Soo locks?
No…we won’t get that far north. But, while heading down the rivers, we went through about 50 locks, and by the time we are done with the trip we will have gone through over 100 locks. The largest lock we have gone through is the Wilson Lock outside of Florence Alabama, and we ascended over 100 feet at 6:30 in the morning. See picture below.
Do you eat only on the boat or do you go to restaurants?
We do both. We enjoy cooking on the boat, especially while we are anchoring. Mr. Ehardt likes to cook on the grill. We often go to restaurants while in marinas, and enjoy having dinner with other loopers (other boaters doing the Great Loop).
What happens if you get seasick?
We have not ever gotten seasick. However, we know others that have and they often need to sit in fresh air and look at the horizon. If they look at the waves or go into the cabin below it often makes them more seasick. If someone often gets seasick there is medication they can take to help or wear pressure wristbands to help.
What do you do in bad weather?
Actually, we look at the weather daily and if it’s not looking good we will stay in a marina until the weather gets better. We haven’t gotten stuck in an uncomfortable situation yet with bad weather.
Did you bring bikes?
No. We figured we would walk everywhere. However, for Christmas we bought ourselves electric scooters….they have been a lot of fun and don’t take up that much space. Mr. Ehardt said to say that they can go 25 mph and have a range of 30 miles. See picture below:
Are the rivers you travel on wide or narrow?
Most are pretty wide as we pass boats and tows with barges, although sometimes the navigation channel can get quite narrow. Below is a picture of us passing a tow:
Above is a picture of a tow coming into a lock with Moonshadow II just getting out of the lock. They are so much bigger than we are!
How do you know where to go?
Our primary tool is an app called Navionics that we look at on our iPads and iPhones. We also read “The Loopers Companion Guide” which suggests places to stop along the way and “Skipper Bobs” publications which is a very detailed description of the great loop route. We also use a SIMRAD chart plotter while we are traveling as a back up review of the route.
How did you come up with the name of your boat?
About 20 years ago, we were trying to figure out a name for our first sleep-aboard boat. We heard the Cat Stevens Song “Moonshadow” and Mrs. Ehardt thought the words of the song reminded her of the carefree and humble personality of Mr. Ehardt. Since then, we have had 3 boats named Moonshadow…..with this current boat named Moonshadow II.
What date do you expect to be back in TC?
We hope to be back by June 30, 2023, so we can enjoy the summer in Traverse City.
How do you store your food?
We have 2 refrigerators and 1 freezer on the boat. We have plenty of room to keep the food cold. We also keep food and drinks under seat cushions, under steps, and in cabinets. If we are at anchor, our batteries will keep the frig & freezer running for 2-3 days. We can also start the diesel generator to charge everything and run the bigger things (like heat or air-conditioning).
Do you stop at fun places?
Absolutely we do!! Some fun things we have done are as follows:
Chicago – Aquarium, deep dish pizza, architectural river tour
Florence – visited Muscle Shoals Music Studio and The Fame Music Studio
Bradenton – visited manatee viewing area by the Tampa Electric Company
Huntsville AL – visited the US Rocket and Space Center
Chattanooga – visited Ruby Falls, Rock City
Nashville – went to the Grand Ole Opry and visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Hung out on a deserted beach on the Gulf in the Panhandle of Florida
Comments