Oct. 16 – Our Season is Over

Olverson’s Lodge Creek Marina

“Collect memories not things” —Unknown

We left The Pearl a week ago, so I guess it's about time I do a blog to close out this cruising year. It was a great year that started in Marathon back in January and continued up the east coast to Maine, and eventually back to the Chesapeake where we have the boat stored for the winter. We cruised 3434 miles this year, bringing our total miles traveled since leaving Texas in March 2011 to over 17,000...that's a lot of miles when you're traveling at 8 mph.

Thanks to Hurricane Matthew our plans to fly to Jacksonville to retrieve our car and visit friends on our way back to the boat were canceled. We decided our best option to get home was renting a car and worry about getting our car a little later when the weather is less threatening. As we were packing, loading the car and getting the boat ready to leave, remnants of Hurricane Matthew dumped 24" of rain on us. The storm left a lot of flooding and damage along the coast from North Carolina to central Florida, so traveling south through the ICW this fall may be a little challenging. We’re glad we had already made the decision to store our boat further north this winter. It'll be interesting to see what our friends run into in their southern migration. 

The Pearl has been winterized and is undercover at Olverson's Marina, where she’ll be well looked after until we return next spring. For now we’ll enjoy spending time with family and friends and hopefully find a little time to cruise aboard Texas Pearl.

Olverson's Lodge Creek Marina

The Pearl's winter home

Texas Pearl...patiently waiting our return