Merry Christmas (to all our friends)

Decorated and ready to celebrate another Christmas.  We have soooo many blessings, and Wish You A Very Merry Christmas !

First snow of this year to make it easy for Santa to get to our house!!!  (snow for the sleigh you know)

Santa at the "Duck Club Yacht Club" greeting children at our annual Christmas party on the river.

Even some adult members like Debbie got a chance  to tell Santa her wishes.

While the river and pool became desolate looking and cold outside, we dined to an awesome buffet and enjoyed the fellowship of the other boating members of Duck Club Yacht Club. 

Pork rib tips, cheese burgers, loaded potatoes and all the fixings  were great.

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And a big THANKS to our chef Mark for another good year of good food at Duck Club on the river.

And Santa's helpers were great too, tending to our food and drink wishes..

The party was complete with the artistic touch of one of the "Elves" being creative with balloons for the children.  Although we celebrate the season with gifts and merriment, the true meaning of all this including our salvation must always be kept in our hearts.  God bless you all and have a wonderful Christmas. .....

 From Captain Dave and the Admiral JoAnn on Great Escape. (come see us next summer at Port Charles Marina, or the Duck Club next door)

Great Loop Boat Perfection (The 4788 Pilothouse)

Yep, That's me in the saloon.  Happiness living aboard requires space to be alone at times.  I love my mate "the Admiral" but at times you need your own space.

Our "Great Escape" at dock in Palm Beach Fla.  (a 1997 Bayliner 4788 Pilothouse Motor Yacht)  The 4788 although not being built any more was a very popular model that in my mind still can't be beat by anything out there for cruising. And, its affordable!

JoAnn and me with Great Escape in back round.

A spacious pilot house with unobstructed view is a MUST!!

Good ground tackle to handle different sea beds is required.  We have a 60# Bruce with 200 feet of chain and a lighter Danforth with chain and rope.  A smaller aft hook in cockpit is also available.

 Flying bridge when the weather is good with a good canvas cover is a great way to travel. 

Ease of anchoring out is facilitated by two pilothouse doors.  Locking through is also a chore made very easy with the pilothouse doors. The doors also allow options for easy access to the boat when dealing with tides while doing the loop.

Space in the pilothouse is well managed. Instruments include 3 chart plotters (one on fly bridge), radar, 2 ship to shore radios (one on fly bridge), a wind direction indicator, a haler with automatic fog horn,  and an auto-pilot. See sliding door on the left.  Redundancy of instruments on different power supplies is a good idea when you actually need them at sea.  The new glitzy devices with overlays of radar and gps sound good but can be a disaster when they fail  at sea.

Master bed is a king size (in boat language) which means Queen size but very comfortable. Nothing beats it with a gentle storm rocking you to sleep.

The lounge, or saloon, is an open area that allows entertaining fellow "loopers" or friends who are traveling with us.  The pilothouse 4788  has another two bedrooms and baths (not shown in the blog) for  traveling guests.  

AGLCA flag.  White back round means in process of doing the loop.  Gold back round means loop has been completed. 

JoAnn (the admiral) and me enjoying dinner at a marina restaurant following a great day of cruising.  The time we spent living aboard and cruising was wonderful. Even though we're currently "dirt dwellers" we still have these memories.  Jim White once said Memories are better than dreams.  So if your are thinking some day may be .Just do it!  And when you do, come see us at Port Charles Harbor where JoAnn and I are "Harbor Hosts" for the AGLCA ( American great loop cruisers association )