Day 305 - July 16, 2014: Crossing our wake and completing the Great Loop!

The weather cooperated with sun and light winds out of the northwest, and we headed out towards Little Sable Point. I'm not sure why it is call "Little" since it is physically much bigger than Big Sable Point which we passed north of here two days ago. Later, with the wind on our stern, we passed White Lake and Muskegon Lake, which are both good ports of refuge.

Little Sable Lighthouse

We began to see the Grand Haven Pier at about noon, and at 1:15 p.m. we made the turn east, entered the channel, and crossed our wake! I stopped to mount the new gold burgee and tooted the horn, and we high-fived our accomplishment of 305 cruising days covering a 6,850-mile circumnavigation of the eastern U.S. and parts of Canada.

Flying the new Gold AGLCA Burgee

Friends and family came out to greet us and get pictures of the event. Our friend Susie was on the north pier, my sister Shari and her husband Jim were on the south pier, and our friend Bari was further down on the south pier boardwalk. Our neighbor, Bob, came out and took pictures as we arrived at our home dock, as well. Thanks to them for being a part of our return home celebration.

Pausing after crossing our wake in the entrance to the Grand Haven Harbor

Showing off the burgee to our friends

After another 6 miles up the Grand River and into Spring Lake, we were backing into the slip. We'll have to get used to not having marina dock workers meet us to assist in tying up again.

Now the unenviable task of carrying our clothing, food, electronics and other personal items up the 33 stairs to the deck and another 13 steps into the house. No regrets though, it was well worth it.

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This blog was intended to keep our family and friends up to date on our Great Loop adventure, and we hope it has been of use to others looping or planning to loop in the future. I know we followed other boaters' blogs for the same purpose. My writing became a ritual each day, and sometimes seemed like work, but it did preserve the trip for us to relive again and again in the future. Thanks to Anne for all the help in making this a complete, accurate, interesting and readable record. We will now sign out until our next adventure.