The final leg

On this last day of our trip I woke up early and the weather was beautiful. I took the dogs out for a walk at Bay Springs Marina then quietly untethered Istaboa from the dock and we slowly poked away. Heading home. After a couple of hours Melonie woke up to find we were underway. She took this shot of Radar and Me running the boat then readied things for Grand Harbor Marina.
Soon we passed the last marker on the waterway. It's been a long run up the waterway 450 miles. But this time I have to admit it wasn't so bad. This time of year it's a lot prettier than in the dead of winter or after the ravaging spring floods.
Then we see Grand Harbor. it's really over and we feel like we've won the marathon. Nothing harmed, we have all our fingers and toes, and the boat came through without a scratch. Once again we beat the waterway.

It was nice pulling in. Our good friend and boat neighbor Ben on Lady Sadie was there to help us tie up. We looked at the view from our slip and remembered why we always come back here for hurricane season. Then we broke out the celebratory bottle of champagne and made a toast to Istaboa and to being home. Ben said he had been reading our blog but still wanted to hear some stories. So we told a few unabashed tales of the trip and the new friends we made along the way.

And that was it. We settled back into our normal Pickwick lifestyle. We had dinner with our friends Ruth and Lea and their friends Bob and Emily. It was 4th of July coming up and it was good seeing all our other boat neighbors. But then we decided we would rather be home at Rocky Point in the woods than deal with the crowds at Pickwick on the 4th. So we loaded up the pups and went home.

Happy days

next up: epilogue in pictures