Oak Ridge,

December 10, 1997

Early this year, Claire made the decision that enough was enough and arranged to have hip replacement surgery in the fall, upon return from our cruise, but this was not to be. About 10 days before we were to leave Oak Ridge with E. Galois, she realized that it was foolish to postpone the surgery until the fall. Consequently, we changed our plans and Claire was operated as soon as it was possible: May 8th . By the middle of June, it became clear that the operation had been a complete success and we decided to visit by land some of the people and places we would have seen this year while cruising with E. Galois.

We left Oak Ridge on July 10th and first visited our son Daniel in Virginia, then to Canada ( Province of Quebec ) where Claire's sister Paule and her family live. While there we saw John & Francine (Baron Rouge)who had sailed up to Lake Champlain but were at that time in their cabin a few miles from Paule's home. We missed by one day Keith (Kirsten Jayne). They had sailed up the East Coast in company of Baron Rouge, but were then in Montreal and due to shortly go down the Saint Lawrence River, stopping in Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.). After a short trip to Montreal, to visit Francis's brother Edmond and his family, we headed up to Fredericton, New Brunswick (N.B.), to join Bernard, another of Francis's brother, and his wife Betty Lou who were cruising the Saint John River in their trawler. After two days we left Fredericton for P.E.I., where we were guests of Mary and Dick Wedge and just in time to welcome Carol and Keith to P.E.I.!! The Confederation Bridge that links P.E.I. to N.B. is a real tour de force 8 miles (13 Km) long, the central section consists of 44 spans each 820 feet (250 m) long. It was inaugurated just shortly before we arrived. On the way back south we again met Bernard and Betty Lou in Saint John , N.B., where we saw the reversing falls. We stopped in Acadia National Park, (too crowded); had a very pleasant visit with our son in law's relatives near the Hudson River and finally spent our last evening on the road in Washington, D.C., with some old friends from Oak Ridge, Carla and Ugo Bertocci. We safely made it back in Oak Ridge, having covered 5000 miles (8000 Km) in 4 weeks in our little Honda!! We enjoyed very much this trip always knowing that at the end of the day we could knock at the door of a friendly house, rest, talk and reset our clocks ( Francis had not seen one of his brothers in 9 years).

In view of the fact that it takes more than 4 weeks to go with E. Galois from Oak Ridge to the East Coast of Florida, we decided that it would be preferable to take E. Galois to Florida this year, so that next year we will have plenty of time to haul out the boat for a bottom paint job, may be spend a week or two in the Bahamas before turning North and be in Chesapeake Bay before the hurricane season starts. Consequently, we left Oak Ridge on October 11th heading first West on the Tennessee River, then South on the Ten-Tom waterway and the Tombigbee River: 850 miles (1400 Km) of river and 19 locks before Mobile Bay. The trip would have been much more enjoyable if I had not stripped a thread in the fuel line!! For the last week before reaching Mobile, the engine was dripping about a litter an hour in the engine pan. Except for this problem, which was fixed in Mobile, we had a good trip. Since it was our third cruise on these waters, it was relatively easy: we start to know the pleasant marinas and the good anchorages. This was the time of the exodus south from the cold North, there were a lot of power boats but we also met some new sailboat cruisers. We went down the Ten-Tom to Mobile with Bob and Sarajane (SaraJane), from Wisconsin, and Garry and Barb (Dream Seeker), from Illinois. We met also some ex sailboaters: John and Faye (Enterprise, to be renamed Pearly-Faye), from Toronto and Don and Kit (Taylor's Maid), from Poquoson Virginia, whom we hope to meet next year in Chesapeake Bay.

In Gulf Shores, at the Southeast end of Mobile Bay, we were the guests of Manfred Kopp, with E. Galois in Mike and Sheila's slip. When a front came through we decided to take advantage of the Northerlies to head South. It was a tough job to get out of the slip with the strong cross winds. We decided to get into the Gulf at Perdito Pass. It was a wrong decision! We ran aground in the middle of the channel and had to call the Tow boat to get us off the sand bank. It was a pretty rough first night, but we made it safely in three days to Clearwater, where our son Daniel joined us for a few days. Since a lot of fronts were passing, we opted to continue South via the Intercostal Water Way. We did not go very far before we were caught in a deluge, we stayed at anchor for a full day when more than 6 inches of rain fell in 24 hours. Since we were quite familiar with this part of the Water Way, having spent the winter of 91 in the region, we succeeded in avoiding all the spots we had previously ran aground, and did not discover new ones! We made it safely to Fort Myers and visited with a french couple Jean Lou and Claudine Le Hors (Bacardi, but currently land lubbers), with whom we had spent a month at anchor in Fort Myers Beach in January 1992. We finally went up the Ochechobee and tied up in Moore Haven at Fleming and Margaret (ex Nova) who were kind enough to make room for E. Galois next to their new boat Tivoli II in the canal behind their house, till our return in March.

We are now back in Oak Ridge but will be in California for the holidays with our children and grand-children. Stay tuned.

Best wishes to all our friends on land or at sea.