Cruising down the ICW on an Albin 27 FC

[Bearkeley]

Thought we’d share a recent article on proptalk magazine about our ICW trip on our modified Albin 27FC. We made it to Florida from our home on the Chesapeake and currently enjoying The cold, but warmer weather of St Augustine. (Page 36)

https://issuu.com/spinsheetpublishingco ... 6/56306452

[WillieC]

Great write up! Good for you guys in your "little boat", swamped by the big guys. We experienced similar circumstances in our A25 last summer around Whidbey Island, where the waterways are not so nearly restricted.

We too leapfrogged other cruisers between marinas and exchanged (rather received) cards from others. The practice of exchanging cards was news to us. We met a lot of great people who welcomed us aboard their luxo-cruisers (27' and larger, ha!) for happy hours and they humored us by climbing into the WillieC.

Keep us posted on your further adventures. Bahama's calling!

[Jay Knoll]

Great article David/Shelia! Give me a shout when you arrive in Vero Beach, enjoy the journey!

Jay

[tbnolin]

Good reading!! Brings back sooooo many good memories of when my wife and I decided 6 years ago, in the middle of September, to head down the coast from just below Lake Champlain on the Champlain Canal. We left November 3rd (after 9 inches of snow fell at home in Bennington on Halloween!) and took 8 weeks meandering down the coast. If we liked a town/city....we stayed an extra day or two. Number one thing we stuck to....Never have a schedule!! We made it to the Vero City docks a couple weeks before Christmas (actually, we were there 6 years ago today!) where we stayed for 2 weeks. Almost called that our new home, but we decided on 12-26 to take one more day of traveling.....where we ended up in Stuart. And here we are living on the South Fork of the St. Lucie River loving life!!!
Enjoy your travels!!

Tom

[DesertAlbin736]

Great write up! Really like the way your boat is set up. We did a bit of the Chesapeake with our own A25 in 2015 after trailering it East from Arizona, but don't anticipate doing that again in the foreseeable future. If we weren't so land locked we'd be thinking about a bigger boat like yours. But for us trailerability is paramount, considering we've long since outgrown our 2 mile by 4 mile home lake.

Doing the ICW all the way to Florida is quite and adventure. Bravo!

Pacific NW is our thing, where we also seem to be the smallest boat where ever we go.

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When you get back to the Chesapeake may I suggest a run up the Nanticoke River on the Eastern Shore. Very scenic. You can go 35 miles up stream and stop at Vienna on the way and get as far as Seaford and Blades, DE where there's a nice little yacht basin marina and the Nanticoke RIver Yacht Club that has happy hours on Wednesday afternoon/evenings and dinners on Friday night. You could catch Uber or Lyft rides into town, lots of restaurants & shopping in Seaford.

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Nanticoke River Marina in Blades, DE. They have Travelift there and repair facilities in case you needed a haulout for any reason. They also have a fuel dock & sell diesel. White building with blue roof in right background is the yacht club.

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Cheers & Happy Holidays

[DCatSea]

So glad the 27 worked out for you. We look forward to seeing you as you head south on the Bay in 2018, completing your Loop run.
Have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year.

[Bearkeley]

Thanks all! Not quite ready to do the loop (we still have a house on the bay that requires maintenance in the summer) but definitely up for exploring the bay...Nanticoke does look nice!

It is funny to see our 27 next to the big guys it we are really enjoying the cheaper marina rates and most of all, the luck in always finding a spot at marinas. The bigger boats are having a hard time finding slips here in Florida after the hurricanes.

[Bearkeley]

Just an update....nearly 500 hours and 3000 miles in 6 months, Mary Jo is back at her home port in Virginia. We learned more about Diesel engines than we ever expected and although we still have a lot more to learn, we certainly have a lot more confidence as Cruisers. It was a great trip and if you can do any part of it, we would certainly recommend it!


We will post some of our lessons learned and other things that might be helpful to others once we get settled back home, but until then, if you haven’t seen our write up on our first 60 days, here is the link. https://ourhappylife.wordpress.com/2018 ... s-learned/

Below are some pics of Mary Jo in the Keys and back home in her slip (the sailboat is our duckling ...friends from Canada we met along the way who followed us home)