To: ALL Interested Parties

SMELLIN da ROSES, Part 2-a.

This is the first log of the TWO J's V and MARGE'S BARGE second boating season of our America's Great Loop Cruise.

For those not familiar with this boating adventure of a lifetime (did not receive last year's logs), the "Great Loop", as it is often referred to, is a circumnavigation around the Eastern half of the United States and Canada. Our first summer (Part 1) took the Marge's Barge from Ft. Pierce, FL and the Two J's from the Sassafras Harbor Marina in Georgetown, MD up the East Coast, through Lake Champlain to Canada, up the Ottawa River, through the Rideau Waterway, into the 1000 Islands, up the Trent-Severn Waterway, across the Georgian Bay, down Lake Huron and into Lake Erie.

Shortly after the Memorial Day weekend, we will go back to Lake Erie, have the boats launched and recommissioned for the Summer.

Briefly, the 2003 boating season will start with a week to 10 days in Lake Erie and then North to Lake St. Clair, into Lake Huron, up around the lower peninsula of Michigan, into the North Channel of the Georgian Bay (Two J's) and into Lake Superior for a brief stay (we want to be able to say we've had our boats on all 5 of the Great Lakes). We will then return and go through the Macinaw Straights, head South down the Western side of Michigan with several ports-of-call along the way and then right through downtown Chicago. Our trip will continue down the Illinois River to the Mississippi and up the Ohio River to the Cumberland River, with a side trip to Nashville, Tennessee (Grand Old Oprey), then back down to the Tennessee River and up it to the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (Tenn-Tom) and South to Mobile, Alabama. From Mobile we will cruise East to Florida's panhandle and follow the coast South to Ft. Meyers, Florida. From there, East across the Okeechobee Waterway to Stuart and then a little North to Ft. Pierce, FL on Florida's East Coast where the Two J's V will over winter this year. Howard and Maggie are home and will then have completed the Loop!

During the 2003-04 Winter, the Two J's will no doubt be "snowbirds" and fly or drive South to visit Howard and Maggie in Vero Beach, FL and/or live aboard for several weeks and perhaps take a cruise down the ICW to Miami and the Keys.

In the Spring of 2004, the Two J's will head North up the Intercoastal Waterway to the Chesapeake Bay and their home port at Sassafras Harbor Marina on the Sassafras River. The Daniels' plans for 2004 are up in the air at this time.

Once the America's Great Loop Cruise is completed, we will have earned the coveted "BaccaLOOPerate Degree" given by the America's Great Loop Cruisers Association.

If you would like to continue being on our joint Email list to receive our trip logs, you need to do nothing. If you do not wish to receive them, please do not feel bad about asking us to take your name off the list. If you are forwarding the logs to others, please continue to do so, but we would appreciate knowing to whom you are sending them, to to avoid duplication. Last year we Emailed logs to about 60 people, but understand that almost 100 people received them. We hope those who receive the logs via Email or read them in the SHM office enjoy them.


TWO J's V -- John and Judy Gill

MARGE'S BARGE -- Howard and Maggie Daniels