Estimated reading time – 10 minutes – SBFL 12* – PLANNING TO VISIT – It was a balmy spring Thursday on April 26 on the Virginia shores. After 4½ months at sea, some 104 people from Britain, horses, and supplies landed on Cape Henry to establish the first permanent English-speaking colony in the New World, North America. The year was 1607. As a Smithsonian Magazine article puts it, “One ebullient adventurer later wrote that he was “almost ravished” by the sight of the freshwater streams and ‘faire meddowes and goodly tall trees’ they encountered when they first landed at Cape Henry. After skirmishing with a band of Natives and planting a cross, the men of...
Estimated reading time: 15 minutes – SBFL 11* – PLANNED & VISITED – Baltimore is not the Maryland version of Georgetown in Washington, DC, nor of Williamsburg in Virginia, nor did the locals ever want it to be. Because of being a major port on the eastern seaboard, some say Baltimore was a sailor’s town throughout its history, up to the early 20th century—and Baltimore has a very long maritime history. Fells Point, located in a deeper section of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, was one of the earliest settlements, and was where the Clipper Ships were made. There are only a few places in the US that had that distinction. It was a working waterfront, with...
Estimated reading time 15 minutes – SBFL 10* – PLANNED – “We had been home from northern waters only a few weeks when the first tinges of red and gold along Church Creek told us it was time to head south. As crew, in addition to Mike and Bill Gay, we signed aboard Mrs. Virginia Finnegan, an editorial assistant at the National Geographic Society and my close colleague for 21 years,” wrote Allan C. Fisher, Jr., in his book, America’s Inland Waterway. So, what’s this quote about? As much as I have felt the same way, that it’s “time to head south” since mid-October, here we are, grounded on land due to the pandemic. We’ve...
Become a Looper and have the adventure of a lifetime . … Estimated reading time 16 minutes — Let’s start with the word “Looper.” When I say Looper, I’m not referring to a futuristic action-thriller movie nor to a garden looper. I’m referring to a status that you would earn, becoming part of an exclusive club of boaters who have done, one or more times, America’s Great Loop by boat, kayak, or whatever floats safely as a watercraft. If you have no boat, that is not a problem—find someone and become a crew member. Remember the old saying, the smartest boater is the one who has a friend with a boat. So you have no excuse...
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The essence of Trips of Discovery is not to seek new lands and exotic cultures. Rather, it is to cover our boating journey of discovery that comes from seeing what was always just over the horizon with a new eye. Below is our Slow Boat to Florida Series, reflecting the spirit of our site.
