We arrived at at Thunderbolt Marina in Savannah GA. 4396 statute miles since pushing off from Lindenhurst NY on May 25, 2021. It is so great to be underway again!

All of our navigation electronics where set to Nautical Miles when we moved to salt water years ago. Unfortunately, that was not the best or optimum setting for doing The Great Loop. All the Inland waterways starting on the Erie Canal, then continuing south from Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico are tracked in statute miles. Cruising guides, and even physical mile markers along these rivers are in Statute Miles. You would think that once we reached the OCEAN, things would revert back to Nautical Miles. NOPE! The Intracoastal Waterway is all catalogued and referenced in statute miles.

Statute Mile: 5280 ft

Nautical Mile (equal to one minute of earth’s latitude): 6076.12 feet.

For most, The Great Loop comes out to about 6000 statute miles. We’ll see what our mileage figure is in a month or two!

This Duplin River anchorage is TIDAL. So the current will make our boat turn 180 degrees in the middle of the night, and pull the anchor in the opposite direction.

Pods of Porpoise, at least one Bald Eagle, and scores of other water bird species were also seen this day. I especially like the diving Pelicans! We can see the splash a half mile away in the calm morning waters. .