Sep 22
We are pleased to announce the arrival of our daughter, Wren Eleanor Clark! She was born Tuesday, September 17th at 12:32 pm. She weighed 9 lbs 1 oz and was 21.5 inches long. Ethan loves being a big brother and does a great job helping with her.
Sep 16
We said goodbye to Night Music this past weekend. She pulled away from the dock under the guidance of her new owners Jackson and Arlene on Saturday. They will make their way down the rivers and back to Tarpon Springs, FLA and beyond in their adventure.
It was very bitter-sweet saying goodbye, but I was glad to get to meet Jackson and Arlene and see the excitement they have for their new adventures. I feel like the long standing tradition of excellent care and fun adventures will continue and Night Music will serve them well in their journeys. You can follow their blog here: http://www.oldhickorytotarponsprings.blogspot.com/
I thought before now I would have been able to post the news of our baby girl’s arrival – but she has delayed!! I am 42 weeks and will have a c-section Tuesday if I don’t deliver before. I’ll be sure to post her photo and how we are all doing. We are excited and anxiously anticipating her arrival!
Thank you all for following us in our journey and for all the love and encouragement we received along the way. This was one amazing adventure that has blessed our lives so much! For those of you planning to do a trip of your own – the best time is now!! We say go for it and enjoy your time. There is so much to see out there!
Love,
Nick, Stacy & Ethan
First I want to apologize for my delay in posting . . . seems time goes much faster on land than it does on water. We’ve been in a state of transition and when I looked at the calendar and realized how much time had actually passed since we arrived home I just could not believe it!
We arrived in Hendersonville, TN at the first of June. Making our way through the Tombigbee, Tennessee and Cumberland rivers was mostly uneventful. We saw some beautiful sites and met more great folks. We handled all of the 15 locks with little trouble and didn’t get caught too long at any lock which really helped in our timing. We did lock through the Pickwick lock while rafted to an 75ft Hatteras “Kaybird” . . . that was a first for both parties. Night Music felt so small against this yacht, especially in the large lock chamber! Turned out that the lock only had 1 working bay, with only 1 working bollard . . . We had left from the same location that morning as Kaybird, but they had waited over 3 hours to get through. Luckily for us our wait was just about 30 minutes. It was a great example of the Tortoise and the Hair.
At Green Turtle Bay we had to shift our plans somewhat. We had originally planned to step the mast and have the full rig assembled for the Cumberland River leg of the journey. Turns out that summer pool is actually 5+ feet higher that the river levels we had traveled the previous two times. This meant that there was at least one bridge that was now called into question. We decided to leave the rigging on deck and proceed up river – settling how to put the mast up at a later date. Our friend Myles joined us and we headed up the river in windy, rough conditions. We made it to Clarksville the next afternoon and enjoyed the hospitality of Myles and his family. Oh – and that bridge? Yeah it was a good call to leave the mast down. We would not have cleared and would have had to turn back to Green Turtle Bay!
From Clarksville Nick and I solo’d to West Nashville. Our friends Bob, Annie and Kevin met us on the river and went ahead to look at dock space in Rock Harbor Marina. We had a great early dinner (Thank you Bob!) and it was fun to hang out with friends again. Annie and Kevin traveled with us on the home stretch, through downtown Nashville and we made it to Hendersonville that afternoon. My mom and dad were there waiting with Ethan. We were so happy to see our little guy again!!
So now Night Music is safely at the Marina. She is empty of most belongings and I can’t fit through most of the doorways. Really . . . we arrived at a good time as I was touching belly and bum to get into the head. This baby has grown a lot since then! We’ve had some good interest in Night Music so she may soon be on with her next adventure. She was such a great boat for us!!
We are unpacked, and repacked – living with my folks again. It has been nice to be home, but when the feeling of ‘visiting’ wore off it was sad for me. Our adventure was awesome. We gained so much experience and knowledge, grew together as a family, and made memories that will last a lifetime. It’s just a bit sad to say that chapter is finished. I miss the simplicity of life on the boat. Sure, it could take all day to do laundry, or go the the grocery. Sure, we only traveled at 5.5 knots . . . but so did everything else it seemed. Our adventure feels a million miles away!
I do have a constantly moving and growing reminder that we have a new adventure directly in front of us and we can’t wait for her to make her appearance. The kids will share a room and most everything is ready. The crib is set up, art on the walls and the dresser is getting full. Ethan is ecstatic and saving all sorts of things for his baby sister. As I write this I have an estimated 3 weeks left before she arrives.
Nick is still looking for employment. He has been busy with many projects and he and Ethan are woodworking machines having already completed a workbench with shelf, two wooded swords, a shield, added a slide to the tree house and many other projects.
Ethan has been busy enjoying his new found land legs. He explores and wonders all around the farm, especially loving to help his dad on projects and his grandparents in the garden. He started kindergarten today and he is very excited. He gave me a quick kiss at the door to his room, wandered in placing his lunch on the counter and settling into his seat – never looking back. Time goes so quickly!!
I’ve been busy growing a baby, doing some freelance design work, and getting us back on the grid, doctor appointments, school registrations, activities, etc.
It will be fun to see what is ahead for us and how things pan out. We are trying to soak up as much of this time together as we can, before we adjust to Nick going back to work, Ethan in school and the addition of baby girl.
We miss our friends we’ve made along the way and try to keep up with them as best as possible. We live vicariously through those who are still traveling!
After a week’s stay in Mobile, we left last Sunday to head up the rivers. Nick completed the new paint on the mast and built a great mast cradle for the ride up river, while I drove Ethan to his grandparents, all baby stuff taken care of and had a visit with the doctor. All is going well – I’m around 24 weeks and feeling good. Only complaint is it’s starting to get a bit difficult getting through the doors on the boat!! We did find out by default (received an ultrasound photo that had the sex) that we will be welcoming a baby Girl to our family!!! Ethan is very excited!
We’ve encountered quite a bit of downstream current from all the rain which has made for a slow go. Once we reached Demopolis, the current lessened and we have been making better time (lower part – 4.5 mph ; currently ranging from 5.5 – 6.5 mph). The amount of trash in the water has decreased as well and makes for much better travel. We made it to Columbus, Mississippi today and have stopped at the marina here to change the oil and take a bit of a rest. We’ll head out early tomorrow and see just how many of the locks we can get through in one day. So far timing has been great and we have not had to wait very long at any of the locks (we’ve made it through 4 of the 13 – then we’ll have 2 more on the Cumberland). Weather has been great – sunny and beautiful. We did get a bit of rain while in Demopolis, but while we were at the dock. We miss Ethan like crazy, but know he is having way more fun running around at both grandparents houses than he would on the boat for long days of motoring (and not a beach in site!).
We should make it to Green Turtle Bay by mid-week, get the mast re-stepped, then make our way on to Nashville.
Happy Memorial Day weekend!!
May 11
We stayed in Destin for just over a week. After my family’s visit we had some friends drive down from Nashville and had other friends who happened to be down from Knoxville on vacation . . . was so great to see some friends and catch up a bit! The weather was very windy and cloudy. We delayed leaving because of the forecasted wind on the nose, and almost waited until Wednesday to leave, but Tuesday morning we woke to a perfect forecast to make our run. “NW 10-15 changing to SW 12-17 in the afternoon, seas 2 ft.” So we talked with Silver Lining and decided to make a run for Perdido Key – 50 nm away. We made it out the very shallow cut (we saw 7 ft.) and started west with wind 10 knots on the nose. We continued to hope that it would actually shift to the predicted NW but never saw it. Instead, about 20 miles out the winds grew to 25 knots and had just the very slightest bit of South in the direction. So half way to our mark, strong winds on the nose, bashing through waves we made it slowly to Perdido. The worst of it only lasted about 3 hours, but it felt much longer. It slowed our progress so much that we made anchor with about 45 minutes of light to spare. We anchored and hit the beach with Silver Lining before having our fair-well dinner with them as we were headed to Mobile and they to Pensacola.
The next morning we woke early to get moving and make our 50 miles into the Dog River area of Mobile. All we saw was thick fog. We delayed for a bit, then saw it starting to clear so we decided to go ahead and start moving slowly down the ICW. The fog lasted for a few hours and when it finally burned off, it was hot! We made our way into Mobile Bay and were greeted by the very muddy water. Then we started seeing trees floating by and recalled the flooding at home. Rain up north will definitely play into our plans for heading up river.
We made it to Turner Marine around 4pm that afternoon and I got try my hand at backing into a wet slip. Ugh . . . I’d been avoiding this the entire adventure, but now was face-to-face with something I had been dreading. I would love to say that I gracefully defeated my nemesis, but that would not be the case. No damage was done and no one was hurt, but it was not graceful and I was happy that there were lots of hands to help out. We secured the boat, Nick passed out beers and we got settled in. Our friend Ryan was in town for work so we got to catch up with him as well and run a few errands too.
We were supposed to have the mast pulled yesterday, but because of storms that has been delayed to Monday. The lumber for the mast cradle will be delivered on Monday as well (thank you Lowe’s for free delivery!). Once pulled, Nick will start sanding and painting the mast and boom. Ethan is ready to be at his grandparent’s houses, and I have to fulfill some ‘red tape’ to complete my application for maternity coverage, so we’ve rented a car and Ethan and I will leave in the morning for a quick trip up to Tennessee. I’ll return Tuesday or Wednesday to help finish some details, then we will just wait for the rivers to get back to normal or close to normal pool for our trip upstream. Let’s just hope for no rain for a week or two : )
Things are progressing. It is still bitter-sweet as we start to say good-bye to our adventure.
s.v. Night Music 