Our friends sent us off with a "Great Loop" pie.
We have not yet determined if it is having a your pie and eating it too, or if it is a pie in the vein of humble pie. We hope to be back on Bainbridge Island after our adventure, and provide a slice of Great Loop Celebratory Pie to all our island friends!
Dan grows a real beard.
The Gammel Dansk bow whiskers are removed. Bow pudding, or bow whiskers, were used by old-timey tugboats to protect the ships they pushed around the harbor. New working tugboats use tires or rubber bumpers. All Nordic tugs pay homage to the bow whiskers with wooden strips that appear in the shape of bow whiskers. The bow whiskers that Dan is holding are made with a kind of nautical knot tying called "marlinspike." It is a lost art, except if you were a hippie in the 1960s and learned how to macramé and tie cords and thick yarns into a fringe. We just extended that into bow whiskers and an old-timey tugboat look for the Nordic tug Gammel Dansk.
Mary Readying the Boat for Launch
Mary waves during the launch from the Baypoint Marina Boat Ramp into the Mississippi River at Red Wing, Minnesota.
