Printer Friendly Version - Astles' Couple Has Sailed and Seen It All Across America

Pictured here in the Benjamin Islands, Ivoryton resident Beverly Astles can certainly say she has never met a waterway she did not like-with her husband Dick, she has sailed more than 7,500 miles to explore some of America's greatest bodies of water.

When you hear about sites like the Potomac and Cumberland Rivers, along with stops of Prince Edward Island, you may think the conversation is leading solely into a biographical sketch of a long-time boater, but it is also the start of a story of an Ivoryton woman and some of the big destinations she has reached throughout her sailing travels.

For Bev Astles, the waves of adventure with sailing started on a motor trip to Maine in 1963 with Bev attempting to rent a small daysailer. Although initially refused the rental by a skeptic, she persisted and discovered the art of sailing with her husband Dick. Following learning and exploring the Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts shores for more than 30 years and then retiring in 1999, Bev decided to ride the wind and begin a journey that took her and her husband all along the United States' waterways.

"The person renting the boats refused to let me take a boat because he said I had no experience. So when we returned from our motor trip, I decided to buy a small sailboat, a Stout Fella Junior, which was a wooden 23-foot daysailer," says Bev on the early steps of her journeys. "Leaning to sail this was the beginning of our adventures. Since our retirement, we have done extensive cruising aboard our boat Shabu, gunk-holed along the coast of Maine, crossed the Bay of Fundy, and sailed the eastern shores of Nova Scotia as far as Bras d'Or Lakes. We also sailed the St. John River in New Brunswick as far as Oromocto and cruised the Intracoastal Waterway to Florida and back."

After cruising the coasts, Bev, with her other half in tow, decided to delve deeper inside the stars and stripes. By 2003, she learned of America's Great Loop Association and decided to explore inland lakes and waterways. The Great Loop is a passage up the St. Lawrence River, to the Great Lakes, and down the Mississippi River, then coming home by circumnavigating the Florida and up the eastern seaboard - in all, about 7,000 miles of travel. It was a trip that passed some of the most exciting sites in the nation.

"As part of the Great Loop Association, the opportunity to tour the Peterborough Lock during its 100th anniversary and to stand under an uplifted lock pan and see the mechanism which made this lock work for 100 years was an interesting thing," says Bev, who has owned Shabu, their 30-foot catboat, with Dick since 1984. "It was also great to ride in the carriage of the Big Chute, the lock which transports boats from one body of water across a road to another on the Trent-Severn Waterway. We also took side trips, up the Cumberland River to the Grand Ole Opry and the Potomac to Washington D.C., along with anchoring within sight of the Washington Monument."

Bev adds on the high points of the loop: "Touring Prince Edward Island by car and seeing the Bottle Houses, home of Anne of Green Gables, sailing under PEI's Confederation Bridge, the largest bridge in the world over ice-covered waters, and eating fresh caught oysters in Apalachicola, along with buying lobsters direct from the lobsterman in Maine."

The odometer did not stop for Bev. In summer 2011, she undertook another 2,550-mile sojourn called the Down East Circle Route, which entails going up the Hudson River and through the Champlain and Chambly canals and the Richelieu River to the St. Lawrence River. Following that, Dick and Bev turned east, stopping at Quebec City, taking a side trip up the Saguenay River, and then working their way down the Gaspe Peninsula to the town of Gaspe. Returning in the spring, they crossed further stops along the Northeast and Canada before working their way from Maine back to the Connecticut River. Not to be lost in the euphoria of taking such great journeys, Bev has used technology to preserve the moments for friends and family.

"We have compiled the highlights of both trips into one hour audio-video programs, which we have shared with local yacht clubs, power squadrons, community groups, and libraries," says Bev, whose husband is a past commodore of the Essex Boat Club. "We enjoy sharing our experience at no charge since we relive the trips each time we present them. We recently shared our Great Loop program at the International Nonsuch Association Rendezvous held in Greenport, Long Island and have been invited to give the program to annual meeting of all Bergen SEAS chapters in New Jersey next month."

With so many miles logged and even more memories captured, Bev has gained many great joys from something that she was almost talked out of nearly 50 years ago. It has given her new views on life itself while gaining the chance to share the ride with other individuals throughout encounters.

"During our trips our goals have been to enjoy the ride by traveling in good weather and not being bound by time constraints," says Bev. "Seeing the sights from the water gives an entirely different perspective. Traveling in this manner has given us many opportunities to meet many wonderful people."