Our Great Loop Adventure!

Hello and welcome!  In just a few short months, Tim, and I and our black lab, Millie are embarking on the adventure of a lifetime and heading out on our American Tug, Observer.  We are going to be circumnavigating the eastern portion of the United States and Canada by boat on a journey called the Great Loop. 

The Great Loop, also known as the Great Circle Route, is mostly traveled counterclockwise, chasing the seasons.  The basic premise is to spend the summer up in Canada and the Great Lakes, head south along the inland rivers in the fall, winter in Florida and head up the east coast in the spring.

Our plan is to leave Danvers on May 22 (only 10 weeks from today!) and officially start the loop at the entrance to New York Harbor.  We will follow the Hudson River to the Erie Canal to Canada, over to Lake Michigan, down to Chicago, to the Illinois River which leads to the Upper Mississippi which connects to the Ohio River onto the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers and onto the Tenn-Tom River which will take us to Mobile, Alabama.  From there, we will cross the Gulf of Mexico to the Florida Keys with (hopefully) a side trip to the Bahamas before we head back up the East coast on the intracoastal waterway to home.  We have been planning this for 6+ years and are very excited (and beginning to be somewhat nervous as it becomes more of a reality)!  It is a very organized adventure with a fabulous community of likeminded travelers who all belong to the America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association so there is a lot of support along the way.  This trip can take anywhere from 8 months (rushing it) to 10+ years depending on side trips and trips home.   Our plan is to take about a year with Tim traveling home for about a week every few months to take care of business and other obligations. Millie and I will be joining him back home for three or four weeks around Christmas.

This all began when Tim and I attended a presentation at the Peabody Essex Museum many years ago by Nathaniel Stone who did the Great Loop when he was 20 in a rowboat.  It was subsequent to that we heard about the America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association (AGLCA) which we joined shortly thereafter. The AGLCA is a fabulous resource.  They organize two rendezvous a year, one in the fall and one in the spring.  (We have been to two and are planning on attending the next one in April).  Being members, we have access to discussion forums, radio podcasts, harbor hosts and many discounts. As an active looper, we will fly the AGLCA white burgee (flag) from our bow pulpit.  It is one of the best ways to connect with other current loopers on the water and in marinas. Once we complete the loop, known as “crossing our wake” (basically ending up where we began), we will be able to fly the coveted gold burgee.  A few people go even further and do the loop multiple times which affords them the luxury of flying the platinum burgee.

You can check  out the AGLCA website by clicking here.

I hope this helps explain what we will be doing for the next year or so. We are very excited to begin this adventure and hope you will follow along with us through this blog.