The Great Loop

This web site is an attempt to provide a quick and easy way for our family and freinds to keep up with us on "The Loop"

The Great Loop is a 6000 mile jouney down the Tennessee River and the Tombigbee Waterway to Mobile, Alabama. From there around the coast of Florida via Key West with a side trip to the Bahamas. Back to the coast of Florida we head up the east coast to the Chesapeake Bay. From the Chesapeake we continue up the east coast through New York Harbour, up the Hudon River, and across the Erie Canal. Through a series of canals we go across Lake Ontario into Canada. We will spend a month in Canada. Back to the US, we will cross Lake Michigan to Chicago. Following the Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, and Cumberland Rivers back to Tennesse.


LOOP CLOSED: 8/12/09: 310 days, 6170 miles, 107 locks, 3 countries, 16 states, 85 different marinas, 10,050 gallons of diesel fuel, thousands of photos, countless new friends, and priceless memories...

Monday, November 10, 2008

The Gulf





















Saturday, 11/8/08, we got an early start out into the Gulf instead of running the Intercoastal. This route took us about 20 miles offshore to Apalachicola for a total of about 170 miles in one long day. The Gulf was relatively calm and we set several GPS waypoints and used the auto pilot almost all day. We had the TV on watching college football as we ran parallel to the Florida panhandle shoreline. We saw several dolphins playing in our wake. We averaged about 20 MPH arriving at Apalachicola at almost 6PM. The marina normally closed at 5:30 but waited for us so we could buy fuel. We had great oysters as we watched the Florida game.
Sunday the forecast was not great for crossing the Gulf but we decided to give it a try rather than set in port all day. Seas were probably 3-5 feet with wind 12-15 MPH off our port stern quarter. We had spray on the upper deck windshield but not terribly uncomfortable. We took one wave that washed the upper deck and moved some furniture around inside. Again the GPS, radar, and autopilot performed great and took us on a direct course to Clearwater. We arrive in Clearwater at about 3 PM, fueled, and cleaned the salt off the boat. Finally back to civilization after a week on the Tombigbee. Not a lot of pictures for this leg of the trip since the wake looks the same for almost 300 miles in 2 days.
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