Great Loop 2023

[colbysmith]

Kieth, just for an idea of timing on the Erie Canal, feel free to peruse my blog here on C-Brats of our Erie Canal trip this past August/September.

http://www.c-brats.com/viewtopic.php?p=367175

We pretty much stayed on the main canal, except for a side trip down to Syracuse through Lake Onodaga, and also into Seneca Falls. Syracuse had the Erie Canal Museum, which was pretty interesting, but we enjoyed Seneca Falls and it's museums so much we spent two nights there. We also spent some time each afternoon in most of the towns we went through on the western Erie. Many museums and sights that we rode our bicycles to. But you can get to a lot of the places walking as well, just takes a little longer. Some days we only traveled 5 miles. But that was so we could enjoy the towns. The farthest we traveled in one day was 50 miles I believe. And it was a long day! What we missed on the way west, we stopped to see on the way back east. I would say our Erie Canal trip was one of our better vacations. Just enjoying the history of the Canal was worth the time we took. Colby

[gulfcoast john]

Hi Keith,
Stick with the free smartphone version of NEBO for now, until you get used to cruising with it. You may not need or want a log, or your plotter may do log for you.

The time and place on the Loop that I most wouldn’t want a 22 to be is the conventional Gulf crossing in winter. I assumed you wouldn’t want to be in FL in the heat of summer and would prefer not to take up room with a window AC with limited space on a 22. By April the arctic blasts are gone and the Gulf stream may be calm. Locals in Miami take jet skis to the Bahamas then. Panama City to the Hudson would likely give you the time to wait out any weather, and you’d avoid the FL summer. Upstate NY can still be cold in May. We think breaking the Loop down into segments is the best way to experience it (we’ve done half in five years, but we cruise the best parts multiple times). Pensacola to our Erie canal launch marina is under 1,300 miles; under three easy peasy days driving 500 miles a day @ 62 MPH with rest stops (Eileen doesn’t drive the rig).

You’ll be living almost on the Loop! Boston is only some 200 miles from the Loop, an easy three hour trip to the Hudson River. From there you can enter the Erie Canal at Waterford, or continue up into Lake Champlain (but doing the Triangle Loop counterclockwise means fighting the St Lawrence Seaway current, up to 8 MPH at the Montreal non-navigable rapids, so it isn’t done).

The Appalachia staging option (or Panama City, which is closer to the airport) would be a $350 flight from Boston per Rome2Rio.

Some questions so I avoid assumptions…

How important is it to you to ‘complete the Loop and get a Gold flag’ as opposed to doing the segments that most interest you over a few weeks at a time, over a period of years? The adage that ‘you want a boat you can be comfortable on for a year’ is valid for a cruise that on average takes about that long for most boaters. A CD22 is not a boat that MOST folks would be ‘comfortable living on for a year.’ (But hey, 31 flavors of cruising!) We’re comfortable on Cat O’ Mine for only six weeks or so…it’s like camping on a 26 foot floating RV. We wouldn’t want to be on our boat, or the great 65 foot David B, or even an ocean liner for six months, but that’s just us. We know a perfectly sane couple who lived full time on their CD25 for seven years. Are you planning on living on your boat continuously for four months while Looping? What is the longest you’ve been happy ‘camping’ on your 22 so far? 31 flavors of cruising! It could work out great, but we think trying to complete the Loop on a CD22 in four months is too likely to not be much fun.

Do you plan to mostly anchor out, or stay at marinas? Have you anchored out (always into the wind, of course) enough to be sure that wave slap, worries or swinging won’t bother you and the mate? Will you eat all meals on the boat, or eat all meals at restaurants, or unknown for now? If you plan on boat meals, what type of cooler do you use (many favor a chest ARB/Engle type 12v/120v so you can make at least some of your own ice, but it takes up some space in a 22). Your top three expenses will vary in order but will include boat fuel, marinas or meals and drinks. Tow truck diesel fuel is not likely to be in the top five cruise expenses for us @ 11 MPG, but prices are in flux.

What is your ballpark rig fuel consumption when trailering in ‘heavy cruise’ mode? What’s the furthest per day for multiple days that you have trailered comfortably? What is the boat fuel consumption and range at best cruise? (Colby will likely know; I’ve never run a 22). It’s always much, much cheaper to trailer a boat rather than cruise it on the water.

One particular cretin curmudgeon who Colby and Dr Bob knows claims that “The Great Loop is just a false contrivance so that people who own a boat that is too heavy, too wide, too fat and too tall to trailer it anywhere they want and launch it at any ramp they want 24/7 anywhere in the continent can still have an ‘Adventure of a Lifetime (™)’. Also, any Association that can figure out how to monetize a route on a map should absolutely, positively do it to the max, and they should take it to the bank in wheelbarrows.”

Eh? Yes, of course we are Lifetime Members.

Get the 3x27 Great Loop Routes (AGLCA/SHOP/BOOKS AND MAPS, it puts Planning in a Big Perspective. Your small part of the Wheelbarrow.

Be aware that if you cruise various bits and pieces or segments in whatever direction you choose, as long as it all adds up to a completed Loop on your boat(s) over an unlimited time period, it counts (assuming you even care about getting the Gold Flag).

Don’t answer here, and Jim can think about it, but call me any evening; my cell phone number is on the AGLCA site, though numbers not on our Contacts get diverted to voicemail. I also tend to (wrongly?) assume that the majority of C-Brats are grandparents on Social Security on a budget. I get the right Total Knee Nov 7, so don’t call until I’m off the oxycontin for the most erudite advice.

See the C-Brats Forums/Grand Adventures/ any Adventure posted by gulfcoast john including W Erie canal for past cruises. That one took us six weeks, which would translate to a Loop of over four years and may be a record. We are halfway at five years and yes it might take ten or more years. So what?

Keep exploring and considering your options…you have a LOT more options at less cost than the big boats! Doing a practice ‘mini loop’ from your Hudson launch point into the Erie Canal at Waterford to the end at Tonawanda one-way would be an extremely safe, easy, almost weather-proof trial run with nearby support when the NY canals open. You can Greyhound or Amtrak back to your rig (see Rome2Rio). Or if it goes well, sojourn onward!



Hope some of this is somehow helpful…
Cheers and safe travels and planning! Have Fun!

John

[Pat Anderson]

It is of course an individual choice whether to do the entire Loop all in one go or split it up. We did it all in one go, and are glad we did. It may depend on how far away your home port is. We live on the extreme Upper Left Coast (look at a map, Blaine / Birch Bay is about as far west and north as you can go). Plus we have such great cruising grounds here, we would not have wanted to leave Daydream in storage anywhere on the Loop and miss any part of the PNW cruising season!

[Pat Anderson]

[KFoote]

Colby and John,

Thank you for your observations.
I have a great deal to digest.

I'm going to print both of your messages so I can break them up a little to evaluate.

May All Your Seas Be Calm
Keith

[KFoote]

Hi SoBELLE,

I'm not figuring on a race. I have just been working to get a handle on time frames.

Gathering information for proper perspectives is one of the main reasons I have posted my plan to do the GL here and on the AGLCA web site.

Actually, at this time, I'm planning to break this adventure up into 3 parts.

I appreciate your observations.

May All Your Seas be Calm

[KFoote]

Back to the Nebo question.

I have begun playing with the free version.

Pretty neat. I sent the link to my oldest son who was able to down load it, create an account and tracked me while I was on Lake Washington, out side Seattle.

Still evaluating whether I will use the free or monthly paid version.

[Pat Anderson]

Patty and I had a nice long lunch with Keith today in Burlington, more or less half way between Marysville and Birch Bay. After going through his photo album this morning and talking to him at lunch, I can tell he already has all the knowledge, skills, and resources to do the Loop. He will figure out all the other stuff, it is little stuff!

[gulfcoast john]

Pat,

We think making six well marked left hand turns on protected waters while following a convoy is an almost unachievable navigational challenge that requires at least two 12 inch chart plotters and ten years. But maybe that’s just us.

Thanks for getting us started!

John

[KFoote]

It was GREAT lunch.

I am just beginning to digest all the great information they had shared with me.

Thanks to Pat and Patty I am feeling much more confident about my trip.
Also, thanks to Patty and Pat, I know that I don't need to schedule everything out. Just make a plan for the next day or so.

Keep working with "general" dates and goals.

Thanks again !!!
May all your seas be calm

[KFoote]

I live in the Pacific Northwest and am preparing to make the great loop.

several folks have told me I should get an auto pilot.

Does anyone have one for sale?

[KFoote]

It's been a few months of busy.
Got an AIS installed, an automatic pilot installed (Which is not working yet) and sold my dirt
House along with 90% of the stuff inside. What couldn't fit into one Uhaul pod didn't go!

Downsizing from a 3,000+ sq. ft home to one pod and what goes with me on the loop took a bit.

Right now getting ready for next leg of my adventure. In Gearhart Oregon with another friend, getting boat and truck ready for 3,000+ mile trip to Massachusetts.

My cousin Jack comes Thursday so we'll leave early Friday.

[DayBreak]

Keith, looks like things are coming together. Glad that getting Foote Loose ready for travel is coming together. We wish and hope for you the best and look forward to hearing from you in your travels. Thanks for sharing. Gary

[KFoote]

Thanks Gary !

[thataway]

Love it when a plan comes together! You are on your way now!