Daydream's Great Loop Blog!

jritsema":2lnnpvx8 said:
Pat and Patty,
You are probably already aware, but if not you may find the blog and book done by Derrek Baan very interesting. He and his crewmate Daveen just completed the GL in 2016. These are 2 Aussies that my wife Beth and I had the pleasure of accompanying for 4 days on the east coast of Lake Michigan. Derrick chronicles their adventure in a C-Dory 25 in the about the same amount of time you have allotted and likely the same float plan. He did submit a few posts on C-Brats a few months ago.

His book is available in hard copy or Kindle at this website:

https://www.amazon.com/Derrick-Baan/e/B ... sr=1-2-ent

He also did an excellent blog that you may want to reference, the link is here:

https://balakera.com/2016/03/page/4/

If you begin the trip blog in March 2016 in the Archive section, you will follow it forward from there. I would recommend at least getting the Kindle version for easy and enjoyable reference.
I look forward to following your blog- maybe we can meet along the way when you get north in a few months.

Best wishes,
Jeff Ritsema
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Jeff,

I bought Derrick's book, Kindle edition. I have been emailing back and forth with Derrick on a variety of topics, most recently getting gas in Cape Gerardeau, which they did at the Red Star Access Boat Ramp, delivered by the local Farm Co-op tanker truck! Also, the boat Derrick and Daveen cruised, Grace Full, will be our cruising companion with its owners, Flint and Leslie Firestone. It was only last evening Flint suggested in a phone conversation that we really should start at the Caloosahatchee River and not Apalachicola. Made sense to me!

Also, they made the Loop in five months due to a visa limitation - we are planning eight or nine months, so their schedule was a little tighter than ours!

Pat
 
Pat and Patti, I look forward to following your fabulous six month trek. What a journey! Bill and El, I really appreciate your suggestion to slow down, take it at five knots with one engine sleeping, and bring your bird book. My kind of cruising.
:hot

P.S. WildBlue, good job on protecting your beloved tabby buddy. Handsome critter, s/he.
:cat
 
Jeff,

I bought Derrick's book, Kindle edition. I have been emailing back and forth with Derrick on a variety of topics, most recently getting gas in Cape Gerardeau, which they did at the Red Star Access Boat Ramp, delivered by the local Farm Co-op tanker truck! Also, the boat Derrick and Daveen cruised, Grace Full, will be our cruising companion with its owners, Flint and Leslie Firestone. It was only last evening Flint suggested in a phone conversation that we really should start at the Caloosahatchee River and not Apalachicola. Made sense to me!

Also, they made the Loop in five months due to a visa limitation - we are planning eight or nine months, so their schedule was a little tighter than ours!

Pat
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I went to Amazon today for the Kindle version of this book and it says "This title is not currently available for purchase".
 
Catman":1b318rj8 said:
...

P.S. WildBlue, good job on protecting your beloved tabby buddy. Handsome critter, s/he.
:cat
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Brock, you may not remember this, but you had met Molly (that lovely girl) at Bellingham. A month or so later, we were locking through at Ballard, and you wound up rafted off to us.

I said, "Hi, Brock!" as you handed us your line... you saw Molly right beside me in the cockpit (she was almost always beside me) and said...

"Hey! You're Molly's parents!" :mrgreen:

Sorry for the hijack on Pat's thread, just a moment that has stayed with me 9+ years later.

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Pat. Wow is that a small world. Beth and I have been aboard Grace Full several times in different Michigan ports. I must say, Flint and Leslie, that you have a fine boat. She was in good hands.
Sorry to hear the Kindle isn't available. The blog is accessible and is also very good.
Jeff
 
ssobol":3rsii78p said:
I went to Amazon today for the Kindle version of this book and it says "This title is not currently available for purchase".
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I just bought the America'sGreat Loop, Aussie Style: for $4.99 in the Kindle book store. So it is available, if you have a Kindle...

It also shows up: here on a separate web site for the Kindle edition.

But not on the print edition site for the book--not sure why--but it is far cheaper in the Kindle edition...The kindle download is large because of the 500 photos.
 
P/P,

We'll be following your blog and progress. Great trip!

We met Flint and Leslie on the Erie Canal in 2015 - good traveling companions.

Does DayDream have auto pilot? ...Very handy.

Will you be using a SPOT or inReach during your Advenure? If so, please PM us your device address.

Best,
Casey&Mary
 
I'm very excited for you guys as cruising the Loop is a dream of mine. I'll be looking forward to the blog! Safe travels and God bless on your adventure!
 
PAT keep us informed when you are arriving in Sw Florida . We live in Naples and can meet up in Ft Myers (Start of the river ) Jim W.

Pat you could come a month earlier and make the St.Johns gathering in early March and then work your way back down
 
Pat,
I hope you and Patti have as much fun doing the loop as you are in planning for it. I thought I'd looked into a lot of things when planning my trips east but you are really digging much deeper.

I'd suggest you attend the Huntoon Island gathering as it gets lots of east coast boaters. East coast and Gulf coast boaters have different ways of doing things. I've attended several gatherings and I learned a lot in one-on-one talks with local c-brats. Topics like dealing with non-floating docks designed for much larger boats and boating in the shallow waters that we seldom encounter in the west.

We'll miss you at this winters Seattle boat show gathering and in the spring Friday Harbor, but we'll be reading your blog, so tell it like you see it.

Chuck
 
OK, I just published the second post on our blog! Find it here!

I have been having a great back-and-forth with Ted Stehle, editor of Skipper Bob Publications. He is a great person and has been very helpful!
 
Casey":1w0am8nt said:
P/P,

We'll be following your blog and progress. Great trip!

We met Flint and Leslie on the Erie Canal in 2015 - good traveling companions.

Does DayDream have auto pilot? ...Very handy.

Will you be using a SPOT or inReach during your Advenure? If so, please PM us your device address.

Best,
Casey&Mary
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Casey & Mary,

Yes, we have autopilot (a Raymarine S-1000), and will be using our InReach SE that we bought used from Jody Kidd!

Pat
 
jennykatz":2okjsznu said:
PAT keep us informed when you are arriving in Sw Florida . We live in Naples and can meet up in Ft Myers (Start of the river ) Jim W.

Pat you could come a month earlier and make the St.Johns gathering in early March and then work your way back down
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Jim.

We'd love to come earlier, but that can't happen because we are snowbirding in Arizona, and already planning to cut it a month short so we can be on the road in time to reach Florida by April 1st!

We should be at some marina on the Caloosahatchee on or around April 1st, give or take a day or two. PM me your cell, and I will give you a jingle!

Pat
 
hardee":1chyr5p7 said:
I just found a thing called "Great Loop Radio" a radio blog, and there is an interview with Tanya Binford here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/aglca/2016 ... g-the-wake

It is about 30 minutes long, interesting and informative. She makes the trip come alive.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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Harvey,

Great Loop Radio is part of the America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association (AGLCA), which we joined some time ago. I will give this one a listen!

Pat
 
Pat, Thanks for the link. I enjoyed the blog. You are a great planner and writer. Interesting. As to the Alligators, I have heard they are only a problem if you were sent to drain the swamp :wink: Might want to keep on of those crab traps handy, to keep Baxter in when you are going through the swamp, and place it low in the boat to keep him out of sight from water level :idea:

I will be watching your trip with interest. Thanks for sharing.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

JC_Lately_SleepyC_Flat_Blue_070.thumb.jpg
 
Might want to keep on of those crab traps handy, to keep Baxter in when you are going through the swamp, and place it low in the boat to keep him out of sight from water level Idea
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Yep, those big gators are going to jump in the boat and grab Baxter...Not...We had a neighbor who was convinced that one of the gators would jump out of the bayou and grab his boxer. He had a 4 foot sea wall, that gator would have to jump over! For the most part alligators are shy. If you respect them (its their land), no problems.

I have never used my PNW crab traps in Florida. Not sure they are legal here.
 
Pat, here is a web site of a couple that did the Loop in a Ranger 29, starting from Puget Sound. They too started the Great Loop in Florida, although a couple of months earlier and finished the trip in 10 months: Andiamo does the Great Loop . They went through Lake Okeechobee, avoiding Key West and the Bahamas.

Their earlier start allowed them to do more in Canada, going through the Trent-Severn Canal, etc. and still head south to avoid the cold. Also the early January start allowed them to avoid Florida in mid-summer, a good thing.

Boris
 
journey on":2gmlen4y said:
Pat, here is a web site of a couple that did the Loop in a Ranger 29, starting from Puget Sound. They too started the Great Loop in Florida, although a couple of months earlier and finished the trip in 10 months: Andiamo does the Great Loop . They went through Lake Okeechobee, avoiding Key West and the Bahamas.

Their earlier start allowed them to do more in Canada, going through the Trent-Severn Canal, etc. and still head south to avoid the cold. Also the early January start allowed them to avoid Florida in mid-summer, a good thing.

Boris
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Thanks, I'll take a look!
 
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