help with great loop charts ++++

G

Gene Morris

New member
Margaret & I are planning a partial great loop adventure this fall after we get back from SE Ak. We plan the Mississippi area in late summer to early fall Then to the east coast for winter. For those of you who have done this or researched it, what guides do you recommend? Did you join or get advise from the Great Loop Club? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Gene
 
Several years ago I was thinking about the Great Loop also. I found a lot of good information at the time by joining that club for a few years. Colby
 
Judy and I did the 2/3 of the Great Loop about 15 years ago. We didn't go down the rivers from Chicago to Mobile. Judy wrote the Great Loop Trip, on our website.

I remember that Skipper Bob guides were good and cheap. I'd get a set of those. And no, we didn't join the Great Loop Assoc.

A C-Dory is the ideal boat in which to make the trip. Preferable the 25.

Boris
 
You can get all of the Corp of engineers charts on line. These are the charts for the river. I have disposed of all of mine--unfortunately... I would save the Corp of engineers chart on your computer and use them there.

The Garmin Blue Chart APP with Active Captain gives you a huge amount of information. Navonics also has all of the charts, but I like the Garmin better.

Quimby's guide is the "book" for this part of the river systems. I have Fred Myer's
The Tenn-Tom Nitty-Gritty Cruise Guide I think I have all of the Skipper Bob's guides. These are available. But they will be somewhat dated. Skipper Bob passed on about 10 years ago, and Elaine sold the business to WaterWay Guides. I doubt that they do the extensive re-search that Bob did each year. (but I may be wrong).

There is also quite a bit or information on the Internet.

PM me if you want any of these --and there may be some "holes--or some of them may have been loaned out and not returned...)
 
Mary and I did about 1/4 of the loop in 2014, cruising the ICW, Chesapeake, Hudson River, and Erie Canal. We LOVED it and hope to be back there again in another year or two. In addition to using electronic Navionics charts on our Raymarine C80 chartplotter, we used their app on our Nexus 7 tablet. Having both is certainly not necessary but provided a nice ability to have one zoomed in on the immediate route while the other was set out more to give a broader view (anticipation) of the waterway up ahead.

We did join the AGLCA for that year and flew their burgee. I found the membership helpful to my learning of the areas, and it also provided a link to other cruisers when in a marina. We often had loopers stop and chat with us and that was nice.

As for cruising guides, we used the Skipper Bob publications but I actually liked the Dozier's Waterway Guides more. I bought the specific guide for each area we cruised and found them very helpful. We also used Active Captain. For transiting the Erie Canal we also used "The Cruising Guide to the New York State Canal System" published by the NY State Canal Corporation. While it was printed in 2006 it is still current.

Rob
 
In 2011 Penny and I were considering the loop so we joined AGLCA and attended the fall convention of the "loopers" which is held in October at George Rogers State Park on the Tennessee River in Alabama. We lived on Two Bears in the campground and after the convention joined some loopers cruising up the Tennessee River to Chattanooga, TN and back over two weeks. For us it was a great introduction to eastern boating, which has some real differences from our Puget Sound experiences. The convention provided lots of good advice about the southern half of the loop. We talked to a lot of boaters, those like us "planning", those part way thru the loop, and some gold and platinum "loopers." We learned about places that people wanted to return to or enjoyed the most included the Eire Canal, the Canadian Historic Canals, Georgan Bay and the Tennessee River. Where to overwinter in Florida was a major topic/ discussion item. Lots of mixed info about the Alantic Intercoastal, but that might have been because many came from there and it was "home" to them.

We decided that doing the loop at one time as a goal did not interest us, but we listened to what they said about places they had visited and wanted to re-visit. They were interested in us with a trailerable boat to avoid the many days and hours plodding along in the dull sections. We made some good friends and we still belong and receive the daily digest of the AGLCA forum. It's fun to spot a name from an encounter years ago.

After that trip, then a summer /fall loop trip to the Eire Canal/ Cape Hatteras, then the Apalachicola gathering in '12, and this year on the Mississippi River & Cumberland Rivers we have used Active Captain for most information. My chart plotter is Garmin and I have an I-pad with two different chart programs. The Garmin charts let me down this summer on the upper Mississiippi River when they did not show the wing dams. I had purchased "Garmin Lakes and Rivers" chip in 2012 and it was supposed to include all the inland waters in the US. I jumped the Garmin rep about that at the boat show last week, asking "what went wrong." We went and looked at the Garmin charts in the MFD in the show display. Guess what= they had the wing dams. His explanation was that as plotters hold more memory the special chips they sell can hold more and my 4 year old ones didn't cover that area, but today they do. Not very comforting.

There are lots of local area interest guide books. The big planning guide we have found useful is "Quimby's" (Google it) which covers most of the waterways in the eastern half of the country. It is mostly a listing of marinas. Be careful, they update it yearly, but if they info they send out is not returned they just reprint it again without checking to see if the company has changed hands or gone out of business. It is $40, we bought a 2 yr old one for half price from some locals, and it got us the basic info.

I think another way to say it is that all the guide books are great at home, but you can't carry them all in a C-Dory, so do some planning and depend on Active Captain when on the water. It is certainly the most up to date info you can get.

Chuck
 
Hi Gene
We did the loop in 2013-2014 and we recently were asked to give a lecture at the off site AGLCA seminar during the Seattle boat show.

First, you may want to consider starting in Chicago. There is nothing like going right through the center of Chicago (The Chicago Gorge) to start your river trip.

1. AGLCA: Even if you are not much for joining groups, join AGLCA and get the flag. The river system is were many of the loopers meet and establish lifelong friendships because you are all traveling together at about the same time down the river to Mobile. If you have the flag up there will always be someone banging on your boat to come to docktails and they will have lots of great information. Most importantly it is a great source to find used charts and guidebooks.

2. GUIDES: Skipper Bob is good guide and make sure you join Active Captain for the very latest information on anchorage fuel etc.

3. CHARTS: You can download the charts for free on most computer chart plotters, Garmin and the other you have to buy. Don't expect the charts you get to be like what you are used to on the inside passage...They are more like a general guideline. Even the channel markers are always changing and moving because the river is always shifting. We actually had both the paper charts and the Garmin charts to try and figure things out.

4. C-DORY ON THE LOOP: Here is the good news, if you are in a C-Dory, you will find a lot of people want to talk to you because your boat is so small compared to others. Also when they find out how little you draw most will follow you so you can tell them where the shallow areas are. You will be able to anchor in places others never even consider.

Have Fun!
Mike...(Currently looking for a TOMCAT on the West Coast)
 
Gene,

My wife and I did the "Loop" in 2012/2013. A fantastic trip. We were on a trawler, but saw several C Dorys doing it.

I spent over $1,700 on paper charts and the recommended guidebooks. In fact, we rarely used them. We had a Raytheon chartplotter/depth sounder, a cheap Garmin 400 series chartplotter and a GPS I-pad with a Navionics app and Garmin Bluecharts with Active Captain.

Hands down the Bluechart/Active Captain combination was the most used. Planned the next days travel in the evening and took the I-pad to the helm to start the day. the Bluechart ap came out as we got to the Florida panhandle. I promoted the app in every harbor for the rest of the trip. Cannot say enough about Active Captain.

Proper navigation says cary paper charts for backup, but todays notebooks and the nav aps that are available, at very reasonable cost, make a case for having electronic backups with redundant power supply. Popular cruising and passagemaking publications have discussed pros and cons.

Do join the AGLCA. Buy the burgee and fly it. It opens the door to comraderie and friendships that will outlast the trip. The Association also puts on frequent rendezvous for "looper" education and socializing. Their daily email forum is a good source of up to date info.
 
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