What is the Great Loop???

In the previous posts we mentioned starting on “The Great Loop” in the spring.  So, what is the Great Loop?  Simply put, it is using various waterways to go around the eastern half of the United States with a side trip to Canada possible.  As you can see on the map, there are several route options to complete the Great Loop and, in addition, there are many side trips available as well.

Our plan, and it is a very basic plan with little detail at this point, is to leave St Petersburg, FL in April 2014.  We will head south and cut across FL using the Lake Okeechobee canal.  We will then turn north and use the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) up to New York City.   We will then continue north on the Hudson River until we turn west on the Erie Canal.  At the Oswego Canal we will head north again into Lake Ontario. 

At this point of the trip, we will have to make a decision based on how long it has taken to get here.  If we have time, we want to go across the lake to Kingston and take the Rideau Canal up to Ottawa and back.  If not, we will cross the lake to the northwest and follow the Trent-Severn Waterway to Georgian Bay and the North Channel.  From there we will turn south to Lake Michigan and follow the west coast of Michigan to Chicago.  The plan is to be off the Great Lakes by mid to late September.

St Paul Yacht Club on the Mississippi River

We then will go southwest on the Illinois River to just north of St. Louis on the Mississippi River.  The Great Loop goes south here; however, we are going to go north and take a side trip to Minnesota to visit family and friends.  If all goes well, after several thousand miles on the water and a hundred plus locks, we hope to be in St Paul, MN no later than the end of October 2014.  We will be leaving C.A.R.I.B. II at the St Paul Yacht Club, wrapped up and winterized, while the rest of us return to Florida for the winter.

We will return to St Paul, MN late spring of 2015 and will stay there until September, when we will leave to rejoin the Great Loop and complete it.  After heading south on the Mississippi River to the southern tip of Illinois, we will turn east on the Ohio River for a little bit prior to heading south again on the Tennessee River.  The Tennessee -Tombigbee Waterway will then bring us to Mobile, AL and the Gulf of Mexico.  The last leg will then be the Gulf ICW and then the crossing back to Tampa Bay and finally, St Petersburg, FL.

We are not alone on this adventure.  There is a great organization (America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association, www.greatloop.org) that has a wealth of information to help us accomplish this trip.  April 2014 will be here before we know it, so we are busy preparing C.A.R.I.B. II and ourselves for it.  We can’t wait for the adventure to start….