{"id":59763,"date":"2023-02-27T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/?p=59763"},"modified":"2023-05-08T11:03:04","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T15:03:04","slug":"cruising-life-navigating-the-great-loop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/cruising-and-chartering\/cruising-life-navigating-the-great-loop\/","title":{"rendered":"Navigating the Great Loop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Dismal <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n The 22-mile-long Dismal Swamp Canal runs between Virginia and North Carolina. <\/span>\n Phil and Karen Barbalace<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n\n

Phil and Karen Barbalace had different ideas about boating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Phil, who first hit the water in the 1980s, the experience was often about pushing limits. \u201cI\u2019m kind of a rough-and-tumble person,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I go sailing, I really go sailing. We bury the bow and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Karen, who grew up sailing around Annapolis, Maryland, on her father\u2019s Aquarius 21, boating was more about relaxing. \u201cI liked to go along and experience being on the water,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They married in 1986 and bought a Hunter 34, which they cruised around the Chesapeake Bay. They sometimes ventured a bit farther\u2014say, up to New Jersey\u2014but mostly, they stuck closer to home. Then, around 2006, Phil got into ocean sailing. He crewed on boats from the Chesapeake to the Virgin Islands and Bermuda, and was so enthused that he wanted to try similar runs with Karen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was just one problem: Karen had zero interest in more adventurous cruising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter the idea of the Great Loop<\/a>, which Phil learned existed from a magazine around 2010. The Great Loop is a series of connecting waterways that encircles half the United States. Cruisers can navigate from the East Coast\u2019s Intracoastal Waterway north to the Erie Canal and across the Great Lakes, then down the Mississippi River and across the Gulf of Mexico to Florida, and then back to the East Coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generally speaking, the loop is 5,250 to 6,000 miles, depending on the routes mariners choose. The starting point can be anywhere, the loop can be made in either direction, and there are options for offshoots into Canada and more. People have completed the Great Loop in everything from kayaks to 70-foot yachts\u2014anything that can fit beneath the route\u2019s lowest bridge, which has a clearance just shy of 20 feet on the Illinois River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Phil <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n The Barbalaces cross their wake in Florida.<\/span>\n Phil and Karen Barbalace<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

When Phil learned about the Great Loop, he and Karen had a 20-foot Sea Ray that they used for wakeboarding with their teenage sons. One of the boys went off to college in Florida, and Phil saw an opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their son trailered the Sea Ray to Florida, and Phil and Karen cruised the boat up the East Coast, back to Virginia. \u201cWe got on this boat with duffel bags, a cooler and folding bicycles,\u201d Karen says. \u201cIt had an open cockpit, you couldn\u2019t sleep on it, but we brought it all the way from Miami to Norfolk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along the route, which ended up being 1,095 miles, they stayed in bed-and-breakfasts. The boat did 26 knots, so they\u2019d cruise for two or three hours, then hang out at a hotel pool before going out to dinner. With a weeklong break for bad weather in North Carolina, the trip took about a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had done a lot of little bits and pieces of the ICW, just little day trips,\u201d Karen says, \u201cbut this was my first time really seeing this beautiful waterway, and I loved it. It was a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, the Great Loop became part of their plans. They bought a Mainship 40 for its flybridge and the master stateroom\u2019s walk-around berth, spent a year upgrading the electronics and getting comfortable aboard, and completed the loop in 91 days of cruising spread out over two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had perfect weather 89 days,\u201d Phil says. \u201cWe had rain two days. It was unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Tartan <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n The Woilers started the loop on a Tartan 34C.<\/span>\n Steve and Mary Ellen Woiler<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

And it was a totally different approach to the Great Loop than the one Steve and Mary Ellen Woiler took\u2014showing just how varied the loop can be for different kinds of cruisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Woilers live in Syracuse, New York, and have been sailing and racing on Lake Ontario for 40 years, mostly with their Niagara 31. In 2005, they bought a Tartan 34C with the idea of cruising down South. \u201cYou know how things get in the winter in the Northeast,\u201d Mary Ellen says. \u201cWe wanted to be two-boat owners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took them seven years to rebuild the Tartan, which they christened Seven Sundays<\/em>. They spent about $80,000, and Steve did the work himself. In 2012, they launched, and in 2013, they started making their way south down the Hudson River to New York City. They\u2019d cruise for a few months, leave the boat, catch an Uber back to their car, drive home for a spell, and then repeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt that point, we weren\u2019t doing the Great Loop,\u201d Steve says. \u201cWe were just puttering. It didn\u2019t matter how long it took us to get wherever we went; we wanted to check out every town and smell every one of the roses. We didn\u2019t even know the loop existed. Our only plan was to putter down the East Coast, find a place to put the boat in Florida, and maybe go to the Bahamas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somewhere around Fort Myers, Florida, they saw an ad for the Great Loop. They figured they were already halfway done, so they might as well go for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They joined America\u2019s Great Loop Cruisers\u2019 Association and started chatting with other loopers. They realized they\u2019d probably passed tons of them without knowing what the burgees meant. (White means loop in progress, gold means loop completed, and platinum means loop completed more than once.) And Mary Ellen decided that if they were going to complete the loop in comfort, they\u2019d need a bigger boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Eastbay <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Following their loop cruise, the Woilers moved into an Eastbay 40 for their future voyages.<\/span>\n Steve and Mary Ellen Woiler<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

The Cabo Rico Northeast 400 suited their needs, both for finishing the loop and for later use as a winter getaway based in Florida. \u201cThis motorsailer has inside steering, outside steering, air conditioning, heat\u2014it\u2019s a cottage on the water that sails,\u201d Steve says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They bought it in early 2020, christened it Remedy<\/em> and headed for the Great Lakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe actually did the loop in two different boats,\u201d Mary Ellen says. \u201cWe did the eastern part in the Tartan and the western part in the Cabo Rico.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They learned that having to take a mast up and down along the route was doable but not easy. \u201cThe few sailors that do the Great Loop, they ship their masts from Chicago to Florida,\u201d Steve says. \u201cI took ours with us, and I built the structure that would hold it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nine years later, they crossed their wake and completed the loop. Steve worked along the way at his careers in photography and insurance, and Mary Ellen took time off from her job as a nurse practitioner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were on the boat for four to five months a year, every year,\u201d Steve says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, they\u2019re retired and enjoying time with their grandchildren\u2014as well as moving into powerboating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their new ride is a Grand Banks Eastbay 40, also named Remedy<\/em>. They plan to use it for \u201cmini loops\u201d in places they missed on the Great Loop, including the Trent-Severn Waterway in Ontario and the Canadian part of the Great Lakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can do it any way you want,\u201d Mary Ellen says. \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful way to see the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bridge That Matters Most<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s located on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which is sometimes called the Chicago Drainage Canal. This bridge is the one that, more than any other, determines the maximum air draft of a boat doing the Great Loop (and thus, which boats can actually be used to complete the loop). The bridge has a clearance height just shy of 20 feet. It\u2019s a fixed bridge, and there\u2019s no other route boaters can take to complete the loop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As You Like It<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There really is no right or wrong way to complete the Great Loop. Some people save up time and money, and then do the whole shebang in less than a year, following the seasons in one direction or the other. Some people spend years or more than a decade going back and forth to their boats from home or working along the way. All that matters in the end is being able to say that you crossed your own wake somewhere on the route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tips From Experienced Loopers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The big piece of advice that both couples interviewed for this article offered is that you should do the loop in the boat and time frame that best suit your needs. Those needs, they learned, can change along the way. The boat you start out in might not be the one you finish in. The route you think you\u2019ll take can switch because of weather, reasons back home, closures for construction or\u2014heaven forbid it happens again\u2014a pandemic. Their best advice is to go with the flow, whatever your flow happens to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Great Loop can be done in all kinds of ways, on all kinds of boats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":59764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Kim Kavin","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"156","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Boaters Phil and Karen Barbalce, and Steve and Mary Ellen Woiler each completed the Great Loop in their own unique ways.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","sponsored_url":"","social_share":true,"ad_targeting":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true},"categories":[156],"tags":[193,218,192,2066,1084],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59763"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}