Fun Side of Cruising

When cruising the Loop on the main & most popular routes, and cruising by the seasons at the recommended ‘Looper speed’, your total on route ‘cruising days’ will be very near 140. However, your days living on the Loop will be very near 330. This means you will have 190 days ‘not cruising’. The result is, you will need to spend about 47 days not cruising in each of the geographical areas to remain in each area for the safest & best of weather. While many of us make some short detours and side trips, most of this time is spent on shore seeing the sites. It is important to spend this time in each of the 4 geographical areas during its preferred best weather & boating season.

America’s Great Loop is much more than just a boat tide. It is actually much more like a year long vacation. You need to think about what you and your cruising companion will want to do on those days you are not cruising. Most of us plan to be at exciting destinations on the weekends. This gives us time to spend having fun ashore ‘being a tourist’. We plan our stops at nearby destinations that interest us the most, and those that have the most interesting things to do and see. Starting in Miami, we have 25 great destinations to visit including Cape Canaveral, St Augustine, Charleston, Savanna, Myrtle Beach, Morehead City, Beaufort, and Ocracoke Island. Then, we enter Chesapeake Bay where a boater could spend an entire year visiting such places as Washington DC, (the Smithsonian alone is worth a few days visit), then it’s on to Annapolis, Baltimore, Deltaville, Tangier & Crisfield Islands and the Solomons. From there, we’re got Cape May, Atlantic City, New York City, and who can cruise right by the Statue of Liberty and not visit Times Square, China town or Little Italy?

I don’t even have the time or space to tell you about all the incredible destinations that will tempt you off your boat to stop, shop, stay and linger in the USA, much less in Canada. Just know that we never cruise by over 100 of them without stopping. From Mackinac Island to that “Cheeseburger in Paradise”, I have long thought of writing a book entitled “Eating Your Way Around America’s Great Loop”. We never eat at fast food or chain restaurants on this voyage simply because the Regional Food Favorites in each area are too delicious to pass up.

The point is. . . You may think this is an epic boat ride, but it is much more than that on shore. When you reach these destinations, believe us, you will want to stop, eat out and spend some time at these places. We promise – America’s Great Loop never tasted so good as it did on our 2023/24 voyage. Everyone should plan sufficient ‘fun money’ in their ‘cruising kitty’ budget.

New Experiences: Locks, Lift Bridges, Swing Bridges and wait times, anchoring out in tidal waters and strong river currents, narrow canals, long no wake zones, manatee zones, and a few thousand miles of very slow speed limits. . . For most everyone this voyage will be loaded with new experiences. It’s the reason we often downplay the need for an over abundant amount of “experience”. It’s not that experience isn’t important, it is that we know from experience, almost no one has all the experience of cruising the Loop until they’ve done it. The most important aspect of cruising the Loop is simply to be a safe boater in a safe, suitable and seaworthy boat and know the rules of the road.

New Friends:  Another ‘new experience’ of cruising the Loop is meeting & making new friends. This is often the first time ‘couples’ meet others ‘as a couple’. Most often our friends knew us first before we were married. They were classmates or people we knew from work. Cruising the Loop, other Loopers will come to know you by two things: your boat’s name, and as a couple. It’s just another reason we suggest every Looper have ‘Boat Cards’. These are the non-Business Cards of the boat world. Your card should have your name, Home Port, Email, and your boat’s name, brand name & length. A phone # is optional. We exchange ‘boat cards’ with 50 or more Loopers every voyage. In addition, it comes in handy when checking in at Marinas, as it provides the marina with your name, contact info, boat type & length.

Cruising long-distance and living on a boat is an exceptional new experience for most every Looper. Great in many ways, not so great in many others. It can be a wonderful experience in the right boat, or a miserable experience in the wrong boat. For sure, it requires a lot of compromises and some major changes in one’s daily habits and attitude. It’s the simple things we take for granted on shore that don’t exist on a boat. Fresh water, especially fresh ‘hot’ water is unlimited on shore. According to USGS, a couple uses near 200 gallons of water per day at home. We don’t know of a single pleasure boat under 40-feet that holds that much fresh water. Most only hold 90 gallons or less. As a result, you will be stopping more often for water than fuel. Space is also a premium. You will never have enough storage space. Boats don’t come with a basement, walk-in closet or a 2-car garage. While many first timers look for a 40′ plus size boat with 2-staterooms and 2-heads, because they are expecting guests – that in fact, almost never ever arrive. It all the Looper’s boats we’ve visited, by default that extra stateroom and 2nd head has become storage space.

A popular Marine Store offers a “Washer/Dryer Combo” for $2,500. Installation including water and drain might cost you another $900. So, for $3,400 you can wash & dry your clothes on your boat. What a deal. . . Or is it?

Some Loopers have a washer and dryer on their boat. No one likes taking their dirty laundry to a laundry mat. We understand that. However, most every single marina along the way will have a coin-operated laundry room for you to wash your clothes. All it takes is a handful of quarters and detergent. If you put a pencil to buying and installing a washer/dryer, on a 330-day voyage around the Loop, if you do a load of laundry every weekend, it will cost you $80.00 a load, plus the cost of your detergent. If you’re wearing mostly Shorts & T-shirts as we do, it would be cheaper to just throw your dirty clothes away and buy new ones. But the REAL issue is the problems these unnecessary amenities on your boat create. At almost every marina we stop at, there is often a Looper waiting to get something repaired – that in fact, shouldn’t have been on their boat in the first place. For the most carefree, stress-free, trouble-free voyage, Keep It Simple Sailor! That goes for everything on and attached to your vessel.

How much does it cost? That is the #1 question on everyone’s mind, whether they admit it or not. Many potential and future Loopers ask that question right from the start. Some wait until the question doesn’t appear to mean so much – but it does. It is an important question to everyone, regardless the size of their bank account. While we believe this voyage can be affordable for most anyone, it is NOT cheap! It requires a respectable amount of money, and no one should attempt it without knowing they are able to complete it.

That was our mistake on our first voyage in 1971/72. While we thought we had more than enough to begin with, that 44′ twin engine “fuel breathing dragon” required so much fuel, it robbed us of all our ‘fun money’. As a result, the last 75% of our voyage, while exciting, was spent anchoring out the entire time, and saving all our money for fuel to get home. In the end, it inspired us to do it again, but in a much smaller more fuel-efficient vessel.

There are tons of ‘inexpensive’ good used boats on the used market. There are also ‘cheap’ boats on the market. We’re not talking ‘cheap’. You can find good quality boats, built by a company with a solid reputation for quality, and save thousands. There are lots of them that were built in the 60s, 70s, & 80s, and 90s that are still going strong. Unlike cars, on average most of these vessels (according to USCG stats), have been used less than 100 hours a year. That means there are 30-year-old ‘true trawlers’ with diesel engines out there with 97,000 fewer hours on their engine than those of a typical commercial fishing trawler being used today. I’ve made this voyage in nine different boats and never paid more than $36,000 for any of them. In 2001 my son & I bought a 30′ mastless sailboat for $3,000. We stripped & painted it, added new electronics, and motored it around the Loop on less than 950 gallons of fuel.

Since our third time around the Loop “Fun Money” has been our #1 biggest Looping expense. It is very reason for my “More Fun than Fuel” Looping philosophy. This is what allows us to spend more money on ourselves having fun, eating out and being a tourist, vs having to pour the bulk of our Cruising Kitty down our fuel tank and giving another Lion’s share of it to the marinas.

This voyage will take you to over a hundred incredible destinations. Most every single one of them and almost as many more between them, will tempt you off your boat to stop, shop, eat out, linger, and of course, that all cost money. Yes, there are tons of amazing ‘FREE THINGS’ to do on this voyage, but even the ‘free things’ have a way of costing money. We buy a souvenir, maybe a T-shirt or Ball cap, an ice cream, a soft drink, a cup of coffee, and probably stop for lunch or dinner. . . There are enough free things to do cruising the Great Loop – one could go bankrupt doing them all.

When cruising the Loop by the recommended seasons, ‘time’ will be your best friend. It will in fact, prove to be your most enjoyable and most indulgent luxury.

We encourage everyone to go ‘Looper Slow’ and not worry about getting anywhere fast. Cruising at Looper speed, which is near 8mph, the average voyage will be 140 days averaging very near 40-miles per day. That’s slow!

If you follow Capt. John’s recommended routes and directions as detailed in “The Looper’s Companion Guide”: You will only have 1 day you must you cruise a distance of 78-miles or 178-miles (your option) on open water crossing the Gulf. Only on 10 days will your voyage exceed 60-miles. On 23 days will your voyage exceed 50-miles, and on 106 days, you will be cruising a distance of 40-miles or less. The safest aspect of Capt. John’s route is that it leaves you at a safe anchorage or marina every single evening in time to get settled in safely before dark.

While this voyage only requires 140 ‘actual cruising days, we time our voyage to remain near 3 months in each geographical area. This gives us an average mid-70s summer temperature in the North as well as an average mid-70s winter temperature in the South.  With this method, we are not only cruising the entire way in the best of weather, but we also avoid the peak Atlantic Hurricane Season as well as the peak Tornado Season in Tornado Alley. It also puts us cruising down the Inland Rivers during the peak Fall Foliage.

Cruising 140 days at ‘Looper Speed’ is a very safe indeed.
* Depending on your route, you may only be required to anchor out in a dozen locations. We budget our Marina stays for weekends and no more than 50% of our nights on the Loop. As a result, we are at Free Docks or Walls 42 nights, and anchor out 123 nights. This saves us a bundle in Marina fees.
* You will need a minimum fuel range of 208-miles. We recommend a very safe fuel range of 275-miles.
* Only once, (crossing the Gulf), will you need to depart one destination before daylight to arrive at your next safe destination before dark.