America’s Great Loop

Wikipedia: “The Great Loop is a system of waterways that encompasses the eastern portion of the United States and part of Canada. It is made up of both natural and man-made waterways, including the Atlantic and Gulf Intracoastal Waterways, the Great Lakes, the Rideau Canal, and the Mississippi and Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.^[1] The entire loop is approximately 6,000 miles long. ”

We will be circling counter clockwise, and skip the lower Mississippi and the Louisiana and Texas sections of the Intracostal waterway. For the most part we will be inland from the ocean and visiting towns and seeing sites along the way. We haven’t fully planned the route we will take yet, and don’t have a schedule yet either. But the map below has a good overview of our options. We are starting in lower Florida, along the skinny black line that indicates the Keys, so we have a ways to go to enjoy summer in New York, Canada, and the Great Lakes!

The map is provide by the AGLCA – America’s Great Loop Cruiser Association. We learned about the group which supports all of us crazy people traveling the great loop around eastern US and Canada, and joined. Members put a burgee (flag/banner) on their boat and make it easy to find “friends” along the way. We have the white one. When we complete the loop we can fly the “gold” burgee, and if we do it more than once, the platinum flag! The web site also has a valuable forum and all sorts of information which helps us all maneuver the Great Loop.