So I was looking around YouTube for something to watch that wouldn't get me all wired up. I do watch several Boating Channels: Gone with the Wynns, Cruising the Cut, the O'Kelly's, and Sailing Yacht Florence. All fun watches.
And there were some thumbnails under one of the videos. One of them said: "What is the best boat for doing the Great Loop."
Well, my old neighbor had done it when he retired. Over the years, I have met four other folks who have done it. And now, I can watch a channel where the guy just did it last year.
if you don't know what the "Great Loop" is, the map I Posted shows the most common routes. Basically, most folks start on the East Coast of Florida. Then they sail up to New York, cut across to the Great Lakes, and then down rivers to the Mighty Mississippi. Once there, they head across those deep Southern states and the West Coast of Florida, skittle through the Florida Keys, and head back to the port they started at.
Everyone I know of who did it, took at least a year. And what a fun year! All but one of them Retired, and then did it. The other guy stopped working and did it when he was only forty. Why? Because he was in a meeting when his 43 Year old boss, had a heart attack and died. So he decided not to put anything off. Got a fairly cheap costal Cruiser...and off he went. Loved it so much, he ended up sailing the Caribbean for a decade.
So I had a pleasant few hours looking at the kinds of boats that are perfect for doing the great loop. And a few videos that people shot while doing it.
Maybe some of you younger Vet's just finishing your 20 or 30 year Enlistment might want a nice challenge that is also fun. All of them felt one of the great things about it, is they divorced themselves from daily News. Just where to navigate that day, when to stop, and who to have dinner with. Apparently having a glass of wine, or a beer at the end of a long day of sailing - with friends you just met at anchor, or a Marina...is par for the course. Most of the talk is about maintenance, or anecdotes about locks, bridges, or dead horses in the water. So virtually no 'noise" from the outside world.
I never did it. I did see my neighbor's boat that he used for it, and had a burger and a soda while we went up and down a nearby river. But had I been younger...I think I would have "borrowed " his boat and set off on an adventure.
Fair winds, following seas, and tall bridges.