The Great Loop

On To The Keys!

We leave the Florida mainland behind and cross over to the Keys, visiting Key West and Bahia Honda before an extended stay in Marathon.  Finally, we wrap up our island hopping in Key Largo as we start making our way back to Florida’s east coast.  

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Florida West Coast Waltz

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Continuing south down the west coast on the way to the Florida Keys, we start hitting the big cities of classic warm-winter Florida: Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, Punta Gorda, and Naples. We wrap up the west coast of Florida by traveling back in time in Everglades City and keeping an eye out for crocodiles at an anchorage in Everglades NP.

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Panhandle Promenade

Having completed the Inland Rivers, we slow waaayyy down as we enter the Gulf of Mexico starting with a stint in the boatyard ‘on the hard.’  We then relish being back on the ICW as we cruise along Florida’s ‘Forgotten Coast’ of the Panhandle while keeping an eye on a weather window to make ‘the

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Rollin’ on the Rivers – part 3

Started the Inland Rivers leg of The Great Loop from Chicago on Oct 4.   Part 1: Illinois River to Alton IL…  starboard engine problem limiting our speed.  Part 2: Mississippi and Ohio River… record low water levels and bigger locks and tows, and started on the Tennessee River and took a side trip on the

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Rollin’ on The Rivers – Part 2

Part 1 recap:  We traveled down the Illinois River, discovering along the way that our starboard engine had a problem and so were limited in how fast we could go.  We left off in Alton, IL, right before joining the Mississippi River.  In Part 2, we navigate the Loop segments of the Mississippi and Ohio

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Rollin’ On the Rivers – Part 1

The Inland Rivers segment of the The Great Loop starts with the Chicago Lock and driving the boat right through the heart of the city. It’s a whole new way of cruising and a rigorous schedule with travel almost every day.  Cold temps chase us, but we get to enjoy the fall colors along the

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Lumpy Lake Michigan

Back in the US, our last stop on Lake Huron is Mackinac Island.  From there we proceed south down Lake Michigan, starting on the Michigan side and then crossing over to the Wisconsin side to Chicago, our final destination on Lake Michigan. Weather proves our biggest challenge, and we get visits from old friends friends

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Canada Just keeps Getting Better

We travel through Georgian Bay and the North Channel of Lake Huron, some of the THE best and most spectacular cruising we’ve done, eventually crossing back into the US on the western end of the lake.  This was our first encounter with boating on the open water of a Great Lake,  necessitating some new skills

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Marooned at the big chute

  Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.        -Charles R. Swindoll The difference between adventure and adversity is attitude.    –Janet Evanovich August 19-25, 2022 There are times with the cruising lifestyle when things happen beyond your control that stop you cold.  Weather is probably

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