Our Great Loop dream began when I saw in a doctor’s waiting room an article entitled “The Greatest Adventure You Have Never Heard Of.” That was just the kind of thing I was looking for to get my retirement off to a good start. I took the idea home to my wife, Linda, and she agreed right away. At the time, 2021, we were living near Charleston, SC, and enjoying our 23-foot Sea Hunt center console.
We started doing research, joined America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association (AGLCA), read books and Facebook posts, and generally got more excited about the trip the more we investigated it. We attended an AGLCA rendezvous in Ft. Myers, FL, in January of 2022 and started looking at different boats. We were hooked.
Finding our Loop boat
We engaged a broker to help us find the perfect boat and looked at several different types to help us zero in on the boat that would best fit our needs and budget. This experience and our research led us to the Mainship 390, which is one of the most popular Loop boats and at the time were rather hard to get. The Mainship was perfect for us because the living spaces were mostly on one level, with only three steps down to the staterooms and head. It also had a good-sized cockpit, so we could spend time outside, wide side decks, and easy to climb steps up to the flybridge. In October we found our boat in Mattapoisett, MA.
We had the listing broker do a video walkthrough and made an offer contingent on seeing the boat in person and a successful survey. I hired a surveyor to go look at it and give me his opinion before travelling there. He came back with a positive response after his initial assessment, so I decided to go up and witness the complete survey. We closed on the boat in late October, and I began purchasing the supplies we would need to bring her back to Charleston.
We hired a captain to teach me how to operate and do basic maintenance on her and teach Linda how to handle lines and other deck work. Linda and I arrived a few days before we were scheduled to leave and provisioned the boat.
The trip down to South Carolina was exciting. That late in the season, the weather can be unpredictable, and marinas start shutting down. We made it to Atlantic City, NJ, before the captain left us to go home for the holidays. With the captain’s agreement that we were competent enough to set out by ourselves, we waited for good weather and made the trip to Ocean City, MD, and Norfolk, VA, on the outside, and then traveled the ICW the rest of the way home. The whole trip took us about three weeks.
We obtained a slip in the Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina and spent almost every day working on her until we left for the Loop. There were no serious issues, but we wanted the engine checked out and made a few cosmetic and comfort changes as well as electronics upgrades. We renamed her Faith, performing the requisite renaming ceremony, and spent time planning and provisioning.
Slipping the lines
We left Charleston on April 15, 2023, and headed north with our Corgi dog, Bella, who became Bella the Boat Dog. She even had her own feature article every month in our local neighborhood magazine, Dunes West Neighbors. We followed the typical ICW route up the coast to the Chesapeake, where we met Aubrey and Terry Smoot on Shorebilly Too at an anchorage near St. Michaels, MD. It was their first day on the Loop, and we became good friends, meeting up with them repeatedly as we both travelled the Loop. (See their story in the November 2024 PropTalk). In Annapolis we spent a week or so on a mooring ball. It was graduation week for the Naval Academy, and we were treated to Blue Angels shows both from the Academy grounds and from the bow of our boat.
The most social thing you will do alone
A significant part of the Loop experience is the interaction with other people. When asked for the best thing about the Loop, most people say it is the people you meet and the friends you make. Loopers often share “docktails” in marinas. Someone takes the initiative and either puts out a Nebo (a boater communication app) announcement or knocks on boats and announces, “Docktails on B dock at 5 p.m.” Everyone brings something to share and a favorite beverage. Stories are shared and friendships are made.
Since everyone travels at their own pace and spends as much time as they want at each stop, Loopers tend to meet the same people over and over as they travel. We call this Loop Frogging, and it is one of the great things about the Loop. You are never far from friends, which makes the Loop the most social thing you will ever do alone.
A favorite section?
When people ask us about our favorite section of the Loop, we say that we don’t really have a favorite, but if we did, it would be somewhere between the entrance to the Trent Severn Waterway and Mackinac, MI. For us, those were some of the most pristine and beautifully scenic places we have ever been.
From Mackinac we followed the Michigan coast (east side) of Lake Michigan to Chicago. The water in the lake is crystal clear, and every little town along the coast was a joy to visit. The state has done a tremendous job of creating safe harbors about every 30 to 40 miles making it a true boaters’ paradise.
Inland Rivers… and Starlink!
The trip down the scenic inland rivers was uneventful for the most part. Paducah, KY, was a great stop. The city has a fantastic municipal dock with fuel, electricity, and water. The town itself is beautiful and very walkable. Linda especially enjoyed the quilt museum. Truth be told, so did I. We took a side trip up the Tennessee River all the way to Chattanooga where we spent five days visiting with my brother Craig and his family. Craig helped me with some minor repairs and the installation of a new radar and a Starlink system. Starlink is a game changer for Loopers as you can have full connectivity the entire trip without relying on unpredictable cell phone coverage. We got to see the sights of Chattanooga and my nieces and their families.
Crossing the Gulf
Most Loopers make a direct crossing from Apalachicola or Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs, FL, about 170 miles. This is the longest open water segment on the Loop and virtually the only time you are out of sight of land. Faster boats can make the journey during daylight hours, but slower boats like ours take longer. In our case it took about 20 hours. We waited in Apalachicola for favorable weather conditions before setting out. All the weather apps were wrong. Our pleasant crossing through one-to-two-foot waves turned into a washing machine ride of three-to-four-foot waves. Linda spent most of the trip in the salon while I drove from the flybridge. It was a very long night.
We left Apalachicola at 11 a.m. and arrived off the coast of Tarpon Springs just before sunrise. Upon arrival, we rafted with friends who were on one of those faster boats and had breakfast and coffee. The marina was nice enough to allow us to check in early, and we gladly got off the boat for a while. Bella was particularly happy as she held her bladder for more than 22 hours.
Anchorages versus marinas
Our decisions on an anchorage versus a marina had to incorporate access to shore for Bella. Anchorages provide the opportunity for peace and quiet, and are free, but for an anchorage to work for us, we had to be able to dinghy to shore. We were able to find many such places on the Loop, but sometimes we had to be creative as steep, rocky, or heavily wooded shorelines presented unique challenges.
Marinas on the other hand provide easy access to shore with most of them being very pet friendly. They also provide services that boaters need like fuel, water, and black water tank pump outs. Marinas also have the bonus of proximity to other Loopers and the camaraderie that comes with being in a group of people with a common interest and experience, but they come at a cost.
The holidays and on to the Keys
We spent several days in Tarpon Springs, which was part of our old stomping grounds. Having been married and lived in the Clearwater area for 15 years, we were able to share our knowledge of the area with several other Loopers. Moving down the coast we docked Faith at my brother Mark’s house just off the ICW in St. Petersburg, FL.
We spent Christmas with Mark and his wife and visited with another brother, Eric, and his wife, and my father, all of whom live in the area. We also met up again with Shorebilly. We spent New Years Eve on a mooring ball in Sarasota enjoying a fireworks show from the bow of our boat. Moving south, after a brief stay in Marathon, we headed to Key Largo where we spent six weeks docked near a local restaurant with live entertainment every night.
Amazing or crazy?
We made our way up the east coast of Florida strategically bypassing the ICW through Miami by going outside until we got to Ft. Lauderdale. We made another side trip up the St. John’s River near Jacksonville and spent some time with our youngest son, Andrew, and his wife, who live in the area—another great side trip and a chance to see more family.
We have two sons. The older one, Jason, thought we were crazy to be doing this trip. The younger one, Andrew, thought we were heroes and threw a party for us and several other Loopers that were in town so that he could invite his friends to see his amazing parents.
Crossing our wake
We arrived back in Charleston on April 20, 2024, a year and a week after we left. We entered the marina to a throng of family, neighbors, and friends hooting and hollering on the dock. After hundreds of dockings, I said a quick prayer that I didn’t screw this one up in front of all those people. I landed it perfectly and hoisted the gold Looper flag. A few cold beers and pizza in the marina clubhouse and our first Loop trip was in the books.
From gold to platinum
We are not done cruising! We plan to do the Down East Circle Loop, which will take us up the Hudson, through Lake Champlain, down the St. Lawrence Seaway, around New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, past the New England states, and back to New York. If all goes according to plan, we will leave in April 2025. Our Loop adventure was so amazing that we also plan to do it again and go platinum—Loopers who complete the entire Great Loop more than once may fly a platinum AGLCA burgee.
By Scott Sarine