Thinking Seriously About Doing the Great Loop

[1st Sail]

Mike and Sandy,
Note the pdf charts also include supplemental charts for each section. The supplemental charts include bridge and overhead H and V clearance data.

PDF chart link: Mississippi to Ohio index group 4
http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/NIC2/mrcharts.cfm

IENC chart link:
http://inland.agc.army.mil/enc/echarts/ ... equest.cfm

I use these with OpenCPN and work great. OpenCPN will also link charts automatically. Also the latest Navionics electronic charts now include IENC for the rivers.

Good news! I just downloaded the latest version of the IENC's from St Paul to Cairo. H and V clearance + .jpg images of the structure are now included. Previously the IENC data did not include clearance for overhead.

If you decide to do the Miss. Moline is 180 interstate miles from the Chicago Subs. in the event you want to tranport the trailer. From Moline north you enter the bluff region of the upper Miss. great river towns and history as well.
Hope you get to do the loop.
Dave

[Chinook]

It looks like I'll need 4 volumes of Waterway Guides, covering Southern, Northern, Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes. I plan on picking them all up, along with a guide for the inland river portion of the route. Regarding fuel, we have a pair of 12 gallon tanks on board, and I usually carry 15 additional gallons in plastic gas cans. This gives us a motoring range of between 200 and 250 miles, depending on speed and current. I've read where some power boats which are trying to run fast (25 to 30 knots), have had fuel capacity challenges, but at our pokey 5 to 6 knots, we can really stretch the range. And somewhere in that distance, we can usually count on a boost from the wind. I'll be checking out the chart download options. We've done that before with our laptop, using Maptech software, and it's worked well.

[DaveB]

This must be a dream,
If doing this requires going thru many locks, restricted canels and a adventure you have your heart set on.
Not only probable but the Mac. is perfect boat.
It's a very long trip that will strain your mind on constance navigation.
This trip is about navigating canals/ rivers most of the time.
Mind has to be navigating these water all the time and no autopiliot most of time.
If you are able and your beter half is up to it than go for your dreams.
I know of a few people that have done it in 34-40 ft trawles, read about a few much smaller boats.
Dave

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[kelseydo]

I first bought my X with the idea of it being a starter boat. A few years later I learned of the Great Loop and realized an X (or M) should be able to handle the trip with ease. A nice thing about the Loop is you can add and drop off family and friends along the way to share the trip. You can park the boat and fly/drive home for visits. You can spend time truly learning America. You can ... I think my X may be my last boat; kind of the Swiss army knife of affordable boats. Please keep us posted including your plans and ideas on how to make the trip.
Dan

[Sumner]

Do you have a link to an online map that shows the loop?

Sum

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Our MacGregor 26-S

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

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[Catigale]

Are we big enough to have a support structure of people along the way to help deal with emergencies...I certainly can cover Erie Canal from BUF to NYC

[macr]

I am currently reading a good book on this topic

Kindle version on Amazon for $0.99

"Skirting the Shore: Reflections on Sailing the Great Loop"

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Now there's an idea Stephen, we can be like the underground network in Germany during the war that helped out with all the Hogan's heroes escapes (yes, I know that Hogan's Heroes was a TV show but that this underground network really did exist..lol).

So good luck Chinook, hope it becomes a reality for you and you can visit me when you pass through Tampa

And Sumner, thanks for posting those navigation ideas, that Active Captain web site looks pretty cool. Too bad they don't overlay weather radar right on the map too!

And don't tell my wife, but I'd sure like to do the great loop some day too...but even a whole year may not be enough time for it. So far, I'm building up my experience by doing Florida cruises...when I do the East Coast trip next month, I think I will have covered all 4 corners during the last year!

[Jim Bunnell]

If you do the loop that runs through Detroit into Lake Erie, I'd be glad to be a resource. I'm based in the Northern Detroit suburbs, but could easily cover South-east Michigan and North-west Ohio. Looking forward to reading your experiences. I plan the same trip, but it will be a couple of years before I can go.

Good voyage, Jim.

[Chinook]

The idea of meeting up with folks along the way has a lot of appeal, hopefully not in the mode of dealing with emergencies, although they can never be ruled out. It would be fun to see just how many Macs from this board that we could meet up with on the water. Right now, I don't think we'd be taking the Lake Erie/Detroit route. I'm favoring the northerly options, up Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence to the Trent/Severn Canal. We really loved Lake Champlain and the Killarney area of North Channel when we sampled the sailing there in 2003. Looking forward to seeing more of those areas. We're also considering a Bahamas side trip once we reach the south Florida area. We've been through the Abacos, Berrys and Exumas, but have not yet visited Andros. This could be a great opportunity to explore Andros, before heading north. And thanks, MACR, for the reference to the kindle book. It looks like something to read while the snowflakes are falling around here.

[dlandersson]

Do you have a mule?

Are we big enough to have a support structure of people along the way to help deal with emergencies...I certainly can cover Erie Canal from BUF to NYC

[Seapup]

Should be fun, loved your Bahamas blog. I have been interested in the loop since I went to school in Oswego NY and watched the boats entering the canal from Lake Ontario. I have a copy of Honey, Let's Get a Boat... A Cruising Adventure of America's Great Loop if you have not picked it up yet.

March and April we keep our boat at Mile Marker 0 on the ICW right in downtown Norfolk, then just up the bay a few miles through November. We have done the ICW down to about MM70 through both the Dismal and Albemarle cuts, (great fun in the spring with all the other cruisers coming north) and also covered both sides of the bay coastline up through about 100 miles north of the bay entrance. (Tangier Island) We would be glad to meet up when you are coming through. If you prefer anchorages to marinas the best ones for the area are not in the books/charts since they are too shallow, but are perfect for the Mac. Let me know if you want any details when you get to that part of the trip.

[robbarnes1965]

The idea of meeting up with folks along the way has a lot of appeal, hopefully not in the mode of dealing with emergencies, although they can never be ruled out. It would be fun to see just how many Macs from this board that we could meet up with on the water. Right now, I don't think we'd be taking the Lake Erie/Detroit route. I'm favoring the northerly options, up Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence to the Trent/Severn Canal. We really loved Lake Champlain and the Killarney area of North Channel when we sampled the sailing there in 2003. Looking forward to seeing more of those areas. We're also considering a Bahamas side trip once we reach the south Florida area. We've been through the Abacos, Berrys and Exumas, but have not yet visited Andros. This could be a great opportunity to explore Andros, before heading north. And thanks, MACR, for the reference to the kindle book. It looks like something to read while the snowflakes are falling around here.

Our Neck of the woods is the St.Lawrence to the Trent-Severn. Sheri and I did the Montreal-Ottawa-Kingston-Montreal trip two summers ago and loved it. From that experience I would recommend bypassing the Montreal-Kingston route via the St-Lawrence seaway and taking instead the Montreal Ottawa-Kingston route and then continuing on. The Rideau canal is MUCH more interesting that most of the trip up the St-Lawrence, the current not as brutal and there are no huge lakers to dodge.

That said, it will be worth doubling back a little towards Gananoque around the 1000 Islands before heading back west. I have the Waterway Guides for the 1000 Islands and Seaway as well as the Rideau although a data plan for your tablet or smartphone will get you more accurate and timely info if you download the Us&Canada Navionics charts. I think it cost me $15 and it can layer Google maps on the land part showing you all relevant marinas, stores, restaurants that you would get using Google maps. The history in the Waterway guides is fun to have but you can probably find all the info online. When you pass by Montreal I can loan you the guides and you can drop them off at a marina that will keep them for us anywhere between Belleville and Quinte West.

I stole and edited Sumner's map to show our little area of expertise.

The Mac is perfect for the canals. I would rig a mast support to keep it horizontal but higher above your heads and ideally above the bimini though so you can still sail some of the really nice stretches of lakes and coastline but not have to dance around the mast to dock, anchor or pass through locks.

Don't worry about speed and huge reserves of gas. Canal traffic by definition is for powerboats and they need gas often. There are lots of places for fuel. Speed is not an issue. You will not get anywhere faster in a canal system moving at 60kts than you would at 6kts. The fast guys will all be waiting for you at the next lock for it to open. You will go a lot farther going slower.

[Catigale]

Mod....moved Chinooks post regarding canal passages

Chinooks post...


Regarding the Welland Canal, I believe we'll not need to transit it if we take the Trent-Severn Canal a little further north. That route puts us into the Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. We've sampled that area out of Killarney once before, and we look forward to seeing more of it, including Perry Sound. Our canal lock experience consists of going through the Ballard Locks from Lake Washington to Puget Sound, going through the pair of locks at either end of the Dismal Swamp Canal, and passing through the Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite Dam locks on the Snake River (between Pasco WA and Lewiston ID). Those three locks are designed to handle large commercial barges going up and down the lower Snake, and they were very intimidating. One of these locks (I think it is Lower Granite) has a lift of over 100 feet, and may be the highest lock lift in the country. The current when the chamber fills easily exceeds 4 knots, and Sandy and I had our hands full fending off with boat hooks. I forgot to raise rudders and centerboard at the first lock. Big mistake, since with fins down, the boat really got squirrelly in the current. Sandy had to fire up the engine to keep us pointed parallel with the sides. We learned quickly, and did much better afterwards. On the trip down, the river was in flood, with all gates at the dams spilling, because of a heavy rainstorm upriver. It was a wild ride, with the current running at 11 knots with great standing waves, once we exited the lock channel. Very much like white water canoeing. Thanks to the big outboard, the boat handled things very well. Biggest danger was the woody debris (translate: trees and logs) which we had to dodge. Locks offer all kinds of challenges, and we look forward to learning from the experience of others.




Moved mikes comments on Welland to his looping thread

[MadMacX]

anyone that is thinking about doing the loop in a sailbot should read about this trip http://pogopelli.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html it's not a mac, but I think it's a worthwhile read. The way the blog is laid out is kind of confusing at first, but you'll understand it after a few pages. what I liked was he posted his gps position for each days stop.It was this blog that got me interested in doing the loop in a sailbot, and caused me to purchase a mac, but my wife wasn't interested in doing the loop and asked me to sell my mac and buy a power cruiser. now I able to do the loop but not in my cruiser. oh sure it can pass everything on the water except the fuel dock, so now I'm lookin at macs again.When I do the loop I will be leaving from the same marina that the guy in the blog used. god luck to anyone doing the loop hopefully I might see you along the way.

regards,
pat