With our arrival to Jacksonville, we consider this 2018 Great Loop cruising season to be a wrap.
When we set off from Miami in April, we had intentions of making it to the Chesapeake by summer to escape hurricane season.
But fatigue from the months prior building up from Hurricane Irma, the submerged channel marker incident and a rapid RV trip to Texas caught up with us.
When we got to Ft. Pierce for a month long stay and took on a remodeling project that drug on – we knew getting that far north was just not in the cards for us. We were too exhausted, and just craving taking things slower.
We instead settled into a nice rhythm of cruising for a couple weeks and then finding a longer stay.
Repeat.
Sanity was regained after a couple weeks in New Smyrna Beach. We had time to let life catch up to us… finally.
We decided to take a gamble on hurricane season again by being in the prime zone, and set aim to head inland up Florida’s St Johns River for the peak of season.
We consider our arrival to Ortega Landing in Jacksonville to be the transition point between our Great Loop cruising season this year, and embarking on a side trip.
So from April 3 when we left Miami to August 16 when we pulled into Ortega Landing, we added 362.8 nm to our Great Loop mileage book for a total of 709.8 – we’ve now completed about 12% of the official loop path.
Yup, at this rate – we’re looking at a decade to complete the loop.
Eh, who cares. We’re having a blast!
To commemorate our 2018 Great Loop season, we just put together all of our time lapse video compressing over 60 hours of cruising into a mere 30 minutes. This takes you from leaving Miami to entering the St. Johns River in Jacksonville.
It’s all just tranquil relaxing cruising video – no talking. So grab a tasty beverage and sit back and join us for this cruise:
Here’s all of the individual travelogues segments from this year:
- Rendezvous in Jacksonville — Tides & Currents and a Rescue!
- Having a BALL in St. Augustine, Florida
- Oh No!! Bridge Closed — And Exploring Marineland, Florida
- One Week Turns to Five in New Smyrna Beach, Florida
- Cruising the Space Coast — Melbourne to New Smyrna Beach
- Ft. Pierce to Melbourne with Mom Aboard!
- Two Months in Ft. Pierce, Florida — Causeway Cove Marina, Tackling Boat Projects & Enjoying City Life’
- Continuing North up the ICW — Boca Raton to Ft. Pierce & the MTOA Southern Rendezvous
- Leaving Miami in the Rear View — Heading North up the ICW!
- Leaving Miami and Resuming our Great Loop Cruising Season for 2018!
- Miami the Hard Way — Boat Haul Out, Repairs & Living On the Hard
We intend to pick the Loop back up in Spring 2019 after we return from our RVing winter.
Current update:
We are presently a week into our St Johns River cruise after a 2 month stay at Ortega Landing. And let me tell you.. it’s AWESOME! We can’t wait to share this one with you!
Hi Folks, Happy Halloween! Hope the Sea Pirates treated you well! Went Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show Thursday, here are a couple of pics with the “WHY KNOT” T-shirt I wore! Oh well, can’t figure out how to add pics to a comment! Will try to email tomorrow! Happy Trails!
Loved the time-lapse video! I hope you continue to post those for the whole trip. I’m living this adventure vicariously through you. If you remember, back when you first posted about purchasing this boat I offered to buy it off of you when you finished the Great Loop. At the rate you are going, it looks like that’s not going to happen. I’ll be 68 next month and getting too long in the tooth for boating. 8^). As a matter of fact, Bev and I are also considering hanging up the keys on the RV in the not to distant future. We purchased a townhouse in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and I’m getting anxious to move on down there instead of just visiting our home there once in a while. We’re going down for a couple of months in Jan & Feb to hopefully finish furnishing it. After that we’ll be ready to start inviting friends and family on down. We hope you accept our invitation and find your way down there for a week or two. On us. You get there and we provide room and board (you’ll want to fly, not drive the rig). We’ll let you know when. 8^)
— jc&bev
Sounds like you’ve found your spot.. that’s awesome!
Thanks for the invite, never know when that might be feasible for us. For the foreseeable future however, splitting our time between the boat and RV takes up our travel planning & effort energy.
Of course. But the invite will still be extended, once we’re ready for company.
— jc&bev
Enjoy living vicariously through such an awesome Tech couple What an experience on an amazing American waterway Thank you for sharing Best travels ahead to you three Patty
And thanks for coming along for the adventure with us!
Spent a week on a houseboat on the St Johns. Natures alarm clock there are the Sandhill Cranes.
It’s so lovely here.. can’t wait to share the St Johns footage!
Take it slow, see the sites.
Exactly.. and we’re loving it!
Great way to watch your season of Looping! It was too early to make an adult beverage so I watched while having a cup of coffee and watching Morning Joe. Very relaxing to watch and interesting to see how the topography change from urban high rises and luxury homes to lots of open green space as you got north of West Palm Beach. Keep up the great videos and more importantly continue to have fun as you change over to the Bus! BTW I wearing your T-Shirt to the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show next week. With Peace and Love!
Glad you enjoyed the video.. and have a blast at the boat show!! If you happen to think of it, shoot us a pic of you wearing the shirt.