What is the Great Loop?
It's a circumnavigation of the eastern part of the US by waterways. It's approximately 6000 miles (plus many opportunities for side trips). It's typically followed seasonally - winter in the warmth of Florida, spring traveling up the ICW, summer in NY and Canada and then fall heading down the riverways of the mid west. Many loopers complete it in a year.
Here's the official map as published by the American Great Loop Cruisers Association:
Some of our key Great Loop posts:
- Our Great Loop Plans
- Great Loop Boat Specifications
- Shopping for and Buying Our Boat
- Why we Selected our Bayliner 4788 for the Great Loop
- Tour of our Bayliner 4788 — Y-Not
- Sloopers Slow Looping: Eight Years on the American Great Loop and More to Go!
Our Interactive Great Loop Map
We set off on the Great Loop in April 2017, intending to completed it in 2-3 years, taking it slowly. When it gets too cold to boat, we planned to put the boat in storage and return to our RV-home waiting for us in the warmth of the south.
Reality has been - we just love living aboard & cruising in our boat, and are finding even a slower pace of travel is suiting us better. And of course, in 2020 the pandemic put us on pause for a few years having us turn back to a favorite side trip - Sanford, FL.
We officially returned to active looping April 2024, picking up where we left off in Charleston, SC later that summer.
We find we love actively cruising for a few weeks, anchoring out along the way. We're also frequently taking as many side trips as we can, and stopping in places many faster paced Loopers skip. And then finding our next cool coastal city with a marina with easy access to stuff and a great monthly rate.
Click on the area of the map you're interested in to start browsing our travelogues & videos about each stop (individual posts also at the bottom of this page).
The map & routing above is provided by the WordPress plug-in Nomad World Map that utilizes all of our blog travelogue entries.
Annapolis, Baltimore and More – Wrapping Up our 2025 Chesapeake Bay Cruising Adventures!
After Labor Day weekend was over (affectionally also known as ‘Nomad Liberation Day’) – we left the Chester River, re-entering the Chesapeake Bay. After a few weeks of poking around quaint small towns on the Eastern Shore of the upper bay, we decided we were ready for some bigger city life. And we had two […]
Eastern Bay & Chester River – Upper Chesapeake Bay Great Loop Cruising
We had explored just about all we could along the Choptank River on the Upper Chesapeake’s Eastern Shore, so it was time to transit to the next bay north. After some weather moved through, we ventured back out from Oxford (with a couple quarts of ice cream, of course) and passed through Tilgman Narrows. We […]
Choptank River Adventures – Upper Eastern Chesapeake Bay: Great Loop Cruising
After our highly social visit to Solomon’s Island after cruising back down the Potomac River concluding our adventure packed 40-nights in DC – we were now officially in the Upper Chesapeake Bay. And we had a choice. We could either continue up the Chesapeake Bay to explore Annapolis and Baltimore – or we could cross […]
Returning Down the Potomac River and Back to the Chesapeake Bay – Great Loop Side Trip
After our abundant 40-night stay in downtown DC, it was time to drop the lines, and start our cruise back down the Potomac River. As we had saved some other popular stops during our transit up for this return trip, so we were excited to explore some new-to-us areas as we made our way back […]
40 Days Docked in Downtown Washington, DC – Museums & Monuments Galore!
Our sojourn up the Potomac River had a destination at the terminus – Washington, DC. DC is quite the side trip off the official Great Loop route, but it has been a bucket list level visit for us. We’ve visited a few times in past by RV and train, but for just a couple days […]
Potomac River Cruising Adventures to Washington, DC – Great Loop Side Trip
After a couple months of cruising around the lower Chesapeake Bay and being in smaller quaint towns, we felt we were ready to start our transit up the Potomac River. For we knew at the navigable terminus, Washington, DC was awaiting us – and we’d be sucked into an extended stay. Plus, summer temperatures were […]
Cruising the Lower Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay – Crisfield, Pocomoke City, Onancock & Salisbury
Continuing our lower Chesapeake Bay cruising, we had just explored the Northern Neck and crossed the bay routing through Tangier Island. The goal was to spend some time poking around the Eastern Shore along the Delmarva Penisula. These adventures cover May 20 – June 8, picking up where we left with an arrival to Crisfield […]
Continuing to Cruise the Lower Chesapeake Bay – Wineries, Friends, Weather Windows and Crossing to the Eastern Shore
When last we left you, we had just left the Rappahannock River and made a last minute decision to anchor in Little Bay – instead of making a longer cruising day towards Reedville. This proved to be quite serendipitous, and lined up some stops we wouldn’t have considered otherwise. Our Slooper pace allows us to […]
Lower Chesapeake Bay River Cruising – The York and Rappahannock: Great Loop Cruising
Are you ready for some cruising content!? Good, because our 2025 return to the Great Loop is well underway, and we have a lot of adventures to catch you up on. We’ve come to say that boating is mostly awesome serene passages & anchorages, some fixing of things in exotic places mixed with moments of […]
Free from the Boatyard – and Back to Cruising! Our 2025 Intentions Ahead
And just like that, after 6 weeks of non-stop boat projects at Atlantic Yacht Basin – we have cruised away and resumed our Great Loop! If you prefer a video format, we also have this post filmed for you too: Boatyard Wrap-Up We tackled a lot of projects during our time at Atlantic Yacht Basin […]
Boatyard Life: Living on the Hard (Prepping for our Cruising Season Ahead!)
We’ve now been back to Y-Not at Atlantic Yacht Basin in Chesapeake, VA for just about a month now. It’s been a chaotic month with a lot of boat projects, which should soon be wrapping up. Last week, we were hauled out to attend to the jobs that can only happen out of the water […]
Exploring the James River to Richmond, VA (RVA) – Great Loop Cruising Side Trip
After a delightful stay in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, we had time for one last adventure this cruising season before winter arrives. We decided on a relatively rarely done side trip up the James River to check out Richmond, VA – or RVA as commonly called. The river is navigable about 90 miles […]
