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.
A Month Meandering Around Florida in the Van
With Y-Not hauled out in Jacksonville for routine maintenance items (bottom paint, thru-hulls, anodes, etc) – we loaded up Blooper for some van adventures. We had anticipated that we’d only need to fill in a couple of weeks, but Lamb’s has been backed up and didn’t inspect our thru-hulls immediately. It was determined that a […]
Cruising to Jacksonville from Sanford Along the St. Johns River
We intended to depart Sanford sometime back in late January, head up to Jacksonville for some boat projects and then potentially head out on the Great Loop. But, life had other plans and we just weren’t feeling the call to leave Sanford quite yet. Winter is prime activity time in Sanford, with non-stop events that […]
Mobile Internet Setup Tour, RVillage End of an Era, Sanfording & General Update
Wow. I just looked at our last post, and it was just over two months ago. Oops. The lack of posting certainly doesn’t convey the abundance of activity in our lives. So the good news is the reason for our absence is simply because we’re having way too much fun. So first, let’s get […]
Happy Holidays, Family Sanfording Fun and Famous Tiny Houseboat AirBnB Tour
Seasons greetings friends! Wow it’s been a whirlwind since we ran our half/marathon almost a month ago! Things have been getting into the holiday spirit here in Sanford. Sanford is always full of surprises and non-stop events to attend – and the holiday season things get into full gear. First, a quick video overview (including […]
Turning 50 & Running the Space Coast Marathon
As I realized my fifties were getting nearer, a thought occasionally crossed my mind – was it possible that I could turn 50 and be in the best physical shape of my life? That theoretically was not too much of a stretch. I had always been way more of a geek than an athlete, and […]
Here We Go Again – Hello Tropical Storm / Hurricane Nicole
The last couple of weeks, we have finally gotten back to some semblance of normal here in Sanford after Hurricane Ian. The flood waters have been steadily but slowly receding, power was restored, water is back on and the marina has been able to resume pump out service. We’ve been enjoying ample Sanfording – with […]
Flooding Prioritizes Boat Electrical Upgrades – New Inverters for more Solar Efficiency
Our last post was on October 6 – just as we passed a previous record flood level from 1953 here at the waterfront in Downtown Sanford Lake Monroe ended up cresting at 8.96′ above normal on October 9th, and the waters have been slowly receding since then. We’ve been living in flood conditions for 20 days […]
Hurricane Ian’s Aftermath – Record Flooding at the Downtown Sanford Marina & the St. Johns River
Just a few short days ago, I ended our Hurricane Ian experience on a positive note with only slight mention of water rising here at the Downtown Sanford Marina where we are aboard our boat. Oh, how I’d love to rewind to those innocent days where a little water on the streets was all there […]
Hurricane Ian Report from Sanford (We’re Ok!)
Thank you for all the support and thoughts during Hurricane Ian. We’ve been busy undoing our storm preps and catching up on sleep, but thought we’d take a moment to check in. Quick answer.. everything is a-OK aboard Y-Not. She’s a champ. And so is her crew. We ended up riding out the storm aboard, […]
Preparing for Hurricane Ian (We’re Back in Sanford!)
A little bit of a diversion from the travelogue for a real time update. We returned to Sanford, Florida last week and are back aboard Y-Not. After a relatively quiet hurricane season, we of course have returned to Hurricane Ian. We’ve been fielding a number of questions on our status/plans. The track is looking to […]
Time for Summer Van Travels – Wrapping Up our Season in Sanford
And just like that, summer is solidly here in Florida and the temperatures are heating up. Our season back on the boat is coming to an end. This week we are getting the boat ready for longer term wet storage for hurricane season while we set off on some van adventures for a few months. […]
Retrospective: 2020 & 2021 – Setting a Foundation for the Future
I don’t have to describe the bigger challenges of the past couple of years. We’ve all gone through them. For us, it meant a more homebased life living aboard Y-Not in Sanford. Overall, despite the craziness of the world at large – we’ve been incredibly fortunate. All our years on the road gave us the […]
