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.
Starlink & 5G – Future of Mobile Internet for RVers and Boaters: Are We Excited??
The internet is all abuzz about Starlink satellite internet and 5G cellular. Will these two emerging new technologies live up to the hype as a mobile internet solution for RVers and boaters? As part of our day job over at the Mobile Internet Resource Center we’ve been closely tracking both 5G and Starlink for years. We […]
General Update – Podcasts, Summits, Conferences… and Future Plans?
First of all, a big huge thanks for the outpouring of support from my last post on the Pandemic Blues. It was so heartwarming to hear from so many who were feeling similar things. I’m doing mostly better, most days. And it’s really hard to complain – despite running the AC here in Florida already. […]
Holding Still, Holding Firm & Grateful
Wow. Thanksgiving week, already. This year has both flown by, and drug on and on. And I’m sure many of us are looking forward to having 2020 in the rearview mirror. We’ve been pretty quiet these past months except for posts on Instagram and Facebook. Mostly because there just isn’t much to report. A food […]
We Miss Our Jacket – But Life Goes On (A Tale of Two Ducks)
2020 has been a rollercoaster of a decade. Wait. Year. It’s just a year, right? There’s no doubt the state of the world weighs heavy on many. Even if you’re fortunate enough to still have income and a safe place to live. These are tough times. And in tough times, little glimmers of joy become […]
Nomads on Pause: Our Longest Stay Yet!
Five months ago we arrived back to Sanford, Florida – a favorite stop in our prior travels that felt most like home to us. Effectively putting nomadic life on pause as we wait out the pandemic and the craziness of the world. This now marks our longest stay in one place since we hit the […]
RVing and Cruising During Hurricane Season
So here we are again, in the southeast on the precipice of peak hurricane season. Despite hopes and wishes, not only did the season not get rescheduled due to COVID – it seems like the months ahead are shaping up to be a doozy with nearly double the number of predicted storms. At this point, […]
Three Months Still – How We’re Mixing It Up To Keep Sane
When we pulled into Sanford back in late March, we knew we were here for the long haul. Even if the pandemic was appropriately flattened, we figured that would place us smack dab in the middle of hurricane season. Sanford, being pretty well inland in Florida is a pretty safe spot to be for the […]
Boat vs RV: Which Costs More?
Ever since we purchased our motor yacht to start exploring the Great Loop after over a decade of full time RVing – we’ve been asked the question “which costs more?” multiple times. Now that we’ve had our boat for three years (3 years?!?!), we have enough numbers to do a proper comparison of the typical […]
Marooned in Sanford – One Month Down…
Hard to believe it’s been a month since we arrived to Sanford aboard our boat. It feels like both a year ago, and a day ago. How weird time flows these days. I know we’re not alone in that feeling as each day seems like a repeat of the last. Earlier this week we were […]
Evolving COVID Plans – Return to Sanford, FL
In our last update, we shared we were back to cruising after getting our boat out of storage in Savannah and heading to our home state of Florida. We didn’t have plans beyond that, except perhaps anchoring out long term in social isolation. Quick Video Update Version: On our way, marina shuts downs and possible […]
Back to Boat Life – Our COVID-19 Isolation Cruising Plans & Resources for Fellow Nomads
What a crazy world we live in these days, and it’s changing faster than any of us can keep up. And while I wished we would wake up to discover we’ve all been tuned into the latest Netflix binge-worthy apocalypse series – it doesn’t seem that’s the case. We’ve been actively tracking COVID-19 since reports […]
A Month Docked in Downtown Charleston, SC
Ok.. time to do the time warp again as we get caught up on past due travelogues. This time, we’re taking you back to July. When the temperatures were spiking into the 100s and we decided to take out a sweet monthly spot in a marina right smack dab downtown in the awesome city of […]
