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.
1 Year ‘Loopiversary’ – Why So Slow? And What Has it Cost?
Last month we toasted a year of owning our motor yacht Y-Not (a Bayliner 4788). And this week, we nod our heads to remember shoving off from Punta Gorda, FL to start our American Great Loop Adventure after spending several weeks learning our boat systems, getting training and deciding we were ready for our first […]
Leaving Miami and Resuming our Great Loop Cruising Season for 2018!
Now that our winter RVing season has come to a close and our bus is safely in storage in Texas – it’s time to get back to cruising! Our MINI Roadtrip took us back to Miami where we had left Y-Not after 5 weeks living on the hard to attend to damages from the submerged […]
Miami the Hard Way – Boat Haul Out, Repairs & Living On the Hard
In our last Great Loop travel journal we had just hit a submerged channel marker leaving the Keys and were starting our 25 mile tow to Miami. This chapter will wrap up our first cruising season, but there’s not much cruising to share – it was mostly of us living on land in our boat […]
A Challenging Departure from The Keys – A Tropical Storm & A Bump in the Water
When we last left our Great Loop travel journal, we had just left Marathon after Hurricane Irma and found a protected anchorage in Plantation Key to ride out the season’s first cold front. Now, another tropical system was brewing and on course to pass right over the Keys. We decide to seek out a sheltered […]
Saying Good-Bye to Marathon – In Search of a Protected Anchorage
We’re almost caught up! This post takes us back to Marathon post-Irma, leaving our new community and continuing the journey. Just one more episode (I think) and the travelogue will be almost real time again. Whew! Thanks for your patience with the constant shift in time line. When we last left our Great Loop travel […]
Preparing a Boat for a Catastrophic Hurricane – Hurricane Irma in the Florida Keys (And Happy end of Hurricane Season!)
First of all… a big ole WAHOOOOO for it being December 1st! The 2017 Hurricane season is officially over. And while the season is over, many are still dealing with the fallout of the major storms that made landfall. Power is still not returned to the majority of the islands impacted, people are still homeless […]
Hurricane Irma Evacuation and Return to Marathon, FL
This episode was difficult to create. It brought up so many emotions, especially with ongoing devastation from Hurricane Irma still being dealt with by many. It was a tough to go back and see ourselves processing the difficult decision of leaving our boat behind for a potential direct Category 5 strike. During this time period, […]
Arriving to the Keys – Pre-Irma Marathon
Ok.. time warp time again, this time taking you back to mid-August and our arrival to the Keys, and our time there before Hurricane Irma! I promise you, we’re working to get the travelogue caught up to real time! Thanks for hanging out with us! When we last ended our Great Loop travel journal entry, […]
They Say There are Two Types of Boaters… A Bump in the Water & Our First Tow
First of all, I apologize for the continual time jumping around in our posts. One moment it seems we’re leaving Ft. Myers, then we’re in the middle of a hurricane in the Keys, then we’re back in the Everglades in August, and now we’re skipping you back to present time in Miami. We’re trying to […]
Everglades National Park: Little Shark River & Cape Sable – A Big Storm ‘At Sea’
On our last post, we had just left the civilazation of Marco Island to start heading south to the Keys. We explored three amazing anchorages in the Ten Thousand Islands. Today, we pick up the journey and share about our next two stops in Everglades National Park. Keep in mind, this segment was in mid-August, […]
Returning to our Regularly Scheduled Content – Cruising Ten Thousand Islands
We have now been in Marathon, Florida for two months. TWO MONTHS!! Where has the time gone? Oh right, that little interruption we’ll just call Irma. We switched to real time updates during the evacuation, waiting for word on our boat and the initial recovery. And honestly, there was a span of time we didn’t […]
Moments of Normal Returns to The Keys: Burdines Waterfront Re-Opens
As we’ve passed the 1-month mark since Hurricane Irma struck the Florida Keys, folks here are still deep in dealing with the fall out. We’re in a location here at Burdines where we have to look harder to see signs of the destruction. Even the water is returning to that gorgeous green/turquoise color and marine […]
