Browsing: Great Loop

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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What Better Place?

Memorial Day weekend is the normal start of the boating season for a lot of us, but there’s nothing normal about the season this year. In many parts of the country, people are just starting to emerge from their stay-at-home restrictions, trying to figure out where and how to get back to their normal boating and cruising lives again. In the Miami area, some people had an early start. The boat ramps were filled, and overflowing, when the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted; the pictures were evidence of pent-up demand in action. It is a good time to have a trailer…

Cruising Life
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Parts of Erie Canal Set To Reopen by July 4

The New York State Canal Corporation just announced the schedule for reopening the locks on the historic – and much-travelled – Erie Canal and the system’s other canals in the state. The corporation said it planned to have most of the locks open by July 4, but some may not be open until much later. On its website, the corporation said, “Maintenance work that needs to be completed at specific canal facilities varies by location, and locks along the Erie, Champlain, Oswego and Cayuga-Seneca Canals will open for passage on a staggered fashion.” The locks had been scheduled to open…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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New Closings on the Erie Canal?

This isn’t good news for anyone planning on cruising the Great Loop or the inland portions of the Northeast this summer. Now, on top of all the problems with closings and delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it turns out that the Erie Canal might not open on time. The Canal, a historic 363-mile stretch from Albany, on the Hudson, to Buffalo, on Lake Erie, may not open as scheduled on May 15 because of delayed maintenance and repair work on seven locks there, starting with Lockport, at the western end of the canal, and running east. An eighth canal…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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Jock Williams, 80, Completes Down East Loop in His Stanley 36

Last summer, when he was 80 years old, Jock Williams completed the 2,700-nm Down East Loop in a Stanley 36, a boat that he built in his own yard in Maine. Now, Williams says he’s ready to go cruising again, although he’ll have to wait for the coronavirus pandemic to end. Williams, who owns the John Williams Boat Company on Somes Sound on Mt. Desert Island, is no stranger to cruising. (He’s on the right in the picture above, with Reg Elwell, a cruising companion.) Williams grew up on Martha’s Vineyard, joined the Navy after graduating from Colby College, worked…

Destinations
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New Chicago Transient Marina To Open at Iconic Navy Pier

Here’s some very good news for anyone cruising on the Great Loop or anywhere on Lake Michigan. Starting next year, a new transient marina will open on the north side of Chicago’s iconic Navy Pier, right in the heart of town, with access to all the city’s restaurants, museums, stores and parks. You can tie up there for a few hours, a few days, or even a week, and then enjoy everything that Chicago, one of the most vibrant cities in the U.S., has to offer. (Full disclosure: My very first journalism job, many years ago, was working for a…

Cruising Life
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New Challenges to Georgia’s “Draconian” Anchoring Regulations

Here’s the latest on Georgia’s controversial new anchoring restrictions, which went into effect on January 1. Ron Stephens, a veteran cruiser and a Georgia State Representative, has filed a bill in the General Assembly to address the worst of the restrictions. His bill would take away the power of the state’s Department of Natural Resources to determine where boats can anchor. And it would change the rule that prohibits anchoring within 1,000 feet of structures, including public and private docks, wharves, bridges, piers and pilings except in areas near marinas. His proposal would change that distance to 150 feet. As…

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard Ends Search for 3 Missing After Tugs Collide

The Coast Guard suspended its search for three crewmen who were missing after two towing boats collided at mile marker 123 in the Mississippi River near Luling, Louisiana. The collision occurred about 5:30 on Sunday morning. The Coast Guard says the towing vessel Cooperative Spirit was going upriver when it entered a barge fleeting area and hit some barges before colliding with the towing vessel RC Creppel. Four crew from the RC Creppel were thrown into the water. The boat sank in the river. A good Samaritan boat recovered one of the crew. The Coast Guard sent three search-and-rescue boats…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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New Erie Canal Report: A Problem for Loopers?

Earlier this week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed spending $300 million over the next five years to improve the historic Erie Canal. Some $135 million of this amount was earmarked to research recommendations made by the Reimagine Task Force, which dealt with mitigating floods, preventing invasive species, and restoring the canal’s ecosystem. Some of these recommendations could affect anyone cruising on the canal, including the great majority of people who are cruising on the Great Loop. Completed in 1825, the Erie Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Atlantic, an enormous boon to economic growth at the time. It’s…

Cruising Life
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Georgia Spells Out New, Restrictive, Rules for Anchoring Overnight

Georgia’s new anchoring rules went into effect on January 1, and they spell out where you can – and where you cannot – anchor overnight there. These rules, spelled out by the state’s Department of Natural Resources, will affect many cruisers traveling through Georgia on the Intracoastal Waterway or as part of the Great Loop. (You can see the DNR’s entire administrative order, as well as an interactive map showing anchoring areas, below.) The new rules basically prohibit anchoring within 1,000 feet of any structure, although they create new “marina zones” between 300 feet and 1,000 feet of a marina…

Cruising Life
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Army Corps Will Close Locks on Illinois Waterway Next Summer

Here’s some bad news for anyone planning for the Great Loop or cruising in the Midwest next summer. Many of the locks along the Illinois Waterway, running from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, will be closed for repairs and no vessels will be allowed through. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates the eight lock and dam sites along the Waterway, and it closed some of them for short periods of time earlier this year. It has announced the dates for major repairs in 2020 and again in 2023, and said that “during the scheduled closures, no vessels will be able…

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