Browsing: Great Loop

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

The Best of Both Worlds: A Kadey-Krogen 39 in the Pacific Northwest, and a Ranger Tugs 27 Anywhere East of the Mississippi By Peter A. Janssen John and Laurie Gray could easily serve as role models for the rest of us. They keep their big boat, Tribute, a 2004 Kadey-Krogen 39 pilothouse trawler, at their home port of Everett, Washington, just above Seattle. And they keep Trilogy, which they call “our other boat,” a 2012 Ranger Tugs 27, on a trailer almost anywhere east of the Mississippi River, ready to go cruising when and where the mood strikes. The Grays…

Cruising Life
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Meet the Kenyons from South Dakota: About Half Way Around the Loop on Their Ranger 25

Tim and Mary Kenyon, from Wentworth, South Dakota, describe themselves as “water people.” She is now a website designer, and he’s a retired geologist, but when they were married they said the first thing they bought together was a canoe; then a Hobie Cat, a Balboa 16, and finally a Ranger Tug 21, all for use on Lake Madison nearby. Then they wanted a bigger Ranger, maybe a used 25. They went to the Seattle boat show in January, 2015, “with every intention of just looking,” Mary wrote on her blog. They ended up buying the new Ranger 25 on…

Cruising Life
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Trent-Severn Waterway: A Unique and Unforgettable Cruising Experience Connecting Lake Ontario and Lake Huron

The Trent-Severn Waterway, the 240-mile-long picturesque passage that connects Lake Ontario to Lake Huron through largely pastoral farmland and little towns in southern Ontario, provides one of the most unique cruising experiences in the world. Indeed, many cruisers who complete the Great Loop say it is the highlight of their entire 5,000-plus-mile trip. The basic route for the Waterway was traveled by Samuel de Champlain in 1615; he saw it as a way to provide a trade and military advantage connecting the two big lakes. After much debate, work on the Waterway, which starts in the town of Trenton, on…

Cruising Life
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Life on the Loop: An Alabama Couple Waits in Key West for Warm Weather on Their Grand Banks 36

So far, George and Meg Sanders on Viridian, their 1986 Grand Banks 36 Classic, have done everything just about right. A few years ago, they had virtually no experience on a boat of this size. Now they’ve put a few thousand miles under their belts and are waiting out the cold weather in Key West, ready to resume their voyage around the Great Loop in February. The Sanders, from Lacey’s Spring, Alabama, just south of Huntsville, decided they wanted to take a major adventure several years ago: The Great Loop beckoned. But first, they needed a boat. In June, 2016,…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Life on the Loop: Heading South for the Winter – Plus Brunch at Tacky Jack’s and Pizza and Popcorn for Dinner By Peter A. Janssen This is the time of year when the annual migration of cruising boats from the Great Lakes and Midwest reaches the Gulf Coast, having moved down the Mississippi and the Tombigbee, looking for warmer weather. The movement is timed to the end of the hurricane season, for insurance (as well as safety) reasons, and means that a large group of Loopers are now gathering in the Mobile and Pensacola area before cruising farther south around…

Cruising Life
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Solar-Powered Boat Completes the Great Loop – a First

A homemade 48-foot trimaran running entirely on solar panels, batteries and an all-electric Torqueedo propulsion system just completed the Great Loop. Jim Greer, the 75-year-old former filmmaker and captain of the boat, says it’s the first time a boat has done the Loop entirely under solar power. “With solar panels, batteries and Torqueedo electric motors, we were able to complete our travel days without any use of fossil fuels or plugging into marina electric hook-ups when we docked,” Greer said. “We don’t have a backup generator or power cords in case of emergency, and that’s the adventure of it.” Greer,…

Cruising Life
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Taking on the Great Loop on a 1960 Chris-Craft Constellation and Loving It

How’s this for a modern-day adventure, although with a tip of the hat to a golden oldie? Albert Bartkus and Cindy Chebultz have joined a growing number of cruisers who are taking on the Great Loop, and they’re doing it on a classic 1960, 50-foot wooden Chris-Craft Constellation named MissMarianne. And to prove they’re totally up to date, Cindy is taking pictures and posting them on their blog, lifeofacaptain, just about every day. They left Chicago, their home port, on Oct. 27, and figure that by the time they’re through with the Loop, plus side trips, they’ll cover 7,000 miles,…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

The Best Boats for Cruising the Loop: From 86 to 25 Feet By Peter A. Janssen The wide – and healthy – variety of U.S. cruising, particularly Great Loop cruising, has come into focus recently with two unrelated events. On the one hand, at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, Outer Reef celebrated the debut of its 86-foot Deluxbridge Skylounge yacht, designed specifically for the Great Loop. On the other, Pat and Patty Anderson, a retired lawyer and school teacher from Birch Bay, Washington, celebrated their completion of the Loop, after 226 days, on their 12-year-old, 25-foot Cape Dory Daydream…

Cruising Life
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The Andersons, with Baxter, Are Completing the Great Loop on Their C-Dory 25

Pat and Patty Anderson, of Birch Bay, Washington, are now well on their way toward completing the Great Loop on Daydream, their C-Dory 25, with their ten-year-old Lhasa Apso, Baxter. In fact, they’re now in Demopolis, Alabama, heading back down to where they started on April 1 in La Belle, Florida, on the Okeechobee Waterway. What is even more remarkable than the fact that they’ve come this far on their 12-year-old C-Dory, one of the smaller craft on the Loop, is the reaction of other people to their voyage. So far, the Andersons have had about 54,000 page views on…

Cruising Life
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Intrepid Cruisers, the Odendahls Create Their Own “Shoe Loop” on Their Ranger Tugs 25

Take a look at the map, above. Taking some poetic license, Cheryll and Rich Odendahl say it resembles a shoe. In any event, it traces a 1,240-mile voyage the Odendahls just completed on their 2008 Ranger Tugs 25, appropriately named Roam. And the Odendahls, who’ve cruised just about everywhere from Alaska to the Bahamas and Cuba, have named it the Shoe Loop. SHOE, Odendahl says, also is an acronym for St. Clair-Huron-Ontario-Erie. Intrepid travelers on land, air and sea, the Odendahls have visited 149 countries around the world, many since he retired in 2011 after working 30 years at General…

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