The Great Loop is the way to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime boating adventure. Boating the Great Loop boat trip is not for weekenders; it takes a fair commitment of time. The Great Loop takes you through a magical maze of some of America’s greatest and amazing waterways.
What is the Great Loop?
The Great Loop is a breathtaking journey that leads mariners through breathtaking waterways discovering the northeastern and southeastern regions of the U.S. and parts of Canada from the deck of their boats or their wheelhouses.
The Great Loop is a continuous waterway that recreational mariners can travel that includes part of the Atlantic, Gulf Intracoastal Waterways, the Great Lakes, Canadian Heritage Canals, and the inland rivers of America.
How Long Does it Take to Do the Great Loop?
How long it takes to do the Great Loop depends on the “Looper”, the moniker for mariners who have done, are doing, and will do the Great Loop. The Great Loop is seasonal. Loopers consider late June to early July the best time to start on the Great Loop.
The official Great Loop is 5,250 miles. Loopers report that a year is an average amount of time to expect to do the Great Loop. Loopers report 6,000 miles is the average length of the trip. They also report that the Great Loop has been done from a range of six weeks to 12 years.
It depends on which route you choose and which side trips you take, so the Great Loop can take on thousands of more miles. Most Loopers report their Great Loop adventure is about 6,000 miles in total. Some people cruise the Great Loop in increments and take the loop for a few weeks or months. They return home, take care of business, and go back for another segment when they can. It is up to you how long it takes to do the Great Loop.
The Great Loop Route
The primary waterways on the basic Great Loop route include:
- The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway
- The Chesapeake Bay
- The C&D Canal
- The Atlantic Ocean from Cape May to New York Harbor (or sometimes inland waterways through New Jersey)
- The Hudson River
- The Erie Canal (or a popular route option on the “Triangle Loop”)
- The Oswego Canal (or continue on the Erie Canal to Lake Erie)
- Lake Ontario
- The Trent-Severn Canal
- Georgian Bay
- Lake Michigan
- The Illinois River
- The Mississippi River
- The Ohio River
- The Tennessee River
- The Tenn-Tom Waterway
- Mobile Bay
- The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway
- The Okeechobee Waterway (or continue on the Gulf Intracoastal to the Keys)
The Great Loop Boating Map
How Do You Prepare for the Great Loop?
Let us talk about what watercraft you can use on the Great Loop. You can take on this journey in a canoe, kayak, or on a jet ski, or in an inferior watercraft that is not suitable for the exposed conditions. People have done so. No one should go on the Great Loop journey without an international understanding of the “Law of the Sea”.
To prepare for a journey on the Great Loop. you must know well—first and foremost—the “Law of the Sea”. The Law of the Sea is a body of customs, treaties, and international agreements by which governments maintain order, productivity, and peaceful relations on the sea.
On the Great Loop, you travel into Canadian waters and can enter international waters. For your safety, you must deep dive into what you need for you and who you are taking with you. For a voyage of this magnitude on a vessel, a great deal of preparation is mandatory. Take the American Red Cross Adult/Pediatric First Aid, CPR, and AED (automated external defibrillator) course.
A few important tips:
- Keep a log book.
- Study the international Rules of the Road.
- Plan your Great Loop trip in detail.
- Be prepared to handle medical emergencies; assemble your well-thought-out medical kit.
- Tighten everything that moves.
- Construct as large and strong a Bimini top with both canvas and netting for full and complete enclosure to protect you at the helm and any crew in the cockpit.
- Bring spares for all single points of failure.
- Equip your boat and crew with the proper tools.
- Always have a second and third way to navigate.
- Find out which marinas sell gas and diesel fuel, because not all marinas sell both.
- Your fresh water holding tank will never be large enough.
- Take a kayak or dinghy with you.
- If you do not have the will to kill someone, do not carry firearms for protection.
How Big of a Boat Can Do the Great Loop?
You can complete The Great Loop in almost any kind of vessel, whether it is a kayak, pontoon boat, sailboat, or 70-foot luxury yacht. The best boat for the Great Loop is what you are comfortable traveling on.
Smaller boats are easier to handle and maintain, plus they are more economical. Experts say that the best Great Loop boat size is between 28 and 38 feet, Many Loopers prefer to travel the Great Loop on board trawlers.
What Is the Average Cost to Do the Great Loop?
Fuel consumption and marina fees are the greatest costs on the Great Loop. Then you should think about your supplies like food and emergency repairs. Loopers like to run about 15 knots per hour, but there are times that they have to wait idling at locks and bridges. Loopers can stay in marinas for a fee or anchor out all night.
There is no average cost to do the Great Loop. Fuel prices fluctuate. Marina fees vary. There are a few free places to dock along the way, and most marinas offer free dinghy docks. It depends on the size of your boat, how much gas it uses, and if you plan to stay in marinas.
What Is the Best Part of the Great Loop?
If you ask google this question, you will come up with many different answers. The Great Loop boat route takes you through 15 states and two Canadian provinces.
If you ask 100 experienced Loopers, you will probably get 100 different answers. The Great Loop carries Loopers up the Atlantic seaboard, through historic canals, across the Great Lakes, and down the inland rivers to the Gulf of Mexico, and around Florida.
It all depends on what geography excites and stimulates your senses because it is a great journey with awesome sights and sounds. If you take the average year-long, 6,000 mile trip, you may have a difficult time deciding what is the best part of the Great Loop.
Can You Do the Great Loop Solo?
There is a group and a website for solo mariners, The Great Loop Solo Ambassadors. It is sponsored by America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association (AGLCA), which is headquartered in Summerville, South Carolina.
Yes, with no problem; there are many solo Loopers. Getting through the locks is easier with two people, though. You can always have your family or friends fly in along your journey.
Is the Great Loop Fun?
You can have the time of your life on the Great Loop. Loopers surely think the Great Loop is great fun. There is so much to see and do along the Great Loop of great fun.
Yes, tons of fun. You can learn about the history of where you are and visit the towns, go for hikes or bike rides, have fires on beaches, fly your drone for more pictures, meet other Loopers for drinks and meals, take your dinghy to the shore, and of course, go swimming.
How Many Boats Have Done the Great Loop?
Traditionally, retired Loopers do the Loop, and more recently, family Loopers have joined the retired Loopers. Families have learned that they can work remotely and homeschool their children. It only takes a dream to make an adventure and journey work for a busy family utilizing the internet of things.
Since 1906, no one knows how many boaters have experienced the thrill of the Great Loop. Fewer than 200 Loopers complete the Great Loop annually, according to National Geographic. The first documented voyage of the Great Loop occurred in 1906.
Scott Matthews, boat builder, took his family on the first logged Great Loop expedition in 1906. Bob Reynolds, Scott’s grandson, co-produced a documentary about that voyage. The Great Loop was never officially forged or constructed. It follows existing waterways mostly maintained by federal and state governments.
Before Scott Matthews, in the late 19th century, Ken Ransom, an 18-year-old sailor raised on the shores of Lake Michigan, was the first to see the potential for adventure in America’s nautical maze. Ken took off despite his mother’s dire objections with three of his high school friends in search of the Great Loop.
History of Ken Ransom’s Great Loop Expedition
Ransom’s goal: a full circumnavigation of the eastern U.S. In 1898 Ransom and his crew set sail in their handcrafted vessel, Gazelle. Gazelle turned the Ransom crew from brave, idealistic boys into hardcore men during their journey. Gazelle came in the form of a 30-foot white-oak sailboat.
The young men navigated the Great Arctic Outbreak of 1889, which showered ice into the southern Mississippi River. They lost themselves in Sanibel Island’s mangrove forest and had to hire horses to pull Gazelle onto the shores of the Erie Canal.
Ken Ransom blazed the Great Loop marine trail. He opened the waterway to Scott Matthews only eight years after the Ransom expedition. Scott, with much more boat engineering knowledge, built a better vessel for the voyage discovered by Ken and his young crew with their handcrafted sailboat.
Scott built an engine-powered 70-foot yacht. Scott took his wife and three children onto the Great Loop. In Scott’s expertise, sailboats had deep drafts and high masts, which proved to be obstacles and challenges on the Great Loop trail’s wide diversification of marine conditions.
In the end of their eras, both Ken and Scott opened up an American adventure that was almost like the Lewis and Clark expedition—never done before the European settlement of North America. Ken and Scott left America with a legacy that inspires mariners today.
