[Chatbrat]

Did our first Loop in 1999-2000-with side trip to New Orleans & Texas--total 7700 miles

[twoplanekid]

I have looked into doing it but need a boat. Do you still have one? I kind of like the Nordic Tugs.

[Chatbrat]

No sold the boat in 2005--Tugs are great, was boating over 20 years before buying our trawler--personally would never own a single engine boat, our starboard transmission croaked in Alpine , NJ--took two weeks & $14K to fix with a replacement that had to shipped from Ft. Lauderdale--Mack Boring sent a mechanic to pull our trans & install the replacement

Zero problems with the engines after cruising over 30K miles--plumbing was always a "head" ache--solved most of them by making all heads fresh water flush

[l2ridehd]

Thought about it and even did some planning around it. At that time I had a 44 foot Jeanneau sailboat in the Caribbean. I did sell it in 2017 and was looking for a power boat to do the loop. But somehow decided to return to flying and that got in the way of boating. Can only justify one expensive hobby at a time.

Hummmmmmmmmmmmm, maybe I will fly the loop. That might be an interesting trip. Get an antique Aeronca or T-Craft and fly it low and slow. Stop at all the small airports and grass strips along the waterways. Now that is a plan worth considering.

[Chatbrat]

After the loop , next year went to Montreal, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Third year did the entire Erie Canal , Finger Lakes--all of our trips started from Fl & returned to Fl, 4th year bummed around the Bahamas and wintered in Key west, 5 th year ended up in New Bern ,NC- and stayed there till we sold the boat

[dhsmith]

We did the Loop in 2001 leaving from Englewood Fl and returning to Englewood. We spent 7 months doing the trip, the only problem we encountered was on 9-11 when the locks were shut down for security purposes.We did the trip in a 45 ft Bayliner Pilothouse model and it was a great live aboard boat. After the trip sold the boat and bought a motor home.

[Chatbrat]

We started in St.Pete--returned to St.Pete, just in time to vote in the 2000 election

[twoplanekid]

Originally Posted by l2ridehd

Thought about it and even did some planning around it. At that time I had a 44 foot Jeanneau sailboat in the Caribbean. I did sell it in 2017 and was looking for a power boat to do the loop. But somehow decided to return to flying and that got in the way of boating. Can only justify one expensive hobby at a time.

Hummmmmmmmmmmmm, maybe I will fly the loop. That might be an interesting trip. Get an antique Aeronca or T-Craft and fly it low and slow. Stop at all the small airports and grass strips along the waterways. Now that is a plan worth considering.

Had not thought about that! If others decide to do that, let me know as I do have a J-3 Cub and would love to fly with others as long as we don’t do it in winter.

[l2ridehd]

I agree that it should be a summer time trip. I did some chart work on it and you could do it easy in a month and a half with lots of time to site see and only fly about 2-3 hours a day. (150 miles per day average) Probably have a few days of bad weather and some maintenance along the way. But I really think it would be a very interesting trip seeing it all from a couple thousand feet. Looks to be plenty of airports along the route. Saw only a couple places where you need to go off course to find an airport. And with Uber and Lyft getting to a local hotel and back should be easy.

I think it's at least worth studying some more.

[graciegirl]

We have done the great loop many times; Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland.