Very interesting, Gather that someone must be awake and on watch 24/7.

Fair ‘nuf. However, did you consider that the time for the OP to mention what it is might be orders of magnitude less than the time required for vast numbers of non boaters to look it up?

We've done most of the Great Loop. The only route we didn't do is the rivers from Chicago to the Gulf. There's a good chance we will do it this coming late winter / early spring. And we'd do it backwards as our boat is here in FL. Then we'd turn around and come back down the rivers, slowly... seeing everything we didn't see going up. Also thinking about taking a side trip up the Ohio River. If you have a boat and are thinking about doing the Loop, we'd love to hear from you. Feel free to email us at nc-mtns@att.net.

We'd sure like to know who the "Loopers" are who live in The Villages. We've done part of it... and continuing soon. Please email us if you know how to contact those in The Villages who are doing it... nc-mtns@att.net.

Thank you for being willing to talk with us! We will accomodate your calendar of course.

It was on our bucket list for a long time. We first retired on a sailboat and cruised it from Baltimore to Stuart, FL. We thought about it then, but dealing with the mast in the canal/river portions just seemed overwhelming. Now the sailboat is gone and we sometimes toy with the idea of getting a small, capable, power boat and doing it in stages. We lived aboard boats off and on for years and I no longer have the desire to be aboard for a year straight. If there is ever a get together of Loopers we would love to join in and hear their stories and suggestions on the logistics of doing it part time.