Our Loop is Complete!

After over 14 months (two months longer than planned and including two weeks in quarantine) our Great Loop adventure has come to its completion.  We cruised into Rideau Ferry Harbour on Tuesday, August 25 shortly after 8:00 a.m. So good to be home and to hoist the Gold Looper flag!

We celebrated that evening with a small group of family and friends.

It is so great to be together again with family!

We tried to keep busy during our two-week quarantine; one of the things we did was calculate some of our trip statistics. Some people like statistics and some people don’t – I hope you won’t find this too wearisome!

We travelled a total of 10,196 kilometres (6,335 miles) or 843 engine hours.  For comparison, in a normal summer season we do about 100 engine hours.

We visited three countries.

In the United States, we visited a total of 18 states. Each state has its charms but for scenery, we thought the best was in Tennessee.  My log book on October 8, 2019 states: ‘we went through the Nickajack Lock by 8:00 a.m. and then proceeded to have the most scenic cruise since we left the North Channel on Lake Huron in Ontario’.

Since we are located on the Rideau Canal we are well used to locks and we knew we were going to do a lot; our grand total:  146.  Our favourite was actually not a lock at all: Big Chute Marine Railway on Trent Severn Waterway in Ontario.

A close second was also on the Trent Severn Waterway: the Peterborough Lift Lock.

We didn’t calculate how many bridges we went under – but it was a lot!

We anchored 117 times – some remote…

…some not so remote.

We stayed 263 nights in marinas – some we don’t even remember and some we stayed so long we will never forget. Marina stays were our biggest expense. Although we stayed one month at Ocean Reef Marina in Lucaya on Grand Bahama Island and five weeks at Shady Harbor Marina in New York, it was the shorter stays that added up to the greatest cost.

We stopped a total of 32 times for fuel.  Total fuel: 15,479 litres (4,089 gallons). Fuel burn 1 ½ miles per gallon.  Cheapest fuel:  $1.50 per gallon (at two locations:  Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Portsmouth, Virginia).  Most expensive fuel:  Palm Cay Marina near Nassau, Bahamas $3.82 per gallon. Average price $2.74 per gallon.

While laundry was not our biggest expense, it seemed like I inserted hundreds of quarters into washers and dryers (I really missed loonies and twonies!). Most expensive laundry:  $11.50 in Bimini, Bahamas (that included wash and dry thank goodness).  Least expensive:  free – at select marinas. Most common:  $1.50 per wash, $1.00 to dry.

We were expecting restaurants might have been our biggest expense as Looping is a very social activity. The world pandemic effectively curtailed our restaurant spending. We rarely ordered out from March 13 to May 15 – the day that patio dining began to be available in Virginia. Best restaurant meal on the Loop:  Di Salvo’s Bella Cucina, an Italian Restaurant in Parry Sound, Ontario. Best pizza:  Great Harbour Cay Marina in The Berry Islands, Bahamas. Best view:  Boathouse Grille at Shady Harbor Marina.

We had a few new food experiences. In Canada: wild boar (at that restaurant in Parry Sound). In the United States:  hushpuppies (a fried dough concoction), oysters, crab (including soft shell crab), okra, southern boil (a stew comprising of sausage, shrimp, potatoes, corn on the cob all boiled together in one big pot). In the Bahamas: conch (we didn’t like conch salad, but loved conch fritters).

We enjoyed seeing the wildlife. We found the American Pelican not the prettiest bird, but it fascinated us.  It is beautiful when flying and amazing when dive-bombing for fish.

We were delighted with the dolphins which we started to see near Mobile Bay in Alabama.  We would count that as one of the highlights of our trip.

We could have done without the Asian Carp, but that is one of the stories of our Loop (one jumped over four feet and landed on our boat). Sadly no picture.

The most northerly spot we went was Sault Ste Marie in Ontario (right on Lake Superior). Staniel Cay in the Bahamas was our most southerly point.  West was Grafton, Illinois and East was Waterford, New York.

By chance the hottest and coldest temperatures we endured were on the Tennessee River. We had a crazy heat wave from Sept 28 to Oct 3, 2019; even swimming in the river was not refreshing – it was like jumping into a hot bath. On November 1 at Florence Harbor Marina there was enough frost on the boat to make a snowball. We also had very cold temperatures on Nov 14 and 15 on the Tombigbee River in Alabama; luckily we were travelling with our friends on DougOut and they had an extra propane heater which we used on the flybridge while cruising.

The strongest wind was at Staniel Cay in the Bahamas: sustained winds of 72 kilometres an hour. 

Lake Michigan (fondly called Lake Washing Machine by Loopers) had some pretty nasty winds as well.

We didn’t leave the boat often; only nine days in total.  Seven days in late August for my mother’s 90^th birthday; one day in December to visit our friends on DougOut in The Keys; and one night in late February at my brother’s rental condo in Lucaya, Bahamas.

When asked what the best part of our Loop is, we don’t really have to think too hard – it is the people. We have made some lifelong friends – both Canadian and American. 

We also met people who, though we will likely never see again, left a lasting impression due to their generosity and kindness to total strangers. 

The trip wasn’t all smooth. Obviously there were some disappointments:  the devastation of Hurricane Dorian caused us to change our Bahamas plans (original plan was to cruise the Abacos). However, this led us to meet some extraordinary people who we wouldn’t have met otherwise.  And see some sights we weren’t expecting.

A common question we get asked is would we do the Loop again. While we don’t expect to do the Loop in its completion again, we definitely will return to Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. It is so beautiful there and the water is pristine. You could spend several summers there and still not experience it all. We are lucky that it is practically in our backyard (only a two week cruise away).

While we saw a lot of beautiful scenery on the East Coast of the United States, we did miss seeing some interesting places due to the world pandemic. Too soon to tell, but a trip down the East Coast could be in our future plans.

Some things we learned. There are more nice people in the world than not nice people. We know more about boating than we did before the trip including: how to figure out weather, wind, currents and tide and when all four are involved how to maneuver that.  We learned about geography and history. The biggest thing we learned is that we can handle ourselves in messy situations and that we still like each other after over a year of living on a boat! We make a great team!

And so our journey is ended. We will never forget it and we have so many memories.

Signing off: Karen and Jacques.