The
GREAT LOOP
Circumnavigating the Eastern States
Hudson River, New York and Ontario
waterways, Great Lakes, the great Western Rivers – Illinois,
Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee – and
the Tenn-Tom Waterway to
the Gulf of Mexico; then the Gulf Coast ICW to Florida, Lake Okeechobee or
the Keys to the Atlantic, and close the loop with a trip up the Atlantic
Intracoastal Waterway, the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, and the Jersey
Shore – wow!
It’s a grand trip, and a very
different way to see our country. Most of it – but not all – is in
sheltered waters. It’s a very long trip, and it requires careful
planning and good timing, as you move with the seasons.
"Big
Picture"Map Interactive
CD-ROM
Essential
Guide
Narratives
Cruising
Guides When
to Buy
click to enlarge |
Great
Loop Cruise Routes Map. 22
x 26 waterproof map showing the ICW, New York canal system, Great
Lakes, Mississippi River and tributaries, and the Tenn-Tom Waterway.
Every lock and dam is shown.
$19.95 T16930 |
 |
North America
Inland Waterways Map and Index, new from Euromapping. The
history and present status of all our inland waterways. Great planning
tool. 64 page soft-cover book with beautiful color. 39 x 27 fold-out
map.
$45.00 T1413 |
return to top
 |
What to Expect Cruising America's
Great Loop by Bob and Mavis Duthie. 2000 photos, 6 hours of
narration, 200 maps, interactive access, text search and note taker.
Windows and Mac.
$34.95 T5809 |
 |
The
Great Circle Route by
Skipper Bob 11th Edition, 2007.
A no-frills, fact-filled book packed with solid planning data
about seasons, timing, depths clearances, distances, navigating
conditions.
If you are serious about taking this cruise, this is one book
you shouldn’t be without.
Spiral-bound, 8 x 11, 112pp.
$19.00
T16688 |
return to top
 |
Honey,
Let’s Get a Boat… by
Ron and Eva Stob, founders of America’s Great Loop Cruisers’
Association. Revised
edition, 2003. This is
the book that has inspired many cruisers to load up and go.
Part narrative and part guidebook, it’s all well written,
well produced, entertaining and informative.
Many nice photos, both in color and in black & white.
PB, 5 x 8, 286pp.
$19.95
T2129 |
 |
Guide
and Companion to the Great Circle Waterway Beginning
their odyssey on the Mexican Border in Port Isabel, Texas, Peggy and
George share with the reader, not only their navigational
experience, but also the history, ecology, commerce, lore, and
cultural detail that makes traveling this fabulous waterway a
meaningful journey. Boaters
will also identify with the personal challenges the Yonges share
with them along the way.
PB, 5 x 8, 378pp.
$24.95
T17932 |
 |
A
Planning and Cruising Guide to The Great Circle Route Around
the Eastern USA by G. Bickley Remmey, Jr.
The second edition of A Guide to Planning and Cruising the Great
Circle Route Around the Eastern USA, documents a motor yacht “cruise
of a lifetime,” the 5,400-mile circumnavigation of the Eastern United
States. Author Bick Remmey refers to this voyage as “the longest
one-way inland cruise possible in the US.”
2007. 5 x 8, 218 pp. Second Edition.
$24.95 T16245 |
return to top
These
books are not about the Great Loop itself, but about skills that can make
cruising more enjoyable wherever you go.
 |
Cruising
With Your Four-Footed Friends
by
Dianna Jessie. 2003.
A comprehensive, caring, and practical look at the realities
of inducting your pet into life on board.
PB, 5 x 8, 198pp.
$17.95 T17525 |
 |
Call
of the Ancient Mariner by
Reese Palley. Don’t
let advancing age keep you from boats and the sea.
The focus is on offshore sailing, but the ideas are valid for
any boat, any crew, anywhere. HB,
6 x 9, 258pp.
$19.95 T7504 |
 |
Voyaging
Under Power by
Robert Beebe, revised by James Leishman. 1994 revision.
Classic guide to long-distance powerboating, inland and
offshore. HB, 7 x 10,
272pp.
$29.95 T11582 |
| |
Seven
Miles an Hour, retiring on a Trawler, with Cats. by Don
Wallace. Witty, but to the point. Good advice and true stories.
8 x 11, PB, 153pp.
$22.00 T16902 |
return to top
Should you buy all of your books and
charts before setting out, or piecemeal as you go along?
There are two schools of thought.
Here’s the “buy now” case, from
Skipper Bob: “First you should purchase the charts. Do that now. The
charts change very little from year to year, if at all. Wait to purchase the cruising guides until about two months
before you start your trip. This
will insure that you obtain the most current cruising guides.”
Here’s the case for “buy as you go”
as we wrote to a customer: planning
the Great Loop: “We do not encourage buying too far in advance.
Charts and guides go stale and become outdated; they are a stowage
problem; your preferences will change as your experience grows; and along
the way you may meet people willing to give you slightly used charts
either free or very cheaply, or on an exchange basis.
The
biggest reason of all is that you are likely to change your schedule, or
your routes, or both.
Many long-distance cruisers fall in love with a port of call, and
have difficulty getting away on schedule, if ever. Also, what you learn
along the way may tempt you to divert to visit new ports you hadn’t
planned on originally.
Even an old salt like Joshua Slocum
changed his mind. He started
out his circumnavigation east
around, crossed the Atlantic to Gibraltar, didn’t like what he
heard about the state of piracy in the eastern Med, and turned around and
re-crossed the Atlantic to continue west around.
(If you haven’t read Sailing
Alone Around the World you should – it’s one of the classics of
small boat literature.)
So the choice is yours.
Whatever you decide, we’ll be glad to work with you, now or
later.
return
to top
|
