[Home] [Return] [About Pilothouse] [Basic Nautical Books] [Navigator] [Teacher] [Professional] [SOS] [Entertainment] [Search] [Order Form]

Home
Return

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

“Big Picture” Map


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

Interactive CD-ROM

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

Essential Guide

The Great Circle Route by Skipper Bob 9th 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.  
$18.00  T15352  

return to top

Narratives

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

Cruising Skills

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

When to Buy?

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

Click Here to
Return to Destination Map
 
Pilothouse Charts, Inc.
1600 South Delaware Avenue
Philadelphia, PA  19148
Updated on 07/20/2008
Phone:       215-336-6414
Toll Free:   800-40-PILOT
Fax:            215-336-6415

Email:        sales@pilothousecharts.com

Web site design by
F. Hayden Designs, Inc.
© 1999-2008 All rights reserved