Our First Post

KENNEBUNK MAINE, Greetings, this our first entry to a blog we are going to use to document our upcoming great adventure, the Great Loop. We have never done a blog and so this is a work in progress. I am hopeful it will get better as we learn what works and what does not, it is a place that will allow us to share our next year with you, our friends.

Why are you getting this….? great questions? You either expressed an interest in following us, or we for some crazy reason thought you might enjoy it. However, if that not the case please let me know, (jackfrostrogers@gmail.com) and I will remove you from the mailings. Conversely if you want me to add anyone to the list who is not getting it and you think they would enjoy the journey please let me know and I would be happy to add them. In many cases we had one spouses e mail and not the other, so we are happy to include all. You should have gotten a link from me earlier announcing that I published a new post and hopefully that is what got you here. If that process works, this is how I will notify you in the future, I will just send a group e-mail with a link. Again, if you want out just let me know as the last thing, I want to do is add spam to your inbox. If I understand it correctly all posts will remain on the Blogger site so if you miss one (OH NO!) you can find it again.

The plan

When we began to think about retirement 10 years ago, I suggested that we take an RV trip across the country and Meredith would have no part of that plan, none. So, she did her research and proposed “The Great Loop.” I had never heard of it before but how do you say no to your best friend suggesting we buy a boat and take it around the country. I am in…. (Kind of). My aspiration was to be a ski bum so in 2016 when I went into semi-retirement, she followed my dream and we spent 6 winters in Colorado at Beaver Creek. We were hoping to begin The Loop last year, but COVID closed the Canadian border, so we spent last winter back in Colorado. So, it is now time for me to put on my big boy pants and shove off.

THE ADVENTURE

Pretty much everyone knows what we are up to but the short story (I cannot tell a short story!)  is that Meredith and I are planning to begin the Great Loop on June 6^th, D-Day! That has been our target date since this winter, however we still have a few battery gremlins running around so it is looking more like the 8^th or 9^th but certainly by the end of this week we should be underway. The weather so far in May on the eastern seaboard has not been great, lots of wind, high seas, and fog. Not what you would consider great cruising weather. We are hopeful that June will bring a positive change to our weather pattern. We are hoping for fair winds, a calm sea and improved visibility as we depart our home port. Once we provision the boat and get the batteries working together, we should be good to go. My first shout out is to all The Raymond’s (Mary, Kylie, Nick, and Dwight) and the whole gang including Bob T from Performance Marina who have spent the last month helping Meredith and I prepare the boat for this voyage. We will be forever grateful for their help, support and hard at work getting us ready. We owe that crew a huge THANK YOU.

The great loop is a circumnavigation of the Eastern portion of the United States. It is a 6,500-mile voyage (ours will be 7,000 miles as we will begin and end in Maine) which includes six major rivers, three Great Lakes, two counties, eighteen states in the USA, and 150 locks in Canada and the USA. The top ten cites that we are excited to see by boat along the way in order of seeing them are: New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, Nashville, Miami, Savannah, Charleston, Washington DC, Annapolis, and Baltimore. Rather than repeat the same story I have told you all in person about what the Great Loop is below are three links that will give you probable a better overview of the trip

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Loop

https://www.americanoceans.org/blog/the-great-loop/

https://captainjohn.org/GL-2-Intro.html

The adventure is a little more challenging than Captain John makes it seem. I still am nervous about seeing a 1,200 foot long, 60-foot-wide tow / tug coming at us around a bend on the Mississippi river that is running six knots…. that is the stuff that wakes me up at night! I am also a little nervous about running out of ice, but in a pinch, I can drink Bourbon neat!

THE BOAT

The first great challenge once you commit to The Loop is what kind of boat do we want.? People do the loop on many types of vessels a few years ago at a Great Loop convention a gentleman was doing it on a Jet Ski, sleeping at hotels or his hammock! But the most common boats are Trawlers, Tugs and Cruisers.

We chose a cruiser, simple because we wanted the ability to be able to cruise at 18 knots if we wanted to get ahead of severe weather. We plan to cruise normally at 8 knots which is quite common on the loop, but in case we want to get to someplace quicker we can. The second reason honestly is I could not imagine spending a year doing only six knots (which is what most Trawlers cruise at) 😊.

We spent 3 years looking for our boat and decided on the 408 Meridian as it had more pros and only a few cons. Our must haves were: we wanted all stairs with tread and risers, no ladders, we wanted two separate state rooms each with a head, we wanted to have the main Stateroom aft, (did not want to spend a year with water slapping on the bow), we wanted the helm to be topsides so we didn’t have to drive from inside, we wanted twin diesel (they cost twice as much to run but if one goes down!), we wanted at least a bow or stern thruster (she has both), and we wanted a comfortable stateroom to hang out in on layovers, and lastly a good working galley, (Meredith is a great chief and I love to eat!).

We found our boat right here in Maine in Boothbay Harbor and bought her March of 2020 and this will be our third summer with her.

 

Meridian 408 Layout

What’s Next

 

Our plan is to begin our voyage this week and hoping the boat will be ship shape and the weather cooperative.

Our plan is to write a blog once a week so if all goes according to plan, we will send a link when published and you can read it at your pleasure. This is a learning process for me, and I must give a shout out to Matt Janes who is the man behind the curtain, Thanks Matt!

Hopefully, you have received the link to the blog and if you want to follow great.

Hope you all have a great summer, we will be in touch, Cheers!

Fair Winds