Over 100 Locks and counting…
One of the necessary parts of navigating the Great Loop is the needed passage through locks. The exact number you will pass is dependent on the exact route you take. At a minimum loopers will pass through 100 locks spread across the different canal and river systems.
Heading North ~ Chesapeake to Canada
After a break at home welcoming two new grandbabies to the family we returned to the boat in Oxford, MD on June 5th and after a day reprovisioning we started the next leg of our journey. On this leg we traveled more than 500 miles up the Hudson River through the Erie Canal, across Lake Ontario and into Canada.
Winter in Florida
After nearly two months in Texas for Christmas and Thanksgiving with family we returned to the boat at Halifax Harbor in Daytona for the next leg of our journey.
Leg 3B ~ South for the Winter
After spending the month of October in the Chesapeake Bay we started seeing the weather change and knew it was time to head south for warmer weather and a place to leave the boat for the holiday months.
Leg #3A ~ Chesapeake Bay
Odysea II on the Chesapeake Bay
The third leg of our Great Loop Journey started with the Chesapeake Bay. We spent 38 days traveling a little more than 700 nautical miles (800 statute miles) around the bay. We first traveled from Norfolk to Baltimore on the western shore with a detour up the Potomac to Washington DC and then down the bay’s eastern shore back to Norfolk and then the Intracoastal Waterway to head south.
Leg #2 ~ Daytona to Norfolk
The second leg of our loop journey is now in the log book. We left Daytona Beach on July 19th and arrived in Norfolk on August 17th having traveled 759 nautical miles, NM.
What is the Intracoastal Waterway?
The Intracoastal Waterway, ICW is a 3,000 mile series of inland waterways that runs along the east coast of the US from Massachusetts to Florida and then again along the Gulf Coast all the way from Florida to Brownsville Texas.
Leg #1 ~ Fairhope to Daytona Beach
From mid May through mid June we completed the first leg of our great loop journey. We traveled nearly 1,000 miles along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway from Alabama through the panhandle of Florida, along the west coast of the Florida through the Okeechobee waterway then up the east coast of Florida to Daytona Beach.
Shakedown Cruise ~ Texas to Alabama
On April 18, 2023 at 7:00 AM we left Houston Yacht Club on our shakedown cruise down Galveston Bay then along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, GIWW through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi ending in Fairhope, Alabama on the shore of Mobile Bay on May 4th. In total we traveled 554 nautical miles burned 309 gallons of diesel. We stayed in marinas or at municipal docks 15 nights and 2 nights at anchor.
Preparation
From the time the boat showed up in Texas on March 24, 2022 until we left for the shakedown cruise on April 18, 2023 we were preparing the boat and the plan.
