After 5 years of talking, saving, shopping and retiring, we are finally ready to put our plan into action!! We actually started The Great Loop, as this trip around the eastern part of the US is called, on May 31 when, after picking up our boat from her winter home in Westbrook, Connecticut, we rounded the Battery and passed the Statue of Liberty. We traveled up the Hudson River, across the Erie Canal, down Lake Erie, up the Detroit River, across Lake St. Clair, up the St. Clair River, up Lake Huron, through the Straits of Mackinac and down Lake Michigan to Port Washington. We arrived on June 22 and plan to leave again on September 3.

Our travels will take us down to Chicago, through the Chicago River to the Illinois River, down the Mississippi to the Ohio, up the Ohio to the Cumberland and then th Tennessee and Tom Bigbee Waterway to Mobile, Alabama. We'll cross the Gulf IntraCoastal Waterway to Carrabelle, FL and then cross the Gulf of Mexico to the west coast of Florida. We plan to be in Florida by the middle of November and to the Keys around the first of December. After a month or so in the Keys, we'll travel up the east coast to around Miami and then across to the Bahamas. We plan to be in the Bahamas for February and March, probably. Then back across to Florida, up the ICW to New York, and back home following the same route as this year. The map below details the trip. We will travel somewhere between 6000 and 7000 miles and plan to be home mid to late June, 2008.

Having said all that, boaters know that all plans are written in sand and are subject to change due to weather or whim. We will welcome any and all company, but be aware that flexibility is an absolute necessity!!

We hope you will follow along on our blog, which we will update as often as possible. We're thrilled to be starting our great adventure and look forward to sharing with all our friends and friends not yet met.