Greetings from Captain Doug!

One item on my list is to navigate “The Great Loop”. The Great Loop is a system of waterways that encompasses the eastern portion of the United States and part of Canada. It is made up of both natural and man-made waterways, including the Atlantic and Gulf Intracoastal Waterways, the Great Lakes, the Rideau Canal, and the Mississippi and Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. The entire loop is approximately 6,000 miles long.

It is normally navigated counter-clockwise. For example, starting in Savannah, Georgia going up the east coast crossing into the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi and TemTom Rivers, Gulf of Mexico, around the tip of Florida and back to Savannah. We will be doing only about half the trip, hence the name “Half Looped”.

We plan on being on the trip a couple of weeks at a time having to come back home to handle business and take care of issues that may arise. I still have a consulting business to run.

I recently obtained my U.S. Coast Guard captains’ license this past year in Oriental, North Carolina. I equate this to anyone who has taken martial arts training like karate.  After about the 4^th lesson, you think you know enough to kick someone’s butt but actually, you know enough to get yourself in trouble because of that attitude. Even though I have been boating for many years and obtained my aircraft pilots license in 1977, I still have great respect for the weather conditions, the vessel and the stupidity of others.

The day will consist of being “underway” by 8:30AM, stopping for lunch and being docked for the day by 3:30PM. The weather and route will dictate how far we make it each day. Some of the trip is in the inter-coastal system which means inland waters and not out in the open ocean. We will be entering the Hudson River in New York to the Mohawk River into the Great Lakes. Exiting the Great Lakes in Chicago, we head southward down the Illinois River to the Mississippi and a short section of the Ohio into the Tennessee River. It promises to be a beautiful trip seeing parts of the United States from rivers rater than roadways.

Hope to here from you soon!