Great Loop Cruise Planning: Introduction

In this first part of a multi-part series, I explain what the series is all about and why you should read it, especially if you’re new to long-distance cruising in your own boat.

Trip planning is an important part of preparing for and completing any trip, no matter how long or short, with minimal surprises or problems.

At this point, I’ve traveled about 5,000 miles — most of it solo! — in more than a year on my boat along America’s waterways on my quest to complete the Great Loop. I’ve also done another 2,000 miles over the course of several months with other captains in their boats. Along the way, I’ve learned a lot about cruising and planning for the kinds of things that might come up.

The Series

I’ve decided to share what I’ve learned with readers. I expect this series of posts to have the following parts:

• Introduction — this post, which explains what the series is all about and what you can expect to learn.
• Part 1: Long Term Planning — a guide to planning out an entire trip, from start to finish.
• Part 2: Medium Term Planning — a guide to planning segments of a trip, either geographically or by chunks of calendar time. While a little more detailed than long term planning, this is more of a general idea of where you expect to be at certain times along the way.
• Part 3: Short Term Planning — a guide to planning 7 to 10 days in advance. This is something I do at least once a week.
• Part 4: Daily Planning — a guide to planning each and every day of your trip, either the evening before or the day of the trip. This might be the most important plan of all.
• Part 5: Changing Plans on the Go — a guide to being flexible and making changes to your plans as necessary as situations change.

In this series, I focus on the trip I’m doing now: the Great Loop. But you should be able to apply a lot of what I cover to other long trips in your boat. (And, with a little imagination, you can apply it to any long trip you do, whether it’s a road trip or an RV trip or even a trip where your transportation is by commercial air carrier.)

While I don’t expect everyone to fully embrace the suggestions and advice I present in these posts and videos, I believe that anything we can learn from people with more experience than we have can be helpful. I hope you agree. I have a lot of experience traveling by boat in US waters. I hope you can learn something from me.

A Few Words of Warning

I want to warn you about two things from the get-go:

• An excellent reference: Waterway Guide:

  I know I say here that no single resource can be up to date, but there is one that’s pretty darn close: Waterway Guide. Its Website has a wealth of information about destinations along the Great Loop, as well as eastern US cruising in general. I find it an indispensable tool for finding marinas and anchorages along the way. As an (unpaid) Cruising Editor, I’m constantly writing reviews and submitting corrections to keep it up to date. I hope you’ll check it out.

  Don’t rely on only one or two sources of information for planning your trip. I know people who have planned entire Great Loop journeys by just copying the list of stops out of one book and stopping at pretty much all of them. They are not doing their Loop; they’re doing someone else’s. Also remember that websites, books, and articles become dated very quickly. Someone might rave about a marina at Captiva Island in Florida; well, when I came through, two of the three marinas there were totally destroyed by a hurricane. Marinas change hands. Free docks change policies. Anchorages become full of abandoned boats. No website or reference guide will cover all of these things.

• Don’t take advice from people who lack real-life knowledge and experience. The forums are full of them. You ask a question and a bunch of armchair cruisers respond. Some of them have very strong opinions. Weigh what you learn from every source to find the solution that works best for you.

Finally, I want to impress upon you that the Great Loop is an extremely long journey that isn’t for everyone. Whether you do it with a spouse or friend or solo, it’s a huge commitment in time and money that requires some serious consideration every step along the way.

It can also be a rewarding adventure — not just a “bucket list” item you can check off and tell your friends about. It can be eye opening and life changing — if you let it.

Are you ready to plan your trip? Stay tuned for Part 1.