Back on the Loop Again!

I get a gig helping a new boat owner move his boat from the Florida panhandle to Jacksonville with some Great Loop training along the way.

Although July and August in Florida is not ideal — think heat, humidity, and hurricane season — sometimes you can’t be picky about when you get a job done. I was recently contacted by John, who was in the final stages of buying his Loop boat, a Beneteau Antares 11. John needed to move his boat from where he bought it in Fort Walton Beach to Jacksonville, FL, and he (wisely) wanted an experienced captain along for this 750-mile maiden voyage.

John’s new boat sure does look fast.

I don’t know how John found me — I’ll have to ask him — but I do know that he plans to do the Great Loop in this boat and he wanted some Loop training along the way. I’m thrilled to be able to fill the role of training captain and Great Loop advisor for our trip. Although I’ve been boating and providing boat handling training services in the Pacific Northwest this summer, it’ll be nice to revisit the Loop. With my busy summer calendar, I’m just amazed the timing was right to do the trip.

To prepare for the trip, I used Aqua Map to plot our entire course and get a relatively accurate mileage count: 750 nautical miles. That’s going through Lake Okeechobee, which is possible as long as the water levels there stay above 10 feet. (They’re currently at around 12 feet.) Having to go around the peninsula would add another 300 or so miles (I think; I haven’t actually measured it). Then I estimated the amount of time the trip would take using average speeds (considering No Wake zones along the way) and average number of hours cruising per day (considering bad weather possibilities).

Even without a hurricane in the area, the tricky part will be crossing the Gulf, which we’d like to do on a smooth day. (I don’t know about you, but being out of sight of land in rough water is not my idea of fun.) When I did my Loop, I arrived in Carabelle the day before the first good weather day in a few days; there were lots of folks waiting to cross. I went from Carabelle to Steinhatchee, but we might make our west coast arrival point different, depending on timing and the weather. Every day we wait is a day we’re not cruising, so that has to be taken into consideration.

In the end, I figured an average speed of 10 knots — John thinks his boat can cruise at nearly 20 knots and it sure looks like it could! — with an average of 6 hours cruising per day. That gave me an estimate of 14 days to do the trip. Yes, we might be able to do it in 7 days or 10 days, but the last thing I want to do is get into a situation where we need to cover miles on a foul weather day. So I estimated a bit longer than we might need just in case we need it.

Because it’s hurricane season, I don’t expect to run into any Loopers along the way. Most Looper insurance policies forbid being south of a certain point during hurricane season. A quick look at Nebo shows me that most Loopers are in New York City and beyond. But if you’re anywhere in Florida along our route and are reading this, I sure hope you’ll reach out and say hello. Docktails could be in our future — I do need to tell John about that, too.

In the meantime, I hope to post photos and commentary along the way. Stay tuned.