It seems like every other person I speak with these days has either just completed America’s Great Loop, is ready to start Looping, or is at least thinking about it. Some of these folks don’t even own boats yet, but plan to buy one just to Loop. If you don’t have any desire to head offshore, and have the time for an adventure that can take anywhere from a few months to several years, you might be a Looper, too. Once you “cross your wake” (Looper-speak for finishing the circumnavigation), you’ll be a member of what may be the fastest-growing fraternity in the boating world.
Just what is the Great Loop? It’s a network comprising the Great Lakes; various canals, rivers and sounds; the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. It encircles the eastern United States, from the Outer Banks to the Mississippi River, from the Canadian border to the Florida Keys. Typically, Loopers cruise north on the Hudson River, then head west on the New York State canals to the Great Lakes during the summer, which is ideal cruising season for these parts. When autumn arrives, they head south from Chicago via the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Rivers to the Tenn-Tom Waterway, which shoots them out at Mobile, Alabama.
