Most tours across America tend to involve a long series of flights, or a road trip of 16-hour driving days plotting a course between as many national parks as possible in a camper van. The Great Loop, traversed by only 200 Americans per year, however, is another excellent way to see the country.
A 6,000-mile journey circumnavigating the entire eastern United States and Canada, the journey ditches the car or the plane for the boat!
It turns out that in 1898, three 18 year olds discovered that it was possible to, without ever going out to sea, travel from the Great Lakes region, out to the Thousand Islands past Montreal, before snaking down a myriad of canals, sounds, and waterways across the Mid-Atlantic, using Florida as a gateway to the Gulf of Mexico, where turning north, one can pass up the rivers of Central North America to return again to the starting line.
It was in the time of the Founding Fathers that the Great Loop was envisioned. George Washington had an eye on connecting territories more easily across the vast and newly minted country.
Many of the surveys he commissioned led to the creation of canals and artificial waterways that make the Loop possible.
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However it wasn’t until Ken Ransom, a sailor who grew up faring the waves in Lake Michigan, that America’s great nautical maze was mapped. Departing in a sailboat built by himself and his two friends, he went the whole way, despite multiple challenges.
Like Ransom, sailors on the Great Loop today will tell you the challenges are part of the fun. Whereas most long nautical pleasure journeys typically take place in the ocean, the myriad of habitats one must navigate to finish the Great Loop make it a lot more special, and safer, while also presenting different challenges.
Beautiful landscapes roll past you on the shores either side of your journey, such as the old city of Montreal, the Great Dismal Swamp, the Florida Keys, Virginia’s Ablemarle Sound, or the mountain-studded shores of Lake Champlain.
Boat US explains that the Great Loop takes anywhere from six months to one year to complete, but nevertheless offers sections called “Mini Loops” wherein a U.S. sailing enthusiast or perhaps a visiting British canal-boat lover can enjoy a several-day slice.
The Triangle Loop traverses Canada and the U.S. using the Hudson River as the start and finish, while passing the Eire Canal, Lake Champlain, Montreal, Lake Ontario, and the scenic Thousand Islands.
Another Mini Loop is the Florida Loop, which passes Lake Okeechobee and the Atlantic Coast before arriving at the Florida Keys, up the Gulf to Pine Island, Fort Meyers, and Caloosahatchee Canal.
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