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Budman · 02-22-2007, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WM

Welcome! My parents are boaters also (both age 58) and are planning the same trip! They have been boating since before I was born and are currently working on the complete renovation of a 1974 trawler

My dad "retired" to part-time consulting work 5 years ago, and my mom is done at the end of next year, so my dad will also stop consulting. My dad now wonders how they managed to get anything done with both of them working full-time, and my mom recently cut back on her hours and now wonders what she was thinking all those years of full-time +! We kept trying to tell her...

Thanks for the welcome!

When would your parents have the renovation complete and start the Loop? We will likely begin the Loop about mid-Aug 2008. Perhaps we will run into them...not literally

We are the same age as your parents.

WM · 02-23-2007, 08:07 AM

Wouldn't surprise me if you did see each other - it seems to be a small community of very friendly people

Not sure exactly what their plans are, and they have a long way to go on the boat. They are hoping to be done in the summer of 2008, but it will be ready for traveling this summer, if not cosmetically finished. I think they are planning on taking some smaller trips to prepare, since they have never done anything as long-distance as the Loop. Our typical trips were along the Trent-Severn waterway in Canada (live in Cleveland). Right now, the boat is out of the water (Lake Erie)for the winter, so they've set up a tarp over it and brought in a kerosene heater and have been working on the interior even in the freezing cold. Complete fanatics! They are having a lot of fun working on it and making plans, it's fun to see.

Scarab Dave · 02-23-2007, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Budman

From where we would start, the Great Loop begins in Lake Erie, up the Detroit river to Lake St. Clair to Lake Huron to Lake Michigan to the Chicago river to the mississippi to the Tennessee River to the Tom Higgbee waterway exiting into the Gulf of Mexico, traveling down the Florida coastline to Key West, back up the Gulf to Ft. Myers then traversing through Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic side of Florida and then traveling North on the intercoastal to New York Harbor to Hudson river to Erie Canal to Oswego river to Lake Ontario and back to Lake Erie. Now I left out quite a bit and I have already done the Trent Severn waterway, so we shall have made the entire Circle. I really look at the eastern part of the US as one big island to circumnavigate. Sound Fun? We are excited to start...perhaps next year!

It does sound like fun budman! Many like to explore other countries. I just want to thoruoughly see and enjoy my own. No better way to do that, at least 1/2 of it, than your plan above. Have fun bud.

Dave