This is the place to get exactly what you need to know, and what to expect when cruising America’s Great Loop. From boats to budgets, tips and suggestions, we’re here to make your voyage around the Great Loop safe, comfortable and affordable. It’s all free, as we believe it should be.
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UPDATED 2024 EDITION – “The Looper’s Companion Guide” is huge. It is 8.5″ x 11″, with 300 pages of full color maps and photos. It starts with understanding what cruising the Loop is really like, and prepares you for everything you need, want and can expect along the way. From the Frugal to the Flamboyant, it will help you plan and prepare yourself, your budget, your boat and all your equipment for a safe and successful voyage around America’s Great Loop.
This updated 2024 Edition gives you ‘each and every cruising day’s’ mile to mile, marina to marina, anchorage to anchorage distance, estimated cruising time, fuel range, bridge heights, controlled depths, and what to expect along the way, as well as when you get there. It includes mile markers, waypoints, and route directions to all the safest anchorages and the cleanest, affordable, people and pet friendly marinas (with phone numbers). Best and safest of all, it ends each and every cruising day on the main routes at a safe anchorage or marina before dark.
From the best dives to the dining elites, Tiki Bars, Ice Cream Parlors, top tourist attractions, and Looper favorite destinations, “The Looper’s Companion Guide” prepares you for actually cruising the Great Loop like nobody else can. It has been the #1 BEST-SELLING ‘Great Loop’ guide on the market. This new 2024 Updated Edition is the most current and no one knows more about what a Looper wants and needs better than Capt. John.
Dreaming of a ‘BIG’ boat? You might want to think again. According to the USCG, of almost 13 million registered boats in the USA, 99.25% are under 40′ long. Most Loopers boats are very near 36′. In fact, our Super Loopers’ feedback indicates far more than half of all boats completing the Loop are between 26′ and 39′. Your boat simply must be safe, suitable, seaworthy and comfortable. It doesn’t need to be big, expensive or fast. Instead, it should be extremely fuel-efficient, no bigger than your comfort requires, and no smaller than your safety permits. It should also be a size suitable for the weakest adult crew member to handle safely by themself. For the safest, easiest, most stress free and affordable voyage around the Loop, think how small, not how big.
If spending a year cruising the Great Loop, we start with ‘life’s necessities’. Typically, a Looping couple spends an average of $12,000 for food, beverages, snacks, ice, cleaning supplies and toiletries on their boat. Some Loopers in 40′ plus size vessels will spend upwards of $18,000 or more for fuel, and another $18,000 in Marina fees. All total of course, that blows a $48,000 Looping budget, and they haven’t yet spent a nickel having fun or eating out on shore.
Those in smaller 36′ or under, fuel-efficient vessels, can spend less than $10,000 for fuel and $10,000 for Marina fees. Therefore, on the same $48,000 budget, this Looping couple has $16,000 to spend on themselves having fun, eating out and being a tourist ashore. In the right size boat, this voyage can be very affordable for most anyone.
We’re not saying that one is right, and one is wrong, we’re just that you have lots of options and everyone should know what their options are.
FYI – Ending in 2023 – our three-boat caravan spent less than $24,000 each in fuel & marina fees on our 6,000-mile voyage around the Loop. We also spent very near that much again, having fun, seeing the sights and eating out along the way.
We’re not crossing oceans here where for weeks the closest human may be an astronaut in the Space Station. Cruising the Loop, you will seldom be much more than a stone’s throw from shore. As a result, you will discover a hundred or more places that will tempt you off your boat to stop, shop, stay and linger. As a result, we just want to caution you in advance, that all the attractions along the way will present you with a daily dose of irresistible temptations. Fifty of which are listed on Condé Nast’s top places in North America to visit. In addition, the local restaurants offering ‘regional favorites’ will introduce you to locally obtained, incredibly fresh, delightfully delicious culinary delights. Food & Beverages on any vacation, can be a real budget buster, and cruising the Loop is certainly no exception. So, when planning your budget, make sure you budget for a fabulous vacation, not just a boat ride. Believe us, this is not the place you will want to be eating beans & baloney on your boat.