Recap of Lesson Plan's Great Loop

Well, it is done. After 1 year, 11 months and 12 days, we completed the loop. My trip included a side trip to New Orleans and an extra trip up and down from Carrabelle to KY Lake (trying to reason with the hurricane season)

I am thankful for all the help and memories made along the way. I am thankful for all the encouraging emails from many of you who have subscribed to my blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading my tales as much as I have enjoyed documenting my journey.

Here is a recap of our journey.

Some of the stats:

7,733 = Total miles

916 = Gallons of fuel

247 = Days aboard

135 = Days underway
122 = Blog posts

57.3 = Average miles per underway day

8.43 = Averaged miles per gallon

I started my Great Loop in Jacksonville on March 29, 2017. I had a captain (provided by the broker) to help move the boat to Beaufort, where I kept it until May 18, 2017. I took off on my own up the east coast to NYC, with little experience concerning the 8’ to 9’ tides along the low country of SC and NC. I learned quickly.

Gary Riemer – Gary joined me in NYC and traveled with me to Sandusky, Ohio. I know there are a lot of people who solo through the Erie Canal, but having Gary on board made the locking through so much easier. We even survived my taking a dip inside one of the locks. Paula and Scott Russell (friends from my HEUG days) visited us in Brewerton, NY. Once we got the mast back up in Tonawanda, NY, we skipped along the bottom side of Lake Erie from Buffalo to Sandusky.

Steve Stahl – We had a crew swap in Sandusky and Steve joined me for the trip through the great lakes, down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, and up the mighty Ohio to KY lake. It was the longest leg of the trip. We took a tour of Mackinaw Island and looked for Petoskey Stones in Petoskey, MI. We visited with Gregg and Leslee (cousins) on the outskirts of Chicago. I think neither Steve nor I will soon forget going through the Olmstead Lock on the Ohio River. If you see Steve, make sure to ask him about that one.

Frank and Carol Kersting – Frank and Carol joined me for the first trip from KY Lake to Mobile. It was a little chilly when we left, and we were thankful for the full cockpit enclosure (we awoke to frost on the deck as far south as Midway Marina in Fulton, MS. We had a little incident along the way that challenged us to come up with a creative solution. We though out Ideas until we came up with a solution. Frank did his own blog for the trip, but he has not sent me a link to the published blog. We played a lot of Rummy. Frank and Carol prepared some gourmet meals along the way.

I made my way over to Carrabelle for the first time in January 2018 ready to make the big crossing. I just needed three good weather days in a row. I had planned to go to the Keys and then come back up and visit New Orleans and then take the boat back up to KY Lake for hurricane season. I was in Carrabelle for 9 days and could not get a crossing window and the near future wasn’t looking good. So, I decided to go back to Niceville, FL and visit with my sister and her husband (Carol and Steve). They joined me for the trip from Niceville to Mobile. We had a great trip despite the squall that blew up on Mobile Bay.

Zach Thompson (nephew) joined me for my trip to New Orleans. One day when we were having breakfast with Theresa's family, I mentioned to the nephews sitting around a table that they should come join me some time. Zach took me up on my offer. Since Zach wasn’t 21, we did a lot of things in NOLA that I might not have done, if he wasn’t with me. It was one of the few times I got the dinghy out just to go for a ride. On the sail between Mobile and New Orleans. Zach couldn’t get over the fact that we were 3 miles off shore, yet it was only 15’ deep. We spent a couple of nights at anchor.

I made my way back up to KY Lake with Lesson Plan in June 2018 and kept her there during Hurricane Season.

Hayden Collins - While Lesson Plan was at KY Lake, Hayden (my grandson) got to visit a couple of times. I changed the raw water impeller and Hayden and I took Lesson Plan out to make sure the new impeller was properly installed and worked as expected. He got to steer the boat some on our adventure. He even helped to dock the boat when we pulled back in to the dock.

In October of 2018 I headed back down the rivers to Mobile. I stopped at Demopolis to do a bottom job on Lesson Plan and went home for Thanksgiving. I started back in early December and made it across the Big Bend of FL on December 14, just in time for my December 16 flight back to KY for the holidays.

In late January I headed down to Tarpon Springs to resume the journey. I headed south and made my way across the Florida Bay from the Shark River to Key West on January 30, 2019. I had a reservation in Key West for one month.

Stacey (my cousin) and Theresa joined me for a week in Key West. We found a lot of cool places to hang out in Key West. We took Lesson Plan out on what was supposed to be the best day as far as the sea state. It was a little rough going out the ship channel, but it got better as we got around toward the airport. It was a nice trip, but I was disappointed that I could not put either of them behind the wheel. I probably walked them to the point of madness. We used Uber a lot in the evenings, we must have been too tired to walk back to the marina. It was a great week (what happens in Key West stays in Key West).

After Theresa and Stacey’s visit, I headed up the Keys toward my next stop, Ft. Lauderdale. Theresa had been wanting to try a week traveling on the boat. Sometime right before her trip to Key West, we decided that it would have to be a couple of weeks and that Ft. Lauderdale would be the place to meet. She flew back to SC for a week and then flew down to Ft. Lauderdale. We stayed in Ft. Lauderdale for 3 nights before heading north. Theresa has two cousins in the area (Cindy and Patrick, and Paul and Gail). We met them for dinner in Ft. Lauderdale and again at Boynton Beach. We had a great visit with them.

I told Theresa she should bring some clothes for colder weather, for we would surely be in for some cool starts along the way. Little did we know a cold front would come through and we would start a couple of mornings in the low 40s. One morning in Titusville the forecast was for a north wind at 15 to 20 kts and a high of 48. We stayed in port that day. The rest of the trip went as planned, some cool mornings, but most days it warmed up nicely by noon.

March 10, 2019, 12:30 PM – Lesson Plan crossed her wake when we crossed the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, FL.

Thanks to Jill and Lauren (my daughters) for shuttling me back and forth to KY Lake or the airport on my return and departures.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the contributions of Lesson Plan, Jenny, and Otto. Their teamwork got us through many long days on the water. Otto is much better at steering than I am, he doesn’t get distracted. Jenny faithfully churns away below the companionway steps and complains very little. She does occasionally throw a little fit and slings her belts off, but that’s only when she feels she is being ignored. And Lesson Plan fights off wave after wave on the big water to keep us all safe.

Our Loop by the numbers

With (crew)	Miles Traveled	Days Aboard	Days Underway
Solo	3,737	138	59
Steve	1,448	36	26
Gary	698	15	14
Carol and Frank	641	15	14
Theresa	551	19	11
Zach	331	10	5
Captain John	188	2	2
Carol and Steve	117	2	2
Stacey and Theresa	18	9	1
Hayden	5	1	1
	7,733	247	135

Lesson Plan's Great Loop Map

I have learned so much on my Great Loop. I hope I have shared some of what I have learned. Thanks for going along.

I am not sure where the next adventure will take us, but I am sure it will be another learning experience. It is probably going to be cross country RVing. Sadly, we have Lesson Plan up for sale so that we can buy the RV. After a year of RVing, we are going to decide if we buy a small boat and keep the RV or if we sell the RV and buy a BIGGER boat. Only time will tell.

It's not goodbye, just see you later for now. I’ll let you know when we start the RV trip.

NEBO Logs
NEBO 2019-03-11
NEBO 2019-03-10
NEBO 2019-03-08
NEBO 2019-03-07