The Great Loop cruise in a classic motor yacht - Part 1 – by Bill and Kathleen Root

Early in 2008 Bill began thinking that it might be time to retire from General Mills. He had spent nearly 40 years in the food industry, and it had been very good to him. However, it was becoming clear that it was a good time to move on to new things while we were still in good health and could enjoy them. The idea of cruising on our own boat had always held some appeal, and Bill was looking for a post-retirement activity that would require learning a new set of skills as well as some level of adventure. Our first thought was to rent a trawler for a month and cruise the Pacific Northwest area. While researching trawler rentals, Bill came across a website devoted to "America's Great Loop". Intrigued, we decided to check it out.

The "Great Loop" (sometimes called "Great Circle Route"), follows a cruising route from Florida up the east coast Intracoastal Waterway to New York City, then up the Hudson River across Canada to Georgian Bay and the North Channel, down Lake Michigan to Chicago and the inland waterways to Mobile, Alabama. From Mobile the route goes around the Florida Panhandle, down the Gulf Coast of Florida to the Florida Keys, then back up the east coast of Florida, thus completing a circle, or "loop". The entire trip is about 6,000 miles by water and takes between 9 months and a year to complete. We decided this was exactly the kind of post-retirement challenge we were looking for.

Once the decision was made to do the loop, the first thing we had to do was to find a boat. Being long time classic boat enthusiasts, we decided we wanted to do it in a classic cruiser or trawler of some sort. We really wanted to do it in a wood boat, but after some consideration and discussion we decided against it due to the amount of on-going maintenance required, as well as the potential difficulty of finding people along the way qualified to do quality wood repair if we needed it. That meant fiberglass was going to be the way to go. The next decision was what size and style boat did we want? In order to be able to explore all the interesting places along the route, vessel length and draft were major considerations. People have done the loop in 25' pocket cruisers and 65' trawlers, but somewhere in between seemed the most practical place for us to land. Besides, if we were going to spend almost a year cruising on a boat, we knew that there would be times when each of us would need some personal space. After

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MV Tucandu getting new props and shafts!

Cpt. Bill at the helm of MV Tucandu!

The famous Cape May lighthouse!

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