1990AG said:

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No t me but have a close friend and his wife doing it. They are on Luck to Yours! A Nordic Tug

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Years ago I met a girl from Oslo who gave me one of those.

I've gone down the boat rabbit hole now, and it's a deep hole. It seems like mostly protected waters, but I've seen some videos of people in some big storms. I'd love to see you keep us updated with how it's going.

TailG8TR said:

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My wife and I are about 4000 miles into The Loop having left Kemah last Halloween....and have not yet met any other Aggie Loopers. Wanted to see if we might find some Aggie boaters as we leave Canada and begin to head south. Heck of an adventure !

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It's so great to hear that there are Aggie Loopers! Jealous of…er, happy for y'all!

My wife and I are planning to do the Loop starting fall of '24. Our boat is in Clear Lake Shores, an Irwin 37 sailboat (yes, we'll be having the mast stepped and shipped for parts of the trip). I do plan on posting pics and progress reports.

Congrats on getting closer to crossing your wake! Will be watching this thread for sure.

Awesome trip! Hope you're willing to share rough costs at the end just for giggles, unless you're not keeping track in purpose.

Having to change the oil and filters every 2-3 weeks sounds fun...

We have had some significant stretches between seeing family and friends, but have managed some port visits. Met with friends a few days in Carrabelle, Florida. Friends a few days in Daytona. A week with Mom and a brother in Savannah. We have Zoomed and make phone or text contact with others daily. Marina wifi is notoriously lousy....but using a dedicated hotspot has proven to be completely sufficient all along the route with the exception of a couple remote Canadian anchorages.

Thanks. I will give it a shot. I have personally meet and spent time with a few who are YouTube posters. Most notably Sam and Rev of What Yacht To Do...give them a look, good people .....but the amount of work for that kind of thing is far far beyond what I am interested in doing. Typically they are spending 6 to 8 hours for less than one hour of finished product. No thanks. Glad they enjoy doing so , but not for me.

TailG8TR said:

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Thanks. I will give it a shot. I have personally meet and spent time with a few who are YouTube posters. Most notably Sam and Rev of What Yacht To Do...give them a look, good people .....but the amount of work for that kind of thing is far far beyond what I am interested in doing. Typically they are spending 6 to 8 hours for less than one hour of finished product. No thanks. Glad they enjoy doing so , but not for me.

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Allsome!

I don't mind sharing costs...but it varies a lot based upon your personal lifestyle as well as the boat itself...
Kinda like asking "How long is a piece of string ?"

Anchoring is free. There are some free docks available sprinkled occasionally all along the route (search free Loop docks...lots of info out there )

Marinas vary A LOT in quality and services. Costs for us have varied from $25 flat fee to $7.00 per foot a night plus $30 for 50 amp electric (Liberty Landing Marina in the heart of NYC next to Ellis Island) but has averaged about $2.50 per foot plus $15 for 50 amp electric .
We frequently cook/eat onboard.....have 3 burner propane cook top, propane oven, electric cook top, microwave, Magma propane BBQ grill and small propane camp stove (outside on aft deck only).
Apartment sized 12 volt/120 volt freezer refrigerator and an ice chest for beer/canned drinks.

Some boats are eating out nearly always so their costs are higher.

Our boat is a Kadey Krogen Manatee 36. Full displacement efficient hull. My burn is about 1.1 gallons per hour at 7 knots. 280 gallon tank.

Other true trawlers (Grand Banks, Monk, Defever) travel similar speeds of 7 to 10 and get 2.00 to 6.00 gals per hour.

Semidisplacement hulls that are capable of 10 to 13 knots are burning 6 to 12 gals per hour and Carver, Cruisers, Searays, Bayliners that can occasionally get speeds up to mid-teens (a LARGE PORTION of the Loop is speed/wake controlled so the "go fast" boats are often unable to exceed 6 to 7 knots anyway) may burn 15 to 35 gallons per hour.

So obviously fuel costs vary widely. That is why trawlers are such a common choice in Loop boats.

Have paid between $3.65 and nearly $8.00 a gallon (diesel is around $2.00 per liter in Canada)

Full oil/oil filter/fuel filter changes every 100 hours....figure 12 to 20 days, depending.

Impeller changes and other various maintenance items regularly. I occasionally hire a diver to scrub my bottom ( go ahead TexAgs...served this one up on a tee....don't disappoint me !) and check anodes and prop.

We have a 40 gallon black water tank - larger than most - so we can go longer than most between pump outs. Costs vary from free (rare) to $10 (common) up to $40 (remote Canadian areas)...figure every week to 10 days

Ice is expensive...and bags a shrinking in size !!! We try to get blocks but only occasionally available.

Rental cars for sightseeing.....we have seen TONS...St Augustine, Savannah,Charleston, Annapolis, West Point, NYC, Yorktown, Jekyll Island, St Simons Island, Hilton Head, Washington DC,.....variable costs..

This is not exhaustive but gives you a bit to weigh as to costs.....its ALWAYS more than it appears.

And keep this in mind regarding boats......"Everything on your boat is already broken...you just don't know it yet !"

Beautiful, thank you for sharing!

I have owned several boats in the past. Most notably was a 31 trimaran sailboat. Sold our "dirt house" cabin in the Colorado mountains and committed to doing The Loop. Bought the KK Manatee specifically for the Loop
Spent a year going over the boat improving. Fixing. Adding. Maintaining
Added 600 watts solar. Already had an onboard diesel 5kw generator.
Added large 310 fiberglass hull inflatable dink....would probably downsize that choice to make for easier launching/recovering.
Otherwise this boat is ideal for longterm cruising. Tons of room and storage. Stable. Efficient. Handles well. Bow thrusters really make it easy.

Leaving from Galveston Bay the ICW eastward is uncomplicated but Very Busy with barge/tow traffic Communications are crucial ! Use both 16 and 9 ! Having AIS is a BIG help! Invest in it ! First day east of Galveston is A LONG one ! About 70 miles to the first safe/real anchorage.
Louisiana has virtually zero usable marina facilities. Lots of scenic marsh and cypress. Expect to anchor out mostly.
Houma does have a city marina of sorts but no real services and homeless tend to hover around it.
Morgan city has a nice public dock but again limited services.
There is room for 1 maybe 2 boats at the Shell Morgan facility which caters to work boats
New Orleans is your first chance to find a marina for a cruising boat
There are a couple locks to pass through prior to New Orleans. Read up on locking procedures
There are two big locks in NO before/after crossing the Mississippi
Be prepared for traffic and potentially long waits at both
Good anchorage east of NO at The Rabbits before entering some big open water.
Anchorages are available behind some barrier island's as well as marinas in Gulfport and Biloxi and Dauphin Island.
Be cautious crossing Mobile Bay. Big water that can get unruly !!!
Gulfshores Alabama is the home of LuLu's....great fun place and marina
..Jimmy Buffets crazy sister's place. Recommend

Mobile Bay is typically the western most point for most Loopers....so we had already logged 2 or 3 weeks time by the point we got to a section that most Loopers do

From here onward the route has many more facilities and is better set up to handle cruisers than the stretch from TX to Mobile.

More later...time to do my weather bomework/chartwork

I didnt know this was a thing, but now it's on my bucket list.

A few sights along the way
Lots of ICW heading east
Wild natural lands for MILES
Tons of dolphins
Gators
Lulu's

Very Interesting adventure yall are on. My friend has a 36 foot Cabo Express. I went and stayed a few nights with him a few weeks ago before we went fishing off-shore. I can't imagine being on a boat for a year and the overall cost of your trip. Keep posting for us Aggies on here. Have a great and safe trip.

What career were you in? Some of the younger guys might want to follow your footsteps.

I would watch the hell out of your YouTube channel.

Yeah, I get the size issue being a factor on some boats and with some folks. I think that is why we feel like this is such a well suited boat for The Loop. Lots of room. Like moving floating small condo. I will post some interior shots a bit later....but for a couple there is a lot of room and its not "camping".

My wife and I taught HS for 35 years.....lived beneath our means...traveled a lot but saved a lot. Set goals. Stuck to them. Made it happen.....whatever the "it" was as we went along.
This adventure is within reach of LOTS of people. Do NOT need a huge expensive boat....ambition, perseverance and preparation.

What a cool adventure!

Lest anyone think I have lots of time on my hands most days on the Loop to post to TexAgs....not so much.

Turns out the past couple days up here on the North Channel of Lake Huron we have had High Wind Advisories - so I have time while waiting out the blows here in port at Little Current

Providing the forecast drop in winds holds true for Tuesday , we will hop up to Spanish, Ontario and overnight there. Small isolated village.

Wednesday we will head to Blind River.

Thursday likely head to Thessalon

Weather will play a big part in the next hop as to when we make the passage...
But our destination will be DeTour Village, Michigan. We will contact US Customs and go through their return-to-the-US procedures. Funny thing....cleared into Canada over phone and zero fees. US might require a boarding/inspection party and regardless will cost us $35. Pretty crazy.

After that
..hang around Mackinaw Island area for a week or so then begin down the full length of Lake Michigan toward Chicago over August and Sept.

Full oil/oil filter/fuel filter changes every 100 hours....figure 12 to 20 days, depending."

Is this normal? Are commercial boats having to do this as well or just your type of boat.

How many gallons of diesel do you think it will take from start to finish?

Are you keeping the boat and doing a different kind of trip (bahamas or great lakes) after the loop or done and selling it?

Plenty of room and comforts aboard our chubby gal !
Queen bed. Galley. Head and shower. Dinette. Recliner. Aft deck and upper pilot house/bridge.

Oh come on! You're chugging along at 5-7 knots, you've got plenty of time to update us here!

COOL BREEZE has a VolvoPenta TMD30A 90hp four cylinder seawater heatexchanger cooled.

100 hour service is the norm for a marine diesel. Change diesel generator oil every other main engine change. Same for the marine reduction gear oil (transmission).

Rough estimates on your question about how much....

As for lube oil.....probably 10 or 11 changes ....so about 25 gallons of T4 15w40.....Shell Rotella is what I feed this girl

As for fuel.....the Loop is 6000 plus miles....so figure 1000 hours run time .....Through 4000 miles, for generator and main engine combined I have averaged 1.1 gallons per hour. So a bit over 1100 gallons....lets inflate that to 1300 gallons.......figure around $5.25 gallon (marine pricing is higher than land stations) ....so safely under $7,500.

I know some non boating types scoff at the 7 knot speeds of true trawlers but $$ is where that 7 knot number works its magic. A boat using even 5 gallons an hour would be somewhere around $25,000 just for fuel.

I have a friend on the Loop with a "go fast" boat and MUCH DEEPER pockets than me who is always within a week ahead or behind me that burns 30 gallons an hour and often is running 5 hours a day. Thats 150 gallon per day burn.....at $5.00 gallon thats $750 in fuel alone per running day.

Lots of different ways to skin a cat.

As for what the future holds....we honestly do not know.

A lesson of The Loop is take it a couple days (at most) at a time.

Weater conditions, mechanical issues, lock closures, etc dictate only short term planning.

Good boating saying/mantra..
..THE Most dangerous thing to have onboard a boat is a schedule.
Can't cut corners or push it because it will bite you !

When we reach Mobile around mid November we will have formulated some kind of plan. As of now....idk.

Settle down.....another adventure...boat or land or ?????