Kate + Tim
Since backpacking Europe for a summer after college, our life together has been in motion. Tim's work in tech has taken him across East and West Coasts, Canada, and Asia. Kate's career in social impact has taken her from DC to Haiti to MD to NYC. We got married in 2019, and on our honeymoon read, Honey, Let's Get a Boat. We were convinced doing the Great Loop was in our future plans. We thought with some planning, we might be able to do the trip within the next five years, despite being millennials not in the typical "looper age group." Little did we know 2020 would shake things up, and we realized the time was now. Taking a leap of faith, we moved out of our apartment, put our stuff into storage, left our jobs, and bought a boat. This next year we are dedicated to cruising the Great Loop, embracing the challenges and excitement of learning new skills (and improving our novice mechanical and boating abilities), and seeing what each sweet day brings.
Sweet Day
Sweet Day is our 1996 Camano 31 Troll trawler and perfect Great Loop boat (for us). We wanted a boat with a simple operating system (or as simple as you can get), minimum space needed to be comfortable, could go "fast" if we needed (12-15 mph), could steer from outside, and had right dimensions needed to do the Loop. We bought her in late 2020 from an owner in Punta Gorda, Florida although she has a history that's taken her all the way to Massachusetts. We named her after our first dance song, Ol' Sweet Day by AHI, and as a reminder that any day on a boat should be sweet.
The Great Loop is a 6,000+ mile "loop" around the eastern U.S. and Canadian waterways. It takes about a year, if done consecutively, and covers 15+ states and 2 countries, depending on your route. A few hundred "loopers" complete the journey each year, some doing it all at once, and others doing it in segments year by year. Loopers plan their journey traveling by seasons to avoid hurricane seasons in the South and tough winters up North. The America's Great Loop Cruisers Association (AGLCA) is the resource for all things related to doing the Loop, with information on the journey and the place to connect with fellow and interested Loopers (when you're not on the water).