The Boat:

"Nonchalance"

1978 Hatteras 53MY


It's a boat that's 53 ft long, and 3 stories tall, with 3 bedrooms (staterooms), 3 baths (heads) and a living room (salon), kitchen (galley) and a great aft deck where we eat most of our meals.

It's slow, like 10 mph putting along, and 20 mph max. Cruising is more like loafing along and enjoying the scenery and small towns along the way. We'll probably go about 50 miles per day when we're going, but lots of days we'll be staying wherever we are for a day or two.

It's heavy, like 30 tons, and has 2 diesel engines to power it.

Salon
The salon is the "living room" on the boat. It has the sofa, satellite TV, stereo, etc. and also has the lower helm station up front for piloting the boat from inside the cabin with a full complement of navigation controls and instruments.




Aft Deck
The aft deck is our favorite room on the boat because of the great view. We eat all of our meals on the aft deck even though there is a dinette table in the galley. There are plastic windows we can put up if it rains and a heater or air conditioning too.




Galley
The galley is the kitchen and it has a full set of regular home type appliances plus a little dinette table and bench seats.









Master Stateroom
The captains quarters are very comfy with a regular queen size bed, lots of hanging and drawer space, and it's own bathroom with shower.








Mid-Stateroom
The mid stateroom has twin beds and a bathroom across the hall. There is also a forward stateroom with a V-berth and private bath.

The Journey:

America's Great Loop Route


The Great Loop Route is a 6,000 mile cruise around the eastern half of the United States. We begin in Chicago, travel down the Illinois river to the Mississippi, to the Ohio river and then down the Tennessee river and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway to Mobile, AL. From Mobile, we'll go around the Gulf of Mexico to Florida, down to Key West and back up the Keys to Miami. From Miami we'll go up the Intra-Coastal Waterway along the US East Coast to New York. Then it's up the Hudson river, across the Eerie Canal and Oswego Canals to Oswego, NY on Lake Ontario. From Lake Ontario we'll take the Trent-Severn waterway to Lake Huron's Georgian Bay where we'll cruise the Georgian Bay and North Channel to Macinac Island, and then down Lake Michigan to Chicago and home. The trip is expected to take 10 months from October 8, 2006 to August 15, 2007, including a large number of stop and stay locations to experience local sights and delights, and a number of weeks to return home for a week or so to keep things running there. Those small yellow post-it notes shown on the map are dates and places we'll probably stop and stay, or mileposts of note. This weblog is designed to cover the cruise in-progress.

Note: Great Circle Route Map Copyrighted map used with permission of Raven Cove Publishing.