Want to? No, not really. Certainly not the whole trip.
Willing to? Yes, but it will be much nicer, easier and more fun to have some companionship.
And this is where you come in!
If you go to the Great Loop website or study that Great Loop Map, you’ll see that this trip traverses some of the prettiest, wildest, most historic and nature-filled real estate in this country that can really only be accessed effectively from a boat.
There is plenty to see and lots of opportunity to chill and enjoy moving slow. While a good portion of this route makes movement by sail possible, the majority is done by motoring at 5-6 miles per hour. That means that most days that we are moving all day, we won’t generally travel more than 30-40 miles and never at night.
So, there is plenty of time to snooze, read, listen to music and just soak in the experience. And, Amalia is very receptive to having one or two guests at a time with pretty comfortable accommodations.
Technically, she has berths for up to six. The bed in the main saloon (main area of the cabin) is supposed to be for two – but you’d better be either tiny adults or children to sleep two up here. That bed is very comfortable for one.
The V-berth up forward is very comfortable for two. And, unless I convert one of them into storage space before the trip, the two quarter berths in the stern are good for one each.
But, as my Dad had said many years ago when he had a small camping trailer: “Yeah, it’ll sleep 5 but you better not have more than three for breakfast!”
So, with the possible exception of a few teenage grandchildren who might be willing to rough it a bit, I think one or two guests would be the most desirable.
So, if you think you’d like to accompany us for 1-2 weeks – or even longer – here is what you want to consider.
- What part of the trip would you like to visit? As a reminder, it is 2 months or so going down to the Gulf, another couple around Florida, a few more up the East coast to NYC and the Hudson and the Erie Canal and summer sailing on the Great Lakes.
- How will you meet up with me and then head home? With the exception of the river trip down to Mobile which is not really near any airports, the rest of the trip can easily be a fly down to Pensacola and fly home from Fort Lauderdale or into NYC home from Buffalo or anything in between. This is particularly true on the portion from Florida up to New York with most of the time spent inside on the Intercoastal. If you look at the map. you’ll see plenty of come and go possibilities.
- You won’t need any money for the trip itself except to kick in a few bucks for food and drink aboard or meals ashore. Depending on how long you stay, you’ll also need funds for doing your laundry, souvenirs and maybe a bit of bail money. Hopefully not!
If you think you want to consider coming aboard for a portion or portions of the trip, just email me or call and we can kick it around.