The Great Loop Adventures

As we are marina bound in Belgium for winter while we finish our renovations on our barge, I thought I'd share some pictures of our Great Loop experience.

On our 33' sailing boat Mariah II, we spent a year traversing these fascinating waterways.... here's some of my memories..

Approaching the Dismal Swamp! Another boat had cleared the way for us. It is so calm we could wash and dry our rugs and hang them over the boom. Obviously this was before we took our mast down.

The Big Chute Marine Railway is a boat lift at lock 44 of the Trent-Severn Waterway in Ontario, Canada. It works on an inclined plane to carry boats in individual cradles over a change of height of about 60 feet (18 metres). It is the only marine railway (or canal inclined plane) of its kind in North America still in use, and is overseen by federally operated Parks Canada. You stay on board as you traverse the rocks and rattle and shake along with the boat! I gave a complete stranger the camera and they took these shots - thank you whoever you were! (Our mast had been taken down after New York - on the Hudson)

Georgia, sailing beside our great buddies 'Tash and Den on board SV Frodo. Perfect sailing in flat waters!

The mighty Frodo and Mariah - great times! We are towing our dinghy. This dinghy was built in a Barbados brothel by Den and Noel - it's a great story... all in Of Foreign Build (on Amazon).

Now we're in Florida with my mum and dad. That's dad and me - we loved it when we stopped all the cars so the bridges could lift just for us!

This looks like Canada to me - one of the prettiest countries...

It wasn't always sunny. We rigged a tiller extension so we could see more easily where we were steering- I still sat in the rain!

That bow has pushed through oceans all over the world...

In a lock near the The Dismal Canal.

A momentous occassion - fancy a little Aussie boat sailing into New York. We had a wonderful three days in the heart of the city.....

I loved locking through - this is in Canada...

A group are chatting to us here, 'you came all that way in THAT boat?' They couldn't quite believe it!

One of my favourite pictures, Noel at the helm, puttering through the middle of Chicago! Wonderful!

This is the Dismal Swamp. A beautiful canal with man-eating bugs! They really hurt when they bit! This canal is an alternate route along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, connecting the Chesapeake Bay with the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. The Dismal Swamp Canal is the oldest continually operating, hand-dug waterway in the United States.

I hope you enjoyed our brief journey along The Great Loop.

I have more pictures to share on a more recent journey from America to Australia via Easter Island, Pitcairn, the Gambiers etc., I'll be posting some short stories with them too...