In mid-December 2025, George and I plan to depart our home in Panama City, Florida, aboard Assisted Living, our Ranger Tug 43, to begin a journey of over 6,000 miles along a continuous waterway route known as The Great Loop. The counterclockwise circumnavigation known as the Loop encompasses the eastern United States and parts of Canada. A complete list of the waterways making up the Great Loop, and a list of the many US states and Canadian provinces that we will be exploring along the way, is among the information in the FAQs on this site’s home page. For anyone curious to learn more about the Loop, the absolute best source of information is an incredible organization that has been invaluable to us in planning our trip, America’s Great Loop Cruiser’s Association. On this blog we will be posting updates, stories and photos of our travels. We look forward to sharing our adventure with our family and friends, and to documenting our memories so that when we are old(er) and gray(er), we can reflect on what we are sure will be an experience of a lifetime.

We are long-time boaters, with many years and miles of offshore and extended sailing, but this will be our first expedition on a motor boat; one of us is thrilled….the other one insisted on naming the new boat after a nursing home. But suffice it to say that after our catamaran sailboat suffered a second catastrophic direct lightening strike in as many years, one of us (perhaps the rationale one) deduced that not only did the Universe hate us, it was sending us an unmistakable message that we were no longer meant to own a sailboat. But even the guy with the bad attitude has to grudgingly admit that Assisted Living is well suited for our year long adventure. In the nature of most trawlers, we will typically be cruising at 8 – 10 mph, but in a pinch (if we need to escape approaching weather, or have an unusually long distance to travel that day), Assisted Living can run at speeds up to 25 mph.

Although we are excited about our trip, we will dearly miss our friends and community in Panama City. We plan to periodically leave the boat in a marina and come home for a few days to reconnect with the people and organizations that we care so much about. How blessed we are that our home is so wonderful that leaving for even the most amazing adventure is bittersweet.