We started the Great Loop on June 2, 2023. Spending June and July of 2023, June and July of 2024, and June plus the first two weeks of July 2025 to cross our wake. (5 and a half months on the Loop.)
How it started...
How it's going...
We anchored to commemorate the moment adequately, changed into our AGLCA '25 shirts and grabbed our Cartermaran Crew polos for a quick wardrobe change, and ensured the gold looper burgee was secured in hand. We ceremoniously swapped the white burgee for the gold one while taking a million photos with the tripod, hoping to capture a few good shots without our hair being whipped every which way before the tripod got knocked over by the dogs or the wind. 🤓 It is what it is. The wind was an undeniable part of our loop, and really, who ever has good hair days on a boat?!
Then we turned around and headed south. We knew we wouldn't make it to Saint Lucie Lock before the last lock at 4:30, so we decided we would anchor just outside it for the night.
While we made our way back down, we started making lists. Everything that needed to happen before haul-out tomorrow... What to close up... What stays on the boat... What comes home... What gets tossed... What needs to be repurchased for next summer... Departure checklist... Lists upon lists on both my phone and Ben's phone to split tasks to end this season and prep for next.
We clocked 24 knots of wind at the bow on the way back south on the ICW. The waters at Port Saint Lucie Inlet were very vivid and had a contrasting beautiful blue section. It always blows my mind to think about the colors being so distinct and not mixing, especially in such a fluid medium!
Coming into Stuart, we got cleared for the Old Roosevelt Bridge and then almost immediately heard the railroad bridge was lowering in three minutes. We knew we wouldn't make it under in time, so we waited (in the crazy current area) for it to lower, the train to cross, and the railroad bridge to lift again before asking Old Roosevelt, once more, to open for us.
No locks today. We anchored just east of Saint Lucie Lock, across from Phipps Park Campground, saw the moon's reflection in the water- wondering what it was- before looking up to realize it was the moon, and spotted a gator in the water before settling in for our last night aboard for 2025.
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