Once upon a time while spending the Christmas holiday in Vermont Mark came across something that piqued his interest; America’s Great Loop.  Soon this became Mark’s mission.  The what, where, and when became a research project and a master plan to make this plan come to fruition. To know Mark is to know he is a determined man who makes things happen.  The biggest obsticale in front of him was when can it happen.

Along came Covid…

The entire world was affected by Covid-19.  People were making a lot of changes during that time, including us.  The stars aligned and made it possible to sell our home move into a temporary rental and purchase a suitable boat.  Mark spent many hours researching the perfect boat that would fit our family of 4 and also be appropriate for the loop. Luckily our perfect boat was for sale in Connecticut, 2-hours from where we lived. 

It was not easy to say goodbye to our home of 20 years, raised our girls, and where neighbors became best friends. Covid did not make downsizing easy either.  Everything was shut down and estate/yard sales were forbidden and forget about trying to donate items to churches or charities.  Storage units however were accessible so we packed away the sentimental items and started to live as minimalist as we could moving from rental to rental until the day came that we closed on the boat.  Our closing date was September 11, 2020 and we moved onboard a few weeks later. Our inaugural cruise was from Essex, CT to Buzzards Bay, MA. We left an unfamiliar marina in fog as thick as pea soup and stayed in that fog for most of the day.  We arrived safely and spent our first winter onboard at Safe Harbor Fiddler’s Cove Marina, Falmouth, MA.

We have spent three winters onboard in Buzzards Bay and cruised south for two.  The four summers we have been onboard were spent at West Island Marina, Fairhaven, MA.