The Clausen's Boating
Summer of 2001

WELCOME ABOARD

The Summer of 2001
We finish the Great Loop, 6335 miles total.

We've been out cruising in our boat, not too unusual you might say, and that's true. Although I've owned 12 boats and boated for over 25 years before I started "cruising." Cruising takes you to ports that you have never entered before. That means no local knowledge of the water, you've never seen the marina, anchorage or wall you happen upon, and the ever present questions lingers, is their Diesel fuel pump working? No car, and surprises aplenty every day. We began cruising in 2000 with a journey that took us (2) Summers to complete, we did the Great Loop, and took in 6335 miles of our nations waterways. We started in Florida and went North up the Intercoastal Waterway to Rhode Island our old stomping grounds, then back across the Long Island Sound to New York and up the Hudson River to Albany. Are you comfortable? Need a cup of coffee, now may be the time. Enter the Erie Canal to the Oswego Canal, down to Lake Ontario, across Ontario to Canada and the Rideau Canal, up to Ottawa, down the Ottawa River to Montreal, up the St. Laurence Seaway to the Thousand Islands and back up the Oswego to the Erie Canal to Brewerton NY and put the boat to sleep for the winter in indoor heated storage, and that was just for 2000.

Summer of: 2001

The Summer began with flying up to the boat in Syracuse NY and making her ready for another Summer. Since we used indoor heated storage, we were told that all we needed to do was turn on the refrigerator, stock it and continue. Well it was almost that easy, I was shocked, I have winterized boats and left them out to the weather in Rhode Island and it was never "easy" to get then back into good shape. We left Winter Harbor on 6/4/01, after a small section of the Erie Canal we went down the Oswego Canal into Lake Ontario and over to Belleville Canada. A word about our boat is due here, we can make 29 mph wot, wide open throttle, but cruise at 21 to 24 mph. We have 900 horsepower to call on, and we have used them to out run weather, make quick crossing ahead of weather, and just to keep to a rendezvous on a particular date. We also like to motor @ 10 mph to kick back and take it all in. Other boaters choose to limit their speed to under 10 mph by their choice of hull design and engines, (usually one) we've tried that and it's not for us. We like the redundancy, maneuverability, and distance it can give us if we choose that option.

This year were going through the Trent Severn waterway, Georgian Bay, the North Channel, into Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, through Chicago into the Illinois Waterway to the Mississippi River, up the Ohio River to the Cumber land River, across to the Tennessee River @ Land Between the Lakes, up the Tennessee to the Ten Tom Waterway, into the Black Warrior and down into Mobile Alabama. For there we follow the intercoastal to Carrabelle Florida and make the 200 mile Gulf of Mexico crossing to St. Petersburg, Florida.

This Gives us 3006.9 miles traveled in 2001, and one hundred and fifty four different locks we have gone through. And we're back to where we started in St. Petersburg Fl.