Great Loop Chronicles Part Five
Marine
- Sponsor
- OPTIMA Batteries
- Location
- Vero Beach, FL
The Great Loop Chronicles will be an ongoing series, following the travels of OPTIMA Batteries staffer, Jim McIlvaine, as he travels America's Great Loop, a 6000+ nautical mile journey around the Eastern United States.
We're already on Part Five of the Great Loop Chronicles and the progress toward actually getting on the boat and going probably seems painfully slow. It felt that way for me too, but there was a lot to be done before we could shove off, even with the somewhat expedited path we took. Many people who do the loop actively plan for years, buy a boat, work on it for a while and take some practice trips. We're jumping in head-first and in doing that, we need to make sure we're ready.
Captain Chris Caldwell was one of the presenters at Looper-palooza and he lives not too far away from us in Vero Beach, Florida. He also came recommended by my boat broker, Jordan Bohonek. After I returned from the Griffin King of the Hammers, powered by OPTIMA Batteries, I drove over to Vero Beach and spent the day with Captain Chris, trying to learn as much as I could about electrical, mechanical, plumbing systems and general boat operation, maintenance and ownership.
While my wife would've like to have joined me for the day, we couldn't wrangle sitters for our two kids, so I went alone and tried to remember/regurgitate as much as I could. Captain Chris had a comprehensive curriculum that covered a broad range of subjects and components, but one of the big values in getting private coaching is that he gives you his cell phone number. You will have follow-up questions and you'll want to ask someone knowledgeable, so it's great to be able to continue leaning on him as a resource. However, that does have limitations and if you call enough, he'll eventually suggest an hourly consulting fee, which is a reasonable request.
We went through the survey, talked about each of the outstanding items specific to my boat and also covered routine maintenance and operation, like switching from shore power to a generator or inverter. Loopers looking to save money will do their best to handle as much of the routine maintenance as possible, including strainer cleaning, oil changes, etc...
My physical size (7'1) and the relatively cramped quarters of the engine compartment may result in a hybrid situation, where I can do some of my own maintenance, but will probably be better off letting some of the work be done professionally. Our tight timeline also factors into that equation.
I don't know if I'd call the Great Loop my "dream trip," but it was definitely my idea and my amazing wife is willing to go along with it, which in itself, is a big ask. One of the concessions I made in appreciation of her willingness to do this was to let her re-name the Gold Dust to whatever she wanted. She chose the name, "Maver Marie II," in tribute to her grandfather, who built the original Maver Marie (pictured above) in his garage and driveway in Monroe, Michigan, named it after his wife and ran it on Lake Erie.
The Great Loop would certainly be a dream trip for them, so re-naming it felt appropriate. Dreams aside, it's now mid-February and we're about a month out from boarding the boat. I still need on-the-water training and we need to get all our stuff onboard. That comes next!
We're already on Part Five of the Great Loop Chronicles and the progress toward actually getting on the boat and going probably seems painfully slow. It felt that way for me too, but there was a lot to be done before we could shove off, even with the somewhat expedited path we took. Many people who do the loop actively plan for years, buy a boat, work on it for a while and take some practice trips. We're jumping in head-first and in doing that, we need to make sure we're ready.
Captain Chris Caldwell was one of the presenters at Looper-palooza and he lives not too far away from us in Vero Beach, Florida. He also came recommended by my boat broker, Jordan Bohonek. After I returned from the Griffin King of the Hammers, powered by OPTIMA Batteries, I drove over to Vero Beach and spent the day with Captain Chris, trying to learn as much as I could about electrical, mechanical, plumbing systems and general boat operation, maintenance and ownership.
While my wife would've like to have joined me for the day, we couldn't wrangle sitters for our two kids, so I went alone and tried to remember/regurgitate as much as I could. Captain Chris had a comprehensive curriculum that covered a broad range of subjects and components, but one of the big values in getting private coaching is that he gives you his cell phone number. You will have follow-up questions and you'll want to ask someone knowledgeable, so it's great to be able to continue leaning on him as a resource. However, that does have limitations and if you call enough, he'll eventually suggest an hourly consulting fee, which is a reasonable request.
We went through the survey, talked about each of the outstanding items specific to my boat and also covered routine maintenance and operation, like switching from shore power to a generator or inverter. Loopers looking to save money will do their best to handle as much of the routine maintenance as possible, including strainer cleaning, oil changes, etc...
My physical size (7'1) and the relatively cramped quarters of the engine compartment may result in a hybrid situation, where I can do some of my own maintenance, but will probably be better off letting some of the work be done professionally. Our tight timeline also factors into that equation.
I don't know if I'd call the Great Loop my "dream trip," but it was definitely my idea and my amazing wife is willing to go along with it, which in itself, is a big ask. One of the concessions I made in appreciation of her willingness to do this was to let her re-name the Gold Dust to whatever she wanted. She chose the name, "Maver Marie II," in tribute to her grandfather, who built the original Maver Marie (pictured above) in his garage and driveway in Monroe, Michigan, named it after his wife and ran it on Lake Erie.
The Great Loop would certainly be a dream trip for them, so re-naming it felt appropriate. Dreams aside, it's now mid-February and we're about a month out from boarding the boat. I still need on-the-water training and we need to get all our stuff onboard. That comes next!