Great Loop Chronicles Part Two
Marine
- Sponsor
- OPTIMA Batteries
- Location
- Punta Gorda, 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.
Living in Florida offers several advantages when it comes to planning for the Great Loop. One advantage is that Looper-palooza is traditionally held in Punta Gorda, Florida in January. After doing a lot of reading online, I felt attending that event was the next logical step in the process. They charge by the person, so I attended, while Gwendolyn did homeschool activities with the kids.
Looper-palooza had a variety of seminars and different choices for attendees to make covering topics like anchoring, navigation, locking, weather, diesel maintenance, etc... Sponsors of America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association also had an opportunity to present their businesses, which includes boat manufacturers, brokers and insurance agencies to name a few. We met our boat broker, Jordan Bohonek, there and set up some appointments to start looking at boats in February, following Round One of DriveOPTIMA at Sebring International Raceway.
We headed down to Hutchinson Island and looked at a few, before making our way over to the West Coast of Florida to see a few more boats. The accident pictured above happened as we were driving near lake Okeechobee. I was searching for a hotel room on my computer, while Gwendolyn was driving and our children were in the backseat, when we were hit from behind on a two-lane road. My daughter and I ended up being transported to the hospital, with my daughter having the most severe injuries.
Mike Tyson famously said, "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." We were definitely punched in the mouth and divine intervention is the only explanation for how we were all able to escape that crash with our lives. My daughter's recovery was the longest and we pray she (and the rest of us) won't have any long-term effects, but the accident reminded us of what we were told about planning for the Great Loop- don't try to plan too far in advance.
The accident forced us to press the pause button on our Great Loop plans, but thankfully, it did not de-rail them entirely. I continued to do a lot of reading about the experiences others had on the Loop and when we felt our family situation was sorted out, we reached out to Jordan again to resume our search and firm up our timeline for starting the Loop. Read more about that in Part Three.
Living in Florida offers several advantages when it comes to planning for the Great Loop. One advantage is that Looper-palooza is traditionally held in Punta Gorda, Florida in January. After doing a lot of reading online, I felt attending that event was the next logical step in the process. They charge by the person, so I attended, while Gwendolyn did homeschool activities with the kids.
Looper-palooza had a variety of seminars and different choices for attendees to make covering topics like anchoring, navigation, locking, weather, diesel maintenance, etc... Sponsors of America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association also had an opportunity to present their businesses, which includes boat manufacturers, brokers and insurance agencies to name a few. We met our boat broker, Jordan Bohonek, there and set up some appointments to start looking at boats in February, following Round One of DriveOPTIMA at Sebring International Raceway.
We headed down to Hutchinson Island and looked at a few, before making our way over to the West Coast of Florida to see a few more boats. The accident pictured above happened as we were driving near lake Okeechobee. I was searching for a hotel room on my computer, while Gwendolyn was driving and our children were in the backseat, when we were hit from behind on a two-lane road. My daughter and I ended up being transported to the hospital, with my daughter having the most severe injuries.
Mike Tyson famously said, "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." We were definitely punched in the mouth and divine intervention is the only explanation for how we were all able to escape that crash with our lives. My daughter's recovery was the longest and we pray she (and the rest of us) won't have any long-term effects, but the accident reminded us of what we were told about planning for the Great Loop- don't try to plan too far in advance.
The accident forced us to press the pause button on our Great Loop plans, but thankfully, it did not de-rail them entirely. I continued to do a lot of reading about the experiences others had on the Loop and when we felt our family situation was sorted out, we reached out to Jordan again to resume our search and firm up our timeline for starting the Loop. Read more about that in Part Three.