Congratulations to Dick Baner and John and Carolynn Thompson for having completed the Great Loop!
The Great Loop, or the Great Circle Route, is roughly a 6,000 mile long water route which circumnavigates the eastern United States and passes through the Ontario Province in Canada. The Thompsons and Dick Baner started completing segments of the Great Loop in 2007 and completed it this summer with the last 200 miles across the Deleware Bay and Chesapeake Bay. That means they can each fly the gold America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association burgee on the bow of their boats, as opposed to the white AGLCA burgee they’ve flown for the past 12 years.
Large segments of the loop were completed in 2017 and you can read about those parts again in Issue 1, 2018 Mahogany & Chrome. In that article, John says, “Doing the Great Loop is about the journey more than it is completion of a trip.” But now they have completed The Great Circle Loop and should be proud of that accomplishment.
John and Carolynn Thompson’s 1984 Skiff Craft 24′ LILY PAD and Dick Baner’s 1983 Skiff Craft Cuddy Cabin Wave Toucher IV as they come to an end of their Great Loop journey at Lewes, Deleware.