Tug Calypso's Great Loop Adventure: Calypso closes the "loop"!

At approximately noon on Thursday, Sept 27, we completed our Great Loop adventure as we crossed our wake in Charlotte Harbor. A couple of hours later we were safely tied up at our dock. It is certainly a bittersweet feeling to have reached this point. Over the past 173 days we experienced many ups and downs. The high points included seeing lots of beautiful places in two countries (1 province and 16 different states), meeting some wonderful people, sampling new and unusual food, and the sense of accomplishment at overcoming challenging situations. One of the challenges that we did not enjoy was having to transit through 105 locks. When all was said and done, however, we were probably quite fortunate as our longest wait was three hours. When we were already past it, one of the locks on the Mississippi was shut down several days for emergency repairs and we know several boats that were affected by that closure. It was a challenge traveling on the Mississippi during this year's severe drought since many potential anchorages were left high and dry. We both agreed, however, that we would rather be on the river during a drought than during a flood. We loved Georgian Bay and the North Channel in Canada and were totally amazed by the beauty of Lake Michigan and her ports, however, we still believe that there's no better place to be than in SW Florida and we're glad to be home!