Video Transcript

00:00 – Introduction to our Great Loop Story

We’re cruising the Great Loop Waterway from Florida to the Great Lakes and back again. Join me and Captain Tom on our yacht Swamp Puppy as we figure out full-time boat life and navigate through rivers, lakes, canals, and more.

00:12 – Meet Captain Tom and our Loop Boat

Welcome aboard Swamp Puppy. I’m Captain Tom and today we’re starting the Great Loop. Swamp Puppy is a 1989 Carver Santego 38 and it has twin Yanmar diesels. They are the 4LH-STE’s. So, here we are finally launching on the Great Loop. We’re currently in the Sebastian Inlet area which is pretty close to where I grew up.

00:25 – 1st Day on the Great Loop!

I grew up in Central Florida and I grew up coming over here to Sebastian Inlet to go boogie boarding. You know, going over and catching the waves as a kid.

00:39 – Storm Looming in Background

If you take a look behind me, the weather is not in our favor.

00:50 – Our Maiden Voyage

This kind of reminds us of our maiden voyage when we went from Key Largo to Fort Pierce [Florida]. We set out on Halloween and it was a small craft advisory with 25 mph winds.

Now, today at 2:00 p.m. it’s calling for 40 mph gusts, 25 mph winds and 40 mph gusts. So, we got about 4 hours to make it to a hurricane hole, so to speak.

01:10 – Underway on the Great Loop

And so, we need to get underway. I’ve already done my systems checks. Let’s get moving. He’s [an osprey] checking the weather for us. He’s going to let us know [if we’ll make it!].

02:01 – Update from the Captain

We’ve been underway for 40 minutes now. We’re cruising along at about 1,300 RPM at 7 knots, which is approximately 8.2 mph. We’ve got 11 ft underneath our keel. That’s underneath our lowest point essentially.

02:48 – The Brown-eyed Girl Loves the Rain

And we’re cruising along the ICW. It just started misting some. It’s been pretty nasty looking outside, but it’s actually now misting enough where it’s a tad bit annoying. But, our ETA was about 11:50 and the strong winds are supposed to come in around 2:00, so we should be okay. It’s just going to be not the most pleasant, you know, experience. It can’t all be the rainbows and sunshine. I’m having a blast and you get rainbows from rain.

03:17 – The Wake Beneath our Mantus Dinghy

Well, it’s raining again. But, that’s okay. That’s just kind of how it goes. We had to make a move because where we were wasn’t going to be as protected in the winds that are coming. It wasn’t going to be very fun, so we had to move.

03:30 – Update from Captain Tom

Obviously, we would not like to move in weather like this, but the circumstance we had no choice. It’s raining again. Other than that, things are going good.

05:11 – Updates in the Rain, the Storm is Here

Rain has passed. We’re about 20 minutes away now. Elyse made me a hot tea, so I’m feeling good. I just want to give you a little information. It’s currently 15 mph winds or 11 mph gusting to 15 mph, something like that? So, not too terrible and the winds are no longer going to be up to 40 mph, they’re staying like 30 mph.

06:05 – The First Boat We Saw, and our First VHF Transmission!

We finally seen a boat. We hadn’t seen a boat all day long and we actually got passed and it was the first time they called on the radio.

06:46 – Calling Mathers Bridge – a SWING BRIDGE!

This is motor vessel Swamp Puppy on your south side requesting opening.

07:05 – Mathers Bridge on the Banana River

This is our first swing bridge opening. We’ve had to call other bridges, but first swing bridge, pretty cool. Super cool.

07:34 – Dropping the Mantus Anchor and Bridle

Time to drop the anchor. Elyse is getting the bridle ready. You know, we’re going to have some winds from north and the east. There’s a little channel here. There is a sunken boat right there. And this is a marked anchorage.

07:58 – The Storm (and more dolphins!) is Really Here

Lots of good reviews. In fact, Technomadia stayed here in 2018, which is kind of cool. They’re one of the very first YouTube channels I watched before I got into RV life back in 2018. Yeah, and how I first learned about the loop, so kind of cool. They’re still looping because they’re “sloopers” (slow loopers). Sorry, I’m not sure if you can hear Elyse or not. So, essentially our plan is to kind of drop the anchor in this area and then we’ll get pulled back towards these condos over here.

00:08:15 – Setting the Mantus Anchor

So, basically we’ll drop the anchor here and then we should end up right right over here. That way we’re not blocking this channel and uh we still have plenty of space to to swing around. That’s the plan. Let’s make it happen. All right. Anchor away. Must have already hit the bottom. I’ll back up. This is our first time using the bridle and this is the first time with a nice anchor other than last night. So, previously on our maiden voyage we had an old Danforth that was bent and it took a few times to set. It was always kind of stressful.

09:28 – The Storm (and more dolphins!) is Really Here

So far, the Mantus has set on both first drops, which is pretty cool. Now, it is a much heavier anchor than we had previously and a much newer anchor and like design and everything, so. But, we’re getting it figured out. Elyse is setting up the bridle. And then we’ll back down, give it a little tension so we don’t keep sliding towards this sunken sailboat.