Hi, all. Immediate Past Commodore, Duane Ising here with another update.
 
Diane and I completed the Down East Circle last year and a good portion of the Great Loop. We are getting ready to take off again to finish the Great Loop (see map).
 
Last year we traveled up the east coast to New York, then up the Hudson River and west on the Erie Canal before exiting onto Lake Ontario. We cruised the Thousand Islands on the US side for a bit and then into Canada for a long ride up the Rideau Waterway to Ottawa. From there joined the St. Lawrence Seaway at Montreal, visited Quebec, and took the long passage out the St Lawrence to the Atlantic Ocean. We visited New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia before crossing back to the US at Maine. We put the boat away for the winter in MA after almost 5,000 miles. (The map is a generic one showing the Great Loop and does not show where we went last year.)
 
At the end of May, we will pick up the boat and head south through New England and back up to the Erie Canal and Lake Ontario, but this time heading to the northwest through the famous Trent-Severn Waterway into Georgian Bay and the North Channel of Lake Huron. Next is Lake Michigan all the way to Chicago and then down through many rivers to Mobile, AL. From there, we’ll enjoy the shores on the Gulf of Mexico as we make our way home by mid-Dec or so. This year’s cruise will be close to 4,400 miles.
 
You are invited to stay in touch via email (duane.ising@comcast.net or djising@comcast.net) and by following along with our blog: http://www.sailblogs.com/member/diva-di/
 
The following link will show you the last few days of where we have been when we check in with our SPOT tracking, but only once we get underway and start using it:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=03uQxuqRXaBVpicIrhgrqpZHXJRo0RfNA
 
Look for the actual cruise to start close to the end of May.
 
All the best!
 
Duane and Diane Ising
m/v Diva Di
Punta Gorda, FL