Recounting the highs and lows of spending four summers cruising the Great Loop is the topic of Coming Full Circle: A Voyage on America’s Great Loop, a new book authored by the latest Nordhavn owners cum authors Bruce and Susan Armstrong. The Armstrongs owned their Nordhavn 35 “Gulf Cart” from 2002-09, traveling extensively up and down the East Coast as well as around the Great Loop. Coming Full Circle is their first book. Here is a summary from the publisher:
Cruising America’s Great Loop is one of the premier boating adventures in North America. Bruce and Susan Armstrong spent four summers on their Nordhavn 35 Gulf Cart completing the trip, logging over 7,000 miles along the way. They survived two floods, weathered a tropical storm and outran a waterspout. Their route took them south from Naples around Florida’s southern tip, then up the east coast, through Lake Champlain into Canada, across the Great Lakes, through Chicago and back to the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Illinois, Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers and the Tombigbee Waterway.
Coming Full Circle: A Voyage on America’s Great Loop tells the story of their adventures along America’s waterways. It is a celebration of live-aboard boating and cruising. It is a commentary on the places they visited. It describes the joys and challenges of the journey with a sense of humor. It tells of hauling laundry through marinas, picking blueberries in Canada, hiking for groceries, watching gorgeous sunsets in isolated anchorages, and arriving at a new port in time for a local festival. It tells about the community of boaters on the Loop, of sharing long water crossings with other boats and celebrating with them at dinner that night. It is a story of discovery; new places, new friends, new foods and new ideas.
This book will bring back memories for those who have boated the Great Loop. It will get the adrenalin pumping for those who are getting ready to start the Great Loop. And for those who haven’t considered the trip before, this book may cause people to add boating the Great Loop to their to do list.
Reviews and Testimonials
“Come aboard, and welcome to Gulf Cart”. This greeting will be your start of an amazing adventure with Bruce and Susan Armstrong as they take you on an armchair tour of their four years cruising the Great Loop. Through their eyes, you will view the greatness of our country as seen from the water, the backyard of America. If you are planning on starting your own adventure of Looping, you are about to get pumped up.
— Tom Conrad, AGLCA Member and Skipper Bob Award Winner
Almost ten years as a live-aboard cruiser and I’ve not yet done The Loop. If I ever do, this book will be my constant companion. Chock full of the kind of information cruisers need with great story telling to make it personal and interesting.
— Beth Tally – First Mate s/v Up Jinks and author of The Beacon.
As a non-boater, I did not expect to be much interested, but to my surprise I found myself truly enjoying the adventures of the Armstrongs cruising the Loop. A definite must-read for both boater and non-boaters!
— Carl L. Steinhouse, author of five books about Heroes of the Holocaust
Coming Full Circle: A Voyage on America’s Great Loop is available at ArmstrongTravelVentures.com, where you can also read more about the book and the authors and see photography of the voyage.
© 2010 Bruce and Susan Armstrong
ISBN 978-0-615-41003-6
284 pages $18.95