Today we left Grand Harbor at 7am with six other boats, at first light, to a new stretch of river we’ve never seen before. We had 3 locks and a destination marina 56 miles away.
The way the first lock went, I ended up in front, and then led a group of 8 boats for the rest of the day, calling ahead to the locks, setting the pace, and communicating status. This group included a Grand Banks “motoryacht” with a six foot draft, a new Carver 52 Command Bridge, a couple catamarans, a Tiara cruiser, a huge old carver, and other trawlers.
Our 22 foot air draft is reduced to 18′ 5″ when I drop the hinged mast. This is the first time we did this, so I could fit in this covered slip.At the rendevous, 30 or so boats are toured to give prospective loopers ideas on what sort of boat suits them best. I wrote this up to help people size up the advantages of a motor yacht versus an older trawler.One of the three locks we transited today, no long waits today which was great. Weather was wonderful. We did have one lock where we were on the very front bollard and we had to move back slightly so the lock doors didn’t crunch our bow.Here is our navigation setup for possible heavy fog…note the left chartplotter is showing live radar returns, and Flir infrared night vision image. This with the GPS location the nav chart gives us pretty good situational awareness..
Reimanns 'round the loop in 2022 
Looking good. Glad to hear from you. Look forward to updates.
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