Following our 2012 Triangle Cruise through Canada, we decided we wanted to do the Great Loop trip and have been preparing for a trip ever since. To learn more about what we might expect from the Great Loop, we attended an America's Great Loop Cruising Association, AGLCA, meeting in May of 2014 as a kickoff to reaching our goal of traveling the loop. Last summer we made many small but important
improvements to Sea Moss to make it ready for such a
voyage. For example, heat sensors were added to the engine room,
storage areas were scoped out and shelves added to increase
space, the sofa was raised about 6 inches to provide better scenic views from within the cabin, ...
This year, we made major improvements to Sea Moss by updating our instruments. We now have an integrated display of radar, GPS, and depth. We added a new antenna for AIS which identifies our boat to other boat traffic and provides us with a display of AIS-enabled vessels on our chart display. Swapping out the radar was loads of fun as we had to take off the old unit and remove the wires that were running from the helm to the radar tower. In fact we had to remove the 5 huge bolts holding the radar tower in place to get to the wires to remove them and feed new ones through. When the original radar was installed, the engineer decided that he would "glue" the wires in place with 4200 sealant - good to keep the water out and terrible to get the wires out.
We are now in the mode of provisioning the boat with cooking equipment, clothes, laundry supplies e.g. quarters for the machines we'll be using along the way, and hundreds of other items that all have to somehow be absorbed into the limited storage on board. "To take or not to take" that is the oft asked question around here these days.
