Epic adventure: Monroe family returns from 10-month boat trip

The Wright family just returned from an epic adventure.

For 10 1/2 months, David and Amy Wright of Monroe and their two children traveled more than 7,000 miles along the Great Loop in their 42-foot Nordic tug boat.

The self-paced journey included areas of the U.S., Canada, the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, New York State Canals, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico and the southern tip of Florida. The family returned in early July, completing a journey few finish.

“Approximately 150 boats complete the Great Loop each year, making it a feat more unique than swimming the English Channel or climbing Mount Everest,” America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association said.

“We never left with any expectation that we wouldn’t finish,” David said.

The trip had been something the family talked about for more than 20 years.

“We learned about the program during the Sept. 11 incident. I saw a book about the Great Loop. I really wanted to do it. I talked to my wife. We fantasied about it for years,” David said.

But, they put it off until recently, when COVID and an awareness of the passing of time pushed them into action.

“We were seeing people getting older. We thought, we can’t keep putting this off. Our daughter is a senior. We wanted one more family bonding trip before the kids start going away,” David said.

So, he and Amy took leaves from their jobs. Their children, Annabelle, now 18, and Max, 15, did their schoolwork from the boat.

“After COVID, we thought we couldn’t mess up the school schedule any more than COVID did,” David said. “Meadow Montessori gave us all the books and workbooks. (With unpredictable weather) we couldn’t do the online thing.”

The Wrights departed from Monroe Boat Club last summer and returned to Monroe July 8.

“We left at the end of August last year. Our usual vacations were two to three weeks. We had never done anything of this length,” David said. “We traveled through Lake Erie, Lake Huron, under the Mackinac Bridge, Lake Michigan, through Chicago, the Illinois River, Mississippi River, Teton, Mobile, Ala., the Florida panhandle, Tarpon Springs, Florida Keys, Bahamas, the East Coast, New York Harbor, the Erie Canal and back home. We enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun.”

The family slept on the boat most nights. During inclement weather, they stayed in hotels. They encountered relatively few problems along the way.

“In the Bahamas, we got a hole in an exhaust elbow. We had to get a new one fabricated, but there was a stainless steel shortage. We just got it back. We bandaged up the old one,” David said.

Another time, lock maintenance sidetracked the voyage for about a week. Their children also missed seeing peers. Most of the other boaters are retired. “There were not a lot of kids,” David said.

The family only returned home once, for an issue with David’s family.

“You’re reasonably close to be able to get a rental car. It just takes a little more planning,” David said.

Before leaving, the family attended a conference about traveling the Great Loop. They attended a second while on the trip.

“People come in who did the Loop. They help you with route planning and tell you what to watch out for, what a day might look like. They give advice on when to avoid the sun. They tell you what you don’t want to miss, like Mile High Apple Pie and the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Ky. There’s a bunch of stops they suggest,” David said. “There is a virtual option, but in-person is more fun. You meet people who want to go. They are genuinely excited to be there.”

David grew up with boats, but Amy did not. The couple bought their first boat together 14 years ago in New Jersey.

“We brought it through the English Channel,” David said.

Since then, he’s taken a few Power Squadron boating classes and some course-charting classes in the Bahamas. Other than that, he’s self-taught.

“You figure it out,” he said.

David recommends those interested in traveling the Great Loop, just take the trip.

“If you want to do it, just do it. Don’t overthink it. You’ll figure it out along the way,” he said.

Now that's he's completed the Great Loop, David already has a new goal in mind.

“Circumnavigation is next. I want to sailboat around the world,” he said.

To learn more about the Great Loop trip, contact America’s Great Loop Cruisers' Association at (843) 879-5042 or krusso@GreatLoop.org. On the Net: www.GreatLoop.org.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Monroe family returns from 10-month boat trip on the 'Great Loop'