This is a passenger that stowed away on board.
Lulu, our boat guard dog, insisted on coming along. She will alert us anytime someone walks by the boat; we just hope that she is not too annoying to others.

Here is a Map of the complete loop. It shows several options. For example, we will be planning to go straight up the Hudson to the St. Lawrence instead of taking the Erie Canal. However, the First Mate will make that call since she will be handling lines in the locks. Another option is continuing down the Mississippi to New Orleans or the route we will be taking, through the Tenn-Tom Canal to Mobile Alabama.

We plan to start our Great Loop Cruise in May 2017 from The Myrtle Beach Yacht Club in Little River, South Carolina. This is a 6000 plus mile cruise that will take us up the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway to Norfolk, up the Chesapeake Bay, across to the Delaware Bay to Cape May, NJ, The Atlantic Ocean to New York City, the Hudson River to Lake Champlain and on up to the St Lawrence River. 
The St. Lawrence to the Ottawa River, down the Rideau Canal to Kingston, Ontario, and on to Trenton, Ontario to start the Trent Severn Waterway to Lake Huron's Georgian Bay and across the North Channel to Mackinaw Island, Michigan. Down the East side of Lake Michigan, and across to Chicago. 
We begin our river trip south from the Illinois River to the Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee Rivers to Mobile, Alabama. A 24 hour trip across the Gulf of Mexico to Florida. We will take the Okeechobee Canal from Florida's west coast to the East coast and on up the east coast of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina to return to Little River. 
This cruise will take us approximately 9 months to complete.

Our boat is a 2001 Mainship 390 Trawler that we bought new in 2002. It is powered by a single 300 HP Cat Diesel and has a Bowthruster. It is 39 ft 9 in long, has two helm stations; one on the flybridge and one in the salon. Brenda and I think that it is the perfect boat for this trip.
The electronics on both helms include Radar, GPS/Chartplotter, Autopilot, VHF Radio, and various gauges.
As many of you know, the Engine was completely rebuilt in 2015, so basically I have a new Engine.
There are two staterooms, a vacuflush head, enclosed shower, salon, full galley, Heat, air conditioning, TV, and radio. There are two air conditioning/heating units. So we have all the comforts of home in a downsized version.
There is an 8 kW Generator for power when away from shore, and a Dinghy with a 9 HP Outboard mounted on the swim platform to get to shore when anchored.
The trawler design allows for a full walk around with large rails that allows First Mate Brenda to safely attend to Lines, Fenders, and Anchor.
In 2010 I added an Articulating Rudder that improves the turning radius but more importantly allows me to move the stern from side to side while docking. Check out the Bayview Engineering web side for videos of this interesting mechanical device.