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We just got back from a nine-day family boat journey aboard our 34ft cabin cruiser. It’s by far the longest time we’ve spent on a boat together and the longest journey we have ever undertaken. We motored 190 miles down the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon to Astoria, Oregon (the last stop before entering the Pacific Ocean).

What We Learned:

We will be tested

The boat could handle waves far bigger than we could. We pulled into Astoria in 17mph winds. That kicks up a pretty big chop which made the last half hour of our ride a little scary. It also tested our docking skills, but with the help of a nearby boater we made it safely.

We will be grumpy at times

Take your turn. We all have EGR days. We have a policy in our family where we have EGR days (Extra Grace Required). These come when some or all of us are tired, frustrated, hungry, hot, etc. When you’re all in close proximity on a boat in unfamiliar circumstances, the frequency and amount of grace required increases. We all got our turn on this trip (but handled it well).

We will have opportunity (to linger) on the Great Loop and that will be AWESOME

One of the parts of our current lifestyle is that we don’t have time to linger. We can’t extend trips or change plans. We have to go back to work on Monday morning. Because we had planned 3 extra days at the end of this trip as a contingency for breakdowns, we had extra time. This allowed us to flex our lingering muscles on the way back. We found a protected lagoon, dropped anchor, and spent two extra nights there. It was AWESOME to be able to do that.

We’ll have to watch out for eating out too much

The biggest budget buster on this trip was eating out. Every marina we stopped at was near a brewpub or restaurant that pulled us in with its tractor beam. By the end, the kids even got tired of root beer, which is normally reserved as a treat but became a multiple time a day event on this trip. We’ll have to come up with some way to prevent us from eating our way through the Great Loop.

We’ll want to be intentional with our provisioning

Tiny dockside markets may have what we need, but they have a lot higher prices and lead to impulse buys. A well-stocked boat would help with that (and probably the eating out as well).

We have a pretty smart dog

She’s never been in a kayak before. We hadn’t prepared to anchor out on this trip, so we hadn’t given any thought to how she might go to the bathroom before we were in that situation. We kayaked her from the boat to the shore for potty breaks. She handled it very well.

We need community (well, at least most of us do)

The kids had phone calls with their friends. We met a family at one of the marinas that we became friends with and told us about this awesome spot to anchor for the night and swim. We did and it was awesome. And we got to play with them there. The two introverts in our family need our space at times, but for the extroverts, this time was a godsend.

We are prepared for this

We did it! We pulled it off and are still talking to one another. You never know until you try exactly how it will go. Of course, nine days and 190 miles isn’t exactly like 365 days and 6000 miles, but it was good practice and taught us that we are prepared. Some people set out on the Great Loop with far less boating and close family time experience than us, but this trip proved to ourselves that we are prepared and have what it takes to do this. We talk about it. We dream about it. It is starting to become part of our family DNA.

We need to share boat jobs

As the captain and chief mechanic, there is a lot to do on the boat. Some jobs can only be done by me, but there are a host of other activities that, when it needs to be done every day, will need to be delegated. This is both for physical reasons, but also to share responsibilities and spread the work load across the family.

We LOVED the lifestyle

I could have seen this go a number of ways. I expected my wife to schedule a dinner date after this trip to have a serious sit down conversation about how she doubted the Great Loop after our practice journey. But she didn’t.  We loved it. We loved the travel, the close family time, the adventure, the leisure. It was perfect.

Boat people are good people

Everyone we met on our trip were good people. Particularly the young family we met, which is a rare breed in boating (mostly you run into retirees). Everyone was helpful, willing to grab a dock line, share local tips, etc.

It works!

Traveling 4 hours at 10 miles and hour, staying in a new place, doing some homeschool on the boat, and repeating for nine days actually works! This is a perfect pace for the Great Loop. We even spent two nights at two of our stops (which is about right, on average, for the loop).

We can anchor overnight!

We spent two nights on anchor and anchored two other times for swimming and lived to tell the tale. Anchoring is challenging (especially in wind and current). This has been an intimidating job we’ve (I’ve) been putting off. We did great, though, and will definitely be anchoring more now that we’re not as scared of it.

Safety first

This is and was always our policy.  We had one small incident on this trip where my wife fell through an open hatch. I always alert everyone onboard when a hatch is open. So much so that the kids make fun of me in their best dad voice “I repeat, a hatch is open.” But during this time, the dining table collapsed on the kids (they weren’t hurt, just pinned), and her mommy brain took over. She rushed up from down in our stateroom and took a missed step into the open hatch and got a nasty bruise. It just reminded us that we always need to be on our toes.

We shared the story

We time-lapsed the whole journey and captured some of our adventures to share. This is what we want to do through this blog, as well as some YouTube videos, while we go around the Great Loop. We’ll learn to improve our video production techniques, but it worked great and we made a video.

What we spent:

• Gas – $248 (100 gallons at $2.48 per gallon)
• Marinas – $142 (Averaged $24/night, 2 on anchor for free)
• Eating Out – $830 (Averaged $92 per day)
• Provisions – $419 (Groceries we bought before and during the trip)
• Souvenirs and extras – $64
• Total=$1703 for our 9-day trip.

Ultimately, this isn’t too bad for a 9 day vacation for a family of four! For our Great Loop, we’ll pay more for marinas and hopefully eat out less to be able to fit our budget.

Conclusion

We had an amazing time spending 9 days practicing our early retirement dream of taking on the Great Loop in a cabin cruiser. We traveled 190 miles down the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon to Astoria, Oregon over the 9 day trip. This is compared to 6000 miles and 365 days we’ll spend on our grand adventure. We learned a lot about ourselves and our capability to take on this journey. Most importantly, we realized that our dreams of pulling off this trip are possible (and that’s awesome)!