AGLCA SPRING 2025 RENDEZVOUS
May 1 – 5
The Spring Rendezvous is an annual conference for “Loopers” usually held in May in Norfolk, VA. It includes seminars split into two tracks. The Route Briefing track in the Spring covers the portion of the Great Loop route from Norfolk, VA to Mobile, AL. Speakers lead you through these waterways, pointing out favorite marinas, anchorages, things to see and do, and navigational information along the way. The second track is the Looping 101 track. This encompasses general Looping information, such as finding the perfect Great Loop boat, weather, marine electronics, anchoring, locking and more. In addition to the sessions, the Rendezvous includes Coast Guard saftey checks, Looper Crawls where you can board other Looper boats and networking with other Loopers.
Friday
After going through registration, we checked the schedule to see what we might be interested in. Deciding to split up, Gerry went to the route briefing for the Chesapeake Bay and I chose to go to the Women on the Loop discussion panel. The Looper group photo was taken that afternoon. Can you find us? Our boat, Bobbin Along is at the top of the photo in the center facing you!
We chose to attend all the route briefings during this event. They included:
Saturday
- Delaware Bay, Jersey Shore, Lady Liberty & the Hudson River
- The Eastern Erie Canal, Oswego Canal & the Thousand Islands- It’s the bicentennial of the Erie Canal and we’ve been told there will be special events everywhere!
- Western Erie Canal to Mackinac Island- Our air draft (waterline to tallest point on boat) is too high to take this route, so we’ll take the Oswego Canal into Lake Ontario.
Sunday
- Waterford, NY to Ottawa via Lake Champlain & Montreal- This route continues north after the Hudson River and has a 17′ height limit… something we don’t think we can do. (We need to get a precise measurement of our airdraft)
- Ottawa to Kingston via the Rideau Canal- This will be part of our 2nd Loop!
- Trent Severn Waterway- We are so excited about this part of our trip! It sounds breathtakingly beautiful!
- Georgian Bay & The North Channel- hundreds of miles of clear water!
Monday
- Wisconsin Side of Lake Michigan- This area is known to have some incredible wildlife and some of the cities we want to visit.
- Michigan Side of Lake Michigan- We’ve heard the small towns and beaches are spectacular!
- Chicago to the Tennessee River- The National Quilt Museum is on this part of the route in Paducah, KY
- Tennessee River to Orange Beach, AL- The Fall Rendezvous will be held here in November to brief routes around the Gulf, Florida Keys and South Atlantic seaboard to Norfolk, VA