Topsail Beach Couple Completes America’s Great Loop

A Topsail Beach couple just completed America’s Great Loop. That’s a circumnavigation of the eastern half of the United States and Ontario. It’s a trip that takes many people years to make. But the Johnsons and their Miniature Schnauzer did it in less than a year and in tight quarters.

For the past 10 months, a 26-foot glacier bay power catamaran called the “Rick ‘n Roll” has been the Johnsons home. With their dog “Beamer” at their side, Betsy and Rick, both retired and Master Captains, left Snead’s Ferry last May. “We both are adventuresome and this was an adventure for us,” says Betsy.

They traveled up the Intracoastal, through the Chesapeake Bay, into the Delaware River to the Hudson. Turning on the Erie Canal, they crossed Lake Ontario and the North Channel, went down the Michigan coast, down the Illinois Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee rivers.
Then to Mobile, Alabama, Florida and Lake Okeechobee, then back up the east coast to North Carolina…a total of 6,032 miles.

“While a lot of people would say it’s the big cities and all, for us it’s the wildlife and the people we’ve met,” says Rick. “The people that you meet along the way, the other ‘loopers’ that are doing the trip were very, very important to us,” adds Betsy.

They used nearly 4,000 gallons of gas and spent about $40,000 on the trip. But they’ve got something to show for it.

“This burgee went with us the entire way. When you pull into a marina you look for other boats with this burgee and you know that they’re doing the same thing you are and that’s how you get together for docktails and dinner. And then once you cross your wake or complete your loop, then you trade it in for the gold one that’s on the boat now. So we’re very proud of that gold burgee,” says Betsy.

They traveled with radios and a GPS but no radar, and lived in tight quarters.

The boat is much smaller than boats people typically make the trip in. But it’s got everything they needed on board. Down in the cabin, the queen-size berth where they slept has a lot of storage underneath it. It has a microwave down there, a marine head, and even a shower.

The most surprising part of their whole trip, they had no boat troubles!

So what’s next for the Johnsons? A trip around the world? “We don’t need to go around the world, there’s enough in America to see,” says Rick. “Yeah, we’re real big on staying in this country and enjoying what we have here,” adds Betsy.

The Johnsons say they plan to complete America’s Great Loop again and take a different route. They want to spend more time in Canada and hit the Keys and Bahamas next time.

You can follow along the Johnsons travels at www.betsyrick.com.