Embrace your Pivots

  • The Best Marine Weather Apps for Boating
    The Best Marine Weather Apps for Boating

    After spending two years living on the water aboard our trawler, PIVOT, we quickly learned the best marine weather apps for boating. Since our lives were driven by the weather, it was important for us to learn and understand the weather because it was crucial to our comfort and success on the water. Understanding how…

  • Giving Tuesday Guide to Boating Nonprofits on the Great Loop Waterways
    Giving Tuesday Guide to Boating Nonprofits on the Great Loop Waterways

    Post summary: Great Loop Waterways and Boating Nonprofits for Giving Tuesday. Throughout the two years we lived aboard our boat, PIVOT, we encountered many organizations committed to doing good in our communities. Whether you want to donate to an environmental organization from one of the many waterways on the Great Loop or support organizations making…

  • Boating Florida’s Gulf Crossing vs. Big Bend
    Boating Florida’s Gulf Crossing vs. Big Bend

    Post Summary: Boating Florida’s Gulf Crossing or Big Bend The Gulf Crossing is an open water section of the Great Loop that all boaters must complete. The Great Loop is known for being a boating adventure that goes around the Eastern portion of the United States in protected waterways, with a few exceptions of open…

  • 101 Gift Ideas for Boaters and Loopers 2023
    101 Gift Ideas for Boaters and Loopers 2023

    Post Summary: Best Gifts For Boaters Under $25, Under $50, Under $100, luxury, budget-friendly, and more! We lived onboard our boat for almost 3 years and these items were either critical to our enjoyment, or ones we wanted! This guide features the 101 best gifts for boat lovers. This list has been organized by price range,…

  • Dinghy Essentials – Everything You Need to Keep In Your Dinghy
    Dinghy Essentials – Everything You Need to Keep In Your Dinghy

    After living aboard our 34-foot trawler for two years, anchoring most of the time, and using our dinghy daily to take our dog to shore multiple times a day, we learned what crucial items to keep in our dinghy. In this guide, we go over the must have items to keep in your dinghy! Note:…

  • How Much it Costs To Do  America’s Great Loop in One Year
    How Much it Costs To Do America’s Great Loop in One Year

    In this blog post, we share our total expenses as we traveled around America’s Great Loop in one year. After sharing detailed, month-by-month expenses, we have totaled up the past 12 months in this post. By sharing our monthly Great Loop expenses, it will inspire prospective loopers that you don’t need to be retired or…

  • How to Lock a Boat (Our Step-By-Step Process)
    How to Lock a Boat (Our Step-By-Step Process)

    A large part of cruising on America’s Great Loop includes traveling on waterways with locks. In this post, we discuss how to lock a boat and all of the tips and tricks we’ve learned along the way. We go over locking gear, the Five Steps to Locking, locking agencies, unique locks on the Great Loop,…

  • MONTHLY EXPENSES ON AMERICA’S GREAT LOOP – FEBRUARY 2023
    MONTHLY EXPENSES ON AMERICA’S GREAT LOOP – FEBRUARY 2023

    In this blog post, we share our monthly expenses as we travel around America’s Great Loop – a 6,000 nautical mile journey around part of the US and Canada by boat. As a young couple on a budget, we hope by sharing our monthly Great Loop expenses, it will inspire prospective loopers to going on…

  • MONTHLY EXPENSES ON AMERICA’S GREAT LOOP – JANUARY 2023
    MONTHLY EXPENSES ON AMERICA’S GREAT LOOP – JANUARY 2023

    For our second to last month on the Great Loop, we came in high for our January Great Loop Budget! Included in this report are what expenses to expect on the Great Loop to how much we spent exactly in one month. Spoiler: our second largest expense this month was boat projects.

  • MONTHLY EXPENSES ON AMERICA’S GREAT LOOP – DECEMBER 2022
    MONTHLY EXPENSES ON AMERICA’S GREAT LOOP – DECEMBER 2022

    In this blog post, we share our December Expenses on America’s Great Loop. From affordable marinas to getting a free boost of speed going down the Tenn-Tom thanks to some recent rain, we were able to stay fairly close to our monthly goal budget.