As part of our new team-teach approach, we’ve come up with a crazy idea. How about a seminar called “The Great Loop for West Coast Cruisers,” including the skinny on shipping your boat from Washington State by land and sea? And it includes info on a fabulous Bahamas detour along the way. Crazy right?

Nobody is arguing that the Pacific Northwest is not the best possible place to cruise in the world, especially in a trawler. But sometimes you gotta take a look at how the other half lives. Inside Passage versus Intracoastal Waterway, stunning mountain scenery versus gin clear water and palm trees, spectacular wildlife versus living history vis a vis the Erie Canal and what is essentially a circumnavigation of the Civil War.

Cruising guide author Mark Bunzel and PassageMaker contributor Steve Zimmerman join Bob Duthie, author of What To Expect Cruising America’s Great Loop to present a complete two-year strategy for taking your boat to the East Coast, cruising the Intracoastal Waterway and Great Loop, along with a fabulous side-cruise to the Bahamas. Bunzel and Zimmerman will compare and contrast the East Coast waterways to the familiar waters of the Pacific Northwest and discuss boat transport options, whether by ship or overland.

Maybe they will generate debate over which tastes better, the Dungeness or Blue crab.

TrawlerFest-Anacortes is happening Tuesday through Sunday, May 12-17 at Cap Sante Marina. The Great Loop seminar happens all day Wednesday, May 13. The in-water portion of the event runs Thursday through Sunday, May 14-17, so please don’t come any sooner expecting to get aboard a trawler.

Bunzell is editor and publisher of the annual Waggoner Cruising Guide, “the bible for northwest cruising.” He also publishes and distributes most of the key publications for cruising the Inside Passage and the most recent new guide to Cruising the Virgin Islands. His companies offer seminars and flotillas for those interested in making the passage to Southeast Alaska. He starts each summer with a nine-boat flotilla to Ketchikan and then begins his way south researching changes to the marinas and anchorage on 750 mile Inside Passage routes for the entire summer.

Bunzel writes articles for many of the popular boating magazines including PassageMaker. He holds a 100-ton U.S. Coast masters license for power and sail. And he has cruised the Atlantic ICW.

“Only by water can you see the way America was discovered,” says Duthie. “The country developed along the coasts and rivers.”

He and wife Mavis began their first Great Loop trip in October 2003. They traveled in the Katy Leigh, a 36-footGrand Banks trawler over a 2 year period, and later covered the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.

Steve Zimmerman, PassageMaker’s Troubleshooter columnist and long-time friend of the magazine, is president of Zimmerman Marine, which operates four boatyards, in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, specializing in repairs, refits and maintenance. He has been repairing and building boats for four decades. He has cruised the East Coast extensively with family and has cruised the Pacific Northwest in a Zimmerman 36.

For information about TrawlerFest call our dedicated number 954.703.4789 or email us at [email protected]