It was a difficult choice. My sister-in-law and her spouse invited us to join them on Calypso, their Mainship 390, for a cruise anywhere along the Great Loop—a circumnavigation of the waterways of the Eastern and Central United States.
“How about Florida?” my husband, Frank, asked, thinking we could join his sister at the beginning of her yearlong adventure. “Or the Dismal Swamp?” But that sounded more mysterious—and hot—than this Seattle-based sailor could handle.
“The Chesapeake would be interesting,” Frank suggested. “We could try the blue crab.”
After considering the varied destinations of the Loop, we decided on the Hudson River Valley segment. As West Coast sailors, we knew that cruising up an Eastern river in a trawler would be a novel experience for us. As a historian, I wanted to see the waterway that had inspired so many artists and writers throughout the centuries. And could there be a more exciting departure point than New York City?
