Great American loop preparation advice

S

sebastien

New member
My wife and I are gathering information and gear to start the great American loop on our new-to-us 22 cruiser in june 2020.

My priorities are safety, redundancy and peace of mind - of course creature comforts are not far behind!
This concerns docking, anchoring, dinghy/kicker, and refrigeration.

A lot of the discussions on the C-brat forums seem to be more PNW specific or off-coast fishing specific and the great American loop discussions online concern much bigger and heavier boats.

I would like to throw out a few facts and plans. These are broad strokes!
Any feedback, advice, criticism would be greatly appreciated.

(first off I am having my two bilge pumps professionally upgraded: getting a new cockpit pump (1500g/m) and moving that one (1100g/m) amidship where there was an older one (800g/m) - new battery runs and each switched for manual override.)

- I have no dock lines.
I plan to get 3/8in. breaded: 2 @ 25ft and 2 @ 15ft.
Should I get more lines? longer or shorter?

- I plan to anchor a lot.
I have a 15lbs delta with 3ft of chain and 90ft of 1/2in. rode.
I plan to get 25ft of 1/4in. rated at 2,600lbs.

I also have a 9lbs delta with no chain and 90ft of 1/2in. rode.
should I get another 25 ft of chain for this one or less would do?

Should I get a new primary anchor like a fancy Rocna (a 14lbs would suffice from their chart. Is this overkill or good peace of mind?)

-My boat has no factory deck pipe and I wonder about the practicality of the chain and rode on-deck...)

Should I skip the pipe and go for a windlass? I am able bodied and not afraid of a little manual labor but I'm not sure about having a strapped down milk crate on the bow with almost 20lbs of chain + rode.
Milk-crate? deck-pipe? windlass? (no $ more $ even more $)

-I've been filling my head with all the great forums re. dinghies and kickers.
My plan is one of the many many compromises:
Get a 8'6" or so inflatable-floor dinghy that weighs around 50lbs.
Get a short-shaft 6hp outboard.

The dinghy will live on the roof, it will be rowed most of the time (apparently the inflatable floor ones row the best)
The motor will live on the transom as a half-decent get home kicker if TowboatUS is slow coming and/or emergency anchoring is not possible...
I do like the idea of a planing dinghy for longer outings and errands.
a non-planing dinghy seems like a missed opportunity.

-Last but not least is the refrigeration question.
Invest in a portable fridge and a couple of flexible solar panels and hope for sunshine or run the engine or get a high-end cooler and spend time and money hunting down ice bags every few day?
"keep it simple sailor" points to the cooler but how much of a chore will it be to hunt for ice?
PS. The boat has 30Amp shore power with a battery charger but I plan on staying at marinas about once a week.

Again, In kow this is a lot for a single thread but bare in mind this is specifically for a Great American loop journey! and if any one has blunt advice like "that's not enough chain" or "you need more dock line than that" or you're crazy thinking ice will be readily available on the loop" that is a great starting point for more research. any more in-depth advice would be icing on the cake!
 
Lots of good questions. My answers are in bold below:

sebastien":1q3hwbo7 said:
My wife and I are gathering information and gear to start the great American loop on our new-to-us 22 cruiser in june 2020.

My priorities are safety, redundancy and peace of mind - of course creature comforts are not far behind!
This concerns docking, anchoring, dinghy/kicker, and refrigeration.

A lot of the discussions on the C-brat forums seem to be more PNW specific or off-coast fishing specific and the great American loop discussions online concern much bigger and heavier boats.

I would like to throw out a few facts and plans. These are broad strokes!
Any feedback, advice, criticism would be greatly appreciated.

(first off I am having my two bilge pumps professionally upgraded: getting a new cockpit pump (1500g/m) and moving that one (1100g/m) amidship where there was an older one (800g/m) - new battery runs and each switched for manual override.) Sounds good!

- I have no dock lines.
I plan to get 3/8in. breaded: 2 @ 25ft and 2 @ 15ft.
Should I get more lines? longer or shorter? 3/8" works fine for me. Think about getting two pairs of these for tieing up to piles: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X ... UTF8&psc=1

- I plan to anchor a lot.
I have a 15lbs delta with 3ft of chain and 90ft of 1/2in. rode.
I plan to get 25ft of 1/4in. rated at 2,600lbs.

I also have a 9lbs delta with no chain and 90ft of 1/2in. rode.
should I get another 25 ft of chain for this one or less would do? I rarely if ever have used two anchors at the same time.

Should I get a new primary anchor like a fancy Rocna (a 14lbs would suffice from their chart. Is this overkill or good peace of mind?) I like the Rocna (or Manson Supreme or Spade) a lot. It sets much better than the Delta.

-My boat has no factory deck pipe and I wonder about the practicality of the chain and rode on-deck...) It is easy enough to add one and I would. As you note, it keeps the deck clean. Have one on my boat with a 7 lb Danforth and 20' of chain followed by nylon.

Should I skip the pipe and go for a windlass? I am able bodied and not afraid of a little manual labor but I'm not sure about having a strapped down milk crate on the bow with almost 20lbs of chain + rode.
Milk-crate? deck-pipe? windlass? (no $ more $ even more $) I once rented a 31' Camano treawler with a 20 lb Delta and 1/4" chain. A little tough to manage with no windlass, but doable. A lighter Rocna or similar with 25 of chain should be easy to pull in by hand.

-I've been filling my head with all the great forums re. dinghies and kickers.
My plan is one of the many many compromises:
Get a 8'6" or so inflatable-floor dinghy that weighs around 50lbs.
Get a short-shaft 6hp outboard.

The dinghy will live on the roof, it will be rowed most of the time (apparently the inflatable floor ones row the best)
The motor will live on the transom as a half-decent get home kicker if TowboatUS is slow coming and/or emergency anchoring is not possible...
I do like the idea of a planing dinghy for longer outings and errands.
a non-planing dinghy seems like a missed opportunity.

I suspect you will be towing your dinghy most of the time. A roll up with inflatable floor is a good choice. 6 hp might plane it with one aboard. Add a Doel Fin and/or flatter prop to help it get up on plane.

-Last but not least is the refrigeration question.
Invest in a portable fridge and a couple of flexible solar panels and hope for sunshine or run the engine or get a high-end cooler and spend time and money hunting down ice bags every few day?
"keep it simple sailor" points to the cooler but how much of a chore will it be to hunt for ice?
PS. The boat has 30Amp shore power with a battery charger but I plan on staying at marinas about once a week. A portable Engle fridge should work ok with about 100 watts of panels on your roof. Engles are high efficiency and use 30-40 AHs a day. A 100 watt panel should keep up with that load ok.

You didn't ask about batteries. If room is tight go with a Group 27 starting battery and a 100 AH Group 31 house battery, both AGM. If you have the room, instead of the G 31, use two GC2 golf cart batteries wired in series for the house. Gives you 220 AHs. If you go a week between marina visits you have to rely on solar and the O/B for charging. I don't have any experience with long term cruising with an O/B (only I/Bs) but my 70hp Yamaha will put out about 10A. A 100 watt solar panel and 4-5 hrs of cruising every 2-3 days should keep up with your power useage fine.

Again, In know this is a lot for a single thread but bare in mind this is specifically for a Great American loop journey! and if any one has blunt advice like "that's not enough chain" or "you need more dock line than that" or you're crazy thinking ice will be readily available on the loop" that is a great starting point for more research. any more in-depth advice would be icing on the cake!
Click to expand...
 
sebastien":2lc2jeo4 said:
...
Should I skip the pipe and go for a windlass? I am able bodied and not afraid of a little manual labor but I'm not sure about having a strapped down milk crate on the bow with almost 20lbs of chain + rode.
Milk-crate? deck-pipe? windlass? (no $ more $ even more $)
...
Click to expand...

Don't see a problem with the weight in a milk crate on the bow. When we haul up our anchor, the rode is left on the front deck to dry out before sending it down the hole. Whether the rode is in the hole or in a crate on deck, the weight is pretty much in the same place on the boat. You will also find that the more weight up front the better (within reason).

When doing the loop, you are never that far from shore or civilization. The only time you need to worry about getting caught out in the weather is when you are on the Great Lakes (mostly Lake Michigan). Even then, there is a harbor about every 20 miles or so (at least down the east side of the lake).

I would have a least two longer mooring lines (at least 40'). The CD 22 is a pretty small boat. If you get stuck in a larger slip you may find that you cannot tie all 4 corners of the boat with "normal" length lines. I often find I have to use long lines to tie the bow or the offside of the boat.

If your boat doesn't already have them, converting the under berth areas to storage is a very worthwhile mod. There is lots of space to store stuff there.
 
Thanks for the input DavidM

Yes of course, fender boards and more fenders for sure.

I forgot about finger piers with pylons,

As far as the two anchors, I’m thinking in case I loose one or really need to anchor in a sever shifting current (Bahamian mooring).

I’m looking into the deck pipes - it seems most C-dorys have them.

I would have though a 6 hp would plane a 8’6” lighter inflatable pretty well even with 2 (fairly light adults).

thanks for the precise advice on the Engel portable fridge.. lots more to learn about all that…

The boat has 2 Group 29, 845 MCA, Flooded Lead Acid batteries from 2018 that are in really good shape..

The fridge / solar question is also one of budget of course - so much more to learn and investigate…

thanks again for your feedback.
 
Thanks you for YOUR input SoBelle,

When I noticed this C-dory didn’t have the deck pipe I was actually relived because I’ve heard of them leaking or the little drain in the locker not draining properly but mostly I was thinking of the wet chain etc. being in the living space up there so you bring up a good point re. drying the rode on deck before sending it down when possible.. this is the kind of little insights I love and find so easy to overlook when thinking from land!

We are planning on going along the East side of Lake Michigan toward Chicago so the proximity of harbors is good news indeed.

I understand what you are saying about having two more longer mooring lines it’s added to my list for sure.

I didn’t bring up the potential for opening up the v-berth for storage because I felt I was already addressing a lot of things but since you bring it up…

my model boat doesn’t seem to have foam or very little foam - it sounds hollow when I nock in various places.
I still have mixed feelings about getting rid of some emergency buoyancy up there…
most people on C-brats seem to feel it’s an upgrade.
the extra storage and bow weight are indeed very alluring.

thanks again for your input
 
We and a few others have actually done the Great Loop in a C-Dory. Jonathan Arthur on his CD22 Salty is the all-time champ, I think he is currently on his fourth Loop, or perhaps he has recently finished it. We cruised the Loop over 8 months in our CD25 Cruiser. We started on April 1 and finished on November 13, 2017. I blogged every day, and you may find some useful information in our blog. The URL for the blog is below in our signature.

Looking at your questions, the only thing I would stress is that if you intend to anchor much at all, you really should get a windlass. You should have chain at a minumum equal to the length of your boat, I would suggest 25 feet, and more rode than you think you will need, 8 plait, spliced to your chain with a taper splice. The chandlery where you buy the rode and chain can do or sub out the splice. Make sure the rode is a size compatible with your windless. Most of the Great Loop is not very deep but some places are, and if you want a reasonable scope, you should have at least 100 feet of rode and 150 feet would be better. Trying to anchor for hundreds of nights with chain and rode on the bow pulled by hand would soon become VERY tiresome. Our choice of anchor for the Loop was a Rocna because it sets and holds well in nearly any kind of bottom, and it worked extremely well for us.

One other suggestion, the best plan for navigation is to use an iPad running Aqua Map. Mount it in a RAM mount, they are really the best. Play with Aqua Map a little in your home waters to see how it works before starting the Loop. Be sure to turn on Active Captain in the Aqua Map settings and download the AC data. We also had Skipper Bob guides, which are inexpensive and contain some useful information. We actually consulted both Active Captain and Skipper Bob every day as we planned for the following day to decide how far to go and where to stop.

You can PM us with any specific questions if you like, we will respond!
 
In 2011 my wife and I decided we should look seriously at doing the loop. We attended the Great Loopers fall convention, held in mid-late October on the Tennessee River. About 300 people attended divided into three “classes”: 1) those Planning to do the loop, 2) those currently “doing” the loop, and 3) those who had completed one or more loops. After three days of the convention we joined five “looper” boats to travel up the river to Chattanooga, TN. To say we learned a lot is a bit of an understatement like saying the ocean is big. We learned a lot about east coast boating and fixed docks which are unknown here in the west. It really helped a lot in our later trips. We came home with a few thoughts.
a. Most of the big boaters were fascinated by our “trailerable” boat. They talked about the endless days of grinding along through un-inspiring country to keep up their needed daily, weekly and monthly mileage quota. They talked about a few sections of the loop that are really memorable and how they would like to just go back and do those. Places that came up repeatedly were the Eire Canal, the two Canadian canals (Trent-Severn & Rideau), Georgian Bay and the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers.
b. The daily grind. You have some general guides as to dates. To meet those dates you have to grind out the miles. You must commit almost a full a year to doing the loop. Each year about 200-300 boats start the loop and each year about 100 finish. The reasons for not finishing range from health issues to finances to family needs and to boat failures. Talking to many and reading lots of blogs the boat failures/ problems are often an excuse to lay the boat up for next year or to put it on the market. To be fair, many of the finishers started the year before. Read the blogs and understand the daily grind. I’d suggest Pat Anderson’s blog about their loop done a C-D 25 a few years ago @ https://daydreamsloop.blogspot.com/ Hopefully Pat will chime in here later.
We ended up deciding to trailer to many of the places on the loop and have done several 4-month trips in our CD 22. A full year or even 10 months was more that we were willing to be away from home. If its at all possible I suggest a CD-25 rather than a 22 = remember you are LIVING aboard for nearly a full year.
Regarding your specific questions I will respond to a few. I am one who removed the foam from our 22 and don’t regret it one bit. Lots more storage. Anchoring: You need chain: I just moved to a windlass but for most years I used 20 feet of 3/8 chain in front of half inch nylon rode. That is a lot of weight to pull up but it really helps keep the anchor down in the mud working like you want it to do when the wind gets squirrelly and changes direction. Anchor locker or milk crate; hand pull or windlass: I like the clean looks of having the anchor line and chain stored below. I don’t think the amount of moisture added from the wet line in the anchor lockers is a significant concern in the Vee berth. I recently went to a windlass because dragging all that chain and anchor up was getting to be a bit much for my 80 yr old body. Even with a windlass you will need to give personal attention at the bow. When it is raining & blowing you don’t want to open the vee-berth hatch so you walk the side to the bow. You will remember those days when the wind kicked up and the rain came down regardless of hand or windlass. However, when you get back inside your body will appreciate the windlass.

In any case, have fun= that's what its all about.

Chuck
 
Sebastien,

Congrads on your new ride. It’s a great trailer boat that you can trailer economically with an inexpensive truck at 65MPH anywhere in the continent 24/7 without a permit, right through a thunderstorm, while getting 15MPG or better (maybe much better, we got over 12 MPG today in a F250 towing close to 12,000#). If you trailer a very leisurely 500 miles a day (my limit, Eileen has no experience towing boats) you can reach any decent part of the Great Loop in 2-3 days while spending $20 to free per night boater-homing in campgrounds, state parks or truck plazas.

Pat & Patty on Daydream (whom we greatly respect) had a good reason to do the whole 6,000 mile tamale in one great big 6 -month gulp…they live 3,500 miles away in the PNW.

You live in Philly. You can trailer your boat to any point on the Loop in 1,300 miles (3 days max) and do any part of the loop one-way in a 2-6 week mini-bite by Enterprising back to your rig and trailering home.
I see no sensible reason (from your post) that you should swallow the whole thing at one time with all the extra complexities it would require (warm clothes AND cold clothes, heater AND AC, region-specific equipment, etc.) all piled into a 22 ft boat.
There is a reason the AVG Looper boat is 43 ft and takes 12 months (official AGLCA stat, we became members and you should too if you’re dead serious. The Ill river locks are all closed Sept 2020, which you learn about there, not here. You can’t get past them until they open whenever after rehab).
The lower Miss river is a 300 mile long nightmare for a C-Dory with fast currents, massive commercial barges to avoid, no place to anchor and no marinas, downright ugly scenery. The alternative is the 250 miles of the Tombigbee…as far as 250 mile long man-made ditches go, it is a 2 ditch on a Ditch scale of 5.

The Great Loop is an artifact invented by owners of boats that are too fat, too heavy, too wide, too big, and too slow to load on a trailer and take to the San Juans or Georgian Bay or the Trent Severn or anywhere a road can take you economically, quickly and conveniently to launch and enjoy the waterway for any number of weeks on your C-Dory.

The Loopers we have met on this adventure are all helpful, cheerful, skilled and hearty souls. No offense to them or to you. I’d advise you both look carefully at the alternative of doing ‘only the best of the Loop, and only in sections’ at your convenience.

In fact, after you get the anchor and dock lines, consider trailering over to the Erie canal past Waterford (those 5 locks require 3 hours to transit) and launch at some mom and pop marina with a ramp and (you must call…rig storage) to see the leaves turn colors and enjoy some beautiful fall weather while almost all of the loopers are gone. (Option 2, cruise up the Hudson if the weather is great).
Erie canal locks have only ropes for the fore and aft crew to hang onto, you both need gloves and a boat hook and a VHF radio on 13 fixed and aft, and 3 big fenders (8-10” diam for a 22) on each side. You may not have a choice on which side of the lock to tie to, so practice on both.
C-Otter (who has 4 weeks here), Mystery Girl and Tully B may also be exploring around there. PM C-Otter for advice, since he’s the meanest (just kidding!).

Best of luck on all your adventures, and our advice is to start your adventures ASAP, make them 2-4 weeks until you BOTH know you like longer, avoid complications like generators and dinghys until you know you need one, and HAVE FUN!

Best,
John
 
Thank you so much for your help Pat, I remember looking at your blog quite a long time ago when I was still narrowing my boat choices and it got lost in the shuffle of great resources.
I will look through it again now that I am a C-dory owner.

I was planning on using the older GPS that came with the boat as mostly a backup and using an iPad with Navionics and of course the latest edition of skipper bob’s guides but now I will investigate Aquamap with active captain as another option.
 
Good replies Chuck and John. I just had someone ask me about doing the loop this morning when I was fueling up. I had to laugh ....I only made about 10 miles today! At that rate I’d never finish! I’ve had a great time stopping along the way and learning about the history and people. But others see it differently and that’s OK. I had a friend that took a “vacation” driving to the west coast and looking at the Pacific and then turned around and headed back to Wisconsin. Never stopped except for food and sleep. He loved it! Different strokes for different folks.........
 
sebastien":2vn3kl5p said:
Thanks you for YOUR input SoBelle,

When I noticed this C-dory didn’t have the deck pipe I was actually relived because I’ve heard of them leaking or the little drain in the locker not draining properly but mostly I was thinking of the wet chain etc. being in the living space up there so you bring up a good point re. drying the rode on deck before sending it down when possible.. this is the kind of little insights I love and find so easy to overlook when thinking from land!

We are planning on going along the East side of Lake Michigan toward Chicago so the proximity of harbors is good news indeed.

I understand what you are saying about having two more longer mooring lines it’s added to my list for sure.

I didn’t bring up the potential for opening up the v-berth for storage because I felt I was already addressing a lot of things but since you bring it up…

my model boat doesn’t seem to have foam or very little foam - it sounds hollow when I nock in various places.
I still have mixed feelings about getting rid of some emergency buoyancy up there…
most people on C-brats seem to feel it’s an upgrade.
the extra storage and bow weight are indeed very alluring.

thanks again for your input
Click to expand...

Doing the Great Loop you are unlikely to anchor anywhere that requires multiple anchors at once ("bahamian anchor"). You are going to be in relatively shallow water (not PNW depths). When I anchor it is rarely more than 10' deep. In inland waters there is no tide change of current direction. The only reason to have multiple anchors is to have multiple types (fortress vs. plow) or as a spare in case you loose one or are forced to abandon one. Even then you can have Amazon deliver a replacement overnight to the next stop on your itinerary.

As for the berth, the buoyancy benefit of the foam in the berth is marginal. FWIW, later models of the CD22 come without foam and with hatches installed from the factory. My '08 22 had factory installed hatches for the berth compartments. If the factory decided that the foam in the berth is not required in later boats, I see no reason to keep it in yours.

Again, when doing the Great Loop you are going to be within sight of shore pretty much all the time. The water you are going to be in is probably less than 10' deep most of the time. It is not like you are doing a blue water crossing. Keep this in mind when thinking about contingencies.

You can add a bulkhead very easily to separate the anchor locker from the berth. I did it using PVC sheet from Home Depot. Not counting time for the paint to dry (my interior is painted) it is an afternoon's effort to do this.
 
Lots of good advice here. We pretty much only do long term cruising and we have had a lot of boats large and small. We have given up our sailboats for the ability to visit more areas with a trailerable boat, we think the CD 25 is a great size with enough room for a real head and enough room for day to day living.
One theme here is your anchoring system. I have had deltas in the past I am not a big fan. If you want want to to sleep well at night always go up a size, we loved our Spade but it may not be practical for you they can be hard to find and expensive. We like the roll bar Rocna but it was a bit unwieldy so we just changed over to a Rocna Vulcan which is similar to the Spade and it seems the best of both worlds. (Foto in our album). We expect to anchor in up to 25 feet and you need at least a boat length of chain, I like 5/16 G4 on these boats, it has enough weight to be effective and the you need 5, minimum 7, best length, of total rode times the water depth (25') so at least 125 feet of total rode most people carry 200 to 250 feet, this is all about sleeping good anywhere in any conditions. 8 or 12 braid 1/2" nylon will stow the best, my vote is as some others, with a windlass below deck out of the way.
We have had several Engel fridge/freezers, unlike some others they have been bullet proof, we have a nice new fridge so we use our current one as a freezer. I may be a bit different in that I think 150 watts of solar and 2 good deep cycle group 31s with 220 amp hours of batteries is a good minimum for multi-day anchoring, semi-flexible panels with Sun Power cells offer the most power with the least weight at the moment. A good quality MPPT controller will also give you the best efficiency.
I will give you a mixed review on your inflatable floor dingy plan, we had a 8'6" Achilles inflatable floor on our Ranger Tug and a 8'6' hard bottom folding transom with a pretty flat bottom on our big sailboat both would plane with a 6 horse and the two of us. But we felt they were both a bit heavy to put up on the roof each night for their security. The inflatable floor drove my clean freak nurse, ex boat captain wife crazy as it was so hard to keep clean with stuff always getting under the floor. I don't think any inflatables row worth a damn so we went back to a lightweight flat bottomed Zodiac for this boat.
Hope this helps and good luck with your plans!

On our Sierra upgrades; we just drove up to Alameda today and picked up our Spectra Ventura 200 watermaker, man that is one huge box... I hope it is mostly packing! I will start a photo album and a install thread as soon as I suss out how and where it will go.
 
I really appreciate your thoughts Two Bears,
“The daily grind” that is a great way of putting it re. the reality of spending a year on a boat not as a marina liveaboard..
 
John from CAT O’ MINE, you sure bring up so great fundamental points about the great loop as a single journey when one has a trailerable boat and lives near all the great loop destinations.

It comes down to work, and time constraints..
We’ve taken a year off before (turned into 2 1/2!) to travel, do artist residencies, long-term home sitting and farm care-taking.
the big chunk of “time off” worked out great given our specific work/life/housing situation. So we will stick to that plan.. but I certainly see trailering the boat in the future (PNW?)

Thank you as well for the (to me) breaking news about the Illinois river lock closures coming up I will keep an eye on that and we may need to arrange a portage across those locks…
 
Tom and Joyce from C-Otter,
Yes when it comes to travel. vacations and adventures we all certainly have our ideas of a good time.
As much as I love a good journey I do also love a destination, when
Iking, canoeing driving etc. a loop is always the way I want to go.
And so this loop…
 
Sobelle,

Yes if the boat had not come with a decent second anchor I would not have automatically thought to go out and get one but its there just in case.

Everything does point to adding access hatches to the V-birth, Thanks for the reasurance.

I was imagining at least having a sturdy snapped in fabric piece to separate the chain locker from the V-birth if/when I add a windlass or at least a deck pipe (and drain hole of course)
 
Micah from Sierra,

wow you’ve had some serious experience building boats and sailing them over the years and your present boat looks very well outfitted indeed.

I really want to sleep well at night and go ashore without stressing about the boat dragging so I am very seriously thinking about upgrading the main anchor to a Rocna, ditching the smaller of the two I have and keeping the bigger one as a backup.

Thank you for the advice about the Engel and solar. you notes will come in handy.

you have interesting insights about the inflatable-floor dinghies,
I see your new one is a slatted floor flat bottom model.
I’ve only used older plywood floor dinghies (usually replaced with a single sheet of marine ply) how is it standing on the slatted floor, say for loading and unloading goods and supplies?
 
On the flat floor dingy, the downside of our whole boat upgrade is weight vs. long range fuel consumption so trying to keep this light in general is important to us. So that and lifting it up onto the cabin top caused us to go for a new lighter dinghy. The floor stepping in is not bad, we carry it in the back of the truck on the way to our launch destination so it needs to be small when deflated. The Achilles inflatable floor had a large hole near the bow where you step in that was the inflatable keel access, we kept a towel stuffed into it but it was still awkward. Other brands may be better designed. I did not mention the whole debate between lightweight PVC fabric vs. Long lasting but heavier Hypalon, the Achilles are a high quality Hypalon, the Zodiac PVC, there is a significant difference in how long they last depending on Sun exposure. Since we are not full time cruisers and we paint our dingys with special paint, we think PVC will work out for us on Sierra.
Among our cruising friends in Mexico anchors are a touchy subject, a lot of strong opinions like in politics. Dana did tred into dangerous waters once after a big blow in the Isla San Francisco, Baja Sur anchorage and polled the boats on which anchors they were using. Several boats had dragged most of them were using the old CQR/delta plow types, the new style concave anchors all held. No one uses a Danforth as a primary they don't self stow and are not good at resetting in a 180 degree wind shift which can happen in the middle of the night down there.
Everyone's needs are unique so take this all with a grain of salt! Good luck
 
Well, I'm late to this conversation, but here's a few free thoughts.

Judy and I did a half Great Loop in 2002 in our 36' sailboat, Our Journey. Judy's documented it at Our Great Loop Trip. So based on that, here's my comments.

We loved the trip; saw much of the USA we didn't know. There was no best part, it was all good. We're West Coast brats, never lived east of Los Angeles, so the East Coast was new. If you can break up your trip into livable segments on your 22 (however long that is?) a trailerable boat is the perfect way to see everything. I will say that a 22' has a finite time one can live on it, but we saw several.

Put our boat in at Mobile and the went around to Waukegan, Il and shipped it back to the West Coast. No desire to go down the rivers back to Mobile and close the loop. Going down a damned and dredged river is really boring, especially at the speeds Our Journey travels. Though for some (which we met in Mobile) it was the trip of a lifetime.

Highlights were the Eire Canal, a good place for you to start, the Bahamas, Sarasota, Fl for the circus, all the pre-Constituiton constitutions
in the Carolina mansions and the various Harbours of Refuge along the east and west coast of Michigan.

The 22 has no separate head and the 25 does. If you decide to move up remember that a 25 really needs a 3/4 ton to tow. We have a F250 which gets 8 mpg with a 9000# trailer. To get the 15 mpg Gulfcoast John got, one needs a diesel. Given all that I think a 22 will do.

Anchors. A sore topic with me. Our Journey had a good CQR anchor which would plow in mud or sand. Journey On, our 25, has a claw which will not set in kelp or rocks. I've tried a Manson and had so-so results. I've gone back to a Danforth High Test. It seems to set in various conditions and I've not had trouble with it setting and staying set. I can handle the problem of stowing at the stem.

Boris
 
In my anchor critique above I forgot to mention the Lewmar Claw (originally the Bruce) which were first designed as giant anchors for North Sea oil rigs. I have owned a couple. I have since learned that they only start being really effective in the larger 60# and above sizes. One round the world crusing author, Beth Leonard liked their Bruce, a hundred ten pounder on their 46 footer!
 
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