Island Heights couple makes the 'Great Loop'

Dan Radel | Asbury Park Press

Show Caption Hide Caption See Island Heights couple 'Great Loop' journey Matt and Colleen Marvin circumnavigated the Eastern half of the U.S.A. by boat.

The Marvins answered an Asbury Park Press request in January for readers to share their Great Loop experience. This is their story.

For Matt and Colleen Marvin, their journey of 8,000 miles literally started from their backyard in their yacht.

The retired Island Heights couple is what's known in nautical circles as "Loopers," people who circumnavigate the eastern half of the United States by boat.

The voyage in their 42-foot Krogen Silhouette named "Gemini Dream" took 296 days over two years to complete and cost them $18,421.37 in gas alone.

That does not include the 31 days and $5,609.73 in fuel they spent to bring the boat up from Venice, Florida where they bought it, the year before making the loop.

See a video of some of the sites the Marvins saw in the above video.

In completing the trip they earned the gold burgee, a triangular pennant flown on a boat, from the American Great Loop Cruisers Association, which keeps tabs on Loopers and provides info like where to dock or when the Erie Canal locks are open.

"It's (the association) an enormous group and adding people all the time," said Colleen, who just turned 59 on May 24.

"We started off with the white burgee, which meant we were in the process of doing the loop. Once you complete the entire loop, you get the gold burgee," said Colleen.

Why They Looped

The two are former federal employees that were stationed at Fort Monmouth. They opted to retire rather than move to the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland when the fort closed in 2011.

After 30 years of service and having raised their two children, Colleen said they were confronted with the question: "what's next?" in their lives. One plan was to rent an RV and see the country.

But then they learned about the loop, which appealed to their seafaring spirit. The two are licensed captains and members of the Toms River Yacht Club with years of boating experience under their belt.

Their Course

The Marvins left Toms River in July 2012 and motored up the Barnegat Bay into the Point Pleasant Canal to the Manasquan River and out into the Atlantic Ocean.

From there they took the Hudson River into the Erie Canal to the Great Lakes, sailed down the Illinois River to the Mississippi River to the Ohio River to the Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway.

Known by the nickname Tenn-Tom, it's a man-made waterway connecting the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River in Alabama to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Marvins, like many Loopers, chose the Tenn-Tom to avoid the heavy barge traffic on the lower Mississippi River.

Once in the Gulf, they looped around Florida, took a diversion to the Bahamas, before returning to the East Coast and taking the Intracoastal Waterway back to Toms River.

Favorite Spots

The Marvins saw a lot on the loop, from wildlife like the jumping Asian carp on the interior rivers to historic sites, and also met a lot of people. Their entire journey is logged and can be viewed on the web.

"The Erie Canal was very interesting. It was very historic and the towns along the canal are dying with no commercial traffic. The people love it when they see the pleasure boaters," said Matt Marvin, who turns 60 on June 2.

Mackinac Island at the tip of Michigan on Lake Huron stuck out the most to Colleen.

"There are no gas powered vehicles at all allowed on the island," said Colleen.

Dan Radel: @danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com