Voyage Itinerary

The Favors left Charlevoix, Michigan in the fall of 2005 for a 6,000 mile 10-month Great Loop boating adventure. The 10-month cruise turned into a five year, unplanned, live-aboard lifestyle. Last year they decided to sell their 40’ trawler and buy a house becoming part-time land dwellers in their hometown of Traverse City, Michigan. They are also changing the way they boat by becoming owners of a 27-foot trailerable trawler, a Ranger Tug R27.

After the construction of the new Kismet is completed, launched and sea trialed, the Favors will take delivery in Kent, Washington and spend a month cruising Puget Sound and San Juan Islands as well as attend a Ranger Tug’s Rendezvous. Because the Ranger Tug R27 is trailerable they plan on towing her from the Puget Sound area to Lake Tahoe in California then on to Lake Powell in southern Utah/northern Arizona. Finally they will work their way to the Tennessee River in Alabama. They’ll spend a month cruising the Tennessee River and attending Americas Great Loop Cruisers’ Association (AGLCA) Fall Rendezvous before returning home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, leaving Kismet in Alabama until after the holidays.

The Favors cruising plans going forward will be completely different than their five-year live-aboard experience when they had no house to go home to. Starting at the beginning of 2012 they’ll drive back to Alabama to retrieve Kismet and tow it down to the warm Florida waters to cruise some of their favorite places on the west coast of Florida, from Tarpon Springs down to as far south as Key West, returning to Michigan in late spring.

The beauty of owning a trailerable boat will be the ability to pick up and tow the boat to a new destination that could be 400 or 500 hundred miles away. What would now take only a day to travel by towing the boat could take up to eight days cruising at slow trawler speeds - with a less direct route. The Favors had nothing against taking the time it took to cruise to new destinations when they were full-time live-aboards. However, now that they own a house again they plan on splitting their time between home activities and boating. Owning a trailerable boat seemed to be the most logical way to accomplish their dual objectives.

Future cruising will include the Rideau Canal in Canada, Lake Champlain in New York, a return to the Trent-Severn Waterway in Canada, the Black-Warrior in Alabama, San Juan Islands in Washington and parts of the North West Passage in Western Canada. Their objective is to explore as much of the navigatable waters of the United States and Canada by towing their Ranger Tug R27 to various destinations for four to five months a year. During the summer they’ll cruise their home waters of Michigan and the North Channel of Canada. The Favors plan is open ended, flexible and will provide many new learning experiences, both on and off of the water.

On The Water

The Galley