Scott Meyers: Don't Put Things Off Until You Find Time

When it comes to bucket lists among average boaters, you'll likely find "doing" the Great Loop — that fabled 6,000-mile roundabout of both natural and man-made waterways encircling the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterways, Mississippi River, Gulf Intracoastal Waterways, Florida Everglades, Atlantic Intracoastal Waterways, and across three to five Great Lakes, depending on the route. About 150 recreational boats complete the Loop annually, according the America's Great Loop Cruisers Association.

Given the length, even if done in sections and staggered over time, a cabin boat is typically the boat of choice, because it provides shelter and amenities for overnighting. Scott Meyers, a 53-year-old dermatologist from Tulsa, Oklahoma, opted for an open pontoon boat. He's not the first to complete the Loop in a pontoon boat (it's even been done in a kayak!), and while any sensible mariner has deep respect for Mother Nature on such a voyage, Meyers was looking over his shoulder at Father Time.

"I treat patients with skin cancer — most are 50 to 90 years old. They have a perspective on life. I constantly hear, 'Don't put things off until you find time. You might never have that time.' I've heard it for 20 years," Meyers explains.

Scott ­Meyers (at right) and nephew, Joel, cruise past the Statue
of Liberty.

For years, the family man and longtime boater pondered his own adventure, specifically to complete America's Great Loop. As his kids grew into teens, the timing seemed right. "Our family is close. Carol and I go to work every day together because she's my business manager. We drive our children to school every day. For more than 15 years, we were totally focused on raising children, growing our business, and making sure patients were adequately treated," he says. "I was at a point where I felt like I needed a sabbatical — something to change things up — and this was perfect for that."

Kim Russo, AGLCA's executive director, acknowledges that people have completed the Loop on small boats in the past, but, "Frankly, we often advise against pontoons, as they may not be safe in a lot of situations."

Meyers agrees wholeheartedly. "I knew full well that this was not an offshore boat, but that was part of the thrill," he says. "The boat's fast enough that I can get out of bad weather, the small size made finding a parking spot easier, and, practically speaking, if I had to come home, I could easily leave it in a marina."

Most Loopers take the counter-clockwise route, and a typical Loop takes crews about a year of total cruising time, often broken up into segments to work around life commitments. At 6 to 8 mph, a Looper can average about 50 miles per day. Although his Loop was broken up over four-plus years (mostly due to Covid), Meyers powered around the Loop in 34 travel days on a series of tritoons — none bigger than 26 feet — at an average speed of about 32 miles an hour. By the numbers, that's about 177 miles a day, with a few exceptions, notably, Lake Erie, which he crossed in a day. "Buffalo to Cleveland to Put-in-Bay — 320 miles in one shot," he says. Meyers completed the Loop in January 2022.

Meyers chose the triple pontoon design, known as a tritoon. The three pontoons enhance stability and structurally enable the boat to handle additional outboard horsepower. Meyers' trio of tritoons had four-stroke outboards ranging from 225 to 425 hp. He bought and sold each at various locations around the Loop.

What he and his rotating crew didn't have — cabins, heads, or galleys — was what deemed these platforms perfect for his adventure. "Unconventional and part of the fun," he says. Each day brought a fresh itinerary, a renewed search for a hotel or marina by sundown, and a menu of power bars, beef jerky, root beer, Diet Coke, and water. "The power bars are really good when you've been out in the sun all day and you haven't had any lunch," he says. "No fruit. We wanted food that wasn't perishable. How much can we do and see in a day? That's what it was all about."

If he couldn't get a slip or tie up at a marina, Meyers and his crew sometimes bunked in the cockpit using a crude tarp system for shelter and sleeping on the ample padded seating. "We saw a lot of beautiful places in a unique way," Meyer says, noting the real-time feedback from online forums and AGLCA Facebook page. "I felt like everybody was rooting for everybody. The Great Loop community is way bigger than you can imagine."

Despite the satisfaction of a bucket-list item checked off, Meyers says there were low points along the way.

"Several times I said, 'I'm done,'" he recalls. Boat problems, as well as the inability to outrun a Florida storm around Memorial Day weekend 2020, shook Meyers up enough that he took an extended break before resuming the journey. But the high points far outweighed the low, and Meyers grew more adept at monitoring and interpreting NOAA weather forecasts. Along the journey, Meyers was joined for 800 miles by his daughter, Lauren; he gave a ride past the Statue of Liberty so that new U.S. citizen Andre Santos could pose with the flag of his native Portugal; and his nephew Joel joined him to scatter his father's ashes at sentimental stops along the way.

Next up for Meyers and his family of five? Learning to sail — the right way. He, Carol, and the kids have booked a weeklong course with an instructor from the American Sailing Association aboard a catamaran in the Bahamas. Besides studying the ASA course manuals, he's boning up with "Chapman Piloting & Seamanship." "I don't want to just jump in with both feet when I don't know what I'm doing. That's the plan."