Ambassador Series: Aboard Stinkpot with Argo Enthusiast Dave Rowe
From Maine to Florida, Argo has helped Ambassador Dave Rowe plan his journeys and stay the course.
Natives of Portland, Maine, Argo Ambassador Dave Rowe and his partner Stacey Guth got their feet wet in the boating world on Maine’s Sebago Lake in 2016—though Dave has been cruising that lake his entire life. They bought their first boat together and spent three lovely summers on the lake before hearing the call of the sea and the extended cruising lifestyle. From then on, they’ve been hooked and have been avid continuous cruisers ever since.
They purchased their current vessel, Stinkpot, in 2018, cruised the Great Loop in 2019-2020, and have since “sold the house,” and now live full-time aboard. They have traveled all over the East Coast of the United States, from Maine to Florida, cruised the canals and rivers from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes, enjoyed America’s Western Rivers from Chicago to Mobile, and even cruised the Gulf Coast in search of fun and adventure.
We caught up with Dave, currently docked on Lake Monroe in Sanford, Florida, to share more about his experience with Argo.
Argo: When did you first learn about Argo and where do you typically use the app?
Dave Rowe: That’s a funny story. We spent last summer cruising the Chesapeake Bay, and when we got up to the northern bay we started looking for a spot to stop and do some boat maintenance for about a month. I decided that Havre de Grace, Maryland seemed like a good stopping point. We were underway, crossing to Havre de Grace and an ad for Argo crossed my screen on my research tablet (I always have two tablets on at the helm—one for navigation and the other for research). I clicked it and within 5 minutes was downloading and using Argo on my second tablet.
Almost immediately, I tried something that didn’t work exactly the way I expected, so I messaged Captain Jeff. We started emailing back and forth while still underway, discussing features and ways of using the app. I told him we were about to dock in Havre de Grace—home of Argo HQ—and he offered to come down to the boat and show me the app firsthand. We’ve been friends ever since!
A: How has Argo enhanced your boating experience? Do you have a favorite feature?
DR: Argo has completely changed the way I plan long voyages. It used to be that I would estimate how far, how long, how fast, how many days, etc. for every long voyage. With Argo, I can plot a long course using autorouting from Florida to Maine and know miles, fuel burn, and hours at the helm in a matter of seconds. I know that we like to run 8 hours a day, so if a trip is going to be 120 hours at the helm, the journey will be 15 days underway. It’s a total game-changer for planning.
A: What is your favorite story of using Argo?
DR: Oh, that would have to be that first day, coming across the bay from Worton Creek where we were anchored the night before, discovering Argo, and emailing back and forth with Jeff for most of the trip. The coincidences were hard to ignore, and the weather on the water was absolutely stunning.
A: Do you have any upcoming excursions planned? Are there any Argo features you will use to plan your journey?
DR: Next spring we are planning on cruising the boat north. We’ve been here in central Florida on the St. Johns River since November of 2022, and we are looking forward to putting some miles under the keel. We don’t know exactly where we’ll end up. We might cruise the Finger Lakes of New York or Lake Champlain, or we might cruise around the Great Loop again. We will be stopping for the month of June because I have to play music on a cruise ship for IrishMusicCruises.com on a voyage through the fjords of Norway, but other than that we are very much looking forward to some life underway again. To us, it’s about the journey, never the destination!
As far as Argo features, I’ll definitely continue to use it for planning purposes and more. I know the app like the back of my hand at this point, so breaking it down to individual features that I’ll use is tough…I’ll surely put it through its paces!
