Virginia to NW FLorida

[EEC]

I'll second the fishing suggestion! I was kicking myself for not having a rod, we went through some places loaded with fish.

I also enjoyed GA, in fact it was one of my favorite areas. It is where we saw the most dolphin and fish and it was a unique adventure being deep in mud bogs on a big boat.

[Seeking Solace]

I've got OpenCPN on my Nexus 7 and it seems to be working alright for a budget chartplotter. I'm going to pick up a decent GPS and replace a compass before we go.

He's already been asking about fishing and I've got a fair amount of light weight gear, not sure it would hold up to anything too big. It's probably all the better as I'd hate to have to clean up a huge mess on the decks.

Someone mentioned a milk that is a high temp pasteurization. I'd not heard of it before and I'm wondering how long it will keep and where to even find it. When we were talking about meals he asked about cereal and I'd pretty much said it was unlikely because of the milk and it going stale very fast in high humidity. That might make it a game changer.

Does anyone know if the plastico 101 is a drop in replacement for the contest 346 compass? They are both able to be seen from the cabin and cockpit, but I'm unsure what the mounting sizes are. When I get up the VA that is the first thing I'm probably going to have to fix. I'm going to install 2 solar panels and an mppt controller for them. Hopefully the two group 27 batteries that are there are still in decent condition.

I'm also going to string up a decent antenna for my HF radio. It's not marine, but it's great for WX and making some contacts during some down time or on a schedule. I've got another ham here who wants to try for 3 days a week to make contact on 10-40 meters at set times (There's a pretty good chance of hearing one another if the conditions are right.)

Currently I'm taking a break from downloading and installing all of the charts I'm going to need. Is there a source for paper charts that is fairly reasonable? I'd like to have them to plot the trip, but there's quite a few of them I need, the cost is prohibitive as it is redundant. Again, you guys have had some great suggestions and I'm taking notes. Thanks to all of you.

[Seeking Solace]

Managed to get all of the charts on the tablet yesterday. I'd been doing it the hard way one at a time and realized I could get all of them at once by state. I've plotted to the first outside leg and will probably finish by the end of the week getting that done all the way here.

Today my MPPT charge controller showed up and I was able to test it with a small panel despite the heavy cloud cover and threat of rain. It did it's job without issue. My 160W panel is in shipping and should be here by mid week this week. Connectors will ship tomorrow and I'll pick up the appropriate wire once I know how long it needs to be. I've been on the fence about buying the optional MT50 or the interface for using it with USB. It's nice that you get instant readout, but not so important. It's an eventual purchase I'm sure since
It's needed for changing the factory settings.

Only 3 weeks left for school and we're leaving the day after. We're working on organizing all the provisions and getting the menu together now. Still thinking about a stand alone hand held GPS and trying to get some of the guides together.

[Cormorant]

For cheap paper charts I've used these guys before:
NOAA PocketCharts™ Online

They publish reduced-size prints of NOAA charts for about $6 each. They print with water-resistant ink on decent paper that doesn't dissolve if it gets wet.

Or you can print out a bunch of charts for yourself using the NOAA Booklet Charts:
https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/...kletChart.html
Even cheaper, but your ink and paper probably won't be as good as the first link.

The pocket charts are great for planning, and as a backup in case your electronic nav apps go dark for some reason.

[Seeking Solace]

Originally Posted by Cormorant

For cheap paper charts I've used these guys before:
NOAA PocketCharts™ Online

They publish reduced-size prints of NOAA charts for about $6 each. They print with water-resistant ink on decent paper that doesn't dissolve if it gets wet.

Or you can print out a bunch of charts for yourself using the NOAA Booklet Charts:
https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/...kletChart.html
Even cheaper, but your ink and paper probably won't be as good as the first link.

The pocket charts are great for planning, and as a backup in case your electronic nav apps go dark for some reason.

There is a heck of a lot of charts to cover this area. The best price I found for paper charts was around $15 each.

Having my electronic charts quit working would be a huge problem I think. I'm not sure the expense of having them all on paper is a viable one. Are there any that would be "MUST HAVE" paper charts?

The Atlantic ICW and parts of Chesapeake Bay seem to be the hardest to navigate. I considered buying a new chart plotter for this trip since it's going to be an eventual purchase anyway, but it was going to stress my travel budget in a way that I wasn't comfortable with. Then again with no charts at all I don't think I could be more uncomfortable.

Thanks for the link to the $6 charts. At least that is a lot easier on the pocket and might give me some peace of mind.

[DenverSailors]

Any updates on your trip?

[Seeking Solace]

Originally Posted by DenverSailors

Any updates on your trip?

We made it back to Pensacola last week. Here are a handful of videos we made along the way.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2c...LiDWbx-7eFn1TQ

Do yourself a favor and skip the 40 minute one.

This one was from Cam in Venice. Has to be one of the highlights of the trip. He was a gracious host and helped us out with a winch handle and sail tape. He also made us a awesome steak dinner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfTtUiXxzN8

Leave us some feedback or a comment. It was a really fun adventure.