Who Do You Tell? (of Your Passage Plans)

[David_Old_Jersey]

The recent overdue via SPOT thread got me thinking / curious.......

When making a specific passage (or cruising plans in general) who onshore do you tell, and in how much detail? eg "I will be exactly 8 days on passage" or "I am off to the Caribean and maybe a bit of South America. or Australia. for a year or so, will let you know where I turn up - when I do".

And do you want / expect folk onshore to "keep an eye on you" and maybe even report you overdue, or are you just keeping them in the loop simply to share your experiances / holiday snaps?

I am guessing a variety of approachs, with no right or wrong answers - just curious what folks are doing / intending to do

[Pelagic]

Usually a fellow sailor with a good understanding of weather patterns, who knows how to contact me if a Typhoon is starting to do crazy things.

I always update them so they know that I am ok, but not on a scheduled basis.

They know me and don't worry

[Bill Estes]

David, you should give a sail plan to some one you can trust. Info to include (Boat size, color, ETA, Crew list, Name of boat, and so forth). This way if you are off your ETA for any period of time, this info should be given to the USCG. It would save time if they have to do a search&rescure. Another way for your friends to keep up with you is if you have a HF, with a General lic. I think using WinLink to plot your position for your friends.

I hope this helps

[GordMay]

A detailed Float Plan should be left with a “reliable” & responsible person, who can be counted upon to notify the Coast Guard or other rescue organization, in the event that you do not check in as planned. Obviously that responsible person must be notified of any changes in your plans. If you returned safely, after being reported overdue, give a courtesy call to the rescue organization so they can close the case. T

See also ➥ http://www.floatplancentral.org/down...GFloatPlan.pdf

[MarkJ]

We email my sister and Nic's dad and give them our expected passage time as being about 2 kts average plus a few extra days.

To have idiots ring anyone after 2 days (or was it one day ) is stupid, ludicrous, a damn waste of money and probably would have sent my elderly mother to her grave (seriously!).


Have some brains about causing distress.





Mark

[speciald@ocens.]

We use Globaltar and Ocens email. It allows attachment of a location to every email. The Carib 1500 provides a transponder to every participating boat that uses Globalstar data connection to broadcast a position to their web site every four hours so that those at home can follow every boat.

[creakyboy]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

We email my sister and Nic's dad and give them our expected passage time as being about 2 kts average plus a few extra days.

To have idiots ring anyone after 2 days (or was it one day ) is stupid, ludicrous, a damn waste of money and probably would have sent my elderly mother to her grave (seriously!).


Have some brains about causing distress.






Mark

err... not to be controversial but do u plan for 2 knots average in your passage planning...as i say i'm not meaning to be controversial just curious as to when u sort of have ppl start to worry where u are etc...

[conachair]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

When making a specific passage (or cruising plans in general) who onshore do you tell, and in how much detail?

I mention it in passing on facebook
Actually, posibly a little more specific than that, I will let a select few know but normally add a few days or week to the passage time to stop anyone worrying. Ain´t no coastguard going to help most of the places i´ve been recently. Next one will be 2000Nm Brazil to Tobago or maybe Suriname if the mood takes me. Satphone packed up so will be blissfully saved from any stressful comunications with the outside world.

[s/v Beth]

You can answer that question simply Dave- How often do your goats check in?

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

The recent overdue via SPOT thread got me thinking / curious...

Originally Posted by MarkJ

... To have idiots ring anyone after 2 days (or was it one day ) is stupid, ludicrous, a damn waste of money and probably would have sent my elderly mother to her grave (seriously!).
Have some brains about causing distress.

Originally Posted by conachair

I mention it in passing on facebook...

Conachair was joking.

Skip (& other like-minded individuals) might be well-advise to read this thread*.

See Post # 52 at http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...reply&p=340235

* “

Originally Posted by skipgundlach

... I'd appreciate it if someone would call Miami (who left a message on my Vonage voicemail yesterday at 7:11PM, when we'd anchored and turned off the radios - and for that matter, I was on with the Maritime Mobile ham radio net), and reassure them that we are blissfully happy after two days of wing-and-wing travel, anchoring each night, and have arrived at our checkin point. Their number is 305-535-4472...

[dana-tenacity]

For the first 20 years I never told anyone when I was leaving, but would ring my mom when I arrived, that way she never had to worry.

Nowadays If I am travelling without my wife I take an iridium phone and send her a txt every now and then, but having done a few miles herself she knows not to panic.
If we are together it's back to tell no one. That way I won't upset anyone with a false alarm.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by creakyboy

err... not to be controversial but do u plan for 2 knots average in your passage planning...as i say i'm not meaning to be controversial just curious as to when u sort of have ppl start to worry where u are etc...

This is the way I work it out.... The first few days of a passage would be fine. Then the mast falls over etc (touch wood!) takes a day or 2 to fix a jury rig. cruise to port on jury rig at 2 kts. Get to port before rescue plane is sent

Recently, in 20kts up the butt, Sea Life was doing 3 kts under bare poles!!!!

Other provisos are we always have 3 months rations / water on board.

So if we go on a passage of 1,000 miles:
We plan for 5 kts = 8 days
We hope for 6 kts = 7 days
Hope its not 4 kts = 10 days but thats still 100 miles per day.
Many have done only 50 - 80 miles per day in little wind. too far to motor, maybe current against. 80 miles = 3.3kts = 12.5 days
'Overdue' ie 2 kts = 20 Days

So the 2 knot formulae shown above doesn't look too bad.

Basically the reason why we have a day or 2 extra is that non sailing family tend to jump to conclusions. Made a mistake when we were coming into Sydney (our home port) for the first time I emailed 'we will probably be in Sydney the beginning of October' it was a 1,600 nm leg from Tonga. When we got there Mum's diary had in it: 'October 1st Mark ARRIVES TODAY!' Luckily we had arrived the day before!

Lots of cruisers have this difficult burden of knowing their folks are elderly and they might pass on before we see them again. Some people its quite a guilt thing and it either stops them from cruising or makes them fly home often. I think our elderly folks get a bit uncomfortable too knowing they might not see us again. And all the bull-crap circulating around the halls of the nursing home: "Your son's gunna git killt by PIRATES!!! That nice girl's gunna die too! Pitty."

So its important for us not to scare them. Arrive 1 week early and in good health... never 1 day late!

[forsailbyowner]

We have a registered epirb and don't tell anyone. I had one experience many years ago where I went to tortugas. A horrific storm came through. We weathered it and were fine, but upon coming home I found out a search and rescue mission had been launched iooking for me around Tampa bay. They called off the search, notified my parents I was presumed dead,neighbors in travel park had gone through my travel trailer basically stole all my belongings of any value. I was irate upon returning. I managed to round up most of my stuff but I'm sure they put some grey hairs on parents heads.

[creakyboy]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

So its important for us not to scare them. Arrive 1 week early and in good health... never 1 day late!

Good point tis strange how rigid schedules are when landlocked and how flexible one becomes once those docklines are cast off

[barnakiel]

We told our exact plans to the same people whom we listed on our EPIRB contact list. By e-mail and pretty detailed - departure point, expected duration, planned destination, plans B. We asked them not to do anything no matter how much overdue.

The less accurate info went to our families. If we planned a 3 weeks passage, we told them it was going to be 6 weeks or so.

If there were boats departing in the same direction we exchanged our plans and, in one case, we asked for SAR to be started (they guy turned out to be much overdue but still OK).

Our thinking was that only people who are sailors and who sail the same stretch of water at the same time have any idea of how much overdue is being late vs. being lost.

It worked OK.

b.