North Carolina to Florida in the Hurricane Season - Routing

[donradcliffe]

The 100 foot line is where your depth sounder reads 100 ft.

[Tday01]

Thanks all for the great, on-topic advice. Much diminished my fear of the dragons off the East Coast!
It sounds like all options are doable. After doing the requisite shake-out, I am going to follow HelloSailor's advice, plot out all option's, and make a call based on the wind and weather predictions at the time (coupled with the experience of crew that actually turn-up). Thanks also to GoHawks for the chart book recomendation. Just ordered from Amazon ($19).

[CaptainJohn49]

100 feet water depth. Basically a contour line.

[pete33458]

I wish I had a dollar for every time I said this...


If you think that just being near shore, or near a harbor, or out of the Gulf stream, is going to somehow give you options for hurricanes, I think you may not appreciate what happens in the lead up to a big storm. You could be sitting outside the mouth of a massive hurricane hole, and still have nowhere to go. The locals will have taken all of the possible spots days before the event, anywhere in the potential track. Marine service providers will be busy with the haulouts of their existing customers, and if there is space (which is unlikely), last minute customers will be at the last minute. Your only real chance is if there is even the hint of a hurricane, i.e., at least 5 days before, you have your boat hauled out.


Having said that, the odds of a hurricane coinciding with your transit are not that high. But don't have the expectation that if you stay west of the stream you will have options, because you probably won't, unless you have arranged them well in advance.


Other than that, in my opinion, the 100' line is good advice and the easiest course headed south, you will avoid the stream, avoid ATONs, and possibly catch some counter-currents. Northward, my rule of thumb is the 100 fathom line.


Good luck to you! Pete

[Tday01]

Originally Posted by pete33458

I wish I had a dollar for every time I said this...


If you think that just being near shore, or near a harbor, or out of the Gulf stream, is going to somehow give you options for hurricanes, I think you may not appreciate what happens in the lead up to a big storm. You could be sitting outside the mouth of a massive hurricane hole, and still have nowhere to go. The locals will have taken all of the possible spots days before the event, anywhere in the potential track. Marine service providers will be busy with the haulouts of their existing customers, and if there is space (which is unlikely), last minute customers will be at the last minute. Your only real chance is if there is even the hint of a hurricane, i.e., at least 5 days before, you have your boat hauled out.


Having said that, the odds of a hurricane coinciding with your transit are not that high. But don't have the expectation that if you stay west of the stream you will have options, because you probably won't, unless you have arranged them well in advance.


Other than that, in my opinion, the 100' line is good advice and the easiest course headed south, you will avoid the stream, avoid ATONs, and possibly catch some counter-currents. Northward, my rule of thumb is the 100 fathom line.


Good luck to you! Pete

Thanks for that Pete. I recognize with a boat my size it will be even harder to get a haul out in a hurricane situation. When I made the post my concern was more about not dying if a hurricane got to me before I could get to land.
Tony

[pete33458]

So you're just going to abandon her? Call me! I'll think of something.