Time frame for St Augustine to Ft. Myers?

[a64pilot]

Best guess on time line for passage between these two points? Hunter 356, assuming sailing hard, not a vacation, motoring when that speeds things up etc. point is to get there shortest reasonable time, assume a four man crew and running continuously IF wx permits.

Is Lake Okeechobee passable with a 6ft draft?

[Vasco]

It's your air draft you have to worry about on Okeechobee and also your draft. How high's your mast? I think Okeechobee is about 49 feet.

[skipmac]

Well looking at a chart it's roughly 500 miles around the bottom or close to 400 through the lake. Figure about 5 kts on average so 100 hours or 4 days non stop. Maybe slightly less going across the lake but depending on the timing you might have to tie up overnight and lose the time you saved.

[hellosailor]

There is an Okee canal authority, with their own web site and phone numbers. If you're considering the canal, check with them for information about closings (maintenance!) and current depth, which changes depending on what the state is doing with glades control and rainfall.

Around the outside, it really pays to look at the charts. You may want to swing wide in order to avoid water that has a lot of shallow spots in it, depending on what you call shallow and how you feel about "rock" hopping.

What did we ever do before gps charting? (G)

[FSMike]

I believe you can get current Lake Okeechobee Waterway info from the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville, Fl. office.

[Honu]

Have made this run a couple of times in my cg31. Run outside st Augustine to ft pierce elapsed time equals 31 hours then run up the canal to Indian town marina one day. The my aka railroad bridge is about 49 ft call ahead. My boat is 50 ft we had to heel it a bit but did fine. Indian town marina to la belle is one long day then on to ft Myers the next day.