Trucking to California, Sailing to Hawaii and More . . .

[cool2848]

Hello!

It has been almost a year since I wrote and visited this forum regularly.
I bought an Allajuela38 in Connecticut in Sept. of 2010, and prepared the boat for a year of cruising towards Korea, and left around the end of Nov. only to stop disappointed, tired and cold in Annapolisafter a week and to put the boat on sale.

Well, I came back to Korea and now on my job of teaching Computer Science in Seoul.
My boat has not sold yet, and I am well rested and comfortable, and dream of sailing her again.
Hopefully I can do better this time.

My purpose is to bring the boat to Korea eventuallly and to experience more cruising within my current schedule of job situation.
I was thinking of three options initially: (1) Parttime cruising down to Florida followed by Panama canal and South Pacific like my original plan; (2) Cruising to Florida and then put the boat on a yacht carrier to Japan followed by sailing to Korea; (3) Trucking the boat to California and sail to Hawaii followed by Guam and Korea.

I have Winter vacation from the end of Dec. to Feb. 28 and Summer one from middle of June to Aug. 31.

Option (2) is easiest but expensive.
Option (1) is lot of time and commitment for a part time cruiser from far away place with regular job.
I like the option (3) because it offer both not expensive total cost towards Korea as well as overall quick delivery chance to Korea.
I have at leastone friend who can cruise this Winter with me regardless of the option who I cruised together in Korea and in Australia.

Questions:
(1) What would be the trucking cost and time from a marina (now the boat is on hard) in Annapolis to California like a marina in San Diego?
Is there something that I have to be thinking of in this long trucking situation?

(2) What would be an ideal place to start in Pacific West coast for a January sailing out towards Hawaii?
I am thinking of San Diego, California because I had a bad experience with cold sea waters last year in Northeast coast.

(3) I have to further fix and install the boat such as bimini, autopilot among others.
Which of Annnapolis or San Diego is the better place to fix/install the boat?
I do not have any friends in either place.
Annapolis appears to be full of small shops for sailing boat.

I am thinking of preparing from the end of Dec., then start out sailing during middle or end of Jan next year towards Hawaii and stop there or continue to Marshall Islands until the end of Feb when my Winter vacation ends.
And pick up the sailing in middle or end of June until the end of August towards Korea via probably Okinawa, Japan.

I know three locals who sailed from the Pacific West coast of USA to Korea, two of them personally.
Two of them single handed, and the third on who I do not know but used my previous sailing yacht with others to corss the ocean.

[Gone2long]

Hello,

Sounds like you are asking quite a few questions for a single post. You may want to do some serious internet searching for some of your queries, like the cost to ship your boat from Annapolis to California. You can get reliable quotes from companies over the net, for such services.

Also, sounds like you are planning a lot of miles to be covered in a very short time. You can ask questions like how long it would take to get from Hawaii to Guam from experienced folks on the South Pacific cruising thread.

Lastly, how much are you selling your boat for? I may know someone who is interested. If you are a Korean, why not just buy another boat there, or in Japan or Taiwan? Lots of second hand boats for sale for reasonable prices in both the latter two locations, and they are a lot closer to Korea.

By the way, I used to live in Anjung Ni (correct my spelling) for a couple of years when I taught English there.

Best of luck,

G2L

[Eleven]

Plan 4. Get a delivery crew to sail the boat to ( California? ). Preferably with you on board for the start and some of the trip. I assisted on one run which involved surveying the boat on the hard, making necessary repairs and stocking, adding autohelm, checking systems and ruggedness of systems. Skipper (Boatman61) knew what he was doing, and how to do it but he's Portugal based.
You will learn alot about your boat and how to sail her with someone who is experienced at getting out of any problems that arise.

[Gone2long]

Hiring a delivery crew makes great sense, but somehow I suspect he may not be able to go that route. See my follow on response follow on to our Korean friend for more.

Regards,

G2L

[Gone2long]

Eleven's idea of hiring a delivery crew makes great sense, in that you seem to not have a lot of blue water cruising experience.

However, taking the boat down to Fla and up to Cali would involve a 3,000+ mile journey going the short way through the Panama canal, and, with waiting time and canal fees thrown into the delivery crew charges, you might find all that rather difficult to finance on a teacher's salary.

Furthermore, you'd then be facing a 6,000 mile journey across the Pacific, which is not exactly something that most folks do on a two month teaching break.

Think about it.

G2L

[maxingout]

I usually am a positive person and tell people to go for their dreams.

In your particular case, I would not recommend moving the boat to Korea. I would either change my job and move back to the USA, put the boat in dry storage, or sell the boat.

Sailing a boat half way around the world for a delivery is fine if you are a billionaire. They do it all the time.

Sell the boat and purchase one in S E Asia.

Then go ahead and live your sailing dream.

[cool2848]

Originally Posted by Gone2long

Hello,

Sounds like you are asking quite a few questions for a single post. You may want to do some serious internet searching for some of your queries, like the cost to ship your boat from Annapolis to California. You can get reliable quotes from companies over the net, for such services.

Also, sounds like you are planning a lot of miles to be covered in a very short time. You can ask questions like how long it would take to get from Hawaii to Guam from experienced folks on the South Pacific cruising thread.

Lastly, how much are you selling your boat for? I may know someone who is interested. If you are a Korean, why not just buy another boat there, or in Japan or Taiwan? Lots of second hand boats for sale for reasonable prices in both the latter two locations, and they are a lot closer to Korea.

By the way, I used to live in Anjung Ni (correct my spelling) for a couple of years when I taught English there.

Best of luck,

G2L

Hello, G2L.
Thanks for the reply!

Yes, I was asking a lot of questions.
I searched this forum and got some informations where to contact; contacted several trucking companies including USHIP site.
Now, I decided on a reputable company instead of cheaper ones to transport, then paid a deposit. (Lewis Specialized Trucking)
Now know which marina to go to, and where to unload the boat and step the mast as well.

I decided to cover from San Diego to Hawaii for this Winter starting around the end of Jan or beginnning of Feb, preceded by 3-4 weeks of refitting including 1 week of shake-down sailing at the latter part in San Diego.

The boat has been on sale by a Annapolis broker for the last year or so. Yes, if it is a usual production boat yours is a good idea. But, I like this particular boat which is a rebuilt Alajuela38 and I invested fair amount in its equipment and I want to keep the boat as well as sail her.

I am happy to hear that you were in Korea, but do not know where is ANjun-Ni. Can you tell me which city it was nearby?

Thanks again for your interests and reply!

Y.Lee

[cool2848]

Originally Posted by Eleven

Plan 4. Get a delivery crew to sail the boat to ( California? ). Preferably with you on board for the start and some of the trip. I assisted on one run which involved surveying the boat on the hard, making necessary repairs and stocking, adding autohelm, checking systems and ruggedness of systems. Skipper (Boatman61) knew what he was doing, and how to do it but he's Portugal based.
You will learn alot about your boat and how to sail her with someone who is experienced at getting out of any problems that arise.

Hello, Eleven:

Thanks for the suggestion!
Yes, actually yours was my initial idea after one of my crew to join the cruise turned out to be inacceptable to me and the other also left last year. But, some of the delivery captain wanted to boat to be equiped with autohelm which it does not have (it has windvane) and dodger (I will put one up in San Diego). And the delivery captain I hired turned out to be disappointing to me, and I quit the cruise after a week or so last year (not entirely because of him though). So, now I am trying another approach. I hope you try one after another, and someday you will find a way.

Yours,

Yillbyung Lee

[cool2848]

Originally Posted by Gone2long

Eleven's idea of hiring a delivery crew makes great sense, in that you seem to not have a lot of blue water cruising experience.

However, taking the boat down to Fla and up to Cali would involve a 3,000+ mile journey going the short way through the Panama canal, and, with waiting time and canal fees thrown into the delivery crew charges, you might find all that rather difficult to finance on a teacher's salary.

Furthermore, you'd then be facing a 6,000 mile journey across the Pacific, which is not exactly something that most folks do on a two month teaching break.

Think about it.

G2L

Exactly, my calculation.
I actually thought about that since that was a part of the path I intended upto Panama Canal.

Totally agee with you on this.


Yours,

Y.Lee

[cool2848]

Originally Posted by maxingout

I usually am a positive person and tell people to go for their dreams.

In your particular case, I would not recommend moving the boat to Korea. I would either change my job and move back to the USA, put the boat in dry storage, or sell the boat.

Sailing a boat half way around the world for a delivery is fine if you are a billionaire. They do it all the time.

Sell the boat and purchase one in S E Asia.

Then go ahead and live your sailing dream.

Dear Maxingout:

yes, you are right as G2L already pointed out as well as my current broker and I did last year in the idea of sell it and buy another locally. But, as I answered to G2L, I like the boat which is hard to buy in Korea and I want to experience off-shore sailing with the boat which I refitted for the purpose. I know I do not have much money and even less experiences. And I asked myself many time why I want to waste my time, money, and resources at this endeaver which is quite complicated and even seemingly insurmountable. I am still not sure... By the way, I think San Diego to Hawaii is not a very difficult route given proper preparations even though it definitely is a long off-shore cruise for two rather inexperienced individuals. (I cruised with the crew in Korea on my boat and in Australia on another's boat)

Thanks again for your wise advice!

Yillbyung Lee

[Jim Cate]

G'Day YL,

I'm afraid that I must join the other nay-sayers here. What you propose is too big a bite for inexperienced cruisers. The passage from California to Hawaii in mid winter isn't the pleasant sleigh ride that is enjoyed in the summer, but often is interrupted by F8 to F10 storms. Then once in Hawaii, finding storage for your boat at a price you can afford will be problematical. Repairing the faults that will crop up on the passage will be more difficult there as well as more expensive.

Additionally, your time schedule for refitting and shaking down is awfully optimistic and IMO (from long experience) unrealistic. San Diego is indeed well equipped with chandleries and boatyards, but is also full of other folks requiring their services. Things don't always happen as planned there!

Finally, planning a cruise around an inflexible schedule is a death trap, leading to poor decisions about weather and departures. Any experienced yottie will confirm this... Dave (Maxing out) being one such.

In the long run I suspect that you would spend less money and have a less beat-up boat if you shipped her all the way... and you wouldn't end up bailing out in Hawaii, cold, wet and scared (as you reported happening to you before).

I don't really like raining on anyone's parade, but I reckon that your parade needs a bit of rain right now.

I surely hope that you can work out a better plan, mate, and then enjoy your learning curve instead of getting it forced on you by circumstances.

Cheers,

Jim

[Ex-Calif]

I met a really nice "young" cruising couple here. They were selling their boat after sailing it from Seattle.

They both had pretty decent Microsoft jobs and couldn't unplug full time. They managed to sail on vacations and breaks for something like 3 years. If I recall they went all the way down to the galapagos before heading across the pacific, they would plan ahead, store up the boat and leave it often for months at a time.

I admired their perserverance. They finally were selling out to refocus on having kids and all that jazz but they had memories for a lifetime. Or at least to retirement.

Good luck with getting the boat to Korea.

[tropicalescape]

Ahnahnazao (?sp)Wow thats a lot of travel in such a short time ..but if you are going to do it good luck(lucky 7) fair winds and far far away places to yah.you can do it but take more time ..as if you are going to have a choice.....DVC

[Mr B]

Thats how my boat got to Fiji,
The original owner Bought it in Annapolis, had it trucked across America to Morro Bay and then paid a crew to sail it to Hawai, Then to Tonga and then to Fiji, where I bought it,

But it did take 8 years to get to Fiji,, Hahahahahahaha

[eaglemac]

Your idea has many good points. Trucking cross the US is probably less cost than sailing and much faster. Sailing from San Diego to Hawaii is a good downwind reach, BUT, the best time of year is April through the end of July. In the Winter Months you will probably encounter one or two fast moving cold fronts moving from west to east which will hit you with little warning, gale force winds, and heavy seas. You will then be very busy for six hours to several days. You must be prepared to reef sails or hove to very quickly if you get hit with one of these. Learn how to read the clouds and waves and watch your barometer constantly. Practice reefing till you can do it quickly day or night. Hawaii is a great place to visit, but safe Harbor space is difficult to find. There are good open anchorages but those again are subject to the same fast moving cold front hazard. A tranquil anchorage can change to a dangerous lee shore with 30 knot winds and 3 meter seas in an hour or so. Again, the April to July months are the ones least likely for these conditions. Hurricanes in the Eastern Pacific generally do not come north of 20 degrees latitude until August. August Through November though Powerful Hurricanes form off Central America and move rapidly West below the Tropic of Cancer and can turn North just about anywhere. West of Hawaii you have to check with someone else for weather and sailing information.

Here are two good weather links I use. The University of hawaii site can provide you with good forecast winds for a week or so ahead. This is great for planning your trip.

Global Composite Weather Satellite Infrared Pictures from NASA GHCC

University of Hawaii Meteorology: Still Model Images/Collage

Good Luck.