A Theoretical Voyage for the Future (that may have never been done before?)

[Mr B]

I went skiing in March on Hokaido, Japan, It was Minus 30 Celcius at 12 noon,
It got one metre of snow per night, every night, Minimum,
Great skiing, Loved it,
Snow plows run 24/7 to keep the roads clear,
The train runs along the beach, The snow drops 4 metres into the ocean from the train line,
The Hotel has a bus that picks you up from the station or bus depot, Before you get there,
Why, Because you can freeze to death in 20 minutes by standing still waiting to be picked up,
I have no idea on what the temperature gets down to at night,

I walked into town at 3-00 AM, 3 Kays each way, Walked past the Hotel in a white out, It was lit up like a Xmas tree, Dropped into a creek I didnt see and nearly became an icy pole, Suppressing sheer panic to get me out, You cant pack powder snow, Not a mistake I will ever make again,

The Aluetians are even higher up towards the arctic circle,
In winter, You could easily freeze to death standing on your boat, Unless you have really good clothing,
Just a guess here, But I would assume your boat would get a heavy build up of snow on it as well, Making it very top heavy,

But Golf is big time in summer there,

Cheers, Brian

[captlloyd]

I get the feeling that the OP’s real issue is leaving the sight of land. Kinda like not liking to fly and wanting to only fly at 500 feet. Not a good idea, lots of things to hit, same with a boat. Some experience will cure that issue.

[Macblaze]

This sounds like something you'd do in a Nordhavn trawler rather than a sailboat. And I imagine that between timing crossing for the right season and waiting out hurricane, typhoon and cyclone seasons you'd be looking at an awful lot of years.

When I discovered this animated wind map a big lightbulb went off as to why historical exploration happened the way it did (and still does).
https://earth.nullschool.net/#curren...02.43,8.82,351

[TrentePieds]

McBlaze:

Thank you for posting that lovely wind chart. I'd not seen it before These are the patterns of wind that the defined the trade routes of the old "wind bags" and which their masters knew about, because the BoT had made the ships' masters keep meticulous records for several hundred years.

Even into my time lads in seafaring nations knew the fundamentals of these things as a matter of course. I think that was also true of lads in the seaports of New England. But - alas - no more :-(!

You can also divine from this chart why ships trading to overseas colonies ("Indiamen") had to be square rigged, while "coasters" more often had to be for'n'afters.

Let those who would aspire to be water cruisers think on those things :-)

TP


TP

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

This sounds like something you'd do in a Nordhavn trawler rather than a sailboat. And I imagine that between timing crossing for the right season and waiting out hurricane, typhoon and cyclone seasons you'd be looking at an awful lot of years.

When I discovered this animated wind map a big lightbulb went off as to why historical exploration happened the way it did (and still does).
https://earth.nullschool.net/#curren...02.43,8.82,351

If you liked that then take a look at Windy...even better as you can choose many different weather paremeters/dates to display:

https://www.windy.com/?15.454,-83.672,4

Also available as an app.

[laika]

Someone mentioned a trawler. To do this right, maybe a tip to tip the tour of the America's with the family in a little single prop airplane.

If a sailboat is involved, I'd say a good working goal might be a SE bash from FL to french guyana. A good working bet would be the Bahamas.

Either way, your itinerary could well span many lifetimes! You could spent many just cruising the US east coast.

Whatever the means, unless traveling commercially, don't plan on any kind of schedule!

[auruguay]

It's never too much to strengthen the argument for SECURITY.

I found 3 or 4 spots in the proposed route where you would most likely be under threat of pirates or terrorists:

1. Central/South America: much has been said about Venezuela, Honduras and Nicaragua. But Suriname and Northern Brazil are also points of danger. Believe me, I'm Brazilian, and I would NEVER dock a boat in Belém, and NEVER would anchor anywhere in the Amazon Basin or the Northern Coast;

2. Aiming to cross Suez Channel: I don't know how people figure it out but, geopolitically, one would have Somalia at its port, and the Yemen Civil War at its starboard;

3. Exploring Suez Delta all the way to Israel? Death in two flavors: Islamic State at the Sinai or Hamas at Gaza Strip;

4. The fourth part I leave for the many spots in Southeast Asia and Indian Ocean (circling Sri Lanka???) where anything bad can happen to you and your family under gun point.

I'm totally newbie to sailing, don't even have a sailboat yet, but as a retired military I would start my planning looking at the CIA Security Briefing or something similar.

[alansmith]

Just because you think it... doesn’t mean it can be done... or even more importantly... should be done. I am married guy also. I can’t imagine to torture my wife in such an ill advised way. There would be mutiny.

You’ve heard many people talk about wind and current. Let me tell you a quick story. About three years ago I took the missus to Florida. We took an a 100 foot catamaran high speed feeey over to Freeport. We took scopolamine and attached it behind the ear. In Fort Lauderdale it was beautiful. Wind was about 15 knots from the north west. The Sargasso current runs north. So you had prevailing wind running against prevailing current. There was so much vomiting going on around us that I started to feel seasick. My wife was ashen, eyes closed, and mute. It was three hours of pure torture. This is about as simple of crossing as can be made.

When you sail against wind or current sailors call it a beat. There is a reason they call it a beat. Because you r being beaten to death. If you get caught out in a storm on a small boat you will understand the axiom... any port in a storm. Think of the most scary thing you have ever experienced and multiply that several times and you will be close to realization what it is like to be in a small boat caught out. You are putting lives at risk.

We had a story a couple of years ago with a well found (properly prepared) boat trying to sail from Seattle to California with 4 experienced men. They got caught in a blow for 4-5 days. They activated their emergency beacon for rescue. Was their boat sinking? No! Mother Nature has reduced these men to nothing but wretchedly sick weaklings to the point of almost complete incapacitation.

Their is s reason you don’t sail against current or wind. There is s reason you don’t sail in dangerous waters where severe weather occurs. Even large military ships and commercial freight avoid seasonal cyclones. Can u image even a large pleasure yacht in 50+ Foot seas and 125mph winds. Even if you were lucky enough to miss the central destruction area your life would be in peril from the fetch a hundred miles Away.

As you prepare yourself by education over the next couple of years... keep peeling the onion and learning. We all start somewhere. Sailing and adventuring are incredibly rewarding and beauty is off the charts. As a married man talking to another married man...always think of her safety and her comfort level. There are countless stories of the wife leaving her husband because it wasn’t her dream. Read blogs, watch videos on YouTube, and read books. You’ll understand more and more why people responded with the way they do. Experience trumps dreams every time.