Seeking comments, opinions,
advice and thoughts for upcoming trip. All are sincerely welcome.
Leaving Easton Md. first of February.
Boat is 50 foot
trawler, 24 foot beam, draws 6 feet carries 1250
fuel, good for about 2000 miles - about 2 months self contained. 7
knot or so
cruise.
The first point of interest is St Augustine. Then
Key West / Fort Jefferson.
Maybe across to the
Bahamas (Waderick Wells is nice) maybe not.
Have to have someone at the BWI
airport on 28 March without fail.
Pay a lot of attention to
weather. Last year was
ICW to
Beaufort, to Charleston to Ft Lauderdale (can do without Lauderdale).
I can go across at Stuart and go around Sanibel to Cayo Costa and then down to Ft Jefferson and then to
Key West. Can go back the same way or north by
Miami and straight home or jump over to Alicetown and across the banks to Chub Cay and down to Exmas.
I do not know anything about Key West (we are in our 70's and pretty quiet) and am not really able to get very far looking at the
charts and AC for working my way north along the coast from KW to
Miami, Lauderdale and so forth. Not really eager to get crossed up with what seems to be a new regime of
water police. Last year caught a nice
weather window and ran from Chub Cay to
Beaufort in about 90 hours.
I know - schedule is the worst thing but you go when you can. Will try to leave around first December later this year.
So any
advice about Key West (will use marina there if available) and the keys is much appreciated. If I go from Cayo Costa or Naples I will loop out a bit to give any crab traps etc clearance.
With a bit of luck with the weather gods can probably make it through Okeechobee, down to Ft Jefferson / Key West and over to
Bahamas and then jump straight home.
For all of you who wade through this, thank you.
TW