Annapolis to the Keys in January

[MicHughV]

Like you, I have hand steered across the GS in fairly robust norther's.
Once you get everything dialed in right, it becomes quite a manageable sail, but on those occasions, wind speed was likely 25-30 knots. Wave spacing....in my humble opinion was around 50'...more or less, hard to judge this distance.

At 60 knots of wind speed in the GS one needs to consider alternative strategies as wave heights increases and spacing decreases.

Even if not in the GS, one needs to consider alternative strategies.

Even with a drogue streaming behind the boat and no sails up I would still be doing around 5 knots sliding down the face of a wave and it does require a steady hand at the wheel to prevent a nose dive into the wave in front of you.

During the day, one can see the wave coming, but at night, no moon, no stars, not so much, and one has to depend on one's senses to anticipate the wave about to smack you.

Hope this chat is not considered a thread hijack, as it is pertinent to making the trip down the US east coast. Hope to hear from others.

[Fastdriver2003]

I have done the Norfolk-Key West run several times in winter and on a tight schedule. Longest was 13 days, shortest was 7, in a slower boat. If that is what you choose, you shouldn't have to take more than 2 weeks off work unless you are extremely unlucky.

Making Miami in one go would be fantastic luck with weather. Frontal weather often brings southwesterlies - headwinds - before the passage of the cold front. As mentioned it's usually about a week between fronts. So you might see 1-3 days of north/northwest, 1-3 days of light winds, and 1-3 days of building southwest winds before the next cold front comes along.

How I do it: Identify the dozen or so inlets I am willing to enter. Leave Norfolk just before or just after frontal passage. Blast down the coast as long as the northerlies hold. Motor through the calm and as the southwesterlies build. Before the headwinds
get stronger than my desire to motor into them, I tack into the furthest south inlet I can make. St. Augustine is a favorite. Set off again at the next cold front.

I don't think you mentioned how many crew. If shorthanded, the most nerve-wracking part for me is the Florida coast from West Palm to Miami. You're pinned within a few miles of shore by the Gulf Stream and there are many small and poorly lit vessels with miniscule radar signatures in your way. Everywhere else I would happily do solo.

Have a good trip!

[Dockhead]

Thanks to everyone who weighed in; the advice was very useful.


In the event we had exactly the weather pattern which some of you predicted -- a storm blew through and we had days of Northerly winds afterwards. We had a lazy sail down the Chesapeake and anchored outside of Hampton waiting for the storm to pass. Then we sailed from there nonstop to Charleston, making it in just over 48 hours. It was a good, fast, pleasant sail on a broad reach.


The only bad part of it was getting around Hatteras. We ended up in the Stream in a stiff Northerly at night because the watchstander felt sorry for me and didn't wake me up to help him jibe. Boy did we all regret that. But the discomfort was short lived as we were able to get a lee behind the Cape, after which we had no further unpleasant sea states. The weather was lovely, actually.

[jalmberg]

Would love to hear more about the conditions as you saw them off Hatteras. Most of us aren’t ‘lucky’ enough to have that experience and have to settle for 3rd hand scare stories. Apparently you survived!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by jalmberg

Would love to hear more about the conditions as you saw them off Hatteras. Most of us aren’t ‘lucky’ enough to have that experience and have to settle for 3rd hand scare stories. Apparently you survived!

Well, it was not the worst sea conditions I've ever seen, not even close. Steep, short period, roughly 4 meter waves, some of them breaking. It was like sailing in a washing machine, very uncomfortable, but not dangerous. It was something like a F8 in the North Sea, except this was a F6 or 7.



Of course this is in a 67 foot Discovery. In something under 40 feet it would have been challenging.

[jalmberg]

Okay! Short, steep 4 meter waves would be horrendous. Well worth the effort to avoid it.

I’ve taken the close inshore route
without wandering into the Steam (of course with a northerly wind, because who wants to short tack the whole way?) and it was bad enough.

Thanks for the report!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by jalmberg

Okay! Short, steep 4 meter waves would be horrendous. Well worth the effort to avoid it.

I’ve taken the close inshore route
without wandering into the Steam (of course with a northerly wind, because who wants to short tack the whole way?) and it was bad enough.

Thanks for the report!

Close inshore is the right way to do it, provided you've got an offshore wind and don't have Hatteras on your lee

[Star Fire]

I’m also stuck in Annapolis. I was warned by many people, “Taking off on a boat I don’t know, into freezing storms doest typically end well.” I have decided to leave Star Fire on the hard, do some upgrades, and kind of just hang out. The Boat Yard Bar and Grill in East Port has a creamy crab soup I just can’t get enough of. I’ll be here through Feb, probably, so if you want to hang out and solve all the world’s problems over some beers and crab cakes, hit me up! 406-581-6235

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Star Fire

I’m also stuck in Annapolis. I was warned by many people, “Taking off on a boat I don’t know, into freezing storms doest typically end well.” I have decided to leave Star Fire on the hard, do some upgrades, and kind of just hang out. The Boat Yard Bar and Grill in East Port has a creamy crab soup I just can’t get enough of. I’ll be here through Feb, probably, so if you want to hang out and solve all the world’s problems over some beers and crab cakes, hit me up! 406-581-6235

Thanks for the invite! I'm already in another hemisphere, however.


Annapolis strikes me as an excellent place to spend the winter. D.C. is not that far away (take an Uber to the outermost Metro station; it's not expensive and quick) for city pleasures; Baltimore is even closer I guess. The town is lovely with plenty of places to guzzle beer and eat. Make some sailor friends and you're set.

[Star Fire]

Annapolis is absolutely gorgeous! I’ve never been much for the city life. People in cities just seem so uptight and always in a hurry. Hopefully it will warm up soon and I can get Star Fire back on the water. The marina won’t run the travel lift of there’s ice on the ground. I can only imagine the pucker factor of the TL sliding down the hill with my boat in the slings. As soon as Neptune allows it, I’ll be getting out of here. We have warmer weather forecasted for next week.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

Like you, I have hand steered across the GS in fairly robust norther's.
Once you get everything dialed in right, it becomes quite a manageable sail, but on those occasions, wind speed was likely 25-30 knots. Wave spacing....in my humble opinion was around 50'...more or less, hard to judge this distance.

At 60 knots of wind speed in the GS one needs to consider alternative strategies as wave heights increases and spacing decreases.

Even if not in the GS, one needs to consider alternative strategies.

Even with a drogue streaming behind the boat and no sails up I would still be doing around 5 knots sliding down the face of a wave and it does require a steady hand at the wheel to prevent a nose dive into the wave in front of you.

During the day, one can see the wave coming, but at night, no moon, no stars, not so much, and one has to depend on one's senses to anticipate the wave about to smack you.

Hope this chat is not considered a thread hijack, as it is pertinent to making the trip down the US east coast. Hope to hear from others.

Furthest thing in the world from a thread jack.


30 knots of Norther in the GS? You have bigger cojones than me. I'm sure I could manage that but it sure wouldn't be pleasant.