Transit Time? NY-FL

[I.Grind]

Well good luck then, have fun.

[s/v Moondancer]

When you read threads like this one it is difficult to determine whether or not someone is serious or is just "Taking the Micky" out of all the experienced sailors sitting in anchorages like Prickly Bay waiting out hurricane season.

Scoobert appears genuine!

We have actually done the proposed trip twice, outside and in late October to the middle of November. It was interesting and challenging with a night of F9 gusting 10 and a night of F8 gales. Both unpredicted by NOAA, in fact during the entire night off Jersey, in a F9 gale (41-47 knots), NOAA continually reminded me that the maximum winds would be 25 knots! But if you cant handle serious weather you should not be out there.

Hatteras is an interesting challenge, there are 3 ways to get around the Cape.

1) Well inside on the ICW, easiest and prettiest.
2) Well outside 100-200 nm off-shore on the far side of the Gulf Stream, hard work.
3) Within sight of land there are a series of red markers on the 10 fathom line and there is usually a counter current going south. In fact from Chesapeake to Miami, last Fall, we stayed close to shore most of the way south and the current had a southerly component 90% of the time.

I have done all three and by far the easiest was on the 10 fathom line which we have done 3 times, twice in Fall. However, it does require a very solid 2 day weather window and if you get it wrong you are in serious trouble. I do not recommend the 10 fathom line route but merely say that it is possible if you can predict the weather better than NOAA!

The only advise I wish to give Scoobert is that in NE gales all of the East Coast entries are dangerous and that it is safer to stay at sea then to enter somewhere like St Augustine. Which is why the ICW is safer! We went into Jacksonville for breakfast in 35 knots, (not an easy entry, St Augustine would have been near lethal) and found a 4 man pro crew who had been exhausted by 4 days of bashing south in bad conditions.

Good luck

[annsni]

I was talking to hubby about this and while he has been sailing for over 20 years and has done significant racing (thus knows our boat really well), he would only do this trip if he took a group of men who are experienced doing this. At our club, we have a good number of men who have done NY to Bermuda or NY to Florida so he'd ask 4-5 of them to go with him - and leave me home. There is no way I'd do that trip. I don't like sailing THAT much and that trip certainly would make me a landlubber fast.

Then he reminded me of the 12-15' waves that the boat was hit with at Frying Pan Shoals that took out the steering on our boat when we had a VERY experienced captain bringing it up north in April (which he said was 8 days from Lauderdale to NY, not 7 like I thought). Yeah - SO not doing that trip!

[scoobert]

I guess we will play it by ear.
We have about 700 mile fuel range, so its not the end of the world on the icw.
To get this straight, i cannot go thru okeechoobie, right?

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by scoobert

I guess we will play it by ear.
We have about 700 mile fuel range, so its not the end of the world on the icw.
To get this straight, i cannot go thru okeechoobie, right?

No okeechobee for you. How have you calculated your fuel range? Headwinds can literally cut this in half. Slowing down can easily double it...

[boatman61]

I'd keep your speed down to around 5kts in the ICW... any faster and your groundings could well be a problem... don't pass to close to the marks..

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Scoobi... take the ICW going down.. hop out at Beaufort/Morehead City and do the rest in hops.. staying out for the Georgia bit... unless its been dredged lately..
Save the outside sail for the trip back N when you've more experience of your boat and systems... and the Stream is in your favour... and you've a better idea of your limits and strengths.

This.

You and the wife can do this.

The weather can be quite changeable that time of year, so take your time and make sure you have a solidly favorable forecast when you go outside.

Get towboatus coverage.

With the mixed ICW/outside route, I would plan on 30 days if you keep pushing on, 60 days if you stop and rest. And see some sights

[scoobert]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

No okeechobee for you. How have you calculated your fuel range? Headwinds can literally cut this in half. Slowing down can easily double it...

i looked up the engine specs.
1.2GPH at 2100rpm
so i can do 5-6KTS at 2100rpm.
that as close as i can get.

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by scoobert

i looked up the engine specs.
1.2GPH at 2100rpm
so i can do 5-6KTS at 2100rpm.
that as close as i can get.

But that's probably your "flat water / no headwind" speed. For planning purposes I would derate that to perhaps 1.2GPH / 4kts.

Of course if you are motorsailing the fuel consumption and speed numbers should improve over the pure motoring scenario.

In general, let me echo the suggestions that you get some offshore experience before making this trip. If you can, volunteer to crew on a multi-day delivery. Do some overnight / weekend shakedown trips, where you stay close enough to a safe harbor that you can pull the plug if you like. During the shakedown, run your watch schedule, cook meals, get some sleep -- just as if you were out there for real. You will learn a lot on a real shakedown.

[scoobert]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

But that's probably your "flat water / no headwind" speed. For planning purposes I would derate that to perhaps 1.2GPH / 4kts.

Of course if you are motorsailing the fuel consumption and speed numbers should improve over the pure motoring scenario.

In general, let me echo the suggestions that you get some offshore experience before making this trip. If you can, volunteer to crew on a multi-day delivery. Do some overnight / weekend shakedown trips, where you stay close enough to a safe harbor that you can pull the plug if you like. During the shakedown, run your watch schedule, cook meals, get some sleep -- just as if you were out there for real. You will learn a lot on a real shakedown.

i would in a heartbeat do an overnighter, or any of those things.
however the wife and i will be busy until we leave for FL.

maybe if it stays in the 70's until december, then we would have time, lol.
but between work, ect just no time.

[The Garbone]

The thing about the mixed inside and outside trip is there a so many great ports to stop in. You may find yourself hard pressed to keep to the schedule.

My wife and I found that even small ports seem more fun on foot from the boat. We have stopped at a number of places locally the we visited via car before. Almost without exception we had a better visit from the boat.

Should be a great trip.

[unbusted67]

Pilot Charts, Pilot Charts, Pilot Charts. Get them, study them. I am going to make this super simple. Go outside NYC either to Delaware Bay or Chesapeake, Go inside the ICW to Beaufort SC or Myrtle Beach SC depending on Weather, Then Outside to Jacksonville, FL. That should all be fine in terms of draft, just avoid Geogia and Okeechobee. South of that shouldn't be too intense weather-wise. But it will be cold weather right up until Cape Canaveral.

Can you get beat up in your boat? Absolutely. Dude look at the charts and plot your courses. You shouldn't need to ask others as skipper, as crew, yes, but you are going to be responsible for the lives of the people on board and for the people who have to come rescue you if you get into trouble. A forum is not the place to get these answers. It is your responsibility to give yourself the time to learn these things incrementally not all at once in a storm off of Cape Hatteras.

[unbusted67]

And what I mean about the pilot charts is this: The ocean as a whole is not sail-able. It has certain highways on it that, depending on the time of year, allow us sailors transit. At other times of the year those highways, or sections of them are closed. You would not want to cross the Atlantic in Aug/Sept for example, try the NW passage in February, rounding Cape Horn in July, or beating against any of the trade wind belts for a long period of time. The pilot charts will help you as a skipper asses the risk of using these highways at a given time of year.

They are available for free from NOAA and viewable on open CPN which is an open source navigation software.

[scoobert]

i will have to check out open cpn, i have a garmin chart-plotter now.

[The Garbone]

Active Captain is also pretty good with information about the ICW and shoaling.