Tampa to Tortugas - No night sailing.

[Bohemian17]

Six days. That is the best route but only the retired have that luxury normally. Yes i am jealous .

[JTSmith]

How about Palmetto/Fort Myers Beach/Marco/KW? Doable?



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[avb3]

Originally Posted by JTSmith

How about Palmetto/Fort Myers Beach/Marco/KW? Doable?



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Your looking at about 21 hours Palmetto - Ft. Meyers Beach at 4.5 knots (which I use for planning). I'm not sure of the anchorages there, but if you go and tuck in behind the barrier islands towards Pine Island, your protected and there are some anchorages in there. That's still about 16 hours, a long day. The trouble is, there are not a lot of anchorages that are protected, and some have skinny water getting in (get used to it, it is Florida). Make sure you have SeaTow insurance or equivalent.

That is cheap at about $149 or $169 a year.

[gah964]

I don't get,there are no tankers from Sarasota to key west they are very far out in the 500 1000k foot range.

[JTSmith]

Originally Posted by gah964

I don't get,there are no tankers from Sarasota to key west they are very far out in the 500 1000k foot range.

Oil tanker, container ship, shrimper, kracken. She's just afraid of sailing at night.


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[Wmiii]

If you 'day hop' down to Marco, then you have 90 nm to Key West. That would be 18 hrs at 5kts.
The other option would be Marco to Little Shark River, to Marathon, then on to Key West and go from there.

[AnchorageGuy]

Originally Posted by brantleychuck

Tampa- Venice -Fort myers beach - Marco island- little shark river - marathon - key west

That would be and has been our preferred route. Chuck

[HappyMdRSailor]

JT

Just pick your weather man!

Take your daughter out pre-this trip on a bright lit moon nights with fairly calm conditions... Once she sees that it's like daylight out there, hopefully she'll fall in love with night sailing like many of us... Soon the dimmer nights will be OK.... I as well as most others STILL get the heebee jeebees in pitch black conditions relying on instruments, and avoid them when possible...

Planning trips to avoid nightfall is OK if things stay on schedule... Ooooops... There I said it.... The "S" word.... And you very well know how well oil and water... sailing and schedules mix thoroughly...

[gah964]

when are you going? im going in October maybe we can buddy down.
I use radar so you can tell her Im out front. and there is always the Key West express.

[LexLocal]

Naples to Key West....Been a few years--The {S.O.}-Scariest Obstacle from my helm was all the fish/crab trap buoys -with their tether lines. Hard to spot at night..

Even the wind milling prop will wrap any line ...tight as a steel cable--had to cut mine free with a hacksaw-

Willing to stand for correction here-

[RTB]

YEP! Plenty of crab pots, especially the farther south you go. Best not to go at night, and keep a good lookout during daylight, especially if it's choppy. They are hard to see then.

Ralph

[seaturkey]

...that was really - really funny -

Thought you deserved some kudos for that...




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[JTSmith]

Originally Posted by seaturkey

...that was really - really funny -

Thought you deserved some kudos for that...




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What was really funny?

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by JTSmith

How about Palmetto/Fort Myers Beach/Marco/KW? Doable?



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Marco to KW is about 76KM (A long day. Better to go marco, little snake and the KW. From tampa, you can also anchor off Useppa IS, across from cabbage key on the intercoastal, or off St. James city at the end of pine IS. Beware the miserable mile, where some blonde chick first went aground piloting a big boat (if you go inside down to Ft. Myers.)

I've anchored just off little snake river in calm weather as the bugs are less off the beach there.

[jangann]

Sarasota
Venice
Bicameral grand (or on the inside)
Ft Myers
Marco
Little shark river
Cud joke key
Key west
Tortugas.

You need some time to do it, but it'll be fun!


An Ocean Lover in Maine.