Planning to winter in SE Florida

That is a mighty aggressive schedule. Even the Nimitz changes watch every 4 hours. IMHO, by day three, you will be completely exhausted. Add to that the NC coast can get real sh!tty real fast. You have to be on your toes for that place.

What about a partial delivery? Pick up in Hampton, VA and take a leisurely cruise inside to Savannah in another 4-5 days and enjoy the trip.

My 2 cents.
 
Down near fort laud now Tim. You wouldn't have wanted to be on the outside this entire trip so far. Not even for 5 minutes. Think we might pull in at fort laud. Soon and take. Break instead of cont. Further south today.
I hope something I've shared helps you plan your trip
 
I appreciate all the information, I'm taking it all in (a full year in advance!) so I have the right equipment, information from experienced folks that are participating on this thread and other places. I will have (already have) several options (inside/outside) to make the trip. Even if I was comitted to traveling outside all the way, or most of the way, I wouldn't opt to travel if conditions weren't favorable to go offshore. I've been doing this for a while and have made some runs in nasty weather so I know I don't want to be out there if it's nasty. Though I've never run down the coast, that will be a first.

I picked up an inlets book (I think Pascal referenced it on another thread) so I could read about the particular inlets I want to hit and all the other ones in case I have to hit them.

"You really don't have the range and speed to make it worth while to be on the outside the whole way" I don't understand this. My plan is to average 200nm and even less a day. The boat has a range of 325 miles at cruise (average of 22kts), so, using the 1/3 rule I should be able to make 200nm a day no problem. If conditions aren't right I don't go, or, I take an inside route. I think this boat has good range to do this kind of trip but like nearly any other boat the weather has to cooperate. Factoring in wind, current and waves is something I will have to do each day before I decide to travel. If conditions aren't favorable, I don't go.

I'm interested, you said above you left Connecticut on a Saturday and on the 5th (4 days later) you were at Miami. I'm only planning on going from Rhode Island to Savannah Georgia in 4-5 days. How fast were you traveling? How long was your trip Miami from Connecticut?

I think I will have lay overs on the way down or just a day I don't want to travel. David, with regards to the Nimitz shifts, I'm not doing this solo. I will have a crew of about 4 where 1 or 2 can take the helm for a shift.

As for gear, I'm defintaly going to add the Satelite weather, that makes to much sense. I also want an epirb, life raft (rent one) and any other piece of equipment that makes sense even if it's considered overkill by some. I have to make the trip back 4 months later and *if* all goes well I will be doing this annually or maybe every other year.

I'll post a new trip schedule later, I'm taking the advice of pulling into Ocean City and will likely break that leg into two so I can opt to travel through NYC (stay there a night).

Thanks for all the comments, I love it!
Tim
 
"You really don't have the range and speed to make it worth while to be on the outside the whole way"

You can make it on the outside. My comment was the time frame you want to do it in and I though you wanted to reach Miami.

Some areas are just better inside like Pascal and George stated

We left CT on Friday at 12:30 pm and only traveled a short distance down LIS to Stamford.
Sat Am we left before sunrise for Virginia Beach, Rudee's inlet. Made it before dark.
Sun AM we left before sunrise and ended up making it to wrightsville beach. entered Oregon inlet and took Pamlico bay and ICW to destination.
Mon Am we left before sunrise and headed south on the ICW and entered the ocean at cape fear and ended up in St Augustine FLA.
Tues Am we left before sunrise and ended up at rocioli yacht center in Fort Laud fla.
I flew home Wednesday

27 knts was the average speed in a yacht that can reach 40.
 
Awesome, so you did the WHOLE trip from CT->Miami in 4 1/2 days mixing up outside/inside. I want to do RI->Savannah in 4-5 days and have a similar approach to yours...leave before sunrise, tied up, fueled up before dark if at all possible traveling a little bit slower. I can cruise 24 but that's the high end of the cruise range (WOT is 29).

Now I have to ask, you brought the boat to Ft Laud in Oct. How long will you keep the boat there? Was this a delivery or was it your own yacht? I ask cause of the whole tax thing. The reason I'm stopping in Savannah is to stay away from the 180 day cumulative stay in Florida rule. Someone told me you can go to the bahama's for a weekend and reset the counter...not so for the 180 days. Its 180 days in any year period. We plan to enter Florida Jan 1st and leave end of April, early May for the return trip.

Anyway, thanks for the trip information. Its great to hear other people's path from the north east down to florida.

I'm heading to the Annapolis boat show next week to help a friend shop for a boat and get some prices on equipment I'd like to have, mainly the sat weather gear but that's just a plug-in to my E120 I think.

Gotta figure out how to sweet talk George into crewing with me next year as well if anyone has any tips :) What is it? Cubans, scotch...I'll figure it out :)

Gotta figure out what marinas are going to charge me for 2 1/2 months of dockage in Brunswick or Savannah...I realized the airport thing is really only one drive/taxi ride so distance isn't that big of deal. When I return the wife will be bringing the car (and dog) so I can be dropped off at the boat with crew to finish the trip.
 
couple more thoughts...

there is a lot more to making good speed than the boat cruise speed and the weather forecast. the third critical item is hull shape and the boat ability to actually run at whatever it's cruise speed is supposed to. Because a boat can cruise at 22kts or 27kts or even over 30kts like some new sporfish, it doesn't mean that you will be able to or will want to.

i know it sounds obvious but it's often overlooked. Some boats will cut thru 6' waves as if they are not even there, others will slam and bang into 4 footers.

Make sure you crew is "qualified"... again it sounds obvious but there is a lot more to watch standing than be able to drive the boat straight or watch the AP. Your crew needs to understand a few things like

- the need to watch the seas ahead for dangers (anything from a log to a partially submerged container...)
- the importance of scanning instruments are set intervals, especially engine instruments to detect problems before they become serious.
- understand that offshore something simple may required investigation.. a small noise, smell, or the boat loosing even jsut a kt of speed for no obvious reason may be a sign of something about to go very wrong.
- if passing near buoys, make sure they are highlighted on charts so your crew is alert at the time (boats have run or had close calls with buoys becasue the crew wasnt paying attention)

in addition to the equipment you mentioned, double check your bilge pumping capacity. most production boats dont' have enough bilge pumps even for inland water operations. If something happens out there, loosing a shaft or whatever, a pair of 2000gph pumps isnt' going to give you time to solve the problem. have at least a back up 3700 rule ready to go on if needed.
 
Wow, all I can say is you guys are tough. 200 mile days in a powerboat and offshore to boot. I think that would kill me unless it was in a 200' boat with big crew.
 
Bruce we met someone who took his lobster boat from Maine to Key West in 5 or 6 days. I think they stopped for fuel once along the way.
 
"Was this a delivery or was it your own yacht"

The owner has a full time capt. The boat spends the winter in the south and summers in the north. Some of the smaller boats stay on land in the north for the winter.

I'm a novice when it comes to cruising the east coast but wanted to share my observations.
 
Tim,

I just noticed you have a Silverton 45.
Very nice boat that will be fun to criuse the ICW as much as you can while headed south.
 
As far as the tax thing, I am not sure, didn't you pay sales tax in your own state? I have friends with a 53 Hatteras and they go back and forth between Ft Lauderdale and the north east every year, they come and go as they please and have been doing so for well over 25 years, no tax issues there.
Your idea of running down here in 4 to 5 days needs some work though, like Pascal said running at speed outside is a whole different game than on protected waters. A former employer had a 100' Broward and on a run outside going up north they took a really beating, a forward bulkhead on the superstructure let go and they started taking on water, floading the crew quarters. An other time a friends boss wanted his 36' Intrepit in Costa Rica and had a crew run it down there for him. They got the boat there but it was ready for the scrapheap as it was beat to pieces.

Cor
 
I live in Savannah and we cruise the Jax,FL to Charleston,SC waters all the time. Savannah or Brunswick provides most all the items you need for a 2-3 month dockage deal. Savannah has a much better airport and the city offers more to see & do. The Isle of Hope area and Thunderbolt are both excellent locations in Savannah. IMHO the Brunswick Landings is the best in Brunswick but Golden Isles on St. Simons is nice. From Brunswick the best airport to use is the JAX facility but it is about an hour south so land transport may be an issue.
 
Cor,
My dock neighbor goes to West Palm beach every year and keeps his sailboat at a private dock. He said there isn't much inforcement of the tax rules for the most part. He said, if you stay at the larger marina's you run a higher risk of the tax laws as they inquire with the marina's about seasonal transients.

I read the florida law and it's very clear. You cannot stay 90 contiguous days or a cumulative of 183 in a calendar year and not be subject to the tax. My home marina is in RI and there is no tax there.

I wrote a program to record the relevant buoy data from Block Island, RI to Miami Florida. The program has recorded information from middle of September through the current date. When I depict the average wave height for each bouy for this period it is above 4' (average!!) so, yes, I can see how you can get very beat up running offshore. I'm still planning on having inside and outside routes so i can choose based on weather and other factors. I'm also setting expectations, for myself and crew, that we will take more time coming down. Now I got to take care of all the other things that could prevent me from making this trip.
 
Tim,
This year hasn't been that great since just after Labor Day for off shore activities as you know. Maybe that's the price we had to pay for such a great summer up here in the North East !
Last year was much better when we headed south so don't get to discouraged by what your seeing. I would still plan to take the inside once you get past Cape May, Virginia area if the weather isn't perfect then take the outside again at Cape Fear if you get the chance. We had very good weather last year from about Cape Fear to Fla and if you get the same you'll have a nice trip on the outside. There's really no reason to be on the outside around Cape Hatteras unless someone here can educate me on why someone would travel on the outside around that corner in a 45 'er headed south when they can take it easy on the inside regardless of the weather although this years ride through Pamlico bay was no picnic.
 
Having never done the trip, i started by asking why I would ever want to go inside if the weather was nice.....skinny water, bridge openings, unmarked shoaling, traffic, speed limits....why would I want to put up with that!!! Since then, I've learned that there are plenty of reasons why the inside track is worth taking in many scenarios. I'm still not clear about speed limits and how difficult the channels can be to navigate but I definately see the reason's to go inside. At this point I'm planning on taking Pamlico bay south to Beaufort and then likely stay outside to Savannah. Haven't even looked at the trip from Savannah to Ft Lauderdale area but less concerned about that.

We sure did have a great summer and fall, hope next year is the same with calm seas in October to boot :)
 
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