Cruising Plans: South to Sarasota

We will be part of the annual migration of boats that spend summers in the north and then head south in the fall.  For us it will be the mid fall with a planned departure date of November 4.

I will be joined by my friends Dick and Phil for the run to Sarasota while Diana drives with Kodi. Dick and Phil accompanied me on the run from Norfolk to Hingham last May.

My plan is to take advantage of a weather window, if we have one, and run direct to Stuart for a total distance of 1,217 NM.  This can be accomplished in 6 days (five overnights).  My thought is that if you are trying to "make tracks" it makes no sense to waste good weather sitting in port overnight.  You lose the weather and you add unnecessary time and expense to the trip.

To facilitate night running I am in the process of adding night vision equipment.  Night vision in combination with radar and AIS (vessel location, course, speed and collision potential) will give us the ability to operate with a reasonable degree of safety.

Raymarine T353 Thermal Imaging (same as FLIR M625XP)

Thermal Image

Explanatory Note:  Thermal, technically infrared, imaging (night vision) picks up the heat signature of objects on land and in the water and displays them on a screen.  In our case, we will use the Garmin 7215 multifunction screens in the pilothouse to display the data.  We chose the Raymarine T353 unit (which is the same as the FLIR M625XP).  This unit has a single thermal imaging camera that can pivot 360 degrees. It has 640 x 480 field of vision with 2X zoom capability.

FROM	TO	MILES	CUM	MARINA	WATER	HOURS	CUM	DAYS
Hingham	Virginia Beach	447	447	Long Bay Point	Coastal	53.9	53.9	2.2
Virginia Bck	Beaufort	191	638	Beaufort Dcks	Coastal	23.0	76.9	1.0
Beaufort, NC	Charleston	212	850	Charleston	Coastal	25.5	102.4	1.1
Charleston	Stuart	367	1217	Sunrise Bay	Coastal	44.2	146.7	1.8
Stuart	Fort Meyers	117	1334	TBD	ICW	14.1		2.0
Fort Meyers	Sarasota	70	1404	Marina Jack	ICW/Coastal	8.4		1.0
								9 days

Once we hit Stuart we head southwest on the Okeechobee Waterway to Fort Meyers.  No overnight runs on that segment.  The good news is the segment is more forgiving with regard to weather.  We could complete the Okeechobee in as little as two days.  Fort Meyers to Sarasota is a short 8 hour trip.  If all goes well we will complete the journey in 9 days.

Assuming good weather I will stop at either in Virginia Beach or Beaufort for fuel.  (FYI: The 63 is capable of running 1,638 NM at 8.3 knots with a 10% reserve)   We would refuel again in Stuart.

Of course all of this is weather dependent.  Weather will dictate whether we run along the coast or seek, as necessary, the protected waters of Long Island Sound, the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay or, once we reach the Virginia Beach / Norfolk area, the ICW.  

The good news is that sudden thunderstorms are less likely at this time of the year and we will be cruising south at the tail end of a hurricane season (that so far has proved to be mild).  By running along the coast we will always be in cell phone range thereby allowing internet connectivity via my Verizon Air Card.  This gives us access to 6 days of NOAA weather information and the ability to make weather decisions while underway.  We also have Sirius Satellite Weather with easy access to radar and wave height information along with forecasts for 48 hours.

For comparison, the run north last spring from Stuart to Hingham took 33 days (4/2 to 5/5). However, we were only on the water for 13 days.  The extra days were the result of bad weather (6 days), waiting for crew in Norfolk (6 days) and casual cruising with Darrel and Sue (Present Moment) from from Stuart to St Simons.  We also added over a 200 NM running the ICW from Stuart to St Simons and from Beaufort NC to Norfolk.

Written by Les.