Cruising Plans - Spring 2015

I suspect many of you will find this difficult to believe, as do I, but my days are so filled that it is difficult to find time to blog.  In the near future I plan to write three articles, one summarizing our winter in Sarasota, one about the recent Sarasota Boat Show and one about Southeastern Guide Dogs. But for now I need to talk about the big move north.

The move north has three parts.  We will cross the state of Florida between Friday, April 24 and Sunday, April 26.  This phase involves cruising from Sarasota to Fort Myers and then crossing the State via the Okeechobee Waterway.  Our destination is Fort Pierce where we hope to be before sunset on Sunday evening.

My friend Phil Fuoco and his wife Carol will be acting as my crew on this 215 nautical mile journey. Both have their captain's license.  Phil accompanied me along with my friend Dick Singer on the 9 day cruise from Hingham to Sarasota last November.  Phil and Dick were also on the three day non-stop Norfolk to Hingham run last May.  Diana and Kodi are driving across and will catch up with the "ship" on Sunday evening.

Below is the tentative itinerary:

• Sarasota to Captiva (South Seas): 54.1 NM.  Estimated time: 7 hours and 35 minutes.
• Captive to Moore Haven: 73.5 NM.  Estimated time: 10:22 minutes
• Moore Haven to Stuart: 61.1 NM.  Estimated time 9:32 minutes
• Stuart to Fort Pierce: 26.3 NM.  Estimated time 3 hours and 10 minutes.

Note: Given that we now have 13+ hours of daylight we may do the leg from Moore Haven to Fort Pierce in one shot if we do not have delays at the three locks along the route.

IMPORTANT: As of 11:00 PM on Friday evening (i.e., this writing) we have modified the plan and traveled an additional 15 NM beyond Captiva to Fort Myers.  Stay tuned for tomorrows article, Crossing Florida: Sarasota to Fort Myers.

Part two involves a 10 day stay at Harbor Town Marina in Fort Pierce for warranty work, maintenance and waxing.  Harbor town is located just north of the Fort Pierce inlet and will be a perfect departure point for the the final leg to Hingham.

Part three will be a 1,205 NM non-stop six day and five night straight shot up the east coast. Accompanying me on the leg will be my two Chicago friends, Dick Hoffman and David Jones. Diana and Kodi will drive the car up the coast.  We met Dick in 2007 when we moved to I-dock in Belmont Harbor.  Dick owns a 48 Sundancer named Sea Sharp.  David was on board at the start of the Great loop Adventure and accompanied me to Peoria Illinois along with my friend Sophocles.

This promises to be an easy run as I have all the routes pre-programmed into our Garmin chartplotter. All I need is a little cooperation from the weather.  We plan to depart Fort Pierce on Tuesday, May 5 and arrive in Hingham on Monday, May 10, just in time for Spring.

The routes programmed into the Garmin from Fort Pierce to Hingham are as as follows:

• 563 NM Fort Pierce to Morehead City (named Morehead to Stuart)
• 202 NM Morehead to VA Beach (named VA Beach to Morehead)
• 131 NM VA Beach to Cape May (named Cape May to Cape Henry)
• 271 NM Cape May to Cape Cod Canal (named CCC to Cape May)
•   41 NM Cape Cod Canal to Hull Gut (named CCC to Hull Gut)

Cruising at 1400 RPM should give us an average speed of 8.4 knots at 9.1 gallons per hour.  That yields a range of 1,074 nautical miles with a 10% reserve.  The reserve does not include generator time.  Assuming 100% generator use for 150 hours, we will burn around 200 additional gallons. Hence a fuel stop will be needed.  I suspect we will fuel up in either Cape May ($2.99/gal) or Atlantic City ($3.49/gal) as both are convenient to our route.

Written by Les