Hingham Bound: Cruising Plan

Thought I would share with you my plan for the trip north. My calculations (at the end of the article) show that we get to Hingham Massachusetts in 9 days if the weather cooperates.

I have a crew of two for this trip. Wylie Crawford is a friend from Chicago who winters in Sarasota. Tom Frakie is a friend of Darryl and Sue (Present Moment), the cruising couple who we met in 2010 while in Florence Alabama on a Great Loop side trip. Wylie is a private pilot and Tom is an experienced sailor who captains a 42 Catalina. Tom and Connie are active with Paws With A Cause, a a school that provides service dogs to people with hearing loss, disabilities, seizures and children with autism. They have raised 3 puppies. Diana, Kodi, and I are Southeastern Guide Dog Ambassadors (Note:Technically Kodi is the ambassador and we are "handlers."). I also have my private pilot and instrument rating. This group has a lot in common.

I provided Wylie and Tom with three critical documents to review in advance. These include our Standard Operating Procedures, Abandon Ship Procedures and Medical Emergency Checklist.

Explanatory Note: Guided Discovery is well equipped from a safety standpoint. We carry a 6 man emergency life raft, an EPIRP, a defibrillator, oxygen, multiple 5 gallon fire extinguishers, two first aid kits and an advanced (CLAM) medical kit. However, all of this is only valuable if everybody on board is familiar with the equipment's location and use. We will review these documents as we cruise south on the first day.

We depart Sarasota at 7:00 AM on Sunday May 1 and cruise south to Fort Myers and then the Caloosahatchee River and then east to The Calusa Jack's Marina just west of the Franklin Lock. We should arrive there at 5:00 PM.  Dinner will be at Fruit City Restaurant (3/4 of a mile from the Marina and the marina folks will drive us over).

The first day we will deal with two local knowledge inlets, Sarasota Big Pass and Redfish Pass just north of Captive Island.

Sarasota Big Pass looking southwest
Dark blue = deep. Light blue = shallow, White = visible sandbar

Sarasota Big Pass, which is anything but big (and badly misnamed) is particularly challenging due to a massive sandbar that moves around. Last November we followed our track from the previous year only to discover that the path had shoaled in. Fortunately, Guided Discovery has a keel and our very slow soft grounding did no damage (except for a little paint at the bottom of the keel). Using local knowledge supplied by the Sarasota Yacht Club (SYC) in the form of GPS coordinates, I plotted the information on the tender's GPS and ran the course on the tender to verify the controlling depth. I also got lucky and followed a local 70 foot party fishing boat over the recommended course. The controlling depth according to SYC is 5.5 feet at MLW (Mean Low Water). That said, the recommended course comes within 200 feet of where we grounded.

Sarasota Big Pass looking northeast
We will be heading southwest
Notice the barely passable area in the lower left corner

Redfish Pass according to Active Captain is passable and well marked. However, the last posting is from 2014. Sea Tow provided me with their "local knowledge" and indicated that Active Captain had it right. Still passable and well marked.

Redfish Pass
South Seas Resort to your left
We will be approaching from the right (north)

Leaving the Calusa Jack's Marina just before 7:00 AM we arrive at the Franklin Lock, the first of 5 locks, and begin our transit of the Okeechobee Waterway. We will transit three locks (Franklin, Ortona and Moore Haven) before arriving in Clewiston at the Roland Martin's Marina at around 6:00 PM. We will take on fuel here. Dinner will be at the restaurant on premises.

Note: We have 13 hours of daylight from sunrise to sunset.

We leave Clewiston at 7:00 AM on May 3 and head across Lake Okeechobee to the Myaka Lock and then to the final lock, Saintt Lucie, in Stuart. From here we head to the Atlantic ICW and from there to the Fort Pierce Inlet. We arrive at the Fort Pierce Inlet around 5:00 PM and shortly afterwards we will be on the Atlantic Ocean heading north to our fuel stop in Morehead City North Carolina. That stop will occur around 5:00 PM on Thursday, May 5. Morehead City Yacht Basin fuel dock closes at 6:00 PM but will remain open longer if we call. Dinners will be on-board while we head north on the Atlantic.

Assuming we make Morehead City on time, which is highly likely as I can speed up if needed, and are able to refuel, we will head back out and continue on to Hingham. I estimate that we will arrive there around 7:00 PM on Monday the 9th. Dinner will be at Alma Nove at the Hingham Shipyard.

We will have six dinners while underway along with breakfast and lunch each day. Right now my plan is to freeze individual dinners obtained from Morton's Gourmet Market thus giving each of us a choice of what we want to eat. Breakfast choices will include bagels with smoked salmon and fixings, several dry cereals including Cascadian Farms Fruit and Nut Granola served with raisins, walnuts, and banana, assorted yogurts and (seas permitting) steel cut oatmeal supreme served with raisins, bananas, blueberries and walnuts (and very healthy chocolate protein shakes for those who are interested). Lunches will be based on deli sandwiches including ham, roast beef and mesquite turkey with choice of cheese and pickles. We will also have crackers with hummus and a variety of cheeses for mid-day snacks.

DETAILED CRUISING PLAN

FROM	TO	MILES	CUM	TIME	CUM	RPM	KTS	DAYS
Sarasota	Captiva	53.5	53.5	6.4	6.4	1400	8.4
Captiva	Franklin Lock	33.4	86.9	4.0	10.3	1400	8.4	1.00
Calusa Jack's Marina	239-694-2708	Reservation 5/1/ with Richard
Franklin Lock	Ortona (11:30-12:30)	25.0	25.0	3.6	3.6	1100	7
Ortona Lock	Moore Haven Lock	14.0	39.0	4.6	8.2	1400	8.4
Moore Haven Lock	Clewiston	11.0	50.0	1.3	9.5	1400	8.4	1.00
Lock Time Estimated	2 @.5 hours each			1.0	10.5
Roland Martin's Marina	863-983-3151	Reservation 5/2 with Lacy
Clewiston	Port Myaka Lock	23.0	25.2	2.7	2.7	1400	8.4
Port Myaka Lock	St Lucie Lock	21.1	46.3	2.5	5.3	1400	8.4
St Lucie Lock	Roosevelt Bridge	8.4	54.7	1.0	6.3	1400	8.4
Roosevelt Bridge	Okeechobee R240	6.5	61.2	0.8	7.0	1400	8.4
Okeechobee R240	Fort Pierce Inlet	19.3	80.5	2.3	9.3	1400	8.4
Fort Pierce Inlet	Atlantic Ocean	4.4	84.9	0.5	9.8	1400	8.4	1.00
Lock Time Estimate	2 @.5 hours each)			1.0	10.8
SUMMARY
Sarasota	Atlantic Ocean	219.6	219.6
Fort Pierce Inlet	Morehead City	574.7	794.3	68.4		1400	8.4	2.85
Morehead City	Hingham Mass	641.5	1435.8	76.4		1400	8.4	3.18
Optimum Number of Days								9.03

Now all we need is cooperative weather.

Written by Les.