Your Farthest Cruise

How far was your farthest cruise and where did you go from and where did you go to? I've always wanted to leave CA and cruise down the coast and cruise the Sea of Cortez, then all the way to Panama. If I did this I would do it over at least a three year period. I have friends that have done that and even through the canal to the San Blas Islands or to other islands one of which found work as dock master at a large marina and his wife is the accountant bookkeeper.

I know many people who went to Mexico and as far down as Z town or Acapulco. Most get to Puerta Vallarta, find a slip in a marina and pay 300 dollar electric bills keeping cool until they are broke and come back saying it was just ok and they think cruising is over rated.

Only a few go and find anchorages and look for peaceful locations to get away and have fun fishing and exploring.

What has been your experiences?

Bess and I are wimps... Ten hours from Carolina Beach, NC to Morehead City, NC is our longest PASSAGE. The longest time we have been away from home port was a week. Damn jobs!

A one month cruise from Charleston, SC to Sanford, FL and back. Read about it here:

http://www.widman.biz/indigo/Adventures_of_HIGH_COTTON.pdf

I had plans for a cruise from Charleston to the Chesapeake Bay but medical issues have put the plans on hold for now. That would be a two month or more trip.

Tom.B said:

Bess and I are wimps... Ten hours from Carolina Beach, NC to Morehead City, NC is our longest PASSAGE. The longest time we have been away from home port was a week. Damn jobs!

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If school/jobs permit this summer, we'll run the Virginia loop with ya. Two days up, two days back. Once done this Spring semester, I start easing off. Got to see what's left for vacation!

We splash in 3 days!

rwidman said:

A one month cruise from Charleston, SC to Sanford, FL and back. Read about it here:

http://www.widman.biz/indigo/Adventures_of_HIGH_COTTON.pdf

I had plans for a cruise from Charleston to the Chesapeake Bay but medical issues have put the plans on hold for now. That would be a two month or more trip.

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Sanford - St Johns River. Whoa. I'm reading this later today (more text than I can absorb in my hectic day). I spent my boyhood summers near Crescent Lake. Bass Capital of the World.

From the FL keys to Eastport ME.

Hawk channel, Biscayne bay, AICW, Chesapeake, C&D canal, Delaware bay, Atlantic coast off NJ, NY harbor, Long Island Sound, Buzzards bay, Cape cod canal, offshore to Monegan isl, (didn’t stop, it’s just a waypoint.), Penobscot bay, then on to Easport. My insurance policy stops at Eastport.

About 3000 miles each way. 9 months up and back together. Lot’s of side trips.

Mike
P.S. I'd consider Rodman reservoir As the bass capital.

We are coastal cruisers. Our longest continuous cruise is from Boca Grande on Florida's West coast down through the Keys and up to Washington, DC. About 1500 miles. We do the Bahama Islands, but usually log about 5-600 miles on those trips. None of our cruising would relate much to cruising down to Baha.

Larry M, Daddyo and others are the real long rangers on the Forum. The East coast has so many ports and sheltered waters that it is nothing like the Oregon, California, and Mexican coast. We can usually get into sheltered water very quickly.

I've taken two boats on the same cruise.

1500NM+ from the Seattle area, up the inside passage, and Crossing the Gulf of Alaska, which is a 320NM open water crossing in itself.

rwidman said:

A one month cruise from Charleston, SC to Sanford, FL and back. Read about it here:

http://www.widman.biz/indigo/Adventures_of_HIGH_COTTON.pdf

I had plans for a cruise from Charleston to the Chesapeake Bay but medical issues have put the plans on hold for now. That would be a two month or more trip.

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Thanks, that was a great read.

The East coast cruises are different than out West. The Pacific gives us seas, swells and current you don't have there and we don't have an ICU. Once you leave a breakwall, you're out to sea the entire trip.

Is your boat a single?

ksanders said:

I've taken two boats on the same cruise.

1500NM+ from the Seattle area, up the inside passage, and Crossing the Gulf of Alaska, which is a 320NM open water crossing in itself.

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That's a haul, Kevin. Are those Mitsubishi diesels in your boat? I had a slip neighbor with a boat like yours. I went fishing with him a few times. A nice boat.

Believe me there's strong winds, strong currents, waves, rocks, sandbars, thunderstorms, tornados and an endless supply of thoughtless boaters that make cruising the East Coast in less than 50 foot trawlers a veritable cruisers paradise...

Oh, I'm sure there is. I am not taking away anything from the roughness there. I was just commenting that we go immediately to sea between legs. I could see there are advantages both ways. I would think traffic in narrow seaways could get interesting combined with winds.

Out here, there are no trades and for the most part sailboaters motor mostly. When the wind does come up, which is daily, it is an afternoon wind and can blow easily 15 to 25 kts. That picks up the seas a bit.

We can do coast wise cruising here from Santa Barbara to San Diego and even to Ensenada, Mexico. The Mexican port clearance dance has improved and the mordita has slowed some.

The problem here with that is getting a slip or an anchorage. CA isn't cruiser friendly in that way. Here, planning and calling ahead is a must.

Capthead said:

Thanks, that was a great read.

The East coast cruises are different than out West. The Pacific gives us seas, swells and current you don't have there and we don't have an ICU. Once you leave a breakwall, you're out to sea the entire trip.

Is your boat a single?

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Thanks. Yes my boat has a single diesel engine.

That's great fuel mileage and I thought it must be a single. I get anywhere from 2 to 2.5 Nautical MPG with my boat and that is running it from 1500 to 1700 RPM which gets me between 8 and 9 Kts. Sometimes in a flat sea way no current to speak of I can do 9.5 with the GPS.

The longest I have done without a break was a 70' fast motor yacht from Fort Lauderdale to Cleveland Ohio, a little longer distance but with a stop in Fort Lauderdale for a few months was a brand new 52' Buddy Davis Express with a pair of 1350 HP V-12s from Egg Harbor, NJ to Fort Lauderdale, then later on to Brownsville TX on the Mexican border. Had to stop every night for fuel so I went the coastal route.
However these were working trips, I was getting paid and would never have time to enjoy the stops along the way when I was doing a delivery. On a few boats that I was full time captain rather than a delivery I went from Florida to New England and returned over an entire summer.

3 hours.

Really.

Winter tarp came off a few weeks ago, and waiting until mid May when it warms up enough to paint the bottom of our 'new to us' boat, free the raw water seacock, change the impeller, etc. Have 3 weeks off in July though, so stay tuned

Does a 6 month sea kayak trip on BC's coast count?

So far the longest cruise has been three weeks and the destination has been Desolation Sound. We've been much farther north than that but in our trailer fishing boat, not the GB. Someday we hope to do 5 month cruises up the Inside Passage in BC and perhaps even SE Alaka, although so far from our floatplane trips we prefer BC to SE.

Our farthest would be bringing the boat to Houma, Louisiana from Annapolis, MD, about 1500 miles. We left Thanksgiving day and got home Feb 7th we left her in Charleston for a week to spend Christmas at home. We crossed FL at Lake Okeechobee.

2 years, 8500nm, virtually the entire eastern seaboard, Hudson River, most of the adjacent islands (not Bermuda), SW FL and lots of side trips. "Journey, not the destination" type thing. It was way too short.

I've always wanted to leave CA and cruise down the coast and cruise the Sea of Cortez, then all the way to Panama.

Have you checked out what the RETURN trip would be like ,

or will you continue to the US East coast , visit and sell the boat?

3.5 months, 4000 nm. Everett WA to Glacier Bay and back, with many detours, loops etc along the way. Would love to do longer, but the weather up north gets a bit uncooperative for our small boat, so we just keep doing it over again.

My boat came from Boston. It made the trip up the coast from Panama. This was in 1972 and all they had onboard was a hand pump bilge pump, a VHF and a compass. It was a five man delivery crew. I still have the logs of that trip.

They did the smart thing. when you look at currents in the ocean the general main current north of the equator is clockwise. This puts a current from Alaska down the coast of CA and farther south past Baja as you know. It causes the famous Baja Bash.

They simply went over 50 miles off the coast and didn't have to deal with it.

Imagine that.

Toronto - Duluth MN - Dry Tortugas - Toronto, all east coast, not the loop.
single diesel, 1.2gph at 7nmph

Go north young man and mingle w some real boaters .. fishermen.

manyboats said:

Go north young man and mingle w some real boaters .. fishermen.

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I would like to take my boat north and meet other trawler people. I'm in the land of sportfishers and sailboats. It's either full throttle or too laid back.

I'd probably have to install a better heater though. My reverse cycle AC probably won't work in those cold waters.

Canadian Island about 150 miles! The Eagle was just warming up, and I was white knuckled. We have plan to head North to Alaska/Canda but first I have to be pulled/whined from the dock!

Funny story - I have not told one for quite a while

The first time we sub rented on the Everett Commercial dock, one of the first time we went out on to the Puget Sound, a group of commercial fishing guys helped us dock. I was so excited/glad to be back tied to a dock again I said, "I am glad that long cruise is over with?” They inquired where are you from, being the Eagle capability is almost equal to their commercial trawler. I exclaimed proudly, SEATTLE? They all burst out laughing at me! So that was my introduction to the commercial dock and every time we go out they inquire “You going on another one of your long cruise?”

two week sail from San Francisco to Hawaii. On the trawler, eight hour passage from SF bay to the delta a few times. Max time away from the dock on the trawler about a week of anchoring out on the delta. hope to do some real cruising on the trawler after retirement but that is several years in the future.

Capthead said:

I'd probably have to install a better heater though. My reverse cycle AC probably won't work in those cold waters.

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Our boat spent its whole life in California until we liberated it in 1998. So it has no built-in heat at all. Someday we hope to have a proper diesel heater installed (there is no available pace to put a bulkhead-mount diesel or propane Dickenson-type heater) but so far (14 years) we have done okay with a Buddy portable propane heater from Mr. Heater. Has several drawbacks and I would never recommend it as an ideal way to heat a boat. But better this than not going out in the winter which as far as we're concerned is, along with fall and early spring, the absolute best boating season up here.

Ben said:

Sanford - St Johns River. Whoa. I'm reading this later today (more text than I can absorb in my hectic day). I spent my boyhood summers near Crescent Lake. Bass Capital of the World.

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It's on our list especially since the St John's is within a days cruise for us.

beachbum29 said:

It's on our list especially since the St John's is within a days cruise for us.

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Take your time and enjoy the sights. I came home with over 500 photos.

If it fits your schedule, stop in here:

The Marina at Ortega Landing & River Homes - Jacksonville Area Information

We were going to stay a couple days when the manager informed us that for the cost of three days we could have the weekly rate (seven days). Not only that, you can split the seven days so we stayed four on the way down and three on the way back. You can walk to Publix and West Marine and several other stores. Laundry was free.

And when you get to Sanford, be sure and try the German restaurant.