Portland ME to Key West, 1387 naut. miles, that right?

Pg. 10 shows miles.

http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/distances-ports/distances.pdf

I sure thought it was further than that, I imagine that would be a direct offshore route?

That's correct; it's 1200 statute miles, a little over 1000 Nm from Norfolk to Key West via the ICW alone.

If you look further in that booklet it gives various inside distances as well.

Portland to Norfolk is ~ 600 nm so a good number for the usual mix of inside an outside for the run is a nice round 1500 nm. Those state lies go by pretty fast up here in Yankee land. Bill

Yes and no. The 1387 is the shortest route and with no stops along the way. Now, outside of a delivery perhaps of a large boat, no one goes like that. I think you would need to add at least 10% to that. If you cover 100 nm in a day, you'll take 10 going in and coming back out on average. We average about 20% extra, between running a good bit offshore, stopping at marinas, etc.

A simple example in using the distances chart.

Portland, ME to NYC is 426 nm.

However, Portland to Boston (100) to Nantucket (163) to NYC (223) is 486 nm.

By the chart, NYC to Jacksonville to Port Everglades is 1089 nm. Well, we recently made that trip. Took us 1261 nm and that was running directly from Myrtle Beach to Port Everglades.

Don't obsess about mileage. Put 50 miles under your keel per day. You'll meet like minded peeps on the way and forget all about the "TOTAL" have fun!

Sailor of Fortune said:

Don't obsess about mileage. Put 50 miles under your keel per day. You'll meet like minded peeps on the way and forget all about the "TOTAL" have fun!

Click to expand...

And B&B's advice to just ad 20% is very good advice also.

Even in Europe, the 20% increase is what i found to work pretty well.

We've done that trip more times than I want to count, lol, but always on the outside, usually about four to five days. Couple of years ago just to be different went Portland to Bermuda - Bermuda to Ft Laud. breaks up the trip with a cpl days off.

Speaking strictly for myself, I like SOF's attitude: "Put 50 miles per day under your keel".

You're out there for enjoyment, right?

Just my two cent's worth, YMMV.

JS

When we were cruising up and down the east coast, we were "the journey is the destination" types. I went back through some of our logs and adding 50 % was about as low as we ever went. We didn't buy the boat to do things that were much easier, faster, and less expensive done by car, let alone airplane.

I figure I'll spend about 5 grand this winter for 6 months inside storage along with complete winterization and associated costs. I was thinking about next year and maybe putting those dollars into cruising south for 6 months or so and heading back up to Portland in May.
Just pondering all the new options in life that come with new boat ownership

roguewave said:

I figure I'll spend about 5 grand this winter for 6 months inside storage along with complete winterization and associated costs. I was thinking about next year and maybe putting those dollars into cruising south for 6 months or so and heading back up to Portland in May.
Just pondering all the new options in life that come with new boat ownership

Click to expand...

Wifey B: Let's see.

Behind door #1 boat sitting on land, not being used.

Behind door #2 cruising and enjoying boat.

Which door do we choose? Duh.....