Fort Myers to Savannah via Lake O

Hoping to close in a few weeks on our Mainship 400 and we are looking at bringing her close to home in Savannah.

I know all passages are weather dependent of course but can anybody give me a ballpark idea of how many days this trip will take..

I am guessing @60 miles a day at 7 knots being around 9 hours??

Do I have that close?

Lake Okeechobee is too low for a safe passage in your new boat. IMHO. Any level below 12.5 is a problem if your draft is more than 4’.
http://w3.saj.usace.army.mil/h2o/currentLL.shtml

WE use 60 statute miles per day for rough planning.

A chart kit will let you see what is 60 miles ahead so toy can liik for a suitable anchorage , or marina if that is your cruise style.

Looking short , say 50 miles in case bridges are uncooperative, and further to 70, should the current gods be very kind.

The rainy season has started so lake O may not be a hassle , unless you are deep draft.

There have been 2 very recent discussions regarding the Okeechobee Waterway and several members reporting conditions from their crossings over the last 2 weeks. The rainy season has also started and the lake level is rising. With your draft you should have no problems crossing Big O in the next few weeks if the Corps doesn't open the flood gates.


http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/cross-lake-go-around-44969.html

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/anchor-out-lake-okeechobee-44900.html


The rest of the trip is more dependent on how many hours a day you want to push and if you want to make time outside or use the ICW. Running outside you will travel more miles / day but be more dependent on inlet hopping for when you start / stop. ICW will be slower but you can pretty much stop anytime.

This time of year the weather is fairly predictable. Get an early start for calm conditions in the am and maybe have to deal with afternoon thunderstorms, outside you can dodge them or power through, inside will slow you down.

I think 60 mi day @ 9 hrs day is fair for a baseline, which of course will get tossed aside as soon as you turn the key. These summer days are long, if you need to make time you can travel 14 hrs a day with light this time of year.

Enjoy your new Mainship

jefndeb said:

Hoping to close in a few weeks on our Mainship 400 and we are looking at bringing her close to home in Savannah.

I know all passages are weather dependent of course but can anybody give me a ballpark idea of how many days this trip will take..

I am guessing @60 miles a day at 7 knots being around 9 hours??

Do I have that close?

Click to expand...

From my log, it's about 525 nautical miles and my trips range from 7 to 11 days depending on weather and how much of a hurry I was in. Going from Fort Myers to Stuart usually takes 2 days unless you have bad timing at the locks. Each of the 5 locks can add an hour if your timing is bad. Depending on whether you are anchoring out or staying in marinas will also have an impact on how many miles per day.

Okeechobee is on the rise and I would expect it to be near 5.5' on route 1 across the lake by the end of the month. I would have no reservations going now with my 4.5' draft.

Ted

You can save a good bit of time going from Fernandina to Savannah offshore. If you don't want a long day, there are some nice inlets you can duck into for the night. GA ICW has lots of miles doing switchbacks, etc.

The 7-10 day trip length sounds about right.

Thank to all for the comments...our bareboat charter went great..bolstering our decision about our purchase

In our planning to bring the boat home to Savannah from Ft. Myers I have updated the Navionics Chart chip as to allow me to build and load routes onto my Raymarine Plotter from a tablet/ipad.

Next I was going to renew my SeaTow membership for $180 but I was wondering if anyone might could advise if Boat US might be a better option for the trip across and on up the ICW to Savannah...

Thanks...Jeff

If you are on a delivery run like you describe, 60 SM a day sounds about right. You could easily stretch it more because of long summer days. We target about 40-45 ICW SM a day in the winter/spring. Between St Marys, FL and Savannah GA there is a whole lot of empty marshland. No houses, marinas or other boats for miles. Make sure you have a good working VHF.
FWIW we set our low water depth alarm at 7.0 ft. If you see <7 feet in GA, you are not in the channel or its dead low tide.

If needed you can also use the free online Navionics charts to help plan your trip from your computer. You can access those here: Navionics ChartViewer

Yes, I have used that but in order to transfer those routes to your plotter you have to update your chart chip and then that gives you a years ability to upload
. unless something changed...