How many hours do you typically drive a day?

[Donna]

How many hours do you typically drive in a day to reach your destination? I calculated about 10 to reach Merrit Island from Palm Coast at 8 knots. I can adjust the speed, but prefer not to run over 10 knots.

 

[Chrisjs]

Not sure about that particular trip but on the ICW it pays to figure in time for bridge openings. We always adjusted run speed to put us in the vicinity of a particular bridge just before opening time. Since we typically ran at 7kt on the ICW, this usually meant slowing down to match time to our GPS bridge waypoint !! But it was far preferable to milling around with a crowd of boats in front of a closed bridge!!!

 

[Donna]

Pesky bridges!

 

[tadhana]

We run at 7 knots and aim for 50 miles a day. Some days we only go 30 miles and some days we go 80 miles. Over the years we seem to average about 30 miles per day when you include stopping and exploring lots of interesting islands, towns and villages.

 

[Donna]

I don't plan on stopping unless something needs to be serviced. I am looking to get down to Stwart in less than 3 days to make the crossing.

 

[MYTraveler]

Our trips are generally off shore, and usually vary between 100 and 1200 nm. In those circumstances, we run the boat 24/7, usually at a fast trolling speed of about 8.5 knots. We won't ordinarily exceed 10 knots. Once on the offshore grounds, we will often sea anchor for a few nights, but that requires a watch. Our crew is usually 6 or 7, and at night we always have two on watch, so we each spend about 6 hours a day at the helm, usually in two hour shifts.

 

[Vashon_Trawler]

Two to three hours at approximately 6 knots for us if we are planning to anchor. We typically boat every other week as my wife and I are not retired like most folks on the forum. If not anchoring, we will cruise for about four hours or so until returning to the Marina.

 

[psneeld]

Meritt Island as in the Canaveral area?

Easy 3 days even at 6.3 knots.

 

[kchace]

Its usually just my wife and I so 10 hours is about our limit unless we're pressing on with an overnight run, but that means setting up a watch, etc. I'd say our average is 6-7 hours and 50ish miles.

Ken

 

[jleonard]

We don't have a set number of hours. My "preference" is 5 to 6 max but we have done many 10 + hour running days.
We even did a couple of 10 minute running days when we cruised the Canadian canals. LOL It helps to NOT have a schedule.

 

[Vashon_Trawler]

Okay--I misunderstood your question... I generally prefer no more than eight to nine hours... After that, we are looking forward to docking or anchoring.

 

[RCook]

We run at 7 knots and aim for 50 miles a day. Some days we only go 30 miles and some days we go 80 miles. Over the years we seem to average about 30 miles per day when you include stopping and exploring lots of interesting islands, towns and villages.

Cruising the Inside Passage, we do much the same in our 37.

Our 26-footer ran mostly at 6 knots, and averaged 30-40 nm/day if we were underway. Could do a 10-12 hour day in the 26, but it was considerably more tiring.

 

[alfamike]

How many hours a day

The key I feel is that you depart & arrive at any unknown anchorages during day light hours !

I can leave or arrive at my home port in the middle of the night as I have local knowledge & know it like the back of my hand.

However, at a port or marina or anchorage that I am un-familiar with, I only enter & leave during daylight hours.

Cruise speed is a factor of fuel consumption & your time constraints.

I personally prefer to cruise at 8 knots. For an 8 hour day that is 64 miles.

10 hours day is 80 miles & 12 hour day is 96 miles, etc....

So coming into May & June you have reliable 10 to 12 hours of day light per day. More on June 21st - the longest day for us here in USA & of course this changes with your latitude for your exact location. Alaska has some areas with 20 hours of daylight & more.

Bridges are a pain & you need to change your speed to synchronize your arrival to arrive like 5 minutes before opening. This often required you to slow to 5 or 6 knots. But that is better then milling around with a bunch of other boats all in a tight area waiting for bridge to open.

Some areas are no wake zones - so you have to slow to 5 knots for these as well. So research the route fully & go from there.

good luck on your trip & have fun.

Alfa Mike

 

[AusCan]

For me it's all dependent on weather since I don't have the choices that many of you have for marinas and safe anchorages. I usually head south where there is one marina 8 hours away and another 12 hours away. After that it's all anchorages so it depends on wind and swell. If the wind is cooperating there's a safe anchorage every couple hours so it's easy to break up a trip into 6-8 hour days. But I always have to be ready for a trip to the leeward side of the island or peninsula which could mean a much longer than expected day. In some areas I don't like anchoring in the dark and prefer to run in deeper water and anchor at first light.

 

[straycat]

In our years of cruising, we have found that more than 5or 6 hours is tiring. We try to be at anchor and secured by 3:30, stuff stored by 4:00 and watching the sun go down by 5:00. By the way, we are at Stuart, and at Sunset Bay Marine, which is a true bit of heaven.

 

[Drake]

In our years of cruising, we have found that more than 5or 6 hours is tiring. We try to be at anchor and secured by 3:30, stuff stored by 4:00 and watching the sun go down by 5:00

That's pretty much the schedule we use. At 8 knots we can cover 40 to 45 miles a day, depending on bridges and locks. We could double that if we had to, but what's the rush?

 

[Bigsfish]

Two parameters: one depends on weather and two, depends on if we can use the auto pilot. Since we generally cruise the Bahamas the first day is long and we want to get there over oceans to clear customs, sometimes 8-12 hours. Once we arrive we might only move a few miles a day at slow speeds just enjoying all the islands, swimming, walking the islands, ect. Once we ran 13 hours to avoid a hurricane that followed us halfway back to Florida.

 

[BandB]

Wifey B: 6 to 8 hours, Donna. We undock 95% of the time no later than 7 AM. That allows us to stop early to mid afternoon. Enjoy the destination a bit. Relax. Eat. Start again refreshed tomorrow.

However, Palm Coast to Merritt is only a bit over 75 nm and you have no desire to stop on the way. At 8 knots, that's an easy 10 hour run which this time of year is rather easy. I'd do it in a day. 7:00 AM - 3:00 PM and still plenty of day left. To me the key is the start. Everything should be done the night before. You should hit the deck and dock at 6:30 and be gone by 7:00. We don't get up early at home but we do on the water. We eat breakfast on the way. Makes the day much better. You'll have a lot of daylight left at Merritt.

 

[Bigsfish]

WifeyB

My preferred time to leave is first light, usually the wind is lighter early and builds during the day. Advantage.

 

[BandB]

WifeyB

My preferred time to leave is first light, usually the wind is lighter early and builds during the day. Advantage.

Wifey B: We often leave at first light or somewhere in between. But no later than 7:00 AM is our mantra. This time of year, I think she could probably leave as early as 6:00 AM. Wind isn't really much of an issue on the path she's taking in the ICW.

 

[Bigsfish]

ICW should not be effected by most wind and if it was nice she could cruise down the beaches and not worry about the bridges.

 

[Lost Horizons]

At 8 knots, that's an easy 10 hour run which this time of year is rather easy. I'd do it in a day. 7:00 AM - 3:00 PM and still plenty of day left.

7:00 am to 3:00 pm amounts to 8 hours.

 

[markpierce]

Usually three to four hours. Anything over eight hours stresses my stamina. In an automobile, prefer no more than a six-hour stretch, including a lunch break.

 

[BandB]

7:00 am to 3:00 pm amounts to 8 hours.

Wifey B: Picky Picky. I was thinking 8 hours, so 7:00 AM - 5:00 PM. :lol:

 

[Bay Pelican]

Thinking of what I can add to this discussion. The length of our days depends totally on where we are going. If gunkholing along the Atlantic ICW it may be four or five hours. If traveling north or southbound in the Eastern Caribbean it is often 10 to 12 hours. On longer trips we frequently leave at first light to insure we arrive in daylight.

We have done a number of trips were we leave in the afternoon and arrive in the morning.

The Big Bend on the US Gulf Coast is a 30 hour trip for us so we leave in the morning and expect to arrive the next day in the late morning.

Grenada to Trinidad is a 15 hour trip so we leave at 5 pm and arrive the next morning.

Luperon (Dominican Republic) to Samana is a 20 hour trip so leave at noon or soon thereafter and arrive in the morning.


Our preference is the shorter trips but we adjust our schedule by the demands of the planned voyage. One rule, other than a couple of wide open anchorages, we want to arrive during daylight. There are several anchorages we don't mind leaving in the dark. In these anchorages we have frequently reanchored the day before leaving so that we are on the outside of the pack even if it means a less calm night.

 

[Lou_tribal]

Usually 3 o 4 hours to get to our favorite anchorage spot. Longest we did was 8 to 9h when we did not have other alternative. The 8 to 9h was very nice as we saw the sun go down and arrived during sunset butat the same time we were happy to arrive

L.

 

[BandB]

Wifey B: Our longest so far is 64 hours (I was thinking 50 and forget Sitka to Port Angeles). Now, 10 hours is fine for a day. Just not for several days in a row. That's when it becomes a delivery, not cruising.

We balance things. If we cruise two or three hours today, then we might do that again tomorrow. But if we choose 10 hours today, not likely tomorrow. Now, your trip. If you choose 10 hours and then do a 20 hour overnight, that's sort of like our 50 or 60 hours and fine if then you have several days of taking it easy behind all that. Not fun though if then you're going to keep cruising 10 hours a day.

 

[JDCAVE]

Our longest trip was just over 50 nm. At 7-7.5 kts, that's long enough for us, particularly with a dog that needs to get ashore. This year we will leave our dog and cat behind with a house sitter, and we have some longer crossings but we don't need to do any overnight trips for now.

Jim

 

[Donna]

I am leaving my cruising buddy (Max) home with my daughter. Not sure he is going to like being at her house withe her dog, but the do get along. I just know I wouldn't be able to handle my puppy, boat and everything that goes along with it for 3 or 4 weeks.

I am becoming anxious as yesterday doing a once over, found a generator leak. Not horrible, but need the part before I leave. It will still run. Sigh.............

Looks like Thursday will be the best day for the crossing. Friday possibly. Sat and Sun are out. Looking at leaving tomorrow afternoon traveling south as far as possible.

 

[Bigsfish]

I agree,Thursday should be a walk in the park.
If you don't have the paperwork for your dog now to get into the Bahamas it might be a problem.

Good luck. Easy trip.