Planning our route

Tenby Too · 10-31-2017, 03:18 PM

Hello all. I have learned so much from “lurking” on your forums and am thankful for the massive corpus of knowledge within. My grand plan is as follows. I am taking a 3 month sabbatical in summer on 2019. My plan is to buy a boat in the 40’ range (I am budgeting $200k for boat, but that will be a whole other discussion) and cruise for at least two of those months with my family. We live in collingwood ontario on Georgian bay. I am an experience small boater (

Lou_tribal · 10-31-2017, 03:23 PM

Welcome aboard ! Where do you plan to go?

L

Tenby Too · 10-31-2017, 03:58 PM

Hello..my post was cut off...my question is..is it reasonable to think I can buy a boat on eastern seaboard in US (they seem to be cheaper and in greater abundance than in Cda) and then spend 2 months cruising back to home port? We would fly down and cruise back. If doable, how far south is reasonable and are there good tools to plot time and route? Was hoping for MD or NC. Many thanks!

DavidM · 10-31-2017, 04:50 PM

I helped another Canadian bring his Mainship 34 that had he purchased near Baltimore, Md back home to Toronto early this year. It took about two weeks. So maybe three weeks to get to your home from Baltimore.

From NC you can figure another 5-6 days and maybe three more if you go as far south as Charleston, SC.

Active Captain (www.activecaptain.com) is going through some changes, but it is the tool I use to plan routes and measure distances. Sign up for an account and click on More to go to the Flash map version. Hold down your curser for a few seconds and it will let you place waypoints for a route that you can save. It also will let you download that route to some chart plotters.

Your budget is quite reasonable for a 20-30 year old 40' trawler. After you purchase her, spend a full week cruising locally to get all of the bugs out. There will be some and it is better to solve them before you take off than afterwards. We had our hands full with the 35 year old Mainship.

David

Tenby Too · 10-31-2017, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djmarchand

I helped another Canadian bring his Mainship 34 that had he purchased near Baltimore, Md back home to Toronto early this year. It took about two weeks. So maybe three weeks to get to your home from Baltimore.

From NC you can figure another 5-6 days and maybe three more if you go as far south as Charleston, SC.

Active Captain (www.activecaptain.com) is going through some changes, but it is the tool I use to plan routes and measure distances. Sign up for an account and click on More to go to the Flash map version. Hold down your curser for a few seconds and it will let you place waypoints for a route that you can save. It also will let you download that route to some chart plotters.

Your budget is quite reasonable for a 20-30 year old 40' trawler. After you purchase her, spend a full week cruising locally to get all of the bugs out. There will be some and it is better to solve them before you take off than afterwards. We had our hands full with the 35 year old Mainship.

David

Thanks so much David. Great advice. I will keep your info handy in case I need to hire your services (assuming you do that)

Lou_tribal · 10-31-2017, 06:18 PM

From Georgian bay to Toronto in 1 week would be highly optimistic. If weather is fine, if you catch all locks in time and if you run run run yes but...
I would recommend you to take all the time you have to cross it and enjoy your boat.

**Bacchus** · 10-31-2017, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lou_tribal

From Georgian bay to Toronto in 1 week would be highly optimistic. If weather is fine, if you catch all locks in time and if you run run run yes but...
I would recommend you to take all the time you have to cross it and enjoy your boat.

We have done NY Finger Lakes to Georgian Bay in 2 wks. We didn't do long days as it was a pleasure trip. We did move almost every day...some times not too far.
I am planning to do it again now that we can take more time. It's a great trip so take asuch time as you can possibly take.

Lou_tribal · 10-31-2017, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bacchus

We have done NY Finger Lakes to Georgian Bay in 2 wks. We didn't do long days as it was a pleasure trip. We did move almost every day...some times not too far.
I am planning to do it again now that we can take more time. It's a great trip so take asuch time as you can possibly take.

Never said it is impossible but from my experience (little) on waterways up here It still optimistic. Not sure of your speed on lakes etc but I planned to do rideau+severn round trip in 1 month this year and while possible I would not have any day of contingency.
I did the rideau in 5 days last year, but all stars were aligned and we went the shortest path. Did I enjoy, hell yes, can I say I had time to visit, absolutely not.

L

**Bacchus** · 11-02-2017, 06:01 AM

Lou
I'm not disagreeing... I'd recommend as much time as possible. Also my 2 wks was one way... 4 wks round trip.
It could be done a little faster but it would feel like a delivery trip and work not pleasure.
Too much to enjoy alibg the way to rush it.