Who is headed / heading south from New England this fall?

[Cigatoo]

Who is heading south from the New England area this fall? Have you left already? Keep us posted.
Thanks in advance

 

[proudsailor]

Not quite from New England. Leaving Baltimore within the next two weeks w/ very leisurely stops in Norfolk/Portsmouth VA, Beaufort NC, and will plan more as we progress. Goal is to be in Beaufort NC by November 1st, and then end in St Augustine by mid-December.

 

[Datenight]

We are going down the ICW, headed to the Bahamas about 9 October.

Rob

 

[Cigatoo]

We are going down the ICW, headed to the Bahamas about 9 October.

Rob

Inter coastal all the way to Fl ? How fast do you travel?

 

[boomerang]

If it was me and we were leaving from New England, I'd be wanting to get that part of the trip wrapped up pretty quick.
We normally head South from the lower part of the Chesapeake on or about the 3rd week of November and aim for between 50-70 ICW miles per day. This year we're hoping to slow down and average between 0 and 45 miles a day. Having no deadlines makes for a more enjoyable trip.

 

[ranger58sb]

We're intending to head south this winter. Short distance, though, probably only to Beaufort NC. Leaving here Nov 1. Or 3. Or maybe 6. Or...

-Chris

 

[Datenight]

We are 6.5-7 knots at cruising speed. Will go outside from Groton, CT to Cape May. Then on to Annapolis for a few days. Mostly ICW. Will go outside if the weather is good. Last year all inside except to Cape May and Georgia once south of Savannah. On the way home no good weather for outside until Cape May.

By good weather I mean waves under 2’ wind under 15 and not on the beam. Yes we are scaredy .

Rob

 

[Cigatoo]

We are 6.5-7 knots at cruising speed. Will go outside from Groton, CT to Cape May. Then on to Annapolis for a few days. Mostly ICW. Will go outside if the weather is good. Last year all inside except to Cape May and Georgia once south of Savannah. On the way home no good weather for outside until Cape May.

By good weather I mean waves under 2’ wind under 15 and not on the beam. Yes we are scaredy .

Rob

I am contemplating leaving from RI this weekend. Would have to be Real good weather for me to go outside but would consider it. We are also a 7 knot (Grand Banks) boat. If you have any desire to take on a buddy boat or at least stay in touch please pm me.

 

[ksanders]

My son and his family are in the Annapolis area and will be heading south for the winter after they check out the boat show.

Please look out for them. They are in a Benetau 45 sail boat named Prioximity.

 

[Mischief Managed]

My wife is retiring on Oct 9, we plan to leave New Hampshire for Florida on Oct 10 and return to New Hampshire in May next year. No real plans other than we hope to make it to Barnegat Bay, NJ before Oct 20 (which will likely mean 80 nautical mile travel days until we get there) and hope to buddy boat, starting in NJ, for a while. We also plan to go through Chesapeake Bay since we like it there.

We live in a marina from May to Oct and therefore intend to anchor as much as possible, explore a lot, and don't expect to get into Florida waters until late December. I work remotely so I will need to put in my 40 hours a week while also cruising, but I don't expect that to be a big deal because I can make my own hours most of the time.

Our intent is to take the protected routes whenever possible, but we have no qualms about going outside when it suits us.

We cruise at 8ish knots and would be happy to buddy boat with anyone that wants to join us. We've never boated south of the Potomac River entrance, so we are excited to see what it's like.

 

[Jklotz]

We're heading south Nov 1st, from Hilton Head, then off to the Bahamas. Probably take the ICW most of the way down.

 

[Chris_M]

No real plans other than we hope to make it to Barnegat Bay, NJ

We spent about six weeks in Barnegat Bay this summer while visiting family nearby. It's a great stop but a tricky approach through the inlet for those unfamiliar with the area. It’s one of the only places we’ve boated where the channel markers should be completely ignored.
We left about ten days ago and are currently cruising the ICW southbound between Norfolk and Beaufort. This leg ends in South Florida to prep for a hop to Bimini by the end of October.
Heading south this early means our storm watch is in high alert, but we’re stuck with snowbird immigration cutoffs limiting our time in the US before heading to the Bahamas.

 

[Mischief Managed]

We spent about six weeks in Barnegat Bay this summer while visiting family nearby. It's a great stop but a tricky approach through the inlet for those unfamiliar with the area. It’s one of the only places we’ve boated where the channel markers should be completely ignored.
We left about ten days ago and are currently cruising the ICW southbound between Norfolk and Beaufort. This leg ends in South Florida to prep for a hop to Bimini by the end of October.
Heading south this early means our storm watch is in high alert, but we’re stuck with snowbird immigration cutoffs limiting our time in the US before heading to the Bahamas.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll be meeting up with very knowledgeable locals when I get to Barnegat Bay and buddy boating south from there with them, so I'm confident I'll have good intel. Guessing it can't be much worse than my home port, Hampton/Seabrook harbor in NH. Shoaling here is crazy and until this year there was only one ATON in the entire harbor and it was extremely misleading. If you enter the harbor from open ocean on the right, the green over red preferred channel marker is the first ATON you encounter (and until this year, the only one...). This ATON indicates that the preferred channel is to the right and if you take the most direct route to the right from the bridge to the main harbor (which is up and to the left in this screen capture), you go right over the red hazard (barely submegerd boulders at MLLW which are not marked at all). The actual preferred channel is to the left and then through the 4 new ATONS on the far left of the screen cap (the shoaling shown between the red and green ATONS in the upper left is not actaully there, it's a deep channel all the way through). So many people have hit the boulders in our harbor. Complaints to the harbor master are ignored. It's crazy.

 

[Todd R]

Just left Old Saybrook, CT this morning. On our way to Port Jefferson then Port Washington. Will wait there to see if we can get a few good days weather window. Will stop at Sandy Hook then down to Atlantic City outside. Eventually headed home to Wrightsville Bech, NC.