Advice for a September Passage Florida, St.Augustine->St. Pete

[Tday01]

I need to move my Hylas 54 from St. Augustine to St. Pete. I am planning to do this in September. She is too big to go on the ICW.

The obvious issue is the weather, especially tropical storms / hurricanes.

I am an experienced sailor, but not an East Coast / Hurricane season sailor. So am asking the forum for advice.

My plan is to wait until there is no sign of incipient tropical storms before setting off, and to follow a coastal route <10, preferably < 5 km offshore. (This is also dictated by the gulf-stream.)

If, during the passage, we get warning of a tropical storm forming, we will duck in to the closest safe inlet, with hurricane provision if possible. At a minimum, this should ensure that the crew is safe.

This plan requires having 36 - 48 hour warning of tropical storm formation. The main source of weather information will be Sirius weather, with all of the usual back-ups.
Is that a reasonable expectation given the time of year?. Would you suggest getting a weather router?

Ideas from anybody who has done this welcome! TIA

[sailorboy1]

I’ve done the route. No need for a weather router as noaa is just fine for it and there really isn’t much to the trip beyond the apparent.

[pete33458]

I think I must have answered this question about a hundred times, so why not...


Not going to try to discourage you, but it's a bad time to be out there. I know you think that ducking into a hurricane harbor gives you some safety, but there won't be anywhere to tie up. Not even in the mangroves. Everything will be gone by the time you get there.



Having said that, down the east coast you'll want to stay on the 100' line to stay out of the stream and possibly pick up counter currents. This also puts you generally within a few miles of shore, and therefore broadband is generally available. Heading back up the gulf coast to St Pete not so much, but that's a relatively short sail, so if there's nothing by the time you leave the Key West region there's not going to be anything before you get to St Pete about 2 days later. Generally...


You also have NOAA weather on VHF, and you can also contact all stations for an update if you're getting really nervous. But other than waiting for another time, there isn't really much of a trick to this trip.
Pete