Buffalo, NY to St. Thomas, USVI

[jenNtreysail]

Trey and I are currently planning to sail on a 28' monohull from Buffalo to the Virgin Islands this coming May. This will be a cruising trip but the end result will be a delivery. Our main goal is to stop in Virginia as a halfway point. We'd like to stay out of ICW and anchor as often as possible. Have you any advice or tips? Chart references, port knowledge, hidden reefs or other pointers would be helpful and appreciated.

Thanks,
Jen

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Jen.

[skipmac]

First main decision, are you willing/able to make an offshore passage on the trip or will you be doing day sails and going island to island?

Issues. Day sails obviously easier but the required route to do this has a major drawback. The VI is very far east and if you follow the US coast south you will be going west as you go south. Once you reach Florida this leaves you roughly 1000 miles dead downwind from the VI since you will be in the trade winds area. The trip from Florida to the VI is known as the Thorny Path and for a reason but if you have plenty of time you can make short hops at occasionally get a favorable or at least a less unfavorable wind. Search on the Thorny Path for loads of discussions on this.

If you can make a long, far offshore ocean passage you can leave from Morehead City NC, Charleston SC or possibly as far south as Jacksonville. Sail as close to east as is practical straight out to sea until the VI is due south then turn. This route is called I-65 (because you sail out to 65 W longitude to turn south).

Next, no ICW. First on this, there is no ICW until you reach Norfolk VA so plan to be at least coastal until you reach at least Delaware Bay where you can go north up the bay and cut across a canal to the Chesapeake Bay then back down to the start of the ICW in Norfolk. That will add a couple hundred miles or more to the trip vs sailing down the coast from DE to Chesapeake. Could take 1 or 2 overnight sails along the coast to get from NY to Norfolk.

Then if you want to avoid the ICW there are many sections where it isn't practical unless you're planning to make overnight sails down the coast. Day sailing from harbor to harbor isn't practical because the channel from the ocean to a place to anchor may be 10-20 miles. In a small sailboat it could take most of a day to get out of one harbor to the ocean and then back into the next harbor to anchor for the next night.

[bvander]

And for a different route
-St Lawrence to Gulf to Halifax
-Halifax to Maine to RI
-RI to Bermuda
-Bermuda to VIS