NY to Bahamas - First Time - Offshore

[jcapo]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

1. Mast height is no problem--bridges on the East Coast ICW are a minimum of 65 feet of clearance. Depth is greater than 6 feet officially, though there are always shoal spots.

Except for one 55ft bridge in Miami. But that one should not be an issue for the OP.

[boatman61]

Ignore the optimists talking 100-140 miles/day.. a boat of your size is more likely going to average 85 mpd and 95-100 on a good day out there.
Keep a good weather eye and read the swells for gale warnings.. once you cross the Stream you'll be sailing through swirling currents as you head S, some favourable, some not so much.
Reef early and reef down the main at night that way you only have the Genoa to mess with (I assume you have furling) and going on deck in the dark while groggy is not needed.
Better to arrive 2-4 days late than not at all.
Personally I'd make the jump over the Stream from Beaufort NC then hang a right once across and skip Bermuda.

[Time2Go]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

I've done this route a million times. If it were me I would take the ICW route, especially if you haven't taken it before. If you must go fast, jump outside to Cape May, then Norfolk, go inside the ICW to Beaufort, NC, then hop outside down to Charleston or Hilton Head, then consider crossing to the Bahamas. But, I almost always continue down to Florida, using the tail end of mild northers to make good time outside if the weather permits. Easy to cross from Palm Beach to West End, and this allows you to have a full stock of food, fuel, water, etc. Heading south direct from NY to the Bahamas in October is a recipe for a miserable and possibly dangerous trip.

I’ve done this trip a good few times and above is the way to go.
you could also go up Delaware Bay-CD Canal- Chesapeake down to Norfolk
Albemarle Sound can blow up , check weather
Don’t even think about crossing the Gulf Stream if the wind is out of the
north, stage and wait in Palm Beach
Cheers
Neil

[CS30 Lee Rig]

Hi, thank you for advice.

Forgot to mention that I have an old Garmin 521 GPS Map but I can't update the charts.
I believe there is no more support for it.

If someone know a way to do the updates on the SD card I really appreciated.
This is my backup GPS.

Also I have 4 solars panels of 100W each and 4 MPPT Victron controllers, that they keep my batteries happy.

Usually I have the Tablet running Navionics by the helm, a cell phone too by the cabin entrance and on my cell phone too.

The laptop is stored under the chart table and unless there is change of plans, it won't come out from there.

I'll buy a paper chart when arriving in to NY. Any chart suggestion will be appreciatted.

Thank you

[s/v Jedi]

I think you are good for equipment and electronics. I have done it with much less!

The question is if you are ready for offshore sailing. There have been many posts suggesting the ICW, showing offshore sailing isn’t everyone’s thing, while others try to get out as quickly as possible and feel free once they see the coast disappear behind them. Only you can tell if you are because nobody here knows you. As a pilot you know everything about the responsibility of being a captain which is the most important part of it. The rest is accepting what nature brings and trying to go with the flow rather than against it.

I remember my first time on the Atlantic. The waves were high and steep and the boat was basically falling down behind them, slamming into the throughs and we decided to change course for comfort. Then we checked where this course would bring us. By the time we could easily resume our original course as conditions improved, we had become so curious on what was on the new course that we diverted to do that first. It was memorable good.

Go with the flow

For routing, I agree with the Boatman as usual. I would skip Bermuda.

[Nicholson58]

Richardsons paper charts for the east coast.

NV charts for the Caribbean.

All are show special pricing at the Annapolis boat show or hunt for used on line.

[hlev00]

I highly recommend the Explorer Charts. Navionics charts are getting much better for the Bahamas but my experience with both is that at times that Navionics offers a false sense of accuracy. The easiest way is to use the Aquamap app on your tablets. It plus the Explorer Charts won't break your budget.

I also highly recommend getting at least one paper set of the Explorer Charts. There is a wealth of information about cruising the Bahamas. IIRC the local knowledge commentary is duplicated in each of the three volumes of the paper Explorer Charts. I don't have access to mine to verify but perhaps someone with a recent set can weigh in on that.

Finally, I will make one more appeal that I think you are underestimating what a trip of that length offshore will entail. But whatever your final decision I hope you have a safe and rewarding trip.

[Kettlewell]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned arriving in the Bahamas. The Abacos are obviously the most northerly, but there are limited passes through the reefs. You want to be in none of them in strong northerly winds as the big ocean swells break on the shallow banks. Plus they are not really marked at all and very hard to identify from offshore. I've departed from there to head offshore to Savannah or Beaufort, but never made landfall at one of them. Stay away from them if arriving in a norther! You will need to clear Customs etc. at Marsh Harbour or Green Turtle in the East, or possibly at West End over at the west end of Grand Bahama, unless you continue on down to Eleuthera or Nassau before making landfall.

[CS30 Lee Rig]

Hello everybody !

Date of departure from NY will be in November, not sure yet, all depends on weather conditions
Just to clarify the route that i'm planning to do is around 100 nm ESE from NY then South to be around 100 nm from Cape Hatteras and then S to Bahamas.

Thank you for the heads up about the Abacos Islands, I will keep clear from them.

My plan is to arrive in Nassau, to clear customs and because I have a person that I will like to see there.

The reason I'm choosing to go around 100 from the East Coast iis mainly weather, winds and marine traffic (fishing boats, Barges etc).

Please note that I'll be doing this passage SOLO.

[CS30 Lee Rig]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Ignore the optimists talking 100-140 miles/day.. a boat of your size is more likely going to average 85 mpd and 95-100 on a good day out there.
Keep a good weather eye and read the swells for gale warnings.. once you cross the Stream you'll be sailing through swirling currents as you head S, some favourable, some not so much.
Reef early and reef down the main at night that way you only have the Genoa to mess with (I assume you have furling) and going on deck in the dark while groggy is not needed.
Better to arrive 2-4 days late than not at all.
Personally I'd make the jump over the Stream from Beaufort NC then hang a right once across and skip Bermuda.

Great advice !
I hope to cover around 100 nm a day but you are right, 85 nm per day will the average.
My plan to head on ESE heading 100-120 nm from New York is to cross the Gulfstream where the current is weaker, then on heading South to be in a position East of the Gulfstream and 100-120 nm from Cape Hatteras.
From there heading to Nassau.

[Kettlewell]

Where are you planning on hanging out in the New York area while you wait for weather? Atlantic Highlands might be an option, putting you closer to the open sea. Not a lot of daylight in November, so plan on long cold nights at first. Be sure to have lots of quality outdoor gear for staying warm. Ski hat, gloves, long underwear, winter socks, etc. Dry stuff to change into if it gets wet. A stainless steel thermos bottle to keep hot coffee or cocoa in can be a life saver. You won't get much sleep until well away from New York due to all the commercial ship traffic, and they don't necessarily give you the right of away even under sail. Keep in mind also that even Nassau can be impossible to enter from the north if the wind and swells from the north are strong enough. I've sat in there with a big norther when they were turning away the cruise ships from the harbor entrances. In other words, be prepared with alternate plans, routes, and charts in case the weather doesn't cooperate, which is likely to happen in November on that route.

[sailingharry]

Originally Posted by CS30 Lee Rig

Also I have 4 solars panels of 100W each and 4 MPPT Victron controllers, that they keep my batteries happy.

Usually I have the Tablet running Navionics by the helm, a cell phone too by the cabin entrance and on my cell phone too.

I'll buy a paper chart when arriving in to NY. Any chart suggestion will be appreciatted.

Thank you

Some thoughts inspired by your items above.


Battery -- solar is good. Individual MPPT is great. Among other things, it means that no matter how badly you kill your batteries, you can simply turn everything off and in a day you'll have a charge back. This is actually huge. Even so, make sure off shore that you keep the ability to start the engine. A separate start battery is best -- but you have an old small boat and "best" is sometimes hard to do. A portable "jump pack" ($100 off Amazon) is a good alternative.


All the "device" nav is really good backup stuff, and it sounds like you also have a proper chart plotter. I have a really solid chart plotter, and keep Navionics on Android an arms length away and sometimes use it. But something to keep in mind -- offshore (more than 5-10 miles from land) a nav device of any sort provides very little value. It gives COG/SOG, and if you have integrated RADAR or AIS it shows that (but you probably don't have either). My point is that these devices, especially a proper chart plotter, draw a LOT of power (mine is 5A -- more than my fridge!). When offshore, there is a lot of value in turning it off and only turning it on for a fix every hour or two.


Paper charts are a connundrum. They are VERY expensive to buy individual charts. And you need a HUGE number of them to actually have any value. The new chart paradigm is "design your own" and a chart provider can print them. In fact, I think you can design your own, download it, and have Staples print it. If you are truly going offshore, a single large chart that shows the entire coast is of value, since you can plot your trip (from that periodic turning on of the GPS). This can almost be done on a "map" since you only need geographic location, not "chart" type of information. The problem is that where you really need info is in the harbors, and that requires a lot of charts. If you have access to a color printer, you can actually download and print "chart booklets" which turn a chart into an 8.5x11 booklet, but since Raster charts are going away, so are the booklets (I have a 2-year old digital library of the entire catalog -- if you want/need any, let me know -- but know it is huge). You also can "roll your own" again, selecting and downloading various ports and having them printed at Staples. But, probably the best answer is various publisher's "chart books" -- for under $100, you can get a book that covers the entire coast, something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Intracoastal-.../dp/0071803904 (not an endorsement of this one -- I just picked the first one Amazon returned and have no idea what's in it).

[hlev00]

Do you have AIS?

I think you mentioned Garmin InReach instead of Iridium Go. Verify with your weather router that you can get their updates via InReach.

[GrowleyMonster]

I don't want to be taken as a hypocrite, but your first multi-day passage of note probably should not be solo. Maybe a couple of shakedown trips of perhaps two overnights each, just to test out the concept for yourself? I realize you are probably feeling like there are an awful lot of naysayers out here throwing arrows of negativity at your plan, but you need to know what it is like to get your sleep in the cockpit in 10 minute bites with an egg timer before you commit to doing it for a week or more at a time. Some skippers simply are not able to do it, and just go below. You can see, I am sure, how that can end badly, even though odds are that everything will go right as rain. Do try to find someone to split those night watches with. It's by far the safer way to do it unless you are quite used to multi-day solo watchkeeping already.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by CS30 Lee Rig

Hello everybody !

Date of departure from NY will be in November, not sure yet, all depends on weather conditions
Just to clarify the route that i'm planning to do is around 100 nm ESE from NY then South to be around 100 nm from Cape Hatteras and then S to Bahamas.

Thank you for the heads up about the Abacos Islands, I will keep clear from them.

My plan is to arrive in Nassau, to clear customs and because I have a person that I will like to see there.

The reason I'm choosing to go around 100 from the East Coast iis mainly weather, winds and marine traffic (fishing boats, Barges etc).

Please note that I'll be doing this passage SOLO.

I don’t think you should clear the Abacos and check in at Nassau. I recommend to enjoy the Abacos to the fullest and stay as far away from Nassau (the whole Providencia island) as possible. It isn’t for sailors, it’s for high dollar tourists in resorts and for the criminals targeting them. And bureaucrats.

I attached some chart displays of easy entrances. Matanilla shoal at the NW point is easy to do. When there is a bad swell from the north, simply continue on a bit along the bank and see if White Sand Ridge is doable. As you can see my markers, this is a favorite for us coming from the North. Just a little further south, getting protection from the north already, you have Memory Rock with the entrance just to the south of it, again with my marker showing it.

When there is no swell from the North, which would be normal, then look at the north entrances I also attached. You can check in at Grand Cay when you come through Strangers Cay Channel, and the Manjack channel is really easy too.

If you end up in a front and the swell from the north is big, simply skirt the west side of the bank, passing West End, around the corner of Grand Bahama Island into the protection, then south to enter the Grand Bahama Bank to check in at Great Harbour Cay in the Berry’s.

And don’t skip Eleuthera!