How Long Sailing from Chicago to Florida?

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by rwidman

The travel time from point "A" to point "B" is calculated by dividing the distance (in miles) by the speed travelled (in miles per hour). The result will be total travel hours. Divide that figure by the hours you will travel each day to get your result in days.

Add into that, delays at locks and bridges and possible weather delays.

Ach, Ron, that seems to be beyond altogether too many folks these days.


Perhaps, their question should be: "How long did it take YOU to go from A to B?" instead of "How long will it take me?"


Either way, recurring dumb questions. I think I'll bookmark your superb answer. Thx.

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

Ach, Ron, that seems to be beyond altogether too many folks these days.


Perhaps, their question should be: "How long did it take YOU to go from A to B?" instead of "How long will it take me?"


Either way, recurring dumb questions. I think I'll bookmark your superb answer. Thx.

You're welcome.

It puzzles me that boaters (or perhaps I should say "people with boats") so often ask that question on boating forums and boating Facebook groups.

If your level of boating is taking the kids up the river to a sandbar or taking them tubing, I could understand, but when I cruise, I use this simple math nearly every day so I know what time to leave to get to my next stop at the time I want to get there. Or to figure out where that stop will be if I boat "X" hours.

I would think knowing how to figure travel time would come right after understanding the red and green aids to navigation.

Actually, this should be common knowledge even to driving a car.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by clarky71

Mast Up!..? is this possible? any other views on this?

At Chicago, there is a low bridge (I believe 20ft) that you must get under.

Otherwise officially, the route has 51ft...but:
- That's at normal pool levels. If there have been rains, the rivers can rise 10-20ft or more, so it comes with a risk you might be stuck waiting for the water levels to drop.
- Until you get to Kentucky Lakes, there are limited facilities to lift a mast. It's just not something they do because there are so few sailboats.

[hlprmnky]

I took the original question in the thread to be mostly, if not entirely, about the “delays at locks and bridges, and possible weather delays” - the inland portion of the Great Loop isn’t exactly rhumb-line passagemaking, after all.
As a fellow newbie on Lake Michigan, I find this discussion and the information therein useful and interesting, even though I have at least one more Midwestern winter in me before I decide to flee to the Gulf and/or Caribbean.

[fourlyons]

When I did this trip in the fall of 2007 we had to take the masts down just before Chicago because there is/was a broken lift bridge. We heard it had been broken for years with no plans to be repaired. After that everything was 50'+. The water is usually not high in the fall, most of the rain happens in the spring.

We found a small sailboat marina soon after joining the Illinois river that told us we could use their crane to step our masts. I just had to get to the top, it was fixed upright, and fix the sheave. So I did, and we stepped our masts. They were so happy they let us eat and drink free of charge till we left two days later.

Really friendly folks all down the rivers. We spent about six weeks doing 1400 miles, if I remember right.