Northern Bahamas to Charleston? Beaufort?

[tomrealest]

I'm dreaming of going over to the Abacos in June from Ft Lauderdale. I don't have any of those fancy software programs some of you have. Roughly how far is it to Charleston or Beaufort, SC or NC from West End or Walker's Cay? I have a 58' yachtfish with 8v71TI's with a 1000 gallons of fuel. If I run hull speed it's about 13-14 gallons an hour. Curious how far up the east coast I could get with 250 gallons spare fuel in the tanks. Any ideas or experiences?

 

[Pascal]

hi tom

if you run the ditch it's roughly 350NM from Charleston to Canaveral and then 150NM to the abacos...

so, 500NM should take about 650 or so. i think that 14gph is a little high... should be more aroudn 11gph, plus 1 for the genny. Just make sure you dont' go over hull speed as flow goes up dramatically faster than speed

you should easily be able to refuel in Canaveral or ft Pierce, since it's cheaper than in the bahamas... both on the way down and back north.

 

[GJH]

It's 400NM from Charleston to Marsh Harbor, straight shot. You are going against the heart of the Gulf Stream most of the way, so getting the right weather window (no winds with a northerly component. Is important, plus you will have a knot or two or three against you in places. I know a guy with a 58 LRC that makes the trip every year. In your boat, if you go slow, say 7 or 8 knots speed through water, you could make it. (doesn't that boat carry about 750 Gallons). Personally not my cup of tea, would rather skip down the US coast for safety and scenery. You would need to be ultra prepared and have belt and suspenders redundancy. My opinion, worth what you paid for it.

Edit: just booted up and measured on my chart program, it is 475NM to Marsh harbor from Morehead City. (Beaufort Inlet)

 

[Boatsb]

1000 gallons of fuel should get about 700 miles plus a nice safety margin if you run at hull speed.

I would run down the coast just to stay out of the stream. Running back would be a nice run north in the stream and probably get you an extra 4 Kts in some places. Think like a blowboater and plan it well.

Fuel in Canaveral is cheapest at Harbortown. Also a few members there if you need to provision you can get a ride or a hand.

Contact Kent (shvldis) and see what he got for speed and mileage when he went a few years ago. He has a 58 YF that is stabilized and runs a genny round the clock. He is not a fair weather boater so he can tell you about how they did when the weather got a bit rough.

 

[solanderi]

Hey Tom,

I do a lot of arm chair cruising using Google Earth (free) and the Tools function in that program has a ruler which you can use to get pretty good approximations of distance. No need for anything fancier than the computer you use to log onto the HOF !

Here is the link for version 6. Just download, zoom in and cruise away.

http://www.google.com/earth/index.html

Greg
1985 45C
Hat Time
N. Bay Village, FL