Passage Planning 101
We, and countless other boaters, have been patiently waiting for an opportunity to head south. Well, it looks like tomorrow might be the day. I guarantee we will not be the only boat on the move!
Passage Planning 101:
Distance to travel from Rodney Bay, St. Lucia to St. Georges, Grenada: 132 nm
Wind source 1 (time illustrated is about half way through the passage)
Wave source 1 (time illustrated is about half way through the passage)
Wind and Wave source 2 (location illustrated is about half way through the passage)
Calculations:
- Distance to travel: 132 nm
- Estimated Speed: 5 knots
- Time: 132 / 5 = 26.4 hours
- Planned Departure Time: 11:00 AM
Today’s tasks:
- Clear out with Customs and Immigration
- Clean boat bottom
- Ensure all systems are functioning properly*
- Secure tender/engine and other items for passage
- Chill out!
If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll be able to capture some more footage for another awesome sailing video!
*Our port engine is not functioning perfectly but we’ll deal with that when we get to Grenada.
Looks good. Wind and seas forecast to be good. Nice easy beam reach all the way, maybe 🙂
I hope you enjoy the trip.
Cheers!
Mike
MAYBE is exactly right. One never knows until they’re out there.
You used the word countless, but could you give us a guess? 5, 50, 500?
My guess, boats between St. Martin and Grenada, 100-200 or so.
that’s a lotta boats!
Well, that’s a pretty large geographic area too and a lot of people have been in standby mode for weeks waiting for the weather to moderate.
Have a great passage, and we all look forward to hearing of your safe arrival. Do you plan on doing any filming? 🙂
We never really PLAN to film. We are more opportunistic. If something happens that is worth filming, we’ll break out the cameras.
Well, at least you know what the weather won’t be. 🙂
Have a safe passage!
yeah, right.
Have a safe and enjoyable passage. Started reading the blog a few months ago and really enjoying it.
Hi Marty
Thanks for the good vibes and for following along!
How long will it take you to clean the bottom today?
Already done. It usually takes us about an hour when we do it together. Rebecca does one hull and I do the other.
Any interesting sea life visit while you’re cleaning?
Aren’t those really the same source, just different presentations of GFS data?
You may very well be right. They could be just different graphical representations of that data, I don’t know. Even if they are, I still like to check them both though as Windguru allows us to check a specific place while Pasageweather gives us more of an overview.
Hi Mike. Outside of the Grenada hurricane hole, what percentage of your days are spent waiting for a weather window for your next passage? Seems like a lot of time waiting for decent, safe sailing conditions in cruising life? Thanks!
Fortunately, not very many. The last couple weeks of exceptionally strong trades were a bit of an anomaly. For the record, we could have sailed earlier than we did. It would have been safe enough but not very enjoyable.