Long trip

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Dan Laxton

My wife and I are in our mid 30's and want to do lots of sailing when we retire. She is a writer and will be writing on it. I have done some sailing in the bay and she is ready for it but we have some questions first. We are going to buy a daysailor to learn on and spend a lot of time on the bay. The goal is to cruse up the coast from the Chesapeak and enter the Great Lakes, visit each and then move over to the Mississipi and down to the Gulf. Frome there we want to follow the coast of florida and hit the keys and then up the coast to the Chesapeak again. 1. How long a trip is this if you take your time and visit a little? 2. Can this be done on a 25' sailboat. 3. How hard is it to get into the great lakes and then down to the Mississipi? 4. Is is reasonable to sail two or three days between stops and still stay married? Thanks Dan
 
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Terry Arnold

Great Circle Route

Here is a link to guides and other info. From some first hand experience, for the portion Ohio River to the Gulf, Marian Rumsey's "A Cruising Guide to the Tennessee River, Tenn-Tom Waterway, and Lower Tombigbee River" published by International Marine, Camden Maine can't be beat. Below is a link to some other resources. Great arm chair cruising information.
 
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LaDonna Bubak - CatalinaOwners

Fun trip

One rule of thumb when trying to determine how long any trip will take is to tack on at least 10-20% of that time. If you think a trip will take a week, add a day or two for extra cushion cuz you just never know if you're going to hit bad weather - you never want to push yourself just for the sake of the "schedule." LaDonna
 
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Ray Bowles

Dan, You can do anything on a 25' boat.

It's just damn tight. We sail our H26 4 to 5 days a week and live aboard during this time. Many trips are 1 to 2 weeks total and we've grown to love each other in a much deeper way. And that's a flat fact! It's tight with food, clothes, spares and fun gear. Also on this size boat you are limited by battery power, or lack of, and many many of the the creature comforts that a 30' boat allows. If your wife is going to make this a working trip then I would incourage you to think 3' to 5' longer. That or do everything in shorthand with a pencil. But mainly, just do your dream. We're now looking forward to a blue water boat so dreams do come true. Ray sv Speedy
 
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David Hirtle

The First part of any trip is the dreaming portion. Congratulations! My wife and I returned from an ICW trip about two years ago. We did this in a 28', shoal draft/centerboard O'day. We began planning in our 25' but after considering the time we would live aboard, the food, water and spare parts requirements as well as the power demands, we felt the added three feet would be best. As others have indicated to you, you can do the trip in a 25' but I would encourage you to go just a bit bigger to make the trip a bit more comfortable. Good luck...
 
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Carl Sickles

Great Lakes Cruising

I sailed our boat home from CT to MI. The trip up the Hudson was beautiful and then across the Erie Barge Canal which was boring with the exception of all the locks. Since then we have cruised the Great Lakes and found it very enjoyable. You can spend as much time as you would like with some very nice cruising gounds. Would recommend getting the Great Lakes cruising guides for the lakes you would be sailing on.
 
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Ed Schwerin

What goes around, comes around

This trip will take from 6 months to a year. It is approx. 4000 miles and in a 25' sailboat if you averaged 4 miles an hour 8 hours a day it would be about 4 months and due to weather and stop overs and personal things you likely would make half that speed or less. A long time on a small boat. You will have to be able to step the mast to go under a bridge or two around Chicago if you go down the Chichago river and also in the New York canals. If you plan on doing two or three day sails between destinations, you will be very tired with only two crew. I would not do that except when necessary. The only place I can think of that it might be necessary would be from Apalachicola Fla to Tarpon Springs or Tampa. Most folks cut across the Gulf there. You can hug the Fla. panhandle, but there's not much water there. Everywhere else you should be able to use the hook or find a slip. If you have a trailerable boat you could give it up and go home when you needed to, before the divoice papers get there. You would like to miss the cold weather and summer flies in the lakes and the thaw run off in the river and the summer in the keys. It gets very hot. Planning around that stuff is not a problem. Be aware that most of that trip will be made under power, so a 25' power boat may be better for you than a 25' sailboat. If you've never done it, it's a trip you will never forget. Good luck!
 
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