To Summarize

First some statistics

We (Robert Brown and I) left Dinner Key marina at 7:20 am on Tuesday, April 26. We did the trip north in 4 hops

1. Dinner Key to Beaufort, NC (643 nm in 75 hours
2. Beaufort NC to Dowry Creek Marina (63 miles in 10 hours)
3. Dowry Creek Marina to Coinjock Marina (72 miles in 11 hours)
4. Coinjock Marina to Baltimore (203 miles in 31 hours)

The entire trip took 7 days and 5 hours (171 hours)
We had 128 engine hours
We used 127 gallons of diesel (or just about 1 gallon/hour - we were running the engine around 3200 rpm from about Coinjock to Baltimore...mostly to try to outrun storms...not entirely successfully...which probably explains the relatively high fuel usage)

Next, Some thoughts

Ocean voyaging is tiring. With two people aboard we did 3 hours shifts from 8pm to 8am (I did 8pm to llpm and then 2am to 5am and Robert did the others). Even though the seas were relatively calm this trip the boat was rolling a lot and I found it difficult to sleep and so felt somewhat sleep deprived. I'm told that after about 3 days you get more used to the rhythm of the seas and the shifts and are able to sleep better, but we weren't at sea long enough to achieve that state. Had we gone up the ICW from Florida we would have slept every night, but it would have taken several weeks, rather than several days so that was a good tradeoff. But I'm still not sure how much I would enjoy and extended ocean voyage. Except for the occasional dolphin there is not much to see during the day except water stretching to the horizon in all directions. At night there are beautiful skies, far more than you can see on land (there is no light pollution at sea) but that comes with the anxiety of making sure you are watching for other boats and such that can be difficult to see at night. To this point, I very much appreciate the wonders of AIS which lets you see and identify vessels over 20 miles away making it easier to avoid them and making it easier to contact them by radio to negotiate a safe passage. Radar would be helpful for smaller boats that don't have AIS, but there don't seem to be many of them out in the ocean..I saw hardly any while we were 100 - 150 miles offshore.

I must admit that I don't understand how short-handed crew (e.g. a couple) are able to cross oceans, spending 30 or so days at sea and claim they enjoy the time at sea. I do understand how nice it is to get to the destination and then use the boat to cruise around wherever it is they end up, but I'd worry about the effect of sleep deprivation. Again, it may be just that I haven't been at sea long enough to "catch the rhythm"

I do very much enjoy the ICW voyages, especially the scenery through the countryside and the stopping in small towns, meeting the people and "seeing the sights".

I have come to believe that such trips should be taken slowly, much the way we took the trip from Baltimore to Charleston last fall. We took 3 weeks and found it enjoyable. Coming back this spring we covered about the same distance in 3 days and it was more of a chore than an enjoyable voyage.

The next time, and I'm hoping there is a next time, I'll do it slowly both ways.