Tuesday, March 08, 2005

The Distances: Past Trips and This One

This post is a follow-up to this one.

I calculated estimates from our other 4-day trips in 2004 and 2003. Below are the distances we traveled as the crow flies. This does not take into account all the tacking back and forth that is inevitable with sailing.
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2003 Trip:

Day 1: 20 miles

Day 2: 33 miles

Day 3: 20 miles

Day 4: 20 miles
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2004 Trip:

Day 1: 37 miles

Day 2: 18 miles

Day 3: 37 miles

Day 4: 15 miles

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2005 Discussed Trip from this post:

Day 1 (Solomons to Tilghman): 27 miles

Day 2 (Tilghman to Honga River anchorage): 40 miles

Day 3 (Honga River to Smith Island): 20 miles

Day 4 (Smith Island to Solomons Island) : 34 miles

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Please see The Bay Map for where the hell these places are. (SI: Solomons, Til Is: Tilghman, Ho. R: Honga River and SmI: Smith Island).

If we take this above-discussed trip, I want to make it clear to everyone that it may involve partial night sailing or sailing ALL night in some cases where there would need to be at least a 3-man crew on deck, awake, all night long. We will often be sailing in the middle of The Bay. We would be stopping off on land in the 3 visited spots, but not staying for very long. If we take this route, I want everyone to be aware of what it may entail. If you have any questions or concerns please voice your opinions here. Again, this is a PROPOSED trip. It is still open for discussion.

- Your Captain

6 comments:

All Rounder said...

Nice post, very well organized. If you can captain as well as you can blog, then you'll indeed stand tall on the quarterdeck. My opinion is known, see post "possibilities".

Hard Work Cures All said...

I think that that would be a nice route and as long as we have some coffe I have no problem sailing through the night.

CT

All Rounder said...

Actually, that last leg of 34 miles is quite a bit for the end of a trip. The former trips had shorter last legs. What do yo think of "flipping" the order - first sailing to Smith, than north to Harrison's, then home?

Wicketywack said...

Flipping the trip ... Hmmm ... That's very possible. So you're saying:

Day 1 (Solomons to Smith Island) : 34 miles

Day 2 (Smith Island to Honga River): 20 miles

Day 3 (Honga River to Tilghman Island): 40 miles

Day 4 (Tilghman to Solomons): 27 miles

Where is the rest of the crew on this matter? Does anyone else care where we go?

All Rounder said...

That's right.

Two advantages to this.

1 - The long legs will be a northern heading. I checked weather stats online as well as a weather section in the Segel Manual link, and in the summer, southerly winds are the most common and strongest (unless we're in a storm/gale). This means we will be running or reaching north, covering a greater distance in less time. (Running with the wind eliminates tacking, therefore the time consuming zig-zagging).

2 - Harrison's will be our destination on a saturday night. I don't know if it will be raging, but it will more likely be open later than on a thursday. They might even have karaoke, Damon. Then a decent breakfast for the sprint home.

any thoughts?

Wicketywack said...

Jason,

I think that's a great idea. Nice job on the wind stats! We'll see if anyone else has any other route ideas.

ps: Smith Island is a "dry island" (no alcohol, no bars).