Vic Smith wrote:

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:04:28 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:26:52 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

There's a lot of talk of fatigue and multiple watchkeepers, yet
singlehanders seem to sail overnighters all the time.

Only when well offshore, inshore they have to stay awake, frequently
exceeding their endurance limits. I was reminded of that yesterday as
we cruised past Pt Judith lighthouse in Rhode Island. Sometime back a
young lady singlehander successfully sailed her 30 something boat all
the way across the Atlantic up to that point. After being awake for
over 2 days due to bad weather and heavy shipping traffic, she mistook
Pt Judith light for the old Brenton Reef tower, and parked her boat on
the beach just down the shore.

The waters in question where Skip is now are very congested with
*large* commercial shipping and also a wide assortment of fishing
vessels. You can not safely sleep, even for 15 minutes.

Thanks for shedding some light on what Skip was encountering.
I do still suspect he'll have a different take on it, but we'll see.
It's my "impression" that he learned a lot from the Keys grounding,
and is putting some thought into his course.

That was my idea too. I didn't think that the bad weather started
until he was off Ocean City.

You mentioned the Chesapeake Bay course to NYC, and the first thing
I thought of when Skip went offshore is that at least he didn't have
to constantly watch the sounder. He did mention avoiding shoals.
Does Chesapeake Bay present a special challenge for a boat of his
draft? It may be he wanted a good sail without those concerns.
Not knowing these routes and I'm all ears.

The Chesapeake IMHO is one of the best places to sail. We have a
friend with a boat like ours that has a 6'6" draft and he has no
problem sailing in the Chesapeake (and neither do we). After all,
freighters and tugs transit the Bay all the time. Anchoring close to
shore might be difficult for a deeper draft craft, but anchoring
farther away from shore means that you have less insects (usually).

Another problem in the Bay is crab pots - usually if you see crab pots
that will alert you to the fact that the water is getting shallow
there (and this also holds in much of the rest of the ICW)

BUT -- all the weather problems that Skip had, he would still have had
in the Chesapeake. And he would still have had the freighters etc,
and in addition would have had to do the Delaware Canal at the other
end of the Bay and the trip would undoubtedly have taken longer.

He can do the Chesapeake on the way back south.