A friend of mine just purchased a Carver 502 (2001) and wants to take
if from St. Pete's Florida to Clearwater near Houston Texas.

There will be three of us on the boat with plenty of boating skills
although we are all inland boaters and have minimal experience on the
ocean. I am wondering if it is wise for us to take on this journey
with our experience levels.

The boat is loaded with navigation equipment and we will be obtaining
the charts for the gulf. I would love to hear some recommendations.

A good friend of mine is a captain and has lots of experience with
piloting boats on the ocean and the gulf. The owner of the boat did
not really want to hire a captain if not completely necessary. This
journey will take place sometime in the latter part of January to
February.

I look forward to your responses.

On 25 Nov 2005 09:54:25 -0800, "Aquaholic" wrote:

A friend of mine just purchased a Carver 502 (2001) and wants to take
if from St. Pete's Florida to Clearwater near Houston Texas.

There will be three of us on the boat with plenty of boating skills
although we are all inland boaters and have minimal experience on the
ocean. I am wondering if it is wise for us to take on this journey
with our experience levels.

The boat is loaded with navigation equipment and we will be obtaining
the charts for the gulf. I would love to hear some recommendations.

A good friend of mine is a captain and has lots of experience with
piloting boats on the ocean and the gulf. The owner of the boat did
not really want to hire a captain if not completely necessary. This
journey will take place sometime in the latter part of January to
February.

I look forward to your response

I've made that trip several times. I'm not familiar with the Carver
502, its seakeeping qualities, or its fuel capacity. Not to mention
the state of repair of this particular boat.

That said, going straight across would require a pretty good weather
window that time of year. A bad norther can make that part of the
world pretty miserable at sea. Tough on the crew, tough on the boat.
I've heard reports of a lot of junk in the waters, still floating
after the hurricanes, so I wouldn't care to run at night off the
Mississippi delta. Bear in mind that you are one case of seasickness
away from a 2-hour-on-2-hour off watch schedule for the duration of
the crossing. And that's not even considering mechanical problems.

Going straight across will either be no problem or big problems.
Going inside is a different proposition.

The ICW peters out north of St Pete, so you have to make that part of
the trip in exposed waters. You could make the run from St Pete to
the panhandle or Mobile in one long day. Time your departure to have
daylight at the other end. Plenty of fuel facilities in the area.
From there to New Orleans via the ICW is a piece of cake. At New
Orleans you'd have a couple of locks to deal with. Check with the
Corp of Engineers to see if they're operating again. You can
sometimes lose a half day negotiating Industrial Lock even on a normal
day. Locks don't run 24/7 and if you don't make it through before
quitting time you're going to be looking for a spot to spend the
night. That's always been a good excuse to stop over in Lake
Ponchartrain for some good food, fuel, and a good nights sleep, but I
expect the facilities there aren't what they were last time I came
through.

It's important that you learn the procedures for locking through.
It's imperative that you learn the techniques for communicating with
and passing towboats in the ICW. It's their ditch and their rules and
they are extremely constrained in their maneuvering.

Don't count on finding many marinas between NO and Galveston Bay.
It's pretty industrialized. Anchoring anywhere in the ICW is a bad
idea, as you will understand the first time you see a 6-pack barge
trying to make headway with a 20 knot crosswind. You need to be
prepared to anchor in tight spots and tie up to rusty idle barges and
towboats. You need to be aware of where you expect to overnight and
what your fuel requirements are for the next 2 days at all times to
figure your daily plan. I wouldn't run at night, even with radar.

I don't mean to scare you off. It can be an interesting, educational,
and fun trip. But it's an order of magnitude more complicated than
messing around on the bay.

Regarding the captain, I'd rather have someone along with local
knowledge, excellent mechanical ability, and lots of spare parts.

__________________________________________________ __________
Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at world wide wiley dot com
To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious.

Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and
logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/

Glen's advice is very sound. I wouldn't go straight across (assuming you
have enough fuel, which I doubt) that time of year in anything less than a
blue water capable boat; ie a Nordhavn 40 or better. I also wouldn't try to
go around the Mississippi delta either. As bad as the ICW may be, it is
better than threading through the oil rigs at night.

David