Daily distance on cruising

[dive4it]

From your own experieces, is 25 miles a day too ambitious for a 5 day cruise around the San Juan islands?

JT

[dive4it]

We will probably have a 24 foot San Juan keel boat joining us, they'll probably sail faster but motor much slower. I would think that sailing aprox 4 knots would have us on the water for 6 hours a day, still plenty of time to enjoy shore excursions, etc. Planning on sailing each morning before the wind gets too crazy (unless currents for the day dictate otherwise), and relaxing for the rest of the afternoon at anchor, slipped at harbor, and general goofing off on shore.

JT

[Terry]

Tavelling 25 miles a day every day is a bit ambitious but not too ambitious, you will find it tiring to be on the water for so many hours a day. If you plan on staying at any marinas like Friday or Deer Harbour you will want to check in by 4:00pm which makes for a shorter day. I am not sure you will need to travel that many mile a day once among the islands, there are only so many places to go and see some of which are close together. If you plan to cross the 49th into the Gulf Islands then you are looking at further distances. I travel to Friday Harbour from Point Roberts at about 6 knots and it takes me 5.5 hours and I am tired by then, I am also a marina rat, I prefer marinas over anchorages so I like to arrive by 4:00pm. If you have never been to the San Juans you are in for a treat, it is quite a scenic destination, enjoy.

[dive4it]

Thanks for the great reply. I'm no stranger to the San Juans as I am a commercial diver and often am doing salvage and repair work in the area. The reason for my question is because whenever I'm up there, we're traveling at 30+ knots on high speed 28 foot RIBS (zodiacs) because time is money. I'm ready to slow down and enjoy the sea so I purchased an this winter and have been outfitting it during the dark season.
I plan to have four people on my boat that can share in the "driving" of the boat and we'll be making stops along the way for each 25 mile day. Some days will be shorter and none over 26 miles. I've got at least two trips planned this summer with a possible third. If the first one proves to be too many miles per day, I'll change up the itinerary for future trips. Thanks again, everyone's info and suggestions are so helpful.

JT

PS. Upon inspection, it looks like day 1 is 23 miles, day 2 is 20 miles, day 3 is only 15, and day 4 is 15. The last day is just a few miles.

[markdartist]

A MacX is a great boat for enjoying the San Juan Islands and I’ve made several trips both with my wife, other family members and solo. Check out my Youtube video featuring the islands:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J4ES4-P0Ug

When wife and I travel, we like to spend several days at one spot rather than sail daily. This allows for longer single day distance when on the move. On one trip, we started in Port Angeles, crossed the straight to Victoria for customs clearing and then motored to Sooke where we spent a week. Then we motored (no wind) to Ganges Harbor on Salt Spring Island, a 60 NM non stop that took just six hours. We spent the weekend and then headed back to Victoria for another couple of days. In the end, we sailed and mostly motored back across the strait to PA.

Much of the time, we had no wind. The Mac’s Honda 50 took care of that deficit. I suspect you'll spend a lot of time waiting for your companion 24' boat to catch up. Of course, the amount of time spent on the water will be dictated by crew goals.

I’ve visited Bellingham, Blaine, Sucia, Sooke, Port Angeles, and Roche Harbor in my Mac and enjoyed every port. SInce I love to sail, eight or more hours on the water is fine by me!

One warning, unless you have significant night sailing experience, don't push dark. Enjoy sundown at anchor or tied to the dock.

Good luck on your trip!

[dive4it]

I’ve visited Bellingham, Blaine, Sucia, Sooke, Port Angeles, and Roche Harbor in my Mac and enjoyed every port. SInce I love to sail, eight or more hours on the water is fine by me!

One warning, unless you have significant night sailing experience, don't push dark. Enjoy sundown at anchor or tied to the dock.

Good luck on your trip![/quote]

Great advice Markdartist, I'll think about adding an extra couple of days to the trip to be able to stay on the hook for some extra time. A lot of my time spent on the water has been night passages (I won't mention why) but still, I'd rather sail in the daylight since the scenery is half the apeal anyway. At this point I don't think I'll mind the longer sailing stretches since the boat and crew are new to me but will certainly adjust accordingly....that's one of the great things, no schedule to keep and no places to be (other than forfiting my reservations at Roche and Friday).

[Knot Tied Down]

I take trips of 21 miles in one day often, and its not terrible if there is wind available. If you can hit 5+ knots, it makes the trip that much quicker. I sail solo, and yes I'm tired when I get there...but I love being out on the water, just pulling the halyards and lines, fixing this, tinkering with that etc. The boat is my happyness, and getting to the next anchorage *or marina* is an adventure, so it keeps me going. Good luck! *p.s. if its taking too long and your running out of time, fire up the Iron Genny!*

[Wind Chime]

by markdartist » Thu May 03, 2012 3:01 pm

One warning, unless you have significant night sailing experience, don't push dark. Enjoy sundown at anchor or tied to the dock.

We cruise the San Juan's almost every year for 10 days. Always during daylight and always at the dock. (wife approved travel)

The San Juan Islands have something like 700 Islands and Islets during high-tide, and 1100 during low-tide. So lots of things to go bump in the dark.

[Don T]

Hello,
Since you are traveling with a "real" sailboat that means you are going to have to ride the current around the islands to get any real distance. Typically you can only go one direction (north or south) during comfortable (read wife approved) daylight. Longer distances require using the slack > current your way > slack window and after that the San Juan 24 will only be making 1 knot "made good" trying to beat the current. Most stop overs are not that far apart unless you are trying to get up north into the Canadian Gulf Islands. Draw a 10 mile radius circle on the chart and you cover almost all the San Juan Islands. That being said, Lynn and I routinely make 17 ~ 20 miles sailing in an afternoon with favorable wind and current. The best we have done is sailing only half of the days and we have to motor the rest which can be monotonous on a "real" sailboat. However, the kids think sailing is b o r i n g.

Here is video of us sailing across the Haro Strait accompanied by a Freedom 30. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V0dZZmnY90

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[metronome]

You should have no problem covering 25 nm a day in the San Juans. Plenty of daylight in the summer to sail/motor 4 hours and still have time to enjoy landfall in the islands. The longest cruise on my was via motor from Friday Harbor to my mooring on the east side of Camano Island. The trip was about 65 nm, a six hour cruise, too long, had popeye arms by the time I clipped on the buoy. Enjoy your trip, stop at Cypress Island if time allows.

[yukonbob]

This last weekend we left from Skagway and put 85nm on sailing for 30 of that (mostly downwind) left at 730am sat morning got into harbour in Haines at 1215am. left back to Skagway picking up pots before heading up the inlet and back in the berth by 230pm. Good relaxed pace with trolling and a shore excursion for the dogs Sailed around Eldred rock and up through Tongass NP.

[dive4it]

[quote="markdartist"]A MacX is a great boat for enjoying the San Juan Islands and I’ve made several trips both with my wife, other family members and solo. Check out my Youtube video featuring the islands:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J4ES4-P0Ug
. Great video, you have a voice for narration....sounds like you should be doing TV shows like Nature NW. Thanks for sharing.

JT

[Kittiwake]

From your own experieces, is 25 miles a day too ambitious for a 5 day cruise around the San Juan islands?
JT

We just returned from 8 days on Kittiwake in the Broughton Archipelago (south end of Queen Charlotte Sound between the North end of Vancouver Island and the BC mainland). As usual on long trailering trips, I had left the mast at home. Even so, without deliberate planning, the 'magical daily distance' when travelling turned out to be 20-25 miles as mentioned above by others. We were 50/50 at marinas and on the hook. Interesting that there is such wide agreement in this thread on the daily distance 'sailed'. In our case we were picking places we wanted to visit, while enjoying the in-between.
By the way, the weather was cool (read, 3 degrees C at night): we found that our little butane-burning stove, with the Coleman portable oven (basically a 1-cubic-foot metal box) placed on top, was great for warming the cabin as well as for cooking (mind you we did use a little extra butane as it was tempting to fire it up early and leave it on longer). Oh and did I mention: that area is absolutely empty of boats in late April!
Kittiwake

[Phil M]

We just returned from 8 days on Kittiwake in the Broughton Archipelago (south end of Queen Charlotte Sound between the North end of Vancouver Island and the BC mainland). As usual on long trailering trips, I had left the mast at home. Even so, without deliberate planning, the 'magical daily distance' when travelling turned out to be 20-25 miles as mentioned above by others. We were 50/50 at marinas and on the hook. Interesting that there is such wide agreement in this thread on the daily distance 'sailed'. In our case we were picking places we wanted to visit, while enjoying the in-between.
By the way, the weather was cool (read, 3 degrees C at night): we found that our little butane-burning stove, with the Coleman portable oven (basically a 1-cubic-foot metal box) placed on top, was great for warming the cabin as well as for cooking (mind you we did use a little extra butane as it was tempting to fire it up early and leave it on longer). Oh and did I mention: that area is absolutely empty of boats in late April!
Kittiwake

The Broughtons? Where did you launch?

[Kittiwake]

We just returned from 8 days on Kittiwake in the Broughton Archipelago

The Broughtons? Where did you launch?

Telegraph Cove is convenient for the South Broughtons; and very quaint & picturesque & tiny. Has gas, marina, campsite, place to leave trailer free.
Port McNeill is a bit farther away by boat from the South Broughtons, but is a much larger community ... with big marina, full shopping facilities, restaurants etc. Fun to go from there by boat across Queen Charlotte Sound (in calmish water!) to the North Broughtons: whales, seabirds aplenty etc.
I was surprised at the lack of othe boats: it seems NObody (but us) goes there until at least May 1; so boating facilities can be limited prior to that date. If you want isolation that's reachable ...
Kittiwake