ACNJ to Portland ME, how long a trip?

[gbdfa15]

Hi, all...I'm considering sailing a 25' Meridian sloop from NJ to ME this spring/early summer. It would be the shakedown/maiden voyage for a boat I'm refurbishing with my son, who at 31 has decided he'd like to learn to sail.

Any guess as to how much time I should budget for the trip? I don't foresee any long offshore overnight passages unless we bring on additional crew.

I'm trying to determine the feasibility of sailing it up to Maine vs. towing/trucking it. Sailing would be more fun, barring drama or trauma.

Any suggestions/advice would be most welcome.

Thanks!

[CharlieJ]

I have zero familiarity with that area, but I have LOTS of travel  miles in my Meridian.

After  close to 10,000 miles of cruising her, I have found that the average speed of the boat is 4.5 knots. Inshore, offshore, sailing, motoring- it runs about 4.5 knots.

According to formula, hull  speed is 5.6 I've sailed faster, but not often.

You should be able to calculate your course distances, and figure from that.

[Godot]

Grab a map or a nav program like OpenCPN or one of the others, and plan out the route. You should be able to come up with a reasonable mileage estimate.

After that I think it depends largely on you, how hard core you want to sail, how fast you want to get there, how often you want to break for some sight seeing and rest. Not to mention Mother Nature, of course, who can keep you in port for days and days, or if she is feeling especially kind, provide you with gentle tail winds all the way north.

I've not done the trip; but looking at the map the "what if" part of my brain has turned on. Here's a possible scenario...

Atlantic City to Sandy Hook is probably going to have to be all outside (I'm not too familiar with the NJ coast; but I know there aren't too many places to hide...although maybe somewhere inside Barnegat Bay would be OK). That will probably be a very long day.
Day two might be a bit shorter to get you to New York City.
Figure three or four days of harbor hopping to Block Island. Let's say four, for a total of six days so far.
Another day to get somewhere convenient near the Cape Cod Canal. A day through the canal into Cape Cod Bay stopping, well, I don't know. Maybe the Plymouth area.
Another to stop near Boston, I guess, totaling nine days sailing.
Maybe three more days to get to Portsmouth, NH (12 days total)
Then maybe one long day, or two shorter days to Portland. Say, 14 days total.

Add twenty percent for Mother Nature and you get around 17 days. This is not a calculated route, and I don't know about a lot of the stops, just a rough guess.

It can be done faster. In can be done much slower. If it were me, I think I'd look at at least three weeks. That should give a few days to spend time in interesting spots, rest up when tired, and wait out the weather when necessary. If the schedule starts to slip, there is room for some longer days to make up some time. Major week long weather events would throw my guess way out of whack, of course.

Now, if you wanted more offshore time, you could rapidly knock some days off.  Personally, I wouldn't on an unfamiliar boat. I'm a big believer in baby steps.

[marujo_sortudo]

I'd also recommend early summer over late spring as the summer southwesterlies will start to fill in.  Of course, leaving earlier has the advantage of less fog (but colder temps.)  Overall, late May or June have a lot to recommend them, but do be aware that at this time of year the waters up here (north of Cape Cod) are quite cold so a life jacket is even more advised than usual as you could go into shock in you fall in the water.  Not falling in is, as always, preferred.

I've done this route a couple of times now (once northward and once southward,) so I'd be glad to share what little I know.  Here's my thoughts.

The AC to NYC part is best done with overnight sailing.  Barnegat, Manasquan, and Shark River are all OK with local knowledge and being careful to select a time to go through with either a slack current (best), fair current on a rising tide (good, but can leave you stuck if you run aground and you can't go too slow), calm sea state (ok and any foul current will help push you off if you do run aground.)  You can easily check them out ahead of time by car and get good advice from local sailors.  You should do this even if you don't plan on stopping at any as you may need to if you have an equipment failure of some kind.  My preference would be to wait for a W/SW wind with a good sea state and do an overnight to anchor off Ellis Island, NYC (anchoring my the Statue of Liberty is just too cool and inlets can suck.

Next, play the East River Currents and you'll catch a bit of foul current across the Hudson and then make some serious miles up the East River.  Our highest GPS speed is still motoring past Roosevelt Island at medium RPMs, going 10.5 knots over ground.  Pick up a free mooring in Port Washington which is a super cruiser friendly town.

BTW, the Eldridge Tide and Pilot Guide for 2014 will be worth it's weight in gold if your Internet access is poor.  The current charts of NYC, Long Island Sound, Buzzards Bay, etc. will easily pay for the $10 in reduced sailing/motoring time and help you reduce dreaded wind vs current situations.  Even with good Internet access, I really like some of the current charts in Eldridge for planning purposes.

Respect the currents here, they are significant in the open water and in constrictions (The Race, Woods Hole, etc.) can exceed your hull speed and/or compromise your steerage with their turbulence.  Being from NJ, though, I assume you have some experience with currents.

Long Island Sound and Buzzards Bay can be quite pleasant if you avoid current vs wind situations above 10-15 kts (depending on your comfort level.)  There are lots of harbors, but some are better than others.  I could offer some recommendations, but I've only been to a few.  Our favorites were Port Washington, Mattituck, & Cuttyhunk.

If you choose to stop at Onset beware the cross current when you leave/enter the main channel.  I recommend leaving/entering Onset near slack water if it works out.  Otherwise, put the throttle wide open (with or without sails up and pray if your so inclined.)  I highly recommend Chesapeake City in the Canal as a stopover.  There is a bit of cross current at the entrance, but not as dangerous as Onset, IMHO.  Once you leave the canal you're in another area of sparse anchorages.  Plymouth has an anchorage, but it's long in, long out, current at anchor and not much wind protection to the nearest anchorage.  Not too bad, but not too great either.  Provincetown is a bit better, but almost locks you into an overnight for the next stretch.  On the plus side, Provincetown to Gloucester takes you over Stellwagen Bank which is a great spot for whale sitings.  Or you can pick up a mooring in Scituate from the Scituate Boat Club ($40, IIRC, nice folks, no space in harbor to anchor.)  Not a bad option.  When we came in to check out the showers some of the boat club members filled us up on pizza and cheap wine and were wicked pleasant.

Boston is out of your way and therefore skippable.  Gloucester is a great stop and right on your way.  Cool town.  Stay a couple of days and take a load off.  Cape Ann is usually no big deal and it's usually easier to go around than deal with the canal and timing currents/bridges.  Isles of Shoals, Portsmouth, Cape Porpoise, & Biddeford are all good options.  Be aware of the currents in Portsmouth and of the lobster pots strewn in the entrance at Cape Porpoise.  With your shoal draft their might be some other good options that we don't know about with our 5' draft.

After that you're basically at Portland.  Once you're at or past Portland there are basically tons of anchorages in Maine.  Tell me where you're going and I can give more advice.  We did AC to Portland in 6 weeks, but that included 3+ weeks of stopping and socializing.  Of course, our water line is a little longer so we estimate this business with a 5 knot average.

[Kettlewell]

Good advice above. I would add that the offshore run from Provincetown up to Maine is only one overnight and lots of fun, and you get to avoid the mostly too crowded Massachusetts coast north of the Cape Cod Canal. Boston Harbor does have some nice cruising and anchorages, but most of the other harbors are filled with boats making it hard to find a spot to anchor, and IMHO they aren't quite as interesting as harbors south of the Canal or up in Maine. So, skip all that and make the offshore run from P-Town (a fun place to visit in itself) and make a straight shot to Maine. You can just about be guaranteed nothing but a moderate downwind sail if you get to Maine in July. Cruising in Maine is best in July and August when it is warm.