I’m 99% sure if I would have been on this trip I would have gotten jammed into one of those closet bunks 😂 Great video it looks like y’all had an awesome time. Glad to see you brought plenty of beer.
The Dry Tortugas are on my bucket list. I recently sold my catamaran, but I can borrow a Nonsuch and get that crossed off the list this year. This was a helpful video. Thanks.
I am looking to do a similar trip and was wondering what kind of boat speed you are making on the way out and how did you guys do on rationing your resources and what were your water and fuel tank sizes?
We never drink water from a charter boat . We don't trust it. The freshwater tank water is 100% for washing dishes and showering. We always buy too much water, in one gallon bottles, and they are stowed all over the boat. Loads of water, gatorade and beer on board. In terms of food, we also usually overdo it. We are doing 8-10 days usually on our charters, and we go to the grocery store once, in advance, and we overbuy on everything just to make sure we don't lose 1/2 a day having to resupply. Fuel tank size I forget, but we did talk to the charter company about the fuel capacity and the burn rate for the engine. I vaguely recall that a full tank would amount to enough to motor there and back twice, or something like that. Of course the hop out there we knew exactly what the wind would be --- 20 knots right on the stern - so we used zero fuel getting out there. It's the way back that everyone gets worried about because a forecast 3-4 days out isn't 100% accurate, and you might have to motor into the wind the whole way, and in our case, that's what we did. I want to say we didn't even use 1/4 tank, something like that, motoring the entire way back from the Tortugas to the Marquesas. Overall, we knew our weather window was pretty good -- no storms in the forecast or nasty Northers or anything like that. You can definitely get stuck out there for a few days, or longer, if something nasty blows in. We definitely had the food and water to handle extra time out there, and of course we got out there with basically a full tank of diesel so we were more than covered on that front too. Boat speed.... honestly I don't recall. I want to say about 5.5 to 6 knots or so on the way out. It was about 55-60 miles from Boca to the Tortugas. We departed right around 6:30am and I think we dropped anchor at maybe 5pm or so? The way back was light winds on the nose -- we motored the whole way - but we only went to the Marquesas so a few miles fewer. We motored at around 5 knots as a I recall.
Can not say. We got a partial refund in exchange for not bad-mouthing the charter company on line. So we were paid by the man for our silence. We briefly discussed rejecting those terms, so that we could tell the world our story.... and then decided to just take the cash and shut our mouths! :)
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing. That was an adventure that won't be soon forgotten.
I’m 99% sure if I would have been on this trip I would have gotten jammed into one of those closet bunks 😂 Great video it looks like y’all had an awesome time. Glad to see you brought plenty of beer.
The Dry Tortugas are on my bucket list. I recently sold my catamaran, but I can borrow a Nonsuch and get that crossed off the list this year. This was a helpful video. Thanks.
Those swept back spreaders make down wind sailing hard as hell on the mainsail lol 😂
Yup, fortunately for us it was a rental.... and we got the insurance :)
what boat did you charter?
45' Jeanneau Sun Odyssey. Extremely similar to the 45' Benetau we chartered in the BVIs 2 years prior.
I am looking to do a similar trip and was wondering what kind of boat speed you are making on the way out and how did you guys do on rationing your resources and what were your water and fuel tank sizes?
We never drink water from a charter boat . We don't trust it. The freshwater tank water is 100% for washing dishes and showering. We always buy too much water, in one gallon bottles, and they are stowed all over the boat. Loads of water, gatorade and beer on board. In terms of food, we also usually overdo it. We are doing 8-10 days usually on our charters, and we go to the grocery store once, in advance, and we overbuy on everything just to make sure we don't lose 1/2 a day having to resupply. Fuel tank size I forget, but we did talk to the charter company about the fuel capacity and the burn rate for the engine. I vaguely recall that a full tank would amount to enough to motor there and back twice, or something like that. Of course the hop out there we knew exactly what the wind would be --- 20 knots right on the stern - so we used zero fuel getting out there. It's the way back that everyone gets worried about because a forecast 3-4 days out isn't 100% accurate, and you might have to motor into the wind the whole way, and in our case, that's what we did. I want to say we didn't even use 1/4 tank, something like that, motoring the entire way back from the Tortugas to the Marquesas. Overall, we knew our weather window was pretty good -- no storms in the forecast or nasty Northers or anything like that. You can definitely get stuck out there for a few days, or longer, if something nasty blows in. We definitely had the food and water to handle extra time out there, and of course we got out there with basically a full tank of diesel so we were more than covered on that front too. Boat speed.... honestly I don't recall. I want to say about 5.5 to 6 knots or so on the way out. It was about 55-60 miles from Boca to the Tortugas. We departed right around 6:30am and I think we dropped anchor at maybe 5pm or so? The way back was light winds on the nose -- we motored the whole way - but we only went to the Marquesas so a few miles fewer. We motored at around 5 knots as a I recall.
Who did you use for this Charter?
Can not say. We got a partial refund in exchange for not bad-mouthing the charter company on line. So we were paid by the man for our silence. We briefly discussed rejecting those terms, so that we could tell the world our story.... and then decided to just take the cash and shut our mouths! :)
What charter company did you use?
Can't say. Terms of agreement... we got a partial refund in exchange for our silence. Yes, we sold out. We accept that :)
I hope the potheads charged you for all the stuff you broke :)
We actually got a refund for about 20% of the charter cost due to all the issues we encountered.