# Sailing from Lake Michigan to FL



## gtsail (Sep 14, 2017)

I'm based out of Chicago and interested in sailing my Hunter 30 from Lake Michigan down to FL. My intent is just to get there as quickly as possible, given my constraints below. And a significant portion of the trip would be single handed.

(not sure if this trip is even possible, given my constraints...)

I'd be limited to sailing/motoring only outside of roughly 9-5 during the week, but I'd have all day on the weekends. I would always need to be within distance of a cellular tower. The reason being that I'm a graphic designer and would need to be able to work like normal, which is possible as long as I am within range of mobile data M-F during business hours and safely anchored or docked somewhere.

I've done some research and discovered there's a few different possible routes: the St. Lawrence seaway to get out to the Atlantic, the erie canal, the mississipi, and the tennessee river.

Given my time constraints, is this trip even possible? Any idea how long it would take?

EDIT:

Forgot to mention that my alternative is simply relocating to FL and buying a boat there. Ideally I would rather keep my hunter as it's grown on me and feels like home. But if this is a pipe dream to get it down to FL, then worst case scenario I sell it and buy something down there.


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## Arcb (Aug 13, 2016)

Gtsail, I cant comment on your time line, but I can say with relative confidence, your fastest route would be down the lakes and Welland Canal, hook into the Erie Canal at Oswego- scoot down to the Hudson. After that, I cant recommend offshore vs inshore options, but I think that will be your fastest route to the Atlantic.


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## capttb (Dec 13, 2003)

I think the "quickly" and "safely anchored or docked" from 9-5 is an insurmountable conflict.


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## Chas H (Sep 6, 2013)

Given your time constraints I'd suggest putting it on a truck and catching up with it in FL or part way down the Atlantic seaboard.
-CH


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## Skipper Dan (Mar 31, 2017)

Chas H said:


> Given your time constraints I'd suggest putting it on a truck and catching up with it in FL or part way down the Atlantic seaboard.
> -CH


I was on the Mississippi from WI to Saint Louis. great trip, but travel after dark not what you want to do. The channel is hard enough to follow in the daylight and then there are the Barges. You could have your boat hauled for about 800 which would be less than what it would cost to motor down on the river. It would be a great trip on weekends get as far as you could then ship it the rest of the way, most likely just ride with the driver.


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## Rocky Mountain Breeze (Mar 30, 2015)

In WWII they sailed the submarines manufactured in Manitowoc Wisconsin down the Chicago "sanitary canal?" to get access to the Mississippi River, and then down to New Orleans. That would seem to be the shortest route, although I am not sure it is still available.


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## Skipper Dan (Mar 31, 2017)

That is the Western part of the Great loop


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## Siamese (May 9, 2007)

I'm trying to think whether I've heard if there are locks on portions of the great loop that will require you to have more than one person on the boat. That's be worth knowing about the route you choose. 

Aside from that, it seems like it would be a pain in the butt to single hand the trip.


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## Pendragon35 (Jun 26, 2014)

I'm not certain but I believe the Erie Canal (NY State Barge Canal) requires two people at some locks. Make sure to check this. You would have to dismast before entering, and put your mast back up at Albany or Troy. 

Could it be done? Sure. Can it be done with the constraints? Not sure. It would be a lot of air travel to get back and forth. As to timeline... I would think three or four days up Lake Michigan, about the same down to Detroit. A week or so to Oswego or wherever you entered the canal. A week or so through the canal; best to plan for two weeks. Three days down the Hudson to Sandy Hook, a couple days to Cape May, a day to the C&D canal. Perhaps a week down the Chesapeake to Norfolk. Six weeks on the ICW. 

So my best guess, as someone who used to be a Michigan sailor and now is on the Chesapeake... four months? I'd certainly look into shipping the boat unless you just want the ride.


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## Arcb (Aug 13, 2016)

Definitely 2 crew in the Welland Canal, which could save you days vs the Erie, all the way from Erie Pa to Oswego NY. Not a big problem though, because you can generally hire a retiree for a deck hand to help you through the canal for beer money. There should be numbers on the cork board in the Port Colborne Marina.

Pendragons ETAs sound like good working estimates to me.


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## MikeOReilly (Apr 12, 2010)

If you're leaving now your travelling times in daylight outside of 9-5 are rapidly shrinking as we head into fall and winter. This leaves weekends. Weather is also generally damp and colder. This does not sound like a fun trip to me. 

Personally, I'd buy down south, or truck your boat if you love her that much. Easier on you and her. 

BTW, you could not do the St. Lawrence. Too late, too far, and cell coverage is not good enough. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

Trucking the boat will be cheaper, safer, and of course faster. You will spend much more in fuel, food and marina expenses.


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## hpeer (May 14, 2005)

And another vote for trucking.

I'll save the details unless you ask but, trust me, if you tried this trip you would sell the boat and buy a farm before you got there.

I've done the bit from Delaware to Newfoundland down the St Lawrence with a Wife who works part time by phone. I've also done it from Delaware to Florida. 

2 crew, working about 20 hours a week. She will be done with that Nonsense in December, then I get a life back.

Also, beating from Cape Canso down the Canadian Atlantic coast against prevailing SW headwinds is a loooong slow slog. Done that twice!


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## hellsop (Jun 3, 2014)

You're boned for this season. Won't make it in time with those constraints.

St Lawrence is a LONG LONG way. Easily 1500 extra miles over Erie Canal route. Most of it is out of cell range. 

Erie's got SOME cell black holes, but not too many. It's also about 2000 total from the middle of Lake Michigan to (so like 60% of the total for St Lawrence/Welland) Jacksonville FL. Oh, and Erie's closing for the season in like four weeks. So that option is out unless you're ready to leave tomorrow.

Mississippi and Tenn-Tom (Tennessee River + Tombigbee Waterway) or Mississippi all the way are shorter. 1200-1500 miles from Lake Michigan to Pensacola All Mississippi River gets hectic and long though as the bottom half means travelling about three miles of water to get one mile south, and it's VERY busy. Tenn-Tom is most recommendable, and you'll still have cell coverage most of the way. 

NONE of these are routes over which you'll want to travel in darkness. There's too many hazards, too many other boats, too many poor-visibility markers to make doing such a thing even safe, much less easy. And with one thing or another (such as finding a place to tie up), making more than about 3 knots during the hours of daylight that you have is ... optimistic. From a practical standpoint, you'll only have weekends to travel with your time limitations until April. Which means probably 50-75 miles a week, assuming you're only going as far as you can get to tie up somewhere near civilization. 

What I'm gonna recommend is winter over. As soon as you can in the spring, start heading south via the Chicago river, to the Mississippi, to Tennessee, to Tombigbee, to Mobile, then east on the ICW to wherever FL you want to go. If you can shift your work schedule to start at like 5 AM instead of 9, and be done by 1, that'll actually give you enough time in the afternoon to get 20-30 miles further along most days, and you'll be in the Gulf right in time for peak hurricane season. 

Best option, though is take a three month leave next fall, leave just after Labor Day and travel all day most days, and get to Florida around first week of December. Hurricanes are mostly done then.


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## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

I've done Chicago to Fla via the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers and there is absolutely no way you are going to make that trip in after dark increments, safely. Same with the St Lawrence (which we used to get to the lakes) unless you are a very experienced and capable seaman. Offshore from Nova Scotia to Fla is dead into a strong current and there just aren't that many safe anchorages or evenly spaced marinas. Again, the ICW should not be attempted in the dark by the inexperienced.
My 2 cent's worth? Either ship your boat or sell and buy anew, as you mentioned.


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## SV Siren (Mar 8, 2013)

I have not made the trip personally, but the previous posters logic makes sense to me. I will add that if you wait till spring, there are a number of shippers that will be bringing boats up from the south to the Great Lakes, which means that they might have empty trailers going down. I talked to a couple of shippers, and they routinely ship a number of boats seasonally every year to and from the south. If you can catch an empty trailer going down you might get a great deal.


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## wfetter815 (Sep 5, 2017)

You should read this guy's blog. He's out of Waukegan and is currently in the Delaware Bay. Took the lakes route. I can't post links yet (dumbest thing I've ever heard) but you can find his blog at SailBlogs, user name is TwoYears.


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## travlin-easy (Dec 24, 2010)

Unfortunately, there will be lots of places where you will not have cellular connection - I know this first hand. Even in Chesapeake Bay, where cell towers look like porcupine quills in some areas, you will lose cellular connection for several miles of the bay. This gets worse in southern VA and NC where you wind through the marshlands without seeing anything for miles on end.

Have it trucked - you'll be far ahead.

Good luck,

Gary


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## Creek-Chub (Mar 10, 2017)

I'm an extremely novice sailor, but have owned boats since the age of 10, and have researched the great loop extensively. I'm also from MI (Southwest part of the state) and have spent years boating and fishing on Lake Michigan in everything from a 14 foot bass boat to a 36' Tiara. My two cents:

It sounds like you have one main limiting factor:

Needing to get there "as soon as possible". This is the main kicker. I'm a web designer / marketer by trade. If not for three kids in sports and school, I've entertained doing something like this myself. Travelling at night on the loop (read: Mississippi, Tenn, and Tom rivers) including the ICW for a novice would be literally impossible. You're working from your laptop though, so this isn't a problem. Live aboard with cell data (potentially even WIFI) during the week. Depending on your budget, 5 days a week in a Marina should even be doable. Then you sail (motor - you won't be doing much, if any, sailing, until you hit the gulf) on the weekends, much like any other schmuck with a 9-5 who splits for the lake on Saturday. Other than that, you'll need to unstep and restep the mast, but my understanding is that there are a number of marinas at the applicable point of the great loop that are well versed in doing so, and it isn't expensive.

Best of both worlds in that scenario, keeping in mind it would take you 5 or 6 months to make it to the gulf. Still plenty of time to get where you're going and have a plan before hurricane season. You're in one of a very few professions that would make something like this feasible, and if I didn't have three rugrats heavily involved in their own lives my wife and I would be gone yesterday doing the same thing. 8 years left... 

Anyway, Google "The Great Loop". There are a couple of websites with TONS of information. I can't post links yet either...


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