We have had 7 houseboats for the very reasons you site. We also boated for years on Lake Huron which can be a b***h. We have had the s**t scared out of us 3 times when the weather came out of nowhere. This was in RiverQueens, KingsCrafts and a Pluckebaum. We picked these brands of boats because of their toughness. We needed it a few times.

When are you leaving? Get a cingular card for your laptop to keep us informed of your progress. One of my best friends just sailed his 36 footer from Pensecola to NC. It took him 2 months. He had wireless coverage all the way.


OLD HOUSEBOATER38881.2927662037

Leaving some time in July.

I want to get a card, my wife is an executive with T-mobile so probably go with them.

Hey anyone out there who has been down the intercoastal - is there any parts with poor cell reception?

I have been watching this to see where it went. I have been that route both while in the Navy and on my own. The Cape in North Carolina can get very rough as the other places mentioned. I bought a 42 Ft Trojan sea voyager from a guy that tried to make the trip. This is a 15 ft beam heavy boat made for offshore. He was a novice but 10 ft seas got him and blew him aground. I agree with the Judge, and OHB, that is not the proper boat for this voyage. I too was in Helicopters in the Navy, operation Deepfreeze 1961, we had seas of over 70 Ft on that trip. 6 ft Seas in shallow water would give that Cat all it wants and then some. They will be like the lakes, not rollers you can ride but close together breakers. I left Tampa with a 65ft motoryacht. Checked weather, 4 ft seas predicted, 80 miles out we encountered 12 ft seas, time for rock and roll. Water was going over the top of the vessel and you could not stand up on the deck. had to head into it at angle with just enough power for headway. The Cat would have been history or any other boat not built for such. The Carver the Judge spoke of would have been at is limit with the 12 ft seas. I have been in the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Arctic, Antarctic and most Rivers from the Mississippi East. The lower Missisippi in bad weather would give the CAT all it could stand. There is a big difference in riding rollers and crashing thru breakers. I got tired of fighting the throttle wakes from tows in my 50 ft Gibson and got a 55 ft Chris craft so I did not get bounced all the time on the Lower Miss. Sold a 55 ft kingscraft, which is much more rough water capable than the Cat and the new owner sank it off Galveston bay. Coast Guard got it before it went completely down. 10 ft seas put her down. Taking a Cat down the intercoastal is fine if everything else is fine. like flying a Piper Cub to check a Hurricane, you stay in front you can make it. Let us know of your progress, you will probaly make it but I bet you will have some stories to tell. Good luck.

re: cell phone coverage-- don't know about the rest of the area, but T-Mobile has no coverage at least around Edenton and the northwest end of the Albemarle Sound. (We ARE in the back of beyond, though.)

Pirate,

OK, I looked at the Albemarle Sound.

1. It is only 15 sm on the intercoastal. At a cruise speed of 10 mph that is 90 minutes to cross it. I would really hope that I could find a weather window of 90 minutes.

2. I don't have detailed charts as of yet, but if the wind is out of the East it would seem that you could either wait for calm winds - however long that was - or you could sail out the Aligator river and hug the shoreline on the East to cross. Wind waves don't develop into whoppers if you are one mile in the lee of land. Even during a hurricane. Shallow-water capability gives you that option.

3. Weather predictors are sometimes off. It however has been my experiance, and my experiance is checking the weather forecasts one to 6 times a day as a requirement of my job, that the weather service is pretty good. Not perfect but pretty good. Except for hurricaine tracks - the guys who do that should be taken out and shot.

4. The Albemarle sound is basically a large lake. It has zero exposure to waves coming off the ocean. I have no doubt that it can get really rough. And I am familar with shallow water chop. You are right that it is much worse than large rollers. But it is only a 90 minute weather window that I need.

5. Today the national weather service is perdicting about 1 foot of chop for the sound ALL DAY.

#3  OUR FIRST AGREEMENT shall we start with Cantori?

Nobody holds the hurricaine trackers responsible. If it really is impossible to track them with present technology then we need to get better technology.

When, as is typical, they give a track that covers the entire state of Florida when the storm is three days out, how is that useful information? Are 12 million people supposed to evacuate? Like that is even possible with a month's notice.

This last little Storm, Alberto, well they had it headed just North of my house as a 45 mph Tropical Storm on Sunday. By the time it hit, on Tuesday, was a strong tropical storm and the track was 120 nm north of where they originally had it.

If they could track these things down to plus or minus 20 miles and 20 mph, say 72 hours out, of strength you could make a rational decision about what to do. As it is now it all them telling everyone to run in order to CYA.

Lets see,

1. People evacuated outta the Keys for Andrew and were sitting in motels in Homestead when it flattened them.

2. People evacuated outta Tampa for Charlie, Some South and some East. Both people South and East got to deal with Charlie (145 mph) while Tampa got a nice warm breeze.

3. People we told to run at the last moment as Opal hit the panhandle and were caught in there cars in traffic jams when they would have been a lot safer at home unless they lived right on the beach.

I could go on but we have a completely irrational way of dealing with hurricaines and weather perdiction for them is horrendous.

I imagine you will have an interesting trip. i always hit a storm. I do not believe I have ever made a trip on a boat of over one days duration without really getting into it. Seems it never fails. Tonados, floods you name it.