Plan your sea route before embarking on a voyage. Planning your sea route requires careful analysis of various factors. You may plan to sail alone in your yacht or be a part of a rally. The route you choose can only be a bare outline. It cannot always be followed implicitly.
Planning Your Journey – How to Plan Your Sea Route Before Embarking on a Voyage
New York (USA), September 02, 2017
Planning your sea route requires careful analysis of various factors. You may plan to sail alone in your yacht or choose to be a part of a rally. Irrespective of such plans, there are few fundamental facts you should decide before setting on a voyage on your middle-sized yacht.
The route you choose can only be a bare outline. It cannot always be followed implicitly. Route changes are common depending on weather, crew, and vessel conditions. You may have to shift lanes to avoid unnecessary traffic. Sometimes you may have to take a longer route if conditions are unfavorable. Planning your route not only involves preparing and deciding on strategies beforehand but also taking decisions at opportune moments evaluating given conditions of weather, yacht, and crew.
How to Plan Your Sailing Route
Weather
The weather at sea determines how well you can chart your voyage. Weather is a common term encompassing ocean currents, waves, wind, rain, fog, low and high-pressure systems. The most suitable weather pattern differs according to your sailing vessel. There is no single weather chart, which can be most appropriate for a sailing vessel. If you are cruising on a sailing boat across the Atlantic, you would prefer a stationary high-pressure system. This provides ideal backup with steady winds. Slow moving cruisers would prefer southerlies and southwesterlies with high-pressure winds. Consider regional and local weather reports and plan your course accordingly.
Crew Fatigue
You should be extremely considerate about crew and their health. Crew should have sufficient rest with proper food. Insufficient or irregular sleep patterns can disrupt mental abilities. If your crew is unable to make proper decisions, critical mistakes can occur jeopardizing the voyage and endangering lives of all aboard.
Routing
Tracking or charting your route on sea makes use of specific terminology. Great Circle refers to the shortest physical distance over a curved surface. Rhumbline crosses all longitudes at same angle but is not necessarily the shortest physical distance over a curved surface. A sailing boat on bucket route travels in a north or south direction until required latitude is reached. Then it adopts a perpendicular path until specified longitude. Here again your sailing vessel turns south or north to reach the destination. Such routing is common to avoid inclement weather. It is common to adopt a composite route combining Great Circle and Rhumbline to avoid any political or geographical restrictions. Sea routes need not necessarily always be the shortest route. You should be always on the lookout for changes like wind speeds, storms, and other inclement weather. Avail the most recent weather data through sophisticated systems available on the Internet and other communications systems like OCENS Millennium, Inmarsat C Safety Net, NAVTEX, GlobalStar, Iridium, Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS), Inmarsat A, B, M, and similar others.
Emergency Communications
Effective route planning should include easy access to emergency communication set-up. Certain mandatory safety equipments include GPS equipped EPIRB (GEPIRB), search and rescue transponder (SART), beacon (EPIRB), emergency VHF radio, water maker, life raft, and immersion suits for protection from hypothermia. Always remain connected to your family and friends onshore.
Get to Know Your Boat
Whether it is a short voyage or a long one, remain aware of every part of your sailing boat or yacht. You should know to fix each piece of equipment on-board. Check your boat on its sea-worthiness and important adjuncts like solar panels to charge batteries, backup GPS and communications systems, autopilot, and similar others. If traveling along or across tropics, plan routes according to prevailing winds, cyclonic pattern systems, and water currents. Schedule and reschedule routes and program charts to travel safe.
Finance
Cost of sailing in your yacht depends on your route and duration of journey. Provide for unforeseen eventualities, consider health insurance, repairs, and look into other logistics to get an idea of total costs. A long passage costs less but you should be ready to remain at sea for prolonged periods.
Guide to Sailing and Ocean Cruising in a Medium Sized Yacht
The Complete Reference Guide to Sailing and Ocean Cruising in a Medium Sized Yacht