Offshore

Offshore / Coastal Cruising in Nautical Miles:

For offshore cruising we recommend OpenPlotter or OpenCPN for navigation and PredictWind for weather. We also recommend that you keep, at least, a rough log where you record L, Lo, Cn, COG, speed, SOG and notes each hour.

With OpenCPN you can download free, official, NOAA charts. They are a little difficult to locate because of their indexing system. Older Raster Scanned (RNC) charts are available but those are being phased out by Janurary 2025.

Offshore cruising obviously requires careful planning and you should consult all available sources of weather data before leaving a safe harbor. Don’t forget Atlantic Hurricane Season is from June to November with a peak from August to October. The most serious mistake a cruiser can make is saying, “I have to be there by XX:XX”. Once that decision is unfortunately made, other necessary considerations become secondary. If you have to be there by a certain time leave the boat and find alternate transportation.

You can get free GRIB weather files for OpenCPN via Ham or marine HF  SSB radio.

Go to the ARRL licensing page to see what is required for a Ham license and no more Morse code testing.

To see how it works go to HF SSB Offshore for more detailed information.

For offshote training see NauticEd with Grant https://www.nauticed.org  plus Sailing and Boating LLC with Captain Deb  https://sailingandboatingllc.com .

Approximate offshore distances nautical miles and (inland statute miles) Portland to Corpus Christie with old RNC chart numbers:

Extracted from the United States Coast Pilots #4 and #5 and believed to be correct but you should always consult an up to date source before sailing!

0 Portland

76 Boston, MA

171 Nantucket Shoals

360 New York, NY

465 Cape May

585 Chesapeake Bay – Norfolk, VA

695 Cape Hatteras

821 Wilmington

964 Charleston

1029 Savannah

11489 Fernandedna Beach ICW 717

11490 St Johns River

11489 Jacksonville ICW 740

11485 St Augastine ICW 776

Palm Cost ICW 802

11485? Daytona ICW 830

11485 New Smyrna Beach ICW 846

11478 Port Canaveral/Titusville ICW 878

11478 Port Canaveral/Coco Beach ICW 897

Melborne ICW 917

11472 Sebastian Inlet  ICW 935

Vero Beach ICW 952

1314 Ft. Pierce ICW 965

Stewart ICW 986

11459 Palm Beach/Jupiter ICW 1005

Lake Worth ICW 1027

Boca Ratan?

Red Ray ICW 1040

Pompeno ICW 1057

11470  Ft Lauderdale ICW 1063

11472 St. Licie Inlet

11467 Boca Raton

11467 Bakers Haulover

Daytona Beach

11467 1418 Miami ICW 1085

Key Biscane ICW 1094

Key Largo ICW 1145

Cape Florida 11465

Anglefish Creek 11463

1492 Key West to Tampa Chart 11420, Key West Charts 11439, 11441, 11446 11447 ICW 1240

Flamingo?

Sanibel Island/Cape Sable?

Everglades City?

Marco Island?

Naples?

1606 Caloosahatchee River/Ft. Myers 11427 GICW  Entrance 1 north bound

Ft Myers GICW 0

Venice  GICW 58

Sarasota GICW 74

Anna Maria Island GICW 90

St Pete/Tampa 11411, 11415, 11416

1687 Tampa Bay to Apalachee Bay Chart 11400, 11412

Clearwater GICW 136

1724 Clearwater/Tarpon Springs Charts 11411 & 11412

Tarpon Springs GICW 150

Spring Hill?

Homosassa?

Cedar Key?

Suannee?

Steinhatchee?

St Marks?

Carrabelle GICW 380

Carrabell Ship Channel (379-381E) GICW Entrance 2 north bound 11404

Appalachacola GICW 351

1896 Apalachee Bay (E351) to Mobile Bay Charts 11400, 11402, 11360

1985 Port St Joe (327E) Charts 11393 & 11398

Panama City GICW 292

2008 Panama City (285-293E) Charts 11390, 11391, 11392, 11393, 11398

2050 Destin/Ft Walton (222-227 E) Charts 11385 & 11388

Ft Walton GICW 223

Santa Rosa Sound 11360, 11378, 11382, 11388

Pensacola GICW 185

2091 Pensacola (172-189E) Charts 11360, 11383, 11344, 11378, 11382

Ft Morgan GICW 135

Escambia Bay 11378, 11382, 11385

Little Lagoon 11376

2131 Mobile Bay to Mississippi River  (132E) Charts 11376, 11378

Ocean Springs?

Biloxi?

Gulfpoer?

Weeks Bay 11376

2185 Gulfport (73E), Mississippi Sound/Beloxi (80E),  11360, 11372, 11373, 11374

Bay St Louis GICW 73

Pas aux Heron 11376, 11378

Bay La Batre 11373, 11374

Pascagoola 11373, 11374, 11375

Dog Keys Pass 11372, 11373

Ship Island 11372, 11373

Cat Island Canal 11371,11372

Chandler Sound 11361, 11363, 11364

Lake Borgne 11367, 11371

Bayou Bienvenenue  11364, 11367, 11369, 11371

Lake Pontchartrain 11369

2277 New Orleans/Mississippi River (0W) Charts 11340, 11360, 11366

2417 Morgan City (93-95W)

2530 Port Arthur

2586 Galveston (350-358W)

2741 Corpus Christie (552W)