Passing through multiple states w/ a big boat

[pclausen]

Greetings from a new user!

My family have been going to the Bahamas (Great Guana Quay across from Marsh Harbour) on a faily regular basis for the last 8 years now. On each trip we have rented a house and a whaler to putt around the local waters diving and go shopping in Marsh Harbour.

We are planning another trip this xmas (we always go there around xmas), and rather than do the usual of booking 6 adult tickets from Richmond, VA to Mars Harbour via Miami, I have been toying with the idea of purchasing a boat capable of making the trek from Florida to Great Guana Quay.

Looking at google earth, it looks like setting in at Jupiter or West Palm Beach would be the shortest distance to Marsh.

I already have an excellent tow vehicle, namely a 2002 Duramax 3500K dually crew cap long bed w/ just 88k on it.

So I'm thinking of getting a 89ish 280 or 300 DA on a triple axle, which will have a beam of 10'6" or 11' respectively.

My folks would still rent a house there, but us younger folks would sleep on the boat. Airfare alone is about $4500 for the six of us, so I'm pretty confident that fuel cost (towing through 4 states and whatever is consumed by the boat) would come in a lot less.

So my initial questions are as follows:

1. Will a 280 or 300 DA have enough range to get us from Florida to Marsh in one go, or will we need to refuled midway (like West End on Grand Bahama). I guess it all depends on the engine config and fuel capacity. Looking at 89s, I belive they both have 144G of capacity (72G x 2?)

2. Can I get away with getting an oversize permit just for the state of VA and throw some oversize signs on the stern and front of the tow vehicle?

3. Will I have have issues at tunnels and bridges coming down I95 (I'll start in Richmond, VA) and pass through the Carolinas, Georgia and of course Florida?

4. Where along the Florida coast should I set in, and can I just leave my tow vehicle and trailer there unattended until we return a week or so later?

Thanks!

 

[tmhudson2]

What is the distance from east coast Florida to Great Guana Cay? You will also have to allow for the additional distance you'll have to traverse due to current setting you sideways.

 

[pclausen]

Marsh Harbour is 180 miles due east of West Palm Beach.

Excellent point about currents. We would be traveling in late December, so I don't know if that would be an indication of the prevalent currents that time of year?

To be safe, should I look at a vessel with a range of about 300 miles?

Are oil burners available on the 280/300 DAs? (or other boats that I can trailer)

 

[chuck1]

You do know that is worst time of year to cross the stream? How is your off-shore boat skills?

 

[pclausen]

This would be my first motor boat. I spent many summers during my teens (I'm 43 now) with my uncle and father in his sail boat (33' Super Swan) navigating the straights around the many islands that make up Denmark. We would often travel for hours with no land in sight and got caught up in some pretty heavy storms now and again. This was back in the seventies before there was GPS or other electronic navigational aids.

My only experience since that has been on a 18' whaler boat putting around the Cays as mentioned above. We did one trek in complete darkness from Great Guana Quay to Marsh Habour (depart 4am) in heavy seas, the morning I had to catch a flight back to the mainland (I left before the rest of the family). The seas were very heavy (major storm the day before), but we did not encounter any issues (other than being completely soaked by the time we docked at Marsh).

I have no direct experience with the stream off the Florida coast and I didn't realize December was the worst time of year for passing. I do enjoy a challenge, but I'm not a fool and I certainly do respect the ocean.

 

[ray306]

Just one person's opinion, I wouldn't be doing a trip to the Abacos in that size boat in December. Indeed that is one of the worst times of the year for crossing the gulf stream and the gulf stream will probably be your biggest problem. If there is any northerly component to the wind it kicks up big waves in the gulf stream. You may get a weather window to be able to cross and then not be able to return when you want. When making the crossing the weather dictates when you can go.

Most of us that are local here in Florida tend to do our trips to the Bahamas from May until September. As a matter of fact we had a trip planned to Port Lucaya over Memorial day weekend and the weather shut us down.

If you do decide to do the trip then try to get another boat to go and please make sure you have an EPIRB.

Ray

 

[pclausen]

Thanks Ray (and others who chimed in).

We must have been real lucky on the trips we have taken in the past being that except for a few days, the weather was really nice on the islands in December. We won't be attempting to make the crossing in December then, especially given it would be a gamble if the conditions would allow it, both coming and going.

With that said, I'm still very much interested in getting a boat. I'm about 1 hour away from Smith Mountain lake (20,000+ acres in the Blue Ridge mountains) and will have to do some planning for making a summer trip down South to the Bahamas.

So going back to the original questions, what do I need to look out for when trailering an oversize boat across state lines, and what would have a 250+ mile range?

Thanks

 

[northern]

If you have never crossed open water in a boat it is a scary thing in the wrong size boat. A 30 foot boat goes fast so if you feel you have time to do a crossing in the calm you will feel fine. A 30 footer in 6 foot waves with the tops blowing off could result in large fuel consumption and being way off coures as the only way to handle the waves in my opinion would be to go into them. We have a 38 footer with a 13'11" beam and we try to avoid waves more than 3 feet but 6 are OK for the boat not the passengers. In Canada you need a permit for each provence to transport an over sized load. I assume states are the same. We had a 28 footer once and the range on it was about 100 miles at 24 Knots.

 

[Nacho Boat]

You will need an oversize permit for each state that you tow through (there is not a "master" permit). If the beam is 10' or greater, it is even more difficult and expensive.

I paid someone to tow my vehicle down from Virginia when I bought it. One of the reasons that I did not tow it myself is the issue of getting an oversize permit from each state (and my boat was less than 10" wide).