saintglenn
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2012
- Messages
- 55
Been thinking about cruising down to south america from seattle... Anyone ever done a big trip like this? Any routes to avoid?
Been thinking about cruising down to south america from seattle... Anyone ever done a big trip like this? Any routes to avoid?
With basically an inshore boat you would do best to avoid genuine heavy weather offshore...
We left Seattle in 2008 and are in Trinidad now. Make lots of stops along the way is all we can suggest and don't rush. You can pretty much day hop all the way down. The only route to avoid would be the coast of Venezuela. Right now it's unsafe due to piracy. The outer islands are fine but it's a heck of slog to weather with contrary current. Columbia is great particularly if you speak some Spanish.
Some people will say to stay out of Mexico. IMHO it is still one of the best cruising areas. It's a good place to see if the cruising life style fits you/the admiral. You also still have easy access to the US. You can be as remote as you want or if like to stay in US type marinas, you can.
I have 300 and previous owner says 1.5 an hour at 2000rpm. I have not gone on a trip far enough to measure. I will be going to port angeles on sept 22 and will try then to see.
In making your voyage, what is the farthest you've needed to go between fuel stops? My boat carries 440 gallons of fuel. I am comfortable with 400-500 NM right now, and could possibly stretch that a bit by throttling back some. Is that enough range?
Thanks!
400-500 miles between fuel stops wouldn't be a problem. San Diego to Turtle Bay, MX to Cabo San Lucas. Those would be the 2 longest stretches in MX. Then no problem all the way to Panama. After Panama on the Caribbean side it's not a problem with some planning. Capt. Pat Rains has a cruising guide for this area that was just updated:
Captains Pat & John Rains
I think you previous owner was like mine.....
If you have a 120 or 135 Lehman...I would expect quite a bit over 2.0 gal/hr.
My 135 chart (which I have right in front of me) says almost 3 gal/hr and I know that to be trus as I ran the boat to NJ from Ft Lauderdales at around 8 knots (2000-2200) as the PO said 8 knot cruise and I was getting very poor milage compared to what I thought. After some fuel ups I knew that the consumption was 3-4 gal/hr. So my chart is in lockstep with my engine...and a 120 can't be that much different.
Here's another guys experience and I would say he's high on the curve (poor eng performance maybe?)
34' marine trader 1973 120hp ford lehman 2.3-2.6gph at 8 mph @1650 rpm
Here's another close to my curve...
1978 49 DeFever RPH 68,000lbs wet, twin 120 lehmans nap, @1700 rpm 7.3 kts fuel burn 4 gal/hr
He's close to my chart at 2gal/hr at 1700 RPM, my chart for the 135 says he should be slight;y under 2.0 gal/hr per engine
My lehman does burn 2.3 at 1800 but backed down to 1500 and burnt 1.7 gph Slowing down helps a ton