Free Energy is a near the tip of Long Island about 40nm from Newport. We expect to arrive later this morning around 11am. Free Energy has a slip reserved in Newport for the rest of the week which she will use to ride our some very nasty weather coming later in the week.
The crew will depart later in the day today and I’ll take Free Energy myself up to Boston once the weather improves using coastal rather than offshore passage making. The difference is that in costal passage making your are only underway during the day, while in offshore passage making you are generally underway 24h/day.
Offshore passage making is more challenging for a number of reasons. One of them is that I bring crew onboard for offshore passage making, ideally 3. While crew is obviously helpful while underway the logistic of scheduling crew adds a lot of complication. Crew will only be onboard for a fixed about of time dictated by the schedule of their normal lives, which means that any offshore passage will have to take place within that time. This means that we might have to be underway at time in less than ideal conditions, which certainly happened a few times in this trip.
In coastal passage making Free Energy anchors or docks by shore each night and if the weather doesn’t look good the next day Free Energy can always just wait till the weather improves to move again. Since I live aboard alone, I am not generally as constrained by schedule. I’m actually quite looking forward to using coastal passage making to make my way from Newport to Boston as there are a lot of lovely places to stop in along the way.
Having crew onboard for offshore passage making also requires leadership skill. Different crew have different skills, comfort levels and physical abilities I need to be aware of and manage. I always make sure that the each crew member is aware of what conditions they are likely to experience at the beginning the their watch, as well as keep them informed of the overall strategic choices I’m making with respect to the weather. Most importantly I make it clear that if they have any questions or concerns they should tell me about them at any time even if that means waking me up.