Passage Planning
What top have in consideration
First: passage plan is legally required by SOLAS regulation. But more important than that: ensure to you, crew and vessel safety.
Tha passage plan can be very comprehesive plan or just a brief notes from your voyage. It depends on several factors. But in general we need to check the following:
- Where are we going - how many miles, cruising speed, ETA, waypoints
- Weather and tides (if apply) – how strong will be the wind and sea. Are we going with or against it? Check windy.com or passage planing. Also tide diamonds or/or atlas.
- Check sails for the type of weather - storm jib(?), jib, reefs, downwind sails in light winds.
- Hazards – where are they, what to do, distance to pass
- Plan B – where to go/stop or anchor in case we have an issue with the boat or crew. Or just some weather change
- Night sail - avoid to cross TSS at night or enter into an harbour that you don´t know at night
- Crew and boat strength – take that in consideration share your plan with the crew and someone ashore
Material
- Charts (raster and vectorial)
- Nautical publications
- Electronics
Checks before you leave
- Correct ships documents
- Fuel
- Gas
- Water
- Food
- Spare parts
- Engine
- Sails
- Rigging
- Safety equipment