Plan it: passage planning and when to leave
Passage planning is when to leave. Name two places and a departure window. Shimbiri compares the departures, reads the sailing weather and the tides, and writes the plan for the time you pick.
Aid to navigation only. Use official charts and notices; the skipper is responsible. Safety at sea
What you do
You set the passage, then compare the ways to leave.
- From and To, on the chart or by place name, and the hours you could leave. Times are local time at the place you leave from.
- 4 or 16 departures across that window. Each one shows arrival, gusts and sea. A departure beaten on every measure is set aside. One just after the window can be marked worth waiting for, when it beats the rest on every measure.
- The sailing weather for the departure you pick: wind and sea along the route, a wind map, sea and swell, a pressure chart, and the forecast models side by side. Rain radar, when the route sits under it.
- The tide, the local forecast, a wave buoy, and sun and moon, at each end of the passage.
It opens on Manly (RQYS), Moreton Bay, to Mooloolaba. Change either place.
What the plan includes
Open one departure and you get the legs of that passage.
- Distance, course, ETA, wind, gusts, sea and tidal stream on each leg, and whether that leg is sailed or motored.
- Tide gates, where the route has one, and the shallowest charted depth checked against the draft.
- Wind against tide, and charted dangers near the route, when the plan can read them.
- Warnings in force for that route and time, quoted as issued.
- A brief you can email to yourself or save as a PDF, and a link that opens the same plan again.
The demonstration boat is Shimbiri, a Hanse 575, planned on her polar. Or describe a boat for this visit: sailing, motor-sail or motor, with draft and speed. A described sailing boat or motor-sailer is planned on a generic polar, motoring at the speed you enter. A motor boat is planned at that speed. The description is kept for this visit only.
Ask about this plan
You can ask the Weather Officer about the departure you chose. The question goes with that plan.
Plan a passage
Aboard, this job is the Cruise Officer’s. The planner is the same one linked below.