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The Float Plan: Routes Built Around Daylight and Bail-Outs
💡 Plan every leg to finish in daylight with a bail-out port along the way, and leave a shared float plan so someone ashore knows your route and when you're overdue.
A good charter itinerary isn't a race between the two most famous anchorages — it's a chain of daylight legs with an escape hatch on every one. Recall from earlier cards that you're the skipper of record: nobody is coming to rescue a schedule you can't safely keep. So plan backwards from a hard constraint — arrive with light to spare. Estimate each leg's time as distance ÷ realistic speed, then add margin. If your boat cruises at 5 knots and a hop is 20 nautical miles, that's ~4 hours before wind on the nose, a foul current, or a late start. Aim to be anchored roughly an hour before sunset so you can pick a spot, reset if the first try drags, and cook in daylight.
The second habit is a bail-out port for every leg: a nearer harbour or protected cove you can duck into if weather builds, someone gets seasick, or gear fails. Before you leave, ask of each passage, "If this goes wrong halfway, where do I turn?" A route with no answer to that question is too ambitious for a bareboat crew.
Finally, write and share a float plan — a simple document listing your boat and its description, who's aboard, your intended route and anchorages, daily check-in times, and when to raise the alarm if you don't call. Leave it with the charter base and a trusted person ashore. It's the single cheapest safety device you own: it turns "they're probably fine" into a search that starts in the right place at the right time.