Evening star., 1923-05-06
Cruising in Sheltered Seas

! It is the fact that this route is
sheltered which makes it of general
public interest to dwellers along the
/ Atlantic seaboard. If the project in
( volved the purchase and maintenance
! of a seagoing yacht few of us would
give the matter second thought.
! When we learn. however that that
/ marine "fivver." the thirty-foot mo-
! tor boat. with it's two-cylinder engine.
/ it's seven knot speed and it's negligi-
/ BILE carrying capacity. manned by a
| crew consisting of husband and wife,
/ can and does make the trip, we begin
! to he Interested. There are thou
( sound and Hampton roads who own
of American between Long Island
sound and Hampton Roads who own
motor boats of the kind described or
better. Year by year, in ever-incroas-
ing numbers, they are following the
! wild geese southwark
x x x
THIS trip probably is no more am
I bilious in its scope, no more eX-
rensiye difficult or dangerous. than
that undertaken annually by thou
sands Of motorists who crowd the
great national highways. One should
have fair knowledge of seamanship,
! Of the kind and amount which most
, motor-hoatmen possess.
He should know his boat. and par
/ ticularly his motor, so that if any
| thing goes wrong he can locate the
! trouble and correct it with reasonable
promptnesS. 1t may not be particu-
larly dangerous. but 1t is by no means
! pleasant to drift helplessly for hours
in the choppy seas of Chesapeake bay
or the Carolina sounds. and it is apt
] to be in those places that ones motor
/ fails him
J He should he sufficiently weather.
wise to determine when it would be
! unsafe to venture on the few laps of
! his journey through exposed waters,
where to be overtaken by bad wealth
er might prove disastrous.
He should he able to read his chart
and even to some extent the waters
themselves, for at some places along
the route the channel shifts as a
result of every gale, and in these
places it is not safe to rely implicitly
ron the information which the govern
ment has furnished for his guidance.
The trip. therefore. is not the kind
one takes when he steps aboard the
ocean liner and let's the ships officers
40 the work and the worrying. If it
were, it would not be worth taking.
1t is these very elements of personal
responsibility, of difficulty, and of
risk, present in quantities just suffi-
cient to put one on his mettle, which
make the trip interesting
Besides those elements there is one
10 cther-the lure of the new and the
of new country and differing people
There is always the pleasant antici-
: patton of something unusual just be-
yond the next bend. There is grad
. ral transformation which fascinates
him. Seagulls change to pelicans
conifers to cocoanuts; mud to coral:
} winter to summer.
This line of water communication
sheltered from the storms of the open
sea, has been surveyed and charted
by the United States coast and geo.
detic survey. The amateur yachts
man and the motor-boat enthusiast
will find full information for making
a trip from New York to the southern
waters in r handy little volume pub
Iished by that service under the name
of "Inside Route Pilot, New York to
Key West" \ companion volume
covers the route from Key West to
New orleans.