[PUP] Spacing in Mexico

[Les Dobbe]

Hello Scott,
    I've thought about this a number of times.  I think I will speak to your 
"group" leader and see what their thoughts are.  I personally would like to 
distance myself from the smaller boats that will potentially have less 
overnight open water sea time.  I could envision heading offshore 5 miles 
and then form the V shape that Milt Baker used on the Med trip.  I also 
experimented with spacing this summer on the trip to AK.  I found that a 
mile is about the minimum I would feel comfortable with.  I have always 
planned my overnight passages to arrive sometime after dawn.  This gives us 
the entire following day as a buffer for the unexpected and eliminates the 
rush to arrive before nightfall.  With that said, I'm not sure I want to be 
in the same area in the dark with all of these boats converging on a single 
point.  My thought here again is to run a parallel course, in V formation, 
to a point outside of the arrival point.  When we hit that waypoint we can 
cruise back towards shore, 3-5 miles, and arrive at our destination.  With 
this sequence and seperation our chances of having an incident may ease some 
of the tension.  We may potentially only have to watch out for our group.
Les Dobbe
"Voyager"
Selene 53
>
>>Having discussed all this, I'm really
> wondering how the FUBAR is going to
>>play out?  We were three boats sharing an
> ocean for 3 days.  That's going to
>>be 60 boats for two weeks.  I can only
> imagine the fun that's going to
>>result!!!!