Geocaching by Sail

DRFerron · #1 (**permalink**) 08-03-2011

Do any of you go geocaching while you're sailing? Since many of you have handheld GPS units, it seems like a neat way to explore an anchorage or port.

I know there are some caches in Rock Hall and some up the Corsica River. I also read about some in the Caribbean that you have to dive to.

I look for the caches online for the places we sail to but I've never tried to find one.

smackdaddy · #2 (**permalink**) 08-03-2011

We invented something similar to that called the Global Regatta, where you race around a GPS fixed course (either 5nm or 10nm) on your body of water, racing against others around the US running the same distance courses on their bodies of water.

It's been pretty cool. Check it out:

http://www.bfsshop.com/catalog/index...p018mnno3i5fs2

DRFerron · #3 (**permalink**) 08-03-2011

This sounds like fun!

How far away can the courses be? The instructions say that there cannot be more than one in Annapolis, but if we submitted one north of the bridge closer to Rock Hall, is that far enough away from Annapolis?

I'm going to bring this up at my sail club. Maybe it'll help revive the racing on Blue Marsh Lake.

Thanks.

killarney_sailor · #4 (**permalink**) 08-03-2011

We found a geocache that someone had created on Suwarrow in the Cook Islands a few weeks ago. That was very cool since the only way to get to Suwarrow is by boat (and effectively that means by cruising yacht - about 100 boats a year go there. Quite a few people had found the cache and signed the logbook.

DRFerron · #5 (**permalink**) 08-03-2011

Every now and then I think about keeping a cache on our boat so people will have to use SPOT or something to find it.

hellosailor · #6 (**permalink**) 08-04-2011

I must admit that geocaching strikes me the same way that sailboat racing did when I first saw it from shore: "Why on earth would anyone want to spend their time doing that?"

I like the woods, I can run bearings...but geocaching? Enter location, follow bearing, find ten-foot position circle...and now what? Rummage around in the leaves and bushes to see what someone stowed there? As if I'm a DEA agent doing a drug search?

Eh, na, just has no appeal to me. I'd rather keep hiking. Geocaching, like golf, just doesn't grab me. Aimless hiking and meandering, much more to my liking. (G)