BYYB Forums

In another thread I just got an invitation to sail to Montana and I started wondering . . .

From where I live there is a connection to the Baltic Sea and then to the Atlantic. How far towards Montana would I be able to navigate from the sea? I know you can get into the Great Lakes and Mississippi is navigable quite high but how about other routes in the US? Are there rivers/canals on the West Coast? Maybe not, the Rockies probably make it impossible.

How about lake/river systems, are there possibilities to cruise any distance along interconnected lakes and rivers? From what I have read on forums like this or WBF it looks like people would be trailering their boats to different lakes that are isolated spots where you can sail in circles or around some islands. But you really don't cruise to any "destinations" a couple of days sailing away.

Is this correct or did I misunderstand what I have been reading?

Timo,
You could sail from Finland to New Orleans, Louisiana USA off the Gulf of Mexico (about 10,000 miles), go up the Mississippi River to St Louis (about 1100 miles) take a left and up the Missouri River to where the Yellowstone river joins the Missouri (about 1200 miles) then up the Yellowstone to Billings, Montana USA where I live (about 400 miles).  I have no doubt one of Paul's designs, built as rock solid as you are making yours, could make the trip if your sailing skills are up to it but that would be a very long sail.  (about 13,000 miles)

A bit of trivia for you.  The Missouri and Mississippi join near St. Louis and from that point on the Mississippi takes the name.  If they had followed established naming conventions it should be the Missouri from that point on.  Conventions hold that when two rivers meet the longest one prevails.  The trouble is they knew the source of the Mississippi but not the source of the Missouri so they named it the Mississippi.  The Missouri is the longest river in the United States even with the Mississippi wrongfully claiming the distance past their junction.  The Missouri is 2340 miles and the Mississippi including the part after their junction is 2320.

The Mississippi is used for shipping and even in Minnesota is wide enough for tacking so a boat the size of yours would have no trouble but the current would make it a very slow go.

I use to think that trucking a sail boat to Duluth, Minnesota and sailing out the Great Lakes and St Lawrence River would be fun but after checking distances and reading stories about weather blow ups in the Great Lakes the fun part of the trip faded.

All the same if you do come I will be on the bank to welcome you.