Cruising along the US East Coast and the Bahamas in the fall and winter into spring, weather conditions can be quite changeable.  Frequently your sailing plan and destination for the day is not going to go as expected.  Thus, it is important you have a back-up plan so that when the weather goes bad you have alternate port(s) to head for.

More than once I’ve changed my destination mid-way through the day because weather and sea conditions deteriorated and forced me to head for an alternative harbor.

A case in point; this past winter we were sailing from the Berry Islands in the Bahamas to Spanish Wells. As we approached Rose Island area the weather deteriorated to the point visibility was bad and with the sea and tidal conditions the narrow cut we would have to traverse would have been sketchy.

Prudent seamanship was to find an alternate route or port so we fell off and made for Nassau Harbor which has a large well marked entrance safe to enter in the conditions we were experiencing.

This leads to the question of what do you tell people you may be cruising in company with about where you are going”.  I find it is best to give people a general idea of where I am going but rarely give them a specific destination.  Then if they don’t see me again for a few days they don’t get worried or at least not too worried.

If as in the above example had we told other cruisers who were also going to Spanish Wells that we were also going there and then never arrived and not been able to communicate that change to them they would have been worried and possibly reported us as overdue.  So, in general I may tell someone the general idea of where I’m going but usually not a specific place or time.
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When making your alternate plan you need to take in several considerations;

1. Where are my safe harbors? 1. If I can’t reach my intended destination before nightfall or 2. if the weather deteriorates. Safe meaning you can get into them during daylight hours, and will the harbor entrance be free of breaking waves, If I cannot make an unfamiliar harbor, even with a chart plotter on board, in daylight, especially poorly lit ones in the islands I head for one of my alternative choices or off-shore to gain “sea room” (distance away from shore)
2. Will the alternative harbor be a safe refuge, will it provide protection from any seas that might build because of the change in conditions that forced you to change plans.
3. Alternative harbors don’t need to be close by. I have abandoned a planned stop because night was coming on, my planned harbor was unlit, I had never been in there before and with the wind direction we didn’t have sea-room to heave too so I choose to sail on overnight to another harbor 75nm away but in a direction where we would be comfortably reaching to get there.  Turned out to be an excellent plan and though we had an unplanned overnight we liked the place so much we stayed 2 weeks.

What’s important is that you not make plans with blinders on!  Look at your chart and cruising guides and find several choices for alternative destinations so if your preferred destination becomes unviable you have a fall back plan.

Always keep in mind that if you find you have run out of options for safe harbor then altering course towards deep water and getting as much sea room as possible and then heaving too for the night is always a viable option.   While this option may be uncomfortable, cold and wet and disagreeable to your crew it is preferable to the alternative of trying to force a passage into into an unlit and unfamiliar inlet that may be breaking clear across, injuring someone, breaking the boat or possibly losing the boat altogether.