44
votes
Accepted
Traveling to Japan from the USA avoiding air travel?
Travelling by cargo ship (mostly container but also bulk or ro-ro, never heard anything about travelling on a tanker, presumably for safety reasons) is totally a thing. More information and links to ...
- 101k
40
votes
What exactly are "repositioning cruises"?
A repositioning cruise is a one-way voyage of a ship between two regions.
Most people take cruises where the departure and arrival port is the same. This is simple since only a standard return fare to ...
- 42.4k
27
votes
Accepted
Do ships sink nowadays?
Yes, ships sink. Someone already mentioned the Costa Concordia sinking; ferries sink a fair amount as well (for instance, a South Korean ferry sank last year with the loss of almost 300 lives. On June ...
- 1,996
26
votes
Traveling to Japan from the USA avoiding air travel?
It's possible to travel on cargo ships, though I'm not sure how practical it is. There are certainly container ships sailing backwards and forwards between the west coast of the US and Japan (and ...
- 18.5k
26
votes
France to USA by ship
Freighters are an option. It's not really cheap but should be cheaper than 5k$, perhaps around €1500 all-in. In France, Brest or La Rochelle are not usual departure points, Saint-Nazaire or, ...
- 101k
21
votes
Accepted
How to get to Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai - The newest island on earth
Private yacht.
COO of my previous company would sail from NZ to Fiji and back. Often people like this enjoy the company of another person on the boat.
So either...get your own yacht, train and ...
- 158k
20
votes
Traveling to Japan from the USA avoiding air travel?
Many cruise lines offer transpacific routes. Here is one I found via Google (cruise Vancouver Japan)
link
If you want to travel regularly, this would not be the best option due to the limited number ...
- 1,298
19
votes
To travel 30 km from India to Sri Lanka, do I really have to take a 1500 km, 20 hour detour?
There are currently no ferry services running between Sri Lanka and India. There have been various proposals (some of which even started running for a short while in 2011, 2012 and 2015) but none of ...
- 8,069
18
votes
Accepted
Why is docking a cruise ship in a busy port so challenging?
Why?
All big vessels are very slow to react to changes in speed, often need 10's of miles to go from cruising speed to no motion left.
They are also designed to hold their course steady, which makes ...
- 55.9k
18
votes
France to USA by ship
Another option is Cunard's Queen Mary 2, the only passenger liner with regularly scheduled service between Europe and the USA. You'll have to get yourself to Southampton by train, but the ship docks ...
- 85.6k
15
votes
Accepted
To travel 30 km from India to Sri Lanka, do I really have to take a 1500 km, 20 hour detour?
Now, is it in fact illegal, even if I have a visa for Sri Lanka? If
it's legal, will I still have to find a way to report to both
countries' authorities about my border crossing?
If you arrive by ...
- 39.4k
14
votes
Accepted
Non-AT country citizen visiting Antarctica by non-AT country registred vessel (yacht) — do I need a permit and why?
Official response from Amanda Lynnes, Communications & Operations Assistant of the IAATO — International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators:
Dear Maxim,
Thank you very much indeed ...
- 501
14
votes
Accepted
If I wanted to circumnavigate the world by water (boat) what is the shortest total distance around?
There three reasonable ways to approach this.
Use a tool such as OpenCPN to plot your desired course.
Use the Jules Verne Trophy rules at approximately 40,000km.
Use the Earthrace route, which ...
- 32.2k
13
votes
Where can I get information on freighter travel?
There are several agents selling freighter journeys. Some of them do advertise one-way crossings but even if they don't you can always ask. In any case, you need to contact them, explain your needs ...
- 101k
13
votes
Schengen visa application while in Europe on a ship
The general rule is that Schengen visas cannot be issued at the border.
However, there are special exceptions from this (Schengen Visa Code, article 36 and annex IX) for seamen who leave service on a ...
12
votes
Firearm carried aboard an ocean going sailboat
As a retired SEAL I find the comments regarding weapon selection absolutely hilarious. If you want a standoff weapon own and know how to use an M4 / AR variant. In regards to the legality of ...
11
votes
Traveling to Japan from the USA avoiding air travel?
There's a Metasearch for cruise ships including all costs. You can do a search by region or from region A to region B.
Searching California to Asia for the rest of the year it only shows 2 cruises ...
- 111
11
votes
What exactly are "repositioning cruises"?
Q: "What exactly are “repositioning cruises”?"
A Reposition Cruise is the sailing taken by a vessel when changing homeports. While they are sometimes marketed as special guest experiences, a repo ...
- 32.2k
10
votes
Sail own boat from Vancouver to Seattle
Sure, there is no problem in doing that. You can take any route you like. After you enter US waters, you should endeavour to stop at the nearest port that has US entry facilities. There, you will talk ...
- 37.4k
10
votes
Can I travel by boat from the North Sea to the Mediterranean passing via Paris?
There are canals and rivers suitable for boats that connect the both seas.
And while rare, it is not exceptional to travel the distance. It takes time and quite a bit of money, preparations and ...
- 55.9k
9
votes
How fast can one expect to travel in an ocean-going sailboat?
Sailboats have specific routes (Jimmy Cornell wrote an entire book about them: "World Cruising Routes"), they are sailing to areas which have tailwind for the direction they want to go. If you want to ...
- 16.4k
9
votes
How fast can one expect to travel in an ocean-going sailboat?
When I sailed the Atlantic in 1980 on a 30' catamaran (a fairly fast sailing boat), it took me 22 days from Gomerra to Barbados (2800 nautical miles). We averaged something like 122 nautical miles per ...
- 99
9
votes
To travel 30 km from India to Sri Lanka, do I really have to take a 1500 km, 20 hour detour?
Ferry services have stopped. And I do not know if you are still interested in the look out for nearby airports but there is one at Madurai which operates flights to Colombo once or twice a week.
...
- 3,544
9
votes
Accepted
How can I travel to the Great Pacific garbage patch?
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch doesn't exist, not in the sense you are thinking.
The name "garbage patch" may conjure up an image of a gigantic bouillabaisse of floating trash: empty soda bottles, ...
- 8,654
9
votes
If I wanted to circumnavigate the world by water (boat) what is the shortest total distance around?
Using Google Maps, I get about 40850 km (Gibraltar - Suez Canal - Red Sea - around the tip of Sri Lanka - through the Malacca Strait - North of Borneo - South of the Philippines - straight across the ...
- 60.1k
9
votes
How to get to Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai - The newest island on earth
You could look into doing the SEA Semester Program. While there is no guarantee that Hunga Tonga would be included, according to NASA, one of their ships, the SSV Robert C. Seamans, was among the ...
9
votes
How can I book a space on a sailing boat?
There are several websites that you can use to find sailboat owners who want crew to accompany them on voyages. The largest is Find a Crew, and Crewseekers is an alternative. (I am not affiliated with ...
- 62.6k
8
votes
Accepted
Is there such a thing as individual tourism with water plane?
So, if I could pilot and rent/have a water plane, are there facilities in harbours to let me park?
Yes, lots of them in fact. For what you're talking about the term is 'moor', and there are three ...
- 84.4k
8
votes
Affordable yacht holiday around Cook Islands / Pacific Islands
A friend who cycled from London to Christchurch, NZ had to use boats for the water sections. She found FindACrew to be useful for finding yacht/boat owners who sometimes wanted an extra hand, or ...
- 158k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible