@TheEdVerse Roughly how long would it take to sail from Waterdeep to Port Nyanzaru?
— Jonathan Longstaff (@pukunui81) August 5, 2020
1)
Depends on the weather, strength of prevailing winds and currents (which vary by time of year AND weather elsewhere), and what you’re sailing (sail area, hull drag; caravel faster than cog or nao, costal raker faster still). 2)
But on average, a newish, fast large cargo caravel could make a clear-weather but never becalmed voyage in 21 days. So that’s “best case;” add on days to that total for ports of call along the way, detours for pirate or storm…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 5, 2020
Looking at maps, it seems to me like the most obvious route would be to sail from Waterdeep past Mintarn to the Moonshaes, then straight down to Chult (to bypass the pirate-infested Nelanther Isles and the Tethyr Peninsula).
Does that seem reasonable?
— Jonathan Longstaff (@pukunui81) August 6, 2020
1)
Certainly, but you’re now in the very decision-making position that most seacaptains find themselves in: do you make the faster run, closer at all times to land and in calmer, less stormy waters, but risking pirates and… 2)
…running aground on shoals or being driven ashore by storms because you’re nearer to land?
If you take the “outer run” you’ve described, sailing times increase from best-case south/outbound 21 days and best-case…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 7, 2020
3)
…north/return/inbound 26 days to: best-case south 26 days and best case north 31 days, with about a 30 percent greater chance of storms bad enough to blow you well off course (almost always east towards the coast), and around… 4)
…a 55 percent chance of heavy weather bad enough to shred a sail and cost you some lines [rigging ropes].
Sailors must make these life-and-death, profit-and-loss choices all the time. Which is why many carry extra masts and…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 7, 2020
5)
…complete extra sets of sails (costing them profits by taking up cargo space).#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 7, 2020