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How do you get to the eastern coastline, i have tried to place a cv into (i think thats what its called) balboa thinking that i would be able to get to the east coast that way but my cv has been sitting just outside (1 hex) out of balboa for it seems line forever? I was able to bring the hornet down outta the east coast with out no problem but it seems like getting ships UP to the east coast has been somewhat of a mysterious???

You sail to the EC from a selected few off map ports. Pay attention to the lines on the borders of the map that connect the ports.
Balboa is on the other side of the Panama Channel, you need to go to Cristobal first

It takes time to transition from "on map" to "off map" bases, such as Balboa. Your CV "sitting" in the hex just outside of Balboa (assuming you are moving it from the Pacific) is not actually just sitting still - it is traversing the off-map distance between the hex on the map where it left the "on map" area and Balboa. If you click on the CV task force itself, you can see how many hexes remain between it and its destination. If you divide that by its movement rate per turn, you will know how many turns it will take to reach Balboa. Once it is at Balboa, you will be able to set Eastern USA (or Cape Town, or Great Britain) as its new destination.

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

You sail to the EC from a selected few off map ports. Pay attention to the lines on the borders of the map that connect the ports.
Balboa is on the other side of the Panama Channel, you need to go to Cristobal first

You've got the Panama base orientation reversed

Balboa is on the Pacific side of Panama - per the Off-map area connection table (page 98 of the printed manual), the sailing distance between Balboa and the East Coast port is 60 hexes - you won't transit the canal. The distance between Cristobal (Atlantic side of Panama) and the EC port is 45 hexes. It's quicker to sail from Balboa to Cristobal (1 hex), then from Cristobal to the EC port.

I am sure that the answer is in the Manual!

Thx guys, the hornet came into the pacific for me and i'm headed to either san deago or La. Now i play the waiting game with the yorktown getting it up to the east coast.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

It takes time to transition from "on map" to "off map" bases, such as Balboa. Your CV "sitting" in the hex just outside of Balboa (assuming you are moving it from the Pacific) is not actually just sitting still - it is traversing the off-map distance between the hex on the map where it left the "on map" area and Balboa. If you click on the CV task force itself, you can see how many hexes remain between it and its destination. If you divide that by its movement rate per turn, you will know how many turns it will take to reach Balboa. Once it is at Balboa, you will be able to set Eastern USA (or Cape Town, or Great Britain) as its new destination.

The "hex next to the off-map base" is called a "holding box", where TFs in transit are shown but each has its transit time already calculated for arrival at the off-map base. WARNING: DO NOT TRY TO CHANGE THE DESTINATION OF THE TF WHEN IT IS IN A HOLDING BOX! Since the game is not calculating a hex by hex route for the TF, if you try to change the direction of travel or destination the game has no way of knowing where it is starting from and will do crazy things with your TF. I had one "go" to hex 0,0 (which is not an actual hex on the game layout)and remain there the rest of the game. [:(] I made a change of home port when I thought it was OK to do so (the TF icon appeared on the gray map edge strip) but really the TF had just left Aden and was still in the holding box.

You can reach both Panama bases from Eastern USA (and vice-versa). It’s just that the off-map movement has different distances for both (45 and 60). Check page 98 of the Manual.

Wait, if you send a TF from Balboa to East US it does not go through the canal but all the way around Cape Horn?

No, the difference in distance takes into account the time required to cross the canal. It’ll go directly in the « holding box ».

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

You can reach both Panama bases from Eastern USA (and vice-versa). It’s just that the off-map movement has different distances for both (45 and 60). Check page 98 of the Manual.

I never knew this, but functionally it doesn't make much difference. Just a day or two in transit time for almost everything. I just send everything from Eastern USA to Balboa so that it's the shortest possible distance to wherever they go in the Pacific after that, and it saves me clicks.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

You can reach both Panama bases from Eastern USA (and vice-versa). It’s just that the off-map movement has different distances for both (45 and 60). Check page 98 of the Manual.

I never knew this, but functionally it doesn't make much difference. Just a day or two in transit time for almost everything. I just send everything from Eastern USA to Balboa so that it's the shortest possible distance to wherever they go in the Pacific after that, and it saves me clicks.

I do the same. With most cargoes having a speed of 2 or 3 hexes per phase, and given the fact the transit will take one day to cover that hex of distance between both bases (thus, « losing » 3-5 hexes of movement), it is indeed mostly one or two days off the travel time.

Say the TF is a regular supply TF from Eastern USA to Sydney, total distance is 263 hexes (or more depending on routing on-map). Round-trip is over 520 hexes, or close to 90 days for a 3-hex/phase speed (and not counting load/unload times). Reducing the round trip by 4 days will only allow one extra travel after over 20 trips... of 5 years. The game doesn’t last that long.