2018 Hurricane Season

[BillsWife1]

I am hoping all of the great minds here might have some insight on where to spend next hurricane season.

We will be headed, for insurance and safety reasons, to the southern Caribbean the middle of May. I am torn between Trinidad and Tobago or the ABC's...or maybe both!?!

Ultimately we plan on transiting the Panama Canal mid-February. This gives us around 9 months of cruising time. Ideally I would love to head to T&T for a couple of months then on to the ABC's for a few more, then Columbia for the remainder of the time. If we head to T&T will it be difficult to make a passage to the ABC's at that time of the year? With the state of affairs in Venezuela I am hesitant to break up the trip with a stop in Isla Margarita.

Our alternative is to head directly to the ABC's and spend 4-5 months there and then head to Cartagena for the balance on the season.

Opinions...insights...personal experiences???

PS...Santa has promised to put the proper cruising guides under the tree to answer these questions.

[SailsWithFists]

1/3 T&T
1/3 ABC's
1/3 Colombia

But I am biased because of my love of Columbia, and not just the coast.

[s/v Moondancer]

We thought Trinidad was a dump. One season spent in Grenada with the intention of running down to Trinidad if threatened.

Loved Bonaire, spent 3 hurricane seasons there, we are divers

Cartagena is a very interesting place and from a hurricane point of view the safest.

[TJ D]

It's been a while, but I thought that Trinidad was not that great. We did not visit Tobago.

I did hire out some big jobs in Trinidad, though, and was happy. I put a new cabin sole in the boat, had some steel work done, installed a watermaker, and Awlgripped the boat, too. All was done to a decent standard, for about 1/2 of what it would have cost in the US.

That said, I would spend a lot more time in the SW Caribbean than the SE part. Say, Cartagena to Bocas del Toro. We found the cruising there to be much more enjoyable than the E. Caribbean.

I'd head west if I didn't have use for Trinidad's facilities.

[travellerw]

Do you have kids aboard?

If so... Then Grenada with a planned run south if threatened. If not, then the ABCs..

However I say the ABCs without having been there myself. I have not heard a bad thing from our cruising friends (except there are NO kid boats).

Grenada is fantastic with kids. Having kids around for your kids to play with makes the summer go much faster. We spent one season there and will spend the next season!

[BillsWife1]

We do not have children on board.

We are divers and will have a dive compressor on board.

We are currently on the hard completing an extensive refit so we should not need any major work. Although we were toying with the idea of getting new gel coat in Columbia.

Lastly, we would like to engage in some land based travel through South America including Ecuador, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia. This means we would leave the boat in Columbia and fly/train/bus it through the interior of these countries for 6 to 8 weeks.