Decision Time

[bo12au]

Hello good folks. I am looking for a sailboat that is affordable, can be operated with one captian, and is capable of sailing in the carribean and gulf of mexico, I plan on sailing up the eastern coast of south and central America. I also want to live aboard. I have been looking at catalina 30, and have found alot of good info about the boat, but excuse me if this sounds like a silly question, but the reason I asked these qurstions is because I have researched and read that this boat is not good for "bluewater" without alot of upgrades. Would the gulf be considered "bluewater"? Again thanks to all of you for patience and understanding. Bo

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, bo12au.

I'd consider the GoM and Caribbean to be semi-protected coastal waters, not offshore "blue-water" .

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, bo12au.

I'd consider the GoM and Caribbean to be semi-protected coastal waters, not offshore "blue-water" .

Indeed...

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, bo12au.

I'd consider the GoM and Caribbean to be semi-protected coastal waters, not offshore "blue-water" .

I would agree with you about the Gulf of Mexico EXCEPT:

If you look at a chart, you'll see that much of it is pretty darned shallow. It doesn't take much of a storm to turn the Gulf into VERY rough waters. And since it's sheltered on three sides, they don't always dissipate all that quickly.

IMO a boat that can't handle high seas shouldn't be out in the Gulf unless the skipper and crew are pretty experienced,and that includes sailing down the west coast of Florida to the Keys. You can really get tossed around. You'll survive, but there may be stretches of time when you would have preferred to die.

The Gulf can get extremely rough, and the storms that cause it in the summer can come up really fast. You'll have a couple of days' warning (at least) if it's a front from the north causing the turbulence but that turbulence can, and sometimes does, move all the way down to the Keys.