Sailing From Sydney to Mexico

[ffestugato]

Hi guys

My wife and I are planning to sail from Sydney AUS to Los Cabos MEX in a 36f sail boat though the Pacific ocean soon.
We are not experienced sailors but both of us use to be on an intense contact with the ocean and we know it. Of course we will be training before start it.
Iv got hundreds of question to ask but the main ones are:
The best route?
Better time of the year for start?
The best devices?
How to make a good training?
Chances of Sink?
Any idea of cost?
Need gun on board?

Please fell free to say whatever you want bout it. We are listening everybody.

Thank you
ffestu a yahoo.comm

[StuM]

North to Japan, across to US and back down the coast.
Spring
Liferaft and EPIRB
Go sailing
3.278%
Including boat?
Definitely. The bigger the better.

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by ffestugato

Hi guys

My wife and I are planning to sail from Sydney AUS to Los Cabos MEX in a 36f sail boat though the Pacific ocean soon.
We are not experienced sailors but both of us use to be on an intense contact with the ocean and we know it. Of course we will be training before start it.
Iv got hundreds of question to ask but the main ones are:
The best route?
Better time of the year for start?
The best devices?
How to make a good training?
Chances of Sink?
Any idea of cost?
Need gun on board?

Please fell free to say whatever you want bout it. We are listening everybody.

Thank you
ffestu a yahoo.comm

Best route - is the longest route with the most sun.
Leave after christmas befire the next christmas after july and miss the worst of the weather.
Epirbs, chart plotters, HF radio and an ice maker for cold drinks.
Cost, not including the boat and its needs. You need to include, food, customs and gratitudes and drinking money.
Gun? Only if your American. If your australian, you cant get a license to carry one on board anyway.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, ffestu.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by ffestugato

My wife and I are planning to sail from Sydney AUS to Los Cabos MEX in a 36f sail boat though the Pacific ocean soon.
We are not experienced sailors
m

Its one of the most difficult passages anywhere in the world. Its extremely long, against the wind, difficult to juggle different cyclone seasons and very few ports for sail boats nor facilities along the way.

You would need to be in the expert category to do it.

Further, I doubt any person on this forum, except Evans Starzinger has done the passage. And he did it on a purpose built long range passage making aluminum boat.
And he was an expert before he did it.
So advice here, unless from him, is of little real value.

Except Stu's 3.2% chance of sinking. As you are a novice sailor I would put that higher.

Mark

[meirriba]

Invest in Jimmy Cornell's books.
Many answers there.

[seasick]

My brother and I sailed different boats in company to New Zealand from the US west coast in the early 80s. I carried on around the world and he pounded his way back to Hawaii via Fiji and the Line Islands. In the mid 70s I sailed from Samoa to the West Coast. On the same boat via the Phoenix and Line Islands again quite an upwind slog but not altogether unpleasant. My sister chose a route ESE from Auckland to the Socieity Islands and then had a better point of sail to Hawaii and the west coast.

All quite doable but none a great option for the uninitiated. Gun? I wouldn't think so. Chances of making it? The boat will have an easier time of it than you will, not the most pleasant ride.

Australia, up the east coast to Indo then work your way to Japan. Then a good sail in season to the west coast. I haven't done this route but many have. Or you could as I did, go west across the Indian Ocean and Atalantic to Panama and up to Mexico. Certainly a longer route but downwind and this makes all the difference. Five minutes pounding into it equals five days running in my book.

My question to you is, if you haven't got the boat already why subject yourselves to this voyage? Boats are much cheaper and more plentiful in Mexico. Buy one around Mazitlan and cut your chops in the Sea of Cortez where conditions are relatively forgiving then head out and explore the Pacific on your way back to OZ where you can sell your boat and recoupe a good portion of your expenses? Better yet forget Mexico and go explore the Barrier Reef which, heading north, is some of the best sailing on earth.

Cost? From $500 a month to the moon. Chances of sink? Make every effort to keep the water outside where it belongs or to get it back there when it does come in.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by ffestugato

Hi guys

My wife and I are planning to sail from Sydney AUS to Los Cabos MEX in a 36f sail boat though the Pacific ocean soon.
We are not experienced sailors but both of us use to be on an intense contact with the ocean and we know it. Of course we will be training before start it.
Iv got hundreds of question to ask but the main ones are:
The best route?
Personally... NZ, Mexico... with a possible stop on the way..
follow the winds and currents for a fast passage E and N to the equator.. where you cross it is variable depending on each year..
Better time of the year for start?
Summer
The best devices?
No Comment
How to make a good training?
Circumnavigate Australia with only 3 stops leave Sydney - Darwin - Perth - Hobart then back to Sydney.
Chances of Sink?
50/50
Any idea of cost?
Not a clue
Need gun on board?
If you feel like that.. leave her behind..

Please fell free to say whatever you want bout it. We are listening everybody.

Thank you
ffestu a yahoo.comm

Enjoy...

[dagranger]

Best route via 747 to so cal buy boat in sea of cortez then have fun..I'm guessing you have no idea of how long and difficult the trip...the wear and tear on the boat will be more money than the flights. that 36 ft sailboat will shrink in size real fast..Don Friday Harbor

[redhead]

I remember reading someone's blog about buying a catamaran in Thailand, sailing to Japan, then Aleutians and then down the US coast. I looked at the currents and although a very long trip it made sense.

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by dagranger

Best route via 747 to so cal buy boat in sea of cortez then have fun..I'm guessing you have no idea of how long and difficult the trip...the wear and tear on the boat will be more money than the flights. that 36 ft sailboat will shrink in size real fast..Don Friday Harbor

Since you are specific about the size of the boat, I am guessing that you already own it. But I really agree with the advice quoted here. Get yourselves to La Paz. Great cruising community and yacht brokerage there.

Cabo San Lucas is a whole lot more for $port fi$hing than for for cruising sailors. I spent ONE NIGHT in a slip there way back in 2008. The cost THEN for my 36 ft boat was $147. I also bought some laundry soap. 1 liter cost me $20.

[TacomaSailor]

Friends did the route
Seattle - Mexico - S. Pacific -New Zealand - SE Asia - Japan -Seattle

in their Lord Nelson 41 (big heavy trade wind boat)

They were very experienced (two trips Seattle to Mexico and back, one trip Seattle - Hawaii - Alaska - Seattle) BEFORE they left Seattle for the Pacific Ocean circumnavigation.

The beat from SE Asia to Japan and then the beat to the Aleutians and close reach down to Vancouver Island was the "worst sailing experience" they ever enjoyed. I've see a lot of video of the the Japan - Seattle leg and would not have wanted to be out there.

Japan to Seattle - Cold, big seas, wet, cold, windy, storms form quickly, cold, wet... you get the theme

It is not a pleasant trip and I wonder why you would want to do it.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by dagranger

Best route via 747 to so cal buy boat in sea of cortez then have fun..I'm guessing you have no idea of how long and difficult the trip...the wear and tear on the boat will be more money than the flights. that 36 ft sailboat will shrink in size real fast..Don Friday Harbor

Probably the best answer yet.
To the OP...Why Cabo San Lucas. It's a pit of drunk tourist, parasail vendors that fly their clients 4 ft. above your mast while motoring in to the marina, exorbitant slip fees. foul tasting R.O. water and literally,a cigar vendors every 100ft. along the seawall selling drugs. Other than that it's a nice place

[patprice]

Whichever route...take about 3 years and enjoy!

[TacomaSailor]

My preparation for sailing from the NorthWest United States (Puget Sound) to Mexico and beyond included several forays into the Pacific Ocean and one trip UP the West Coast of Vancouver Island into the cold prevailing NW winds and swell. It was an excellent shakedown and learning experience.

I had done many Swiftsure sailboat races as a crewman, which in the 1970's went out to the lighthouse boat in the Pacific ocean. That was good education about the technical aspects of high performance sailing in the cold and damp North Pacific Ocean. But the trip on my own boat, as skipper and decision maker, 100-miles offshore at 50 degrees N was whole another experience.

The trip from Japan to Vancouver Island/Pacific NW will take you to at least 49 degrees North and into some very cold air and water. If you have not sailed for days at a time in 50 F degree water and 52 F degree air you have no idea how debilitating the cold can be. My friends said they went two weeks without seeing a day of sunshine or temperatures above 53 F degrees. Many of the days were foggy or had light mist - those two weather features just suck the heat out of you, no matter what you wear.

Therefore, you need some extensive sailing/living aboard experience in YOUR boat at 49 South.

A 3,045 NM NONSTOP trip from Sydney to the south end of Tasmania then SSE to Auckland Island at 50.5 South and back to Sydney would give you a good feel about the 4,100 NM challenge of Japan to Vancouver Island NONSTOP. At the end of the Auckland shakedown you will be back at home if you find cold water/high latitude sailing is not to your liking.

If you wait to test yourself NE of Japan it will be a long slog home.

Our boat has a superb diesel heater that forces air into every compartment. I've spent over 70-days sailing offshore in the cold Pacific waters north of San Francisco and was only warm on a few of them. I've taken four boats from Seattle to Mexico and in everyone we ran the heaters pretty much non-stop until south of San Francisco.

I spent my 50th birthday sailing south under a spinnaker 30-miles west of Vancouver Island at 48 N in bright 54 degree sunshine on July 27 - just about the warmest day of the year in that part of the world. We spent 30-days sailing between 45 and 51 N in July (the northern hemisphere summer) and saw fog on 15 of them, more than 4-hours sunshine on 5 and light mist on 10 days.

That will be you weather from the SW tip of the Aleutian Islands to Vancouver Island and on south to San Franciso - about 2,900 miles or 20 days in a fast 35-foot boat.

But - a cabin heater is about the last thing you need in Mexico and we did not use ours once in the three years down there.

You will have to equip your boat for special Japan to San Francisco conditions that you probably won't see anywhere else. Is it worth it?