We have been living in the northern Caribbean now for almost three years full time. We live on a little hill and overlook one the countrys major
marinas, and it's only boatyard. We watch a lot of cruisng sailboats come and go. I can tell you that here, at least, the average is definitely in the 40-42 foot range. We do see some smaller ones, and rarely some larger ones, but out of the next ten that pull in here I am willing to bet at least 8 of them are within 5 ft. of 40.
After a lot of thought and
research, we want to buy a 34 ft.
catamaran for our own cruising the Caribbean and
Central America plans. That's for two of us and a dog. You should look at
draft, and put some thought into this. What kind of creature comforts do you need. Do you have to have
air conditioning? A lot of fresh water? Big
screen television? bicycles, kayaks, a
dinghy with an
outboard? You need to define yer "stuff" cause "stuff" has weight and takes up room and a lot of it needs
power. There are a lot of little relationships going on here. If the two of you need to take a small house with you, it's going to be a different requirement than if you are happy backpacking and sleeping in a two man tent with a little alcohol
stove for weeks at a time.
As for your SCUBA diving, have you considered a DC or gas powered hookah setup instead of filling and hauling around
tanks? compressors can be handy things to have on board. Most of the fun diving is really shallower than 30-50 ft. and a Brownie's Third Lung will run two divers to 60 ft. no problem. You can dive for four hours for the cost of a half gallon of gasoline. You are going to have gasoline on board anyhow if you have an
outboard on yer dink.