Planning a year long trip

[Mckelley]

Hi all, I was hoping for some advice. My fiance and are planning on taking a year off from University to do some cruising. We will be starting from Cape Cod in the fall and heading south. Our only requirement is to make it down to St Croix to pick up a third crew member who will be meeting us there December 23rd. If anyone has advice on good routes, places to see, suggested literature, or just suggestions in general they would be greatly appreciated!
-Cheers!

[Cheechako]

The Gentleman's Guide to Passages South

[Mckelley]

Wow those pictures look beautiful! Great Dog Cay is going on the list for sure. Thanks hogHunter!

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

The Gentleman's Guide to Passages South

The book to read to plan this trip.

A quick summary of the main issues.

About the latitude of Florida you hit the trade winds. 99% of the time they come from the E or NE or SE but basically east. So if you leave from Florida to the USVI you are beating dead against the wind for 1000 miles. So how to deal with, minimize or avoid altogether this issue?

1. If Florida and/or the Bahamas are on your itinerary then you can island hop from Florida all the way to the VI. You can break up the trip into short legs, max about 150 miles by stopping at all the little islands, DR and PR on the way. This way you can play the weather and take advantage of the occasional front that gives you fair winds or at least do the windward bashing in short bits and rest up in between.

2. I-65. Leave from north or central Florida and sail as close to east as you can straight out into the Atlantic until you reach 65 W longitude and turn south.

3. Follow the detail instructions in the Gentlemans guide. More or less sail very early, nights, etc to take advantage of the land/sea breeze effect.

4. If you can avoid Florida then go south to NC and sail to Bermuda. From there it's a relatively easy sail south to the VI.