caribbean good or bad

[CFR]

Hi folks from Germany, I will start within the next 2 year to sail south to the MED and later going West to the caribbean for a longer time.

Now i talked with some couples who sailed arround the world which is not my first goal at the moment and all of them mentioned:

Forget the MED it is too growded with Charter boats and too expensive

Forget the caribbean because it so crowded with americans and the islanders try to cheat you all the time, the boatboys are pushy and you feel not wellcomed at all.

San Blas is ok but the only place is to go to the south pacific.......

I hope it is not that bad because i do want to skip my lifelong dream and i like the countries and the history arround the MED and i like the caribbean style which i know from 4 holidays in Antigua and Bonaire

I hope here are some longtime sailors or liveabords who can give me some personal opinion.


By the way i think apples store, google or some cellphone provider are worse than boatboys.......

[zeehag]

sprint is also worse than boat boys.
in carib i never met a boat boy but that was 2008 december....
dont go to the heavily travelled areas and go to carib is gorgeous, and have fun and dont spend all your dough on silly stuff--
go to places most of us dont go--
and shop at native markets and have fun.

[Vasco]

Try the Bahamas, no boat boys and the people in the out islands are really friendly and honest. Never have to lock a dink up, except in Nassau.

[MarkJ]

The Mediteranean is fantastic! And cheaper than we thought. We anchored and there were good anchorages in the Western Med and Eastern


Mark

[CFR]

Hii Vasco, def i will try Bahamas but i have a 6.5 feet keel

[Vasco]

The "skinny water" thing scares a lot of people but is not really a factor. You just have to be a bit more careful with 6.5 ft than 5.5 ft.

[zeehag]

lol i have 6'6--i will go to carib---- there are places with deep anchorages there and are gorgeous--didnt see any boat boys at all in a month of sailing.. where are these souls???
they werent in usvi or bvi when i was there----somuch misinformation is out in the unreal world..... is this another bit of it? enquiring mineds wanna KNOW!!!

[btrayfors]

CFR,

The Med is a very big place. To be sure, there are spots which are crowded and very expensive, but there are others which are much less so and which are just too good to miss. Especially among these are the Dalmatian Coast, the Greek Islands, and Turkey. If it were me, I'd spend at least a year in the Eastern Med before making the dash for Gibraltar and the Canaries.

The Caribbean, likewise, is a very big place. It is simply not to be bypassed. Wonderful, wonderful places to go, great people, not too crowded, and great sailing.

The Bahamas stretch for hundreds of miles. Six and a half foot draft is no problem (that's what my boat draws). You could easily spend several years there, and several more in the Caribbean.

Go with a good attitude and friendly manner. Those you meet will almost invariably return the favor.

Bill

[CFR]

nice that's what i wanted to hear, so not the whole world is spoiled.... last year i spent 4 weeks in sweden and denmark nice but the season is to short to liveaboard, this week it is rainy and 19 C only.

maybe the information is allways only negative influenced not many posting that something is working or something is nice, most of the time you read about negative things, pirates, storm, hurricanes etc

[zeehag]

bad news always travels fast and with many modifications. goood news is slow and secret... have fun and go where you dream and smooth sailing... oh--btw--didnt you know before visiting bad old danmark that they HATE alll germans and is a bad place to visit as a result (laugh laugh)--only if ye listened to my dead grandmother(rip) from danmark..LOL

[boatman61]

The Med is fine.... anchorages are there if you look for them...
The Caribe is fantastic... there's busy islands and quiet ones.... basically if cruise ships visit its pricey... just gotta pick n choose...
You'll love it...

[Unicorn Dreams]

Haven't been in the Med since the EU so can't help with cost. But as posted above, the Med is a big place.

Caribbean is big also, prices vary per country. All supplies are shipped in.
Boat boys when and if they show up IMO are usually great. Thing is if they show up, pick one and deal with him, great sources for info and a good source for fresh fish..

[s/v Moondancer]

CFR,

We have spent three wonderful years in the Caribbean, yes there are problems but...

A wonderful national park in St John
Great French bread and free moorings in St Barts
A great family vacation in the Grenadines where when asked "what was the best thing?" my 5 yr-old granson listed 10 things!
A better family vacation in Puerto Morelos Mexico
Great diving in Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba
Free moorings in the Caymans on top of world class diving
The best boat workers in the Caribbean in Cartagena charging $7/hr

So we decided to do it all again for another season but this time missing out the 20% of places that are not great...

Phil & Nell

[Surveyor]

Originally Posted by CFR

Forget the caribbean because it so crowded with americans

Is the key word here crowded or americans?

[sww914]

Some people can find the bad in anything.
Many people dream of winning the lottery. Some people can find the bad in that.
1. If you win the lottery you'll just have to pay 50% in taxes.
2. If poor people win the lottery they just waste it all in a year and end up just as bad off as they were.
3. If you win the lottery you'll just party all the money away and end up a drug addict.

I would like to take my chances with the winning part and see how I do, and I'll give the Carib a try and see how I do there too.
I think I can be happy with a few thousand beautiful islands and warm weather and I think I could be happy with a few extra million dollars floating around as well.