First solo crossing to Belize

[Wookiee_King]

Sometime near the beginning of August I will be making my first solo Crossing from Key West Florida to Belize. I will be on board an Irwin 30 that has undergone a complete running and standing rigging refit, and is much more capable of handling Ocean than I am. I've been sailing around the Florida keys, but this will be my first time making any kind of crossing like this. Any advice is welcome. Also, I'll be looking for somewhere to possibly leave it for a few months on the hard until I return. Would be open to any recommendations

[belizesailor]

Deep into Hurricane Season is not a common choice for this route.

[chubby]

just wait until december...right now is tropical storm will kick your ass season.


but at that time(december) the norther'ers will be coming ever 8 days or so...
not fun in a place where the bottoms tend to be thin sand over hard limestone..

imo, best time to cruise belize will be april (and i'd only be in belize in april)



a crossing from frorida is relatively straight forward..

just be mindful of weather and the gulf stream as always...


from key west i'd head slightly south of west until i caugh a favorable current(SW).. this should yield you a narrow crossing of gulf stream with a bearing aiming for tip of cuba..
going by memory.. but there should be counter currents off coasts of cuba too





same thing with crossing over to isla mujeres.. just be mindful of currents and where wind is blowing obviously.


mexico to belize IS cruising.. and personally i would not skip spending time in mexico...


..but IF planning to staff offshore the fishing off that shelf was excellent.

[Snore]

A few thoughts

• This is doable any time of year, with a good weather forecast.
• With a 30' Irwin, you really should get regular weather updates.
• I trust this is not your first solo crossing. There are many ways for things to happen on this run.
• Terrible time of year to be in Central America! Assuming you get there, it is entering the peak of hurricane season. So the odds of getting hit are high.

[Wookiee_King]

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of option on the time of year. I'll obviously be waiting for a good weather window. Also plan on having a way to get regular weather updates while I'm offshore. I just have to get there, I'll be leaving the boat there and flying back to it at some point. Hurricane season sucks, but I live in key west. My boat could just as easily get destroyed here as it could there, and I'll pay much less to keep it there

[sailasia]

This is not going to end well.
An Irwin 30 isn't really "capable of handling Ocean". It's an Irwin, not a Swan or a Westsail.

You say you are not that experienced, yet you are sailing solo?

Peak hurricane season in the direct path of historical storms. Look at 2020 and where you are going. Not only the tracks but how close to Central America many of these storms kicked off.

You are "on a deadline". Worst of all of the above.

You wanted real advice, well, here it is. Dont do it.

[Wookiee_King]

Originally Posted by sailasia

This is not going to end well.
An Irwin 30 isn't really "capable of handling Ocean". It's an Irwin, not a Swan or a Westsail.

You say you are not that experienced, yet you are sailing solo?

Normally I would agree with you on the boat not being able to handle big seas. Luckily I found out after I bought this boat that the early irwins were. They did not think fiberglass would last more than a few years in the ocean, so in some places it's laid up to 5 in thick. I don't really have a deadline, I just have a time of year that I can go. I basically got between August and October to make the short hop over to belize, and then find somewhere to keep it in a boat yard. And I am not super experienced, but I can only sail around the Florida Keys for so long before I have to get out there and just do it. Surely there's some positive comments coming for my post soon.

[JPK]

Really bad situations are rarely, if ever the result of one thing gone wrong. They are usually the result of a string of poor decisions. In this case, the feedback from the experienced folks in this thread is:

- wrong time of year
- marginally suitable boat
- lack of experience in similar situations
- sailing solo

If you're not willing to address 1, 2, or 3, perhaps at least consider doing the trip with one or two crew that have done this trip in similar conditions before?

[chubby]

Originally Posted by JPK

Really bad situations are rarely, if ever the result of one thing gone wrong. They are usually the result of a string of poor decisions. In this case, the feedback from the experienced folks in this thread is:

- wrong time of year
- marginally suitable boat
- lack of experience in similar situations
- sailing solo

If you're not willing to address 1, 2, or 3, perhaps at least consider doing the trip with one or two crew that have done this trip in similar conditions before?

nah..




if OP has the death wish and desires to play a game of chicken with Poseidon.... let him go solo.




no reason to put anyone else's life at risk due to his the OP own poor decisions.

[Senojev]

Had one myself and while the hull was fairly stiff every bulkhead was minimally tabbed and most of the tabbing was broken. Even in a moderate sea, you could see see movement. It was a lot of work to fix this issue. Hull to deck joint was very weak as well. Would hate to be in heavy seas.