Key West to San Andres Island in 54' Ketch - Advice Please

[yh4o]

leaving before sept 10,2009, any and all advise. which is most comfy way to go. speed of curents agains me?? wind against or with me ?? have no electronic charts. just 1 old chart.key west by bahama channel to jamaica and google earth gps after.any cruising guide that covers this trip???

[mesquaukee]

Fastest Way.
Go to west end of Cuba. Then wait for NE winds and head to Villarios (N15 50.446 W83 19.781) and then a straight shot to San Andreas in any wind.
Quick and neat but you need the charts. You can get them free and a charting program. Print them out for security.

[Chief Engineer]

Google Earth? What is that going to do for you? It isn't realtime

[dana-tenacity]

Sometimes I worry about some of these posts

[robw_fl]

Advice? Get a good GPS, Get the appropriate charts. Learn to plan your trip. If you have the means to procure a 54' Ketch, then you should have the means to procure a few charts and a handheld at the very least. Not trying to sound mean, just trying to say that there's no reason one should leave on an offshore trip without the appropriate equipment or knowledge of the route.

This makes me wonder about the condition of the boat, too. The safety equipment on board. Competence of crew, etc.

That said, yes, west end of Cuba, then on to SA. Current in Yucatan channel can get pretty stiff against you headed that way. As far as the wind with or against you - pay attention to the forecasts and time it right. It'll be with you.

John Rains has a very good book covering the trip from FL to Panama, which covers your route as well.

Be careful. Be safe. Do your homework so you make it there in one piece. It's a good ride. Have fun in San Andres - fun place for sure.

[Intentional Drifter]

Originally Posted by dana-tenacity

Sometimes I worry about some of these posts

I hear you. Sometimes I think I obsess too much over route and weather planning -- at least, that's what the Admiral tells me.

But, then I read posts like this one; "God protects..." Neptune, on the other hand, maybe not so much.

I wonder how they're making out.

ID

[Christian Van H]

You still have 5 days left to buy the correct charts. If you cant find out what the prevailing winds are for that time period and locale, you shouldn't be captaining a cruising boat. Any cruising boat.

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by dana-tenacity

Sometimes I worry about some of these posts

- - I second that thought. But over the decades I have seen too many cases of new folks just wandering off into the oceans with nary a worry about reality. And most of them make it to where they are going, but sometimes it takes quite a while to get there. Sort of OJT - on-the-job-training.
- - One favorite real story from 'way back' before GPS and all that stuff involved a NYC stock broker I met in St Martin. He made his fortune and while wondering what to do read a fancy magazine spread about the Caribbean with lots of photos of sailboats and beaches and bikini women. So he commissioned a new FRG boat to be built to sort of look like a pirate ship and bought a parrot and then set out from NYC "looking for" the Caribbean. After a year of wandering about the Atlantic Ocean and harbors along the way, he made it to St. Martin. By now he was very experienced (very lucky kind of guy).
We met him at Orient Bay in St. Martin at one of the tiki bars and after hearing the story noticed that he never brought his parrot ashore with him. When asked about the parrot which we could see hanging from the boom of his boat in a cage, he kept saying over and over, "can't bring the parrot ashore." Finally, the curiosity go to be too much so a group of us took a dinghy out to the guy's boat and approached abeam. The parrot saw us and started to squawk - (and you know how many times you have to repeat a phrase before a parrot picks it up) "Where the f#%k are we?" over and over. The laughter almost capsized the dinghy.