Where Is the Best Place / Port to Find Crew Positions in the Caribbean?

[sethglen]

I hope this winters day finds you well!

I have been blessed with three of the greatest things in the world: two months of incredible sailing in Baja, a craving to sail more, and two months left (till late march) to play!

I know the caribbean is a great place to feed my craving, what I don't know is where to go in the caribbean that would put me in the right place to meet captains who need sail crew.

this site alone has a wealth of info and I have been looking on findacrew.com as well, I also wanted to pick the collective wisdom of y'all.

thanks so much in advance!!!

Seth

[Zanshin]

Are you looking for sailing opportunities or paid positions? For the former the findacrew.com website it best, for the latter I would suggest St. Martin as it has the highest density of yachts with crew and a lot of boats change or exchange crew there - as an extended part of the EU it is also easy to get into and out of and is lenient when it comes to crew lists (other countries may make the captain financially responsible for crew members who leave the ship while in country). Note that for any paid position these days you'll have to have your STCW95 at the least.

Antigua is also good place to go if you are looking to join a private ship.

[sethglen]

this is just the sort of information I am looking for. I'm trying to find a crew position on a sailboat in the caribbean and while I do have some sail experience I am not sure it's enough to qualify for a paid position.

from what you mentioned it seems that antigua may be a more effective place to find private sailing ships in need of crew?

thanks again Zanshin!

[Zanshin]

Yes, Antigua is better for a nonpaid position. Hang out at the "Mad Mongoose" in Falmouth harbour both during the day (stick around the outside with the power strips and free WiFi) or at night in the bar and if you don't make a fool of yourself and don't care which direction you are heading then you'll almost certainly get a slot. Numerous bulletin boards at the Falmouth marina and around English harbour are scanned by boaters looking for crew as well. Everyone going north or south stops at Antigua. If you can arrange to get there before either the Bucket or Antigua Race Week your chances are even higher for finding a position during either race and, if you acquit yourself well there then the grapevine will find you a slot.
I would recommend looking into getting your STCW95 while still in the USA and with that certificate and being in St. Martin or Antigua might be sufficient to get you hired on for a (badly) paid (deck hand slavery) position.

[sethglen]

excellent, so now it's time to find my way to Antigua then. I was looking at flights and it seemed expensive to fly there, is it feasible to fly to st martin then try to hitch aboard a yacht heading to Antigua? I have a feeling there are more creative ways to get there but as of yet in my search haven't found them.

thanks again for the info!

[danielgoldberg]

Go to www.sailopo.com.

It's Hank Schmitt's outfiit, Offshore Sailing Opportunities. It's a great organization that functions in some respects as a crew exchange. People looking for captain and crew for a variety of purposes.

[Zanshin]

At the dinghy dock at Marigot and also around Palapa Marina on St. Martin I was often approached by various people asking if I was heading west or south and needed crew; but I think that isn't the most effective way of doing things. LIAT will fly you to Antigua from St. Martin for about $100 so that is a faster method (although considering LIAT's flight performance, it might not necessarily be faster than by boat ).

[sethglen]

thanks daniel, I checked the sailopo site and it looks like a great resource, I just emailed hank about crew oppertunities. the site got me excited to sail larger boats!

the rough plan is to fly to st martin and briefly look for a boat from there (or at least someone heading to Antigua, yaught or sail) but it sounds like I'll have more success once I get to Antigua.

thanks for sharing your wisdom, if any more gems pop up that seem relevant please keep posting!!!!