So... in my never ending saga looking for our next
boat, now a possibility has popped up but the
boat is lying in
Panama.. hmm.. if I was to buy a boat in the
Caribbean, we'd rather start of course with the
windward islands and
work our way down to
Panama like a gentleman, the right way
..
But, it *might* be a good option (still we'll see how I feel about that once I visit the boat) and if it turns out to be a good buy for us, we'd be faced with the question on how to reach the
eastern Caribbean from Panama..
Sure one could
cruise the San Blas a bit .. hop off to
Cartagena etc, etc. Keep us busy for a season or so. But then one would want to sail elsewhere in the
Caribbean and that means a battle uphill to reach almost anywhere else particularly on the east side of things.
I have done my homework but to be honest, I only see bad options and worse options.
1. Wait for mid-April or so and hope for a bit of south in the
wind to escape and make a run for Hispaniola .. still that would be 700 miles upwind.. and *then* you have to get out of there ASAP to reach somewhere like
Grenada before
hurricane season.. another 700 miles to go and hope that the NE trades reappear just in time. With my luck it probably would
work the other way around.. NE on the first leg and SE on the second one :-)
2. Wait for late November and risk getting hit by a late season blow.. it changes nothing on the sailing uphill department.
3. Work the coastal
route and risk Venezuelan pirates putting an end to our budding cruiser careers.. Upwind like any other option but at least working a favorable coastal
current and being able to break the trip into shorter legs. Still.. not being able to call in
Venezuela kinda erases this last advantage I think.
4. Going the direct
route like
Captain Ron would do it and just tack back and forth 1000 miles like a boss... (has anyone ever done that actually?)
5. The middle of the road.. work my way as far as possible on a SE window, when it switches back to E-NE,
head down and see if one lands in Curaçao for example.. from there a further leg to the Windwards wouldn't be too bad I suppose. This is the most "sensible" option to reach the
eastern Caribbean I suppose?
So yeah.. talk about choosing between a rock and a hard place. In fact, this has got me thinking.. how did Columbus pull this off? .. with square
sails and without grib files? .. kinda makes you wonder...