Favorite Cruising Grounds with NO Cruise Ships

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by Scorpius99eh

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Australia or New Zealand in this thread.

OK!

For much of the Queensland coast, the only other people you're likely to meet are other cruising yachties. (Or fishermen, park rangers and coastwatch aircraft.)

[varkpilot]

Originally Posted by zeehag

if folks rat out their favorite places they will no longer be relatively isolated, would they--you must find the good places by exploration.
everyone else did that-- but then that involves weighing anchor, sailing, then re anchoring in other locales.

Zee, you are an absolute hoot!!!

[robert sailor]

Hard to beat the Marshall Islands, 750,000 square miles of northern Pacific Atolls with only a handful of boats, ultra easy to be by yourself in a tropical paradise.

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Hard to beat the Marshall Islands, 750,000 square miles of northern Pacific Atolls with only a handful of boats, ultra easy to be by yourself in a tropical paradise.

Hey Robert, is there typhoon holes that you can run to up there?

Sent from my vivo Y35 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by CHRIS V CLEMENT

Try the Sea of Abaco in the Bahamas. Check out Treasure Cay. It is advertised as one of the top 10 beaches in the world. The beach is 3.5 miles long. We had it to ourselves for the better part of 2 days. Because the Sea of Abaco is relatively shallow, cruise ships will never be a problem. It is Catamaran Paradise !!!!

Not too long ago cruise ships used to do Abaco and had all sorts of stuff at Bakers Bay on Great Guana. Those islands nearby is the dredged spoil.

[sailon46]

Cariacou Canouan St Eustace or Statia are some of my faves
Ernie on the Mary Jane

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by daletournier

Hey Robert, is there typhoon holes that you can run to up there?

Sent from my vivo Y35 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

Hey Dale,
The Marshalls start around 4-5 degrees north of the equator so a full fledged typhoon is a very rare occurrence. Having said that Micronesia is a breeding ground for major storms that get started there but move on and turn into typhoons down the line. They had some very strong winds in 2015 in Majuro that wrecked a few boats but those that had good mooring and chafe gear came out ok. I spent over a year there and there are no real holes for protection as its pretty much all atolls but if you keep an eye on weather you can simply move to the other some ideas of the atoll. Majuro is the capital and the only place to provision so often boats make up some home made moorings and probably hang out when they shouldn't. Having said that I know one couple that have made a stout mooring and have lived in the same spot for over 15 years without damage so it gets down to how well prepared you are. The reality is bad weather there has been very uncommon as its been a choice for cruisers who don't want to go to New Zealand but climate change may have an effect on that. Drop dead beautiful place in the outer islands and if your a WW2 buff there are atolls that have never been cleaned up and they are full of crashed airplanes, heavy artillery and live ammo all over the place as well as original Japanese pill boxes and concrete shelters, cool place to visit but you have to be self sufficient as no marinas or yachting facilities anywhere.

[captlloyd]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

No cruise ships in Haiti.

I am not sure if you are being serious here or not but I would like to do some volunteer work in Haiti, anyone know much about cruising in Haiti? Security?

[Hobie_ind]

Dead easy.... but may not be the answer you're looking for?

Get. Out. Of. The. Eastern. Caribbean.

Number of boats, cost, pushy hawkers & taxi drivers, etc, etc, etc, all dropped exponentially and friendly locals, quality of dive sites, overall enjoyment factor, etc, etc, increased exponentially when we turned west from Grenada.

[sobraon]

I get the whole isolation thing Saleen.

Wendy and I have gone out of our way to get out of the way.
We are currently cruising Korea. Yeah that is pretty out there but bare with me. We were told that it would be difficult, sure there were challenges that we have had to overcome, however the rewards have been simply amazing.

Right now there are only 2 active international cruising boats in Korea, us and one other from Europe. That means isolation. What it also means is that we are a curiosity to the locals and because of this we have been treated like royalty.

Korea has blown us away, the people, the scenery and the especially the food.

I know this has nothing to do with the Caribbean, however, I think there is method in our madness. Look beyond the box. If somewhere has a cruising guide it probably means that it will be overcrowded. Look for the places that no matter how hard you google you find virtually no cruising blogs or information.

That is the place you want to be at. The rewards are there for the taking.

Garry
Spirit of Sobraon

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by sobraon

I get the whole isolation thing Saleen.

Wendy and I have gone out of our way to get out of the way.
We are currently cruising Korea. Yeah that is pretty out there but bare with me. We were told that it would be difficult, sure there were challenges that we have had to overcome, however the rewards have been simply amazing.

Right now there are only 2 active international cruising boats in Korea, us and one other from Europe. That means isolation. What it also means is that we are a curiosity to the locals and because of this we have been treated like royalty.

Korea has blown us away, the people, the scenery and the especially the food.

I know this has nothing to do with the Caribbean, however, I think there is method in our madness. Look beyond the box. If somewhere has a cruising guide it probably means that it will be overcrowded. Look for the places that no matter how hard you google you find virtually no cruising blogs or information.

That is the place you want to be at. The rewards are there for the taking.

Garry
Spirit of Sobraon

Hi Gary.... Can you fill us in a bit more on cruising Korea, as that is on my research list.

I have done Japan 2 times, but know nothing about cruising Korea

1 Is it yacht friendly?
2 Cruising permit available?
3 Active local yachting?
4 Marinas?
5 Recommended route and seasons if coming from HK or Philippines ?
6 Favourite place?

[Saleen411]

Thank you all for your helpful responses.

I'm a bit surprised at the lack of response regarding the eastern caribbean.

Looking forward to many of the other locations.

[Hobie_ind]

Originally Posted by Saleen411

I'm a bit surprised at the lack of response regarding the eastern caribbean.

I just read an article by Jimmy Cornell where he gave his updated estimates of the number of yachts crusing globally for 2015. Unfortunately I can't find it now, but did find his 2011 article.

https://www.crewseekers.net/Global_C...g_Routes2.aspx

The numbers for 2015 were down slightly other than in the Atlantic and Caribbean, but it remained pretty similar to the above summary where essentially he estimated that almost 1/2 of the worlds actively cruising yachts were in the Atlantic (that doesn't include the Med) and a large percentage of those were in the Caribbean. See Part 6.

Given that, it doesn't surprise me that those who have gotten away from the crowds to find the few out of the way places not advertised in the numerous Caribbean sailing guides (complete with detailed entrance and anchorage waypoints) are unwilling to advertise them on global sailing forums.

JMCO - Just My Cynical Opinion

Edit: We enjoyed our time in the Eastern Caribbean, but.......we enjoyed our time in the other areas we travelled SO much more.

[barnakiel]

I am not going to share my best spots with you. If I do, you are going to spoil them for me.

Why not just sail around some more and then you simply discover more spots that fit your vision of paradise.

A tip: If a place is labelled PARADISE in any printed or electronic media ... ;-)
b.

[MarkJ]

I sure tell people where I think the best spots are. Nothing secretive about it.
Why should I obfuscate? Its not my island or country. Not mine to filter people.


Mark