Sailed this
route years ago. Cruised the
Bahamas down to Acklins Island. Then from Acklins straight to
Jamaica via Windward Passage (WP).
Timed route to catch a frontal
wind shift and had NW winds thru WP.
Note that, at least in a NW
wind, there is a gap effect in the WP that amps up the wind speed. We had about 25 kts out of the Bahamas. That increased to 30-35 in the WP with two wave trains...prevailing waves were about 6-8' from NNW intersected by a more NNE train periodically of about 8-12'.
It was a great sail ! 😎 Surfing to 15 knots!
Lots of
commercial traffic around the E tip of
Cuba. Separation scheme is shown on
charts. The big boys were moving fast so we stayed outside the separation scheme and had no crossings with
commercial traffic.
Also see "Pineapple Cup" route. This is a
race from FL to
Jamaica (Mo Bay).