Sailing Turks and Caicos to Puerto Rico

[johnnyj]

Hello all, I am new to posting on threads. In the past have only come here passively looking for advice.

I just sailed to TCI via Georgetown and the plan is to keep heading south to Puerto Rico. I have been reading a lot of the same stuff over and over, racking my thoughts about how I should attack this. Looking for anymore sailing advice for the passage, anything would be great.

I would like to pass up the Dominican and go straight to PR.

Also, if there are any other boats in the area waiting to make the journey, would love to buddy up and caravan

I am in a 44' sloop.

The way I see it so far:

1. Wait for a weather pattern to sail East as far as I can, then head south and end up where I end up

2. South to Luperon then hop across the Mona Passage

3. Put my boat on the hard here for hurricane season then reevaluate the attack plan, but would still require an attack plan

4. Chicken out and do a nice cozy sail back thru the Bahamas to Florida (home) and charter a boat for the Caribbean. Dunno how much the chartering costs, but my boat is set up for what I like to do: dive gear, compressor, solar power, wind gen, watermaker


Any advice and/or experience would be appreciated

[laissezfaire]

Bruce Van Sant wrote "A Gentleman's Guide to Passages South"

good reading and might get you to where you want to go .
Patience is the key word.
good luck

[barnakiel]

It is "easy" from TC to PR. Just wait for decent winds an hop. A short trip and if your boat has any windward ability then it is not overly difficult. You want the motor to be very sound too. ;-)



A factor is the current that will try to take you W / NW at a rate.


The wind will tend within an angle so pick up a take off timing that helps you make you best angle.


You can PM me with your TC take off place and your destination PR wpt. I can download wx data and do the route analysis here. Then I can send you what the software says the best window is.


MIND the tropical storms.


MIND the tropical storms.


MIND, well, you know it is the time that one system is already at PR while a new one is brewing out there below CV. The one below CV is given 50% hurricane forming chance by NOAA / NHC. It will get only worse now and in Sept.



https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/



Cheers,
b.