Caribbeans to Australia in a Year?

[kookaburraII]

Hi Cruisers,


I am planning a year long sailing trip in the upcoming year and was looking at the best routes to make most of it.
I am based in Eastern Australia and don't currently own a boat but was intending to either buy here and sell it overseas or vice versa. I am more interested in the later option as sailing the pacific islands always been part of the dream.


I was thinking of buying the boat in the Caribbeans as there are lots of options, good availability of parts and I also hold a french passport which might facilitate the paperwork if starting from Guadeloupe or else.


The timing would be:
Mid-November: Arrive in the Caribbean, buy the boat and sail small routes/island hops for practicing and familiarise myself with the boat.
End of Jan/Feb: Cross the Canal
Feb to April: Sail to the Marquesas with a 2-3weeks stop in the Galapagos
April to June: Explore french Polynesia.
June to September: Head towards Cook Island, Fiji/Vanuatu Etc and
Mid-September to end of October: Great Barrier reef, Whitsundays and heading South before the Cyclone season.


I would like to know if that sounds realistic or would it be rushed?


I understand that you could take 2 years or more to take this route without being bored but I can't really afford to take more time off. I suspect that the first part (buying a boat and crossing the canal in 2.5 months) is optimistic and ideally buying a boat on the Pacific side would make thing much easier. But the options appear quite limited.
Thanks, keen to hear from experienced cruiser and explore alternative routes.

[barnakiel]

One can easily sail from the West Indies to Australia (in one year) sailing either way BUT


I doubt you will be able to "arrive Caribbean mid-November AND cross the Canal in Jan/Feb".


Or else you are one superhero boat preparateur and the boat will be in outstanding condition already.


Which might be the case. But is not very likely to be the case. If I were to use the probabilistic method of reasoning.


Imho give yourself 6 months to buy / prep and shake down. That is to say if you are a normal human and a decent sailor with sound knowledge of the regular boat stuff (engines/rigging/sails/autopilots and manual jabsco pumps (Jabsco original part number 29040-3000 et al.).


The sailing part is easy. The buy/prepare part takes heaps of time and quite some $$$.


Been there done that.


ymmv


barnakiel

[Jim Cate]

buying a boat on the Pacific side would make thing much easier. But the options appear quite limited.

Last time I looked there were plenty of boats for sale on the west coast, rumor has it that they tend to be in better shape than Fla boats, too.

And I agree that your initial time scale is WAY to fast. Very unlikely that you will have boat and yourself ready to depart the purchase area in less than several (VERY busy) months, AFTER the purchase, which is likely to take some time itself. Trying to shorten that period is likely to see you with serious boat problems along the way.

We did manage a SF-Baja-Marquesas-Tahiti-Hawaii-SF cruise in just over one year, but that was with a well shaken down (3 years of serious work and sail) boat and heaps of experience ourselves... and it was pretty rushed in our opinion.

Later we did SF-Mexico-Marquesas-Tuamotus-Societies-Niue-Cooks-Tonga-NZ between March '89 and Nov '90... and again, felt time pressure despite the fact that we were on an open-ended time scale (still going!).

It's free advice, and worth every penny, but a true account of our experience.

Jim

[kookaburraII]

Thanks for the precious advice. I guess the best way to maximise the time on the water is to buy and prepare a boat here which is quite expensive and sail around Australia/Fiji and Indonesia. Unless a ready to sail boat appears in Polynesia, can also be very costly if the boat requires more fixing than anticipated.

[kookaburraII]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Last time I looked there were plenty of boats for sale on the west coast, rumor has it that they tend to be in better shape than Fla boats, too.

And I agree that your initial time scale is WAY to fast. Very unlikely that you will have boat and yourself ready to depart the purchase area in less than several (VERY busy) months, AFTER the purchase, which is likely to take some time itself. Trying to shorten that period is likely to see you with serious boat problems along the way.

We did manage a SF-Baja-Marquesas-Tahiti-Hawaii-SF cruise in just over one year, but that was with a well shaken down (3 years of serious work and sail) boat and heaps of experience ourselves... and it was pretty rushed in our opinion.

Later we did SF-Mexico-Marquesas-Tuamotus-Societies-Niue-Cooks-Tonga-NZ between March '89 and Nov '90... and again, felt time pressure despite the fact that we were on an open-ended time scale (still going!).

It's free advice, and worth every penny, but a true account of our experience.

Jim

Jim, how long do you think it should take to do the end of your previous trip at the "right pace", without feeling rushed? Meaning from Marquesas-Tuamotus-Societies-Niue-Cooks-Tonga and then great barrier instead of NZ.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by kookaburraII

Jim, how long do you think it should take to do the end of your previous trip at the "right pace", without feeling rushed? Meaning from Marquesas-Tuamotus-Societies-Niue-Cooks-Tonga and then great barrier instead of NZ.

Sheesh! A 'how long is a piece of string' question. I don't think that I or anyone else could answer that question with any hope of accuracy. Too many variables in wx, speed of passage, length of time in each destination, wx again, boat issues that take time to cure, wx again and so on.

For instance, we spent over a year in the Sea of Cortez/mainland Mx... but could have "done" it in a month like many of the HaHa fleet do. Would have loved to spend much longer in French Poly, but visa and cyclone season issues forced us to push on too soon. The lack of good anchorages meant a short stay in Niue and the Cooks, and that was immutable. And once to Tonga the loom of cyclone season drove us south much sooner than we'd have liked.

Of course, you do have the option of skipping a few stops if you get too far behind a schedule, but that will haunt you forever ("oh, I wish we had made it to xxx") and is a last ditch thing IMO.

The South Pacific is a wonderful area. We spent 30 years caught in the "South Pacific Eddy", wandering about, visiting and revisiting the island groups and the more "civilized" Oz and NZ... and then Covid struck. The combination of the lingering effects of that disease and our natural aging have pretty well ended our voyaging days, but our hearts are still out there in the islands, never to be forgotten places and friends.

I hope that you can work out the logistics and go. You won't likely regret it!

Jim

[old pirate]

I would say “go for it” ! Where is your spirit of adventure ? You only get these chances maybe once in a lifetime. So the time you’ve allotted is a little thin. We have always wanted to do the South Pacific a second time. The first aroused curiosity. But life gets in the way.
Don’t know your boat preference or budget but there is a very capable cruiser in Trinidad ,right now,just waiting for some lucky buyer,

[boatman61]

I second the "go for it"...
Buy the boat then head to St Martin for your refit.. French, excellent Chandlers (cheapest in WI) and decent yards for haulouts.
From there to Panama is 7 days roughly but then comes the unknown, crossing the canal could be anything from a 1mth to 3mths.. it took me 9 weeks.
Also I would skip the Gallapagos, over priced and overly restrictive, save the time for the FP..
Good hunting and good fortune..

[SV Coronado]

It can be done; go for it if you don't have more time. I know people who've done exactly what you're proposing, only they started from the Med in October.

Your problem will be that you just bought a boat that is ill-equipped to sail that many miles, and you have yet to discover what's already broken. It's different when it's a boat you've equipped and sailed for a while.

[barnakiel]

I bet plenty of beautiful boats in Australia. And you are correct many owners get rid of very decent boats in Papeete after crossing the ocean. Keep your eyes open. Or leave a contact with a broker in Papeete (and Raiatea/Tahaa).


I just now had an ofer to take over (for nearly nothing) a big and decent boat in Vanuatu. But it is just to far for me and the boat is way too big for me (I am getting older).


So I am 100 sure there are plenty of opportunities close to home and at home.


barnakiel

[Pania]

Sailing a aussie boat out is far easier than sailing a foreign boat in

[El Pinguino]

There was a time, about 20~25 years ago when the Australian dollar had parity with the US dollar and you could buy in the western hemisphere, sail home, and turn a bit of a profit. These days maybe not so much.
Panama to 'Straya? I've done Northern Chile to NZ via Papeete, Bora Bora, and Tonga in four months. Didn't see much along the way though.

[RonaldL]

We are currently on a world tour started oktober 2024 in Canaries, november Gambia, december crossing atlantic, january caribbean, early February Panama canal (take an agent and do 7 days from start application to done canal), march Galapagos, april French Polynesia, may june Pacific, august notthern territory Australia, september eastern Indian ocean, october western Indian Ocean, early november (well that's the plan) South Africa.

Stressed: no way. Lovely to see the places you see. What you miss out on is irrelevant since you have not been there but somewhere else.
The voyage is too beautiful and interesting and fun to not do it because of whatever reason. So go.

However: you could also do this travel not with your own boat but crew on a boat that does this trip, e.g. within the rally of the WorldArc. That surely takes a lot of stress out of your adventure since boat trouble is than another persons job.

Look at e.g. FindaCrew for other non rally boats.

[Fore and Aft]

Ping you're right I had plenty of customers during the US dollar parity that did US east coast to Australia in one season. There was more than one couple who purchased a boat in the US then crossed the Pacific and sold for a profit which covered all their expenses. I always remember one broke pensioner couple who purchased an almost free yacht and made it all the way back to Australia. The selling price in Australia covered their living expenses for the year and they had one hell of an adventure.
Now if Trump collapses the economy to August 1974 levels when we were getting $1.48 US for every Australian dollar I will be swamped with work.
Cheers