Hello all!
We've been planning and preparing for this trip for about a year now, so I like to think we're ready. Still, as this is our first distance
cruise and it starts with our first Gulf
passage, I find myself turning to CF for last minute
advice anyway!
The long term plan is for my roomomate and I to move onto my 1970
Morgan 38 next month (November '14) and spend the next 6-12 months cruising from Corpus Christi
Texas to Isla Mujeres, then
Key West and the rest of the Keys, then the
Bahamas by New Years, and further SE through the Exhumas, Turks and Caicaos, then the
Virgin Islands, and the
Caribbean. Then, depending on how far we can go, we'll either sail across the
Caribbean to the Caymans, or retrace our steps all the way back to the Keys.
The main thing I'm looking for here is a critique of our plan to leave from Port Aransas to Isla Mujeres approximately 3rd or 4th week of November depending on
weather. We will try and leave just after a northern front
head E/SE as far as we can until we can
head directly for Isla.
Crew and Rig: We're both 25 years old, experienced sailors for our age, in good shape, and we're very familiar with the
boat having lived on and sailed around Corpus and to Port Mansfield over the last 2 years. I'm a licensed USCG near-coastal
captain. Most of the
equipment listed below was installed by us and we're familiar with it. We've never sailed in any storms, but are
learning a lot. We plan on taking a rough
weather shakedown 3 day trip before we leave for good. The
boat is a 1970 CM-38 salvaged and rebuilt from 1980-85 and subsequently raced (winning some of them) from Port Aransas to Veracruz for about 3 decades. We've restepped the
mast, completely repaired a large crack that had been partially repaired in 1980 and actually held up all that time.
Brief Equipment List: Multiple
cruising guides and
charts for all related areas (cant wait to use my explorer charts!). Six 6v
batteries for a house bank, one 12v dedicated starting and backup
battery. We will have between 200-400w in
solar panels.
Radar, multiple
GPS, multiple EPIRBs, a
liferaft, etc for
safety. Extra tiller (hope never to need it!),
sea anchor, 2 auto-tillers. Approx 60 gallons in
Diesel total (18 in the onboard tank), 80 gal
water (just 2 people on board). The
engine is a 1985
Yanmar 3QM30F in good condition and im going to put a 70A
alternator on it (ordered) later this month. We're likely going to have a new UK
Sails headsail (135%) on our
Harken roller furling, as well as an older but good condition backup sail (light
wind 140 genoa). The main does not have lazy jacks or a stack pack, and this is likely the last long
cruise it has left in it, but its solid. We have 1 2000gph
bilge pump and a backup
pump, but im thinking about getting a handheld
emergency pump in addition to the installed
emergency manual pump.
My 2 main concerns are timing with weather and just having 2 people on a boat w/o a buddy boat. Should we be concerned with getting a SSB/HF
radio or a Sat
Phone in addition to
VHF? we will have a SPOT tracker or an inReach. We do not have a fully enclosed
cockpit, but we do have good shade coverage and a
dodger.
Thanks for anyones input! We're young but ambitious cruisers and we need all the
advice, wisdom, and critique we can get! I think once we get to Isla Mujeres, the rest will be far less... intimidating...
Hank