How do you decide where to go?

[AJ_n_Audrey]

Depends on where you are starting from and how much time you have. But always avoid ports where cruise ships dock if you can possibly do so. Also where you go will depend on your level of experience. If you are starting from the SE US, the Abacos are a great first location to be bound for.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by kmv

Hi all, I was wondering how you all research destinations and whether you use any tools?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Research: diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications, etc.


To me it means finding out about a place or a thing that interests me. Being as old as the hills and an engineer to boot, I prefer books, and on the internet, text rather than video.


I read a lot. When I moved to San Francisco in 1978, there was this little Bay to sail on. There was also this new thing called West Marine, and their incredible catalog. Often we get asked here for what's available in hardware and I recommend reading a catalog. They also had those great Advisors which are still on their website although some of the good ones have been removed. The local sailing publication Latitude 38, was very helpful, while the glossies got repetitious after a while. Kimball Livingston's excellent Sailing The Bay was superb and I'd read his SF Chronicle articles before the City turned its back on its local wonder of its own waterfront.



For locations, I read a lot.


In mid-2016 we had to move to BC to support my late then 95 year old f-i-l. I returned to SF a month later to bring the boat up. I knew where to stop because I'd read and saved George Benson's trip narrative about his trip up the coast 15 years or so earlier. I've posted and linked to my log often on this and other boating forums.



Repeated requests about how to bring your boat back from the Sea of Cortez to San Diego without going to Hawaii !!! leads me to offer to send the questioner a copy of an article from Cruising World magazine about how to harbor hop up the coast that I scanned and saved.


Once we moved here, I read Wagonners Guide about places to go and spent the first season going to as many as I could to find the ones I liked, and some of the trips were the one-and-done kind that were nice but not worth repeating. I did find "my favorite anchorage" four hours away and have gone back often.


That's how I did and do it.


Good luck.

[jim King]

Definitely the Covid issue is top. I was going to go to the BVI next month and discovered that they would require 8 days quarantine on board then back to Roadtown for another test, then 8 more days of no sail. I checked with the Exumas out of Nassau and found they have very limited restrictions and will allow sailing up and down the cays with a check in at Staniel Cay after five days to do an additional test then we are free to roam.
So many ports, so few available. All the Bahamas look good for now.
stay safe. wear a mask for my sake. I will for yours.
Jim

[Greg K]

Originally Posted by kmv

Hi all, I was wondering how you all research destinations and whether you use any tools?

How do you assess safety/amenities and what do you look out for?

Thanks in advance!

I have always found the IMRAY pilots very helpful for cruising pretty well anywhere if you're in the Med. Lots of cruising guides out there for other regions as well no doubt.


For our area, the Balearics, The Baleares Pilot is excellent.

https://www.imray.com/Publications/I...nean/IB0231-1/

[Montanan]

"Gentlemen don't sail to weather."

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by jim King

Definitely the Covid issue is top. I was going to go to the BVI next month and discovered that they would require 8 days quarantine on board then back to Roadtown for another test, then 8 more days of no sail. I checked with the Exumas out of Nassau and found they have very limited restrictions and will allow sailing up and down the cays with a check in at Staniel Cay after five days to do an additional test then we are free to roam.
So many ports, so few available. All the Bahamas look good for now.
stay safe. wear a mask for my sake. I will for yours.
Jim

Eleuthera (excluding Harbour Island and Spanish Wells) and Exuma (excluding Exuma Cays)

A weekday curfew is in effect from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m., Monday through Friday. On weekends, a 24-hour curfew will be implemented, beginning 6 p.m. on Friday through 5 a.m. on Monday.
During weekend curfew hours, businesses, grocery stores and restaurants will remain closed.

All bars on Eleuthera and Exuma will be closed, including restaurants connected to bars.

At this time, no domestic inter-island travel into or out of Eleuthera or Exuma is permitted.

Anyone travelling from Exuma or Eleuthera to any other island in The Bahamas will be required to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test.
Due to the fluidity of COVID-19, the Government of The Bahamas will continue to monitor cases across the islands and loosen or tighten restrictions as needed.

[Onthehard]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

"... and on the internet, text rather than video."

I thought I was the only one. Thanks!

[Palarran]

First I start out with Google Earth, spin it a few times, and see what interests me. Then I use Youtube to get excited about it. Finally I'll get pilot books for the area and study them for a year or two.

Of course, somewhere in the process I inform my wife of the plan and get a little feedback.

[belizesailor]

Two primary factors for me. 1, is it somewhere I want to go. 2, opportunity.

I spend a fair amount of time sailing on other peoples boats too, so Im not limited just to where its convient to sail on mine. Example, I doubt I would undertake the long upwind bash to get from Panama to somewere N & E enough to get to the Azores (I KNOW my wife wouldnt!), but a friend was sailing from NY to the Azores a couple of years ago so I did all my NE'sting on a plane!

This has the added advantage of motivating me to sail places where I might not normally. I never really gave the Azores much thought before, but the Azores are awesome!

[JPA Cate]

Ashore in the Tuamotus, with David Sadler, formerly owner of Sadler Yachts, we heard him say, "I hardly ever sail to windward.... But I am known to change my destination -- often!"

As others have said, picking places to go has never been a problem. Avoiding cyclone/hurricane seasons provides a format, and allows for annual haul outs.

Pilot charts, Lonely Planet guidebooks, cruising guides, ham radio or marine SSB, the latter is especially good for info about what's been happening on the ground in the recent term. Everything else is somewhat out of date.

Ann

No matter where we go, there we are!

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by bobnlesley

If your destination's more than five hours to windward, then it's wrong, go somewhere else and have another look tomorrow. So sayeth the man whose last passage ended with a 4-day windward beat into NZ.

This really depends on what you have decided to do. Our first year out, after we decided to go back to the States to work from Bora Bora, we sailed ~6,800 n. mi. to windward to accomplish that goal. It helps to have a boat that is sturdily constructed, and goes to weather well. And to have the confidence to do it, just one watch at a time.

Honestly, imo, people should be prepared to go where they want to go, and just do it, as we did when racing. Select an appropriate sail plan, ease everything so you're not pounding and shaking the boat with every thud, and continue on your way.

Ann

[theBigKahuna]

I always liked the line from A Knights Tale (great feel good movie IMHO).

"Don't be foolish, William, you just follow your feet."

[Amapola]

Our destinations start with weather. We prefer warm weather, thus we live in Florida. Before the move we lived and cruised in the Chesapeake Bay area. Every few years, we go back there to visit friends and family. We return to Florida when the weather gets cooler. Our alternate cruising area is the Florida Keys and the Caribbean for the beautiful water. We generally don't cruise there during hurricane season. To select a specific destination, we mainly use charts, cruising guides, and the internet.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

Weather, if it's cold go towards the equator and if it's hot towards the poles.

Originally Posted by mvmojo

My primary navigational instrument is a thermometer! When it starts going down, I start going south. When it starts going up, I start going north.

Indeed.
We northerners, sail south, until the butter melts.

A friend of ours tie-wrapped a snow shovel onto his bow pulpit.
When a dockhand asked him what it was, he felt he’d found a home.

[Scorpius]

[QUOTE=GordMay;3280639]Indeed.
We northerners, sail south, until the butter melts.

A friend of ours tie-wrapped a snow shovel onto his bow pulpit.
When a dockhand asked him what it was, he felt he’d found a home.[/QUOTE]


From Tom Lewis's song "Marching Inland" (based on the story of Odysseus from Homer's Odyssey):

I'm marching inland from the shore, over m' shoulder I'm carrying an oar,
When someone asks me: "What - is that funny thing you've got?"
Then I know I'll never go to sea no more, no more,
Then I know I'll never go to sea no more!