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Old 07-07-2019, 18:53   #1
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Planning for Caribbean

I'm heading to the Caribbean in late November 2019 to both get Caribbean sailing experience and to find a boat to buy. I'm planning on spending 6 months cruising the Caribbean to start and am going to make it a full time thing within the next two years. I'd like to get more experience by crewing as I look for a boat. My 15 years of sailing experience is limited to cruising and racing the US Pacific Northwest, San Juan Islands, Columbia River, Puget Sound.

My question is, where in your experienced opinions should I initially fly into, in the Caribbean, to both find a good number of well found cruising sailboats for sale as well as to find boats looking for crew? I've been looking online for the last few years but I've come to the conclusion that I need to be on the docks somewhere before I start making plans to crew (want to meet people/captains personally) and to be able to look at boats.

I appreciate your time and hope for input directly related to my question.
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Old 08-07-2019, 05:09   #2
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Re: Planning for Caribbean

Caribbean is a big place. I think rather than showing up in some random location that posting on the crew wanted thread here and on similar sites is likely to net better results then u can travel to a venue where you know you have a ride.

Otherwise go to common jump off points: Grenada, Trinidad, ABCs, Panama, Cartagena, Rio Dulce... The E coast of the USA is also a common jump off point for boats headed S after hurricane season as are some Euro venues.
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Old 08-07-2019, 05:19   #3
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St Maarten.. lots of boats end up stopping there for a variety of reasons.
Post on The Mail Box notice board and hang out at the Soggy Dollar.
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Old 08-07-2019, 05:25   #4
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Re: Planning for Caribbean

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St Maarten.. lots of boats end up stopping there for a variety of reasons.
Post on The Mail Box notice board and hang out at the Soggy Dollar.
+1 for St Maarten, always boats for sale there.
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Old 08-07-2019, 05:36   #5
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Re: Planning for Caribbean

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{snip} I'd like to get more experience by crewing as I look for a boat. My 15 years of sailing experience is limited to cruising and racing the US Pacific Northwest, San Juan Islands, Columbia River, Puget Sound.
I very much doubt that you'll find any crewing opportunities because most of the cruisers in the Crabby-ian are retired couples that aren't in any rush to go anywhere and they're most probably competent enough to manage on their own without having to put up with the intrusion of having a complete stranger on board. One of the problems with taking on crew is that the boat owner is liable for the crew's flights back home if things don't work out as planned. Who wants to risk that?
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Old 08-07-2019, 06:48   #6
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Re: Planning for Caribbean

Perhaps sign on as crew for one of the rallies from the East coast. That will give you 10 days at sea and good credentials.
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Old 09-07-2019, 02:34   #7
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Re: Planning for Caribbean

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Originally Posted by mtniner View Post
I'm heading to the Caribbean in late November 2019 to both get Caribbean sailing experience and to find a boat to buy. I'm planning on spending 6 months cruising the Caribbean to start and am going to make it a full time thing within the next two years. I'd like to get more experience by crewing as I look for a boat. My 15 years of sailing experience is limited to cruising and racing the US Pacific Northwest, San Juan Islands, Columbia River, Puget Sound.

My question is, where in your experienced opinions should I initially fly into, in the Caribbean, to both find a good number of well found cruising sailboats for sale as well as to find boats looking for crew? I've been looking online for the last few years but I've come to the conclusion that I need to be on the docks somewhere before I start making plans to crew (want to meet people/captains personally) and to be able to look at boats.

I appreciate your time and hope for input directly related to my question.

Fly into the Azores and crew on the ARC to arrive in the Caribbean by boat?
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Old 09-07-2019, 03:02   #8
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To the best of my knowledge the Caribe ARC's 1 and 2 leave from the Canary Islands and Not the Azores.
The earlier one via Cape Verde and the second straight across.
The only time an ARC touches the Azores is on the W to E return to Europe.
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Old 09-07-2019, 03:20   #9
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Re: Planning for Caribbean

Yes, look at Pilot Charts and sailing routes. If you want to hitch a ride to the Carib the Canaries/Cape Verde, or maybe Med, is where you wanna be.
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Old 09-07-2019, 03:23   #10
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Re: Planning for Caribbean

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, mtniner.
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Old 09-07-2019, 05:29   #11
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Re: Planning for Caribbean

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To the best of my knowledge the Caribe ARC's 1 and 2 leave from the Canary Islands and Not the Azores.
The earlier one via Cape Verde and the second straight across.
The only time an ARC touches the Azores is on the W to E return to Europe.
Whoops, got them backwards. Either way, the sentiment still stands; OP could consider flying E (assuming he/she is in North America) to sail W to the Caribbean
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Old 09-07-2019, 07:36   #12
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Planning for Caribbean

I concur with previous posts. Best crewing opportunities for the Caribbean are probably on the ARC boats, flying in to Gran Canaria and sailing over the pond.

If you don’t want to do the ocean passage and don’t like the crew-finder et. al. websites, maybe try to get in touch with Mike at Shrimpy’s Laundry on the French side in St. Martin. He runs a daily radio net and has a good handle on who needs what. He sorted me out with crew to sail to Colombia a few years ago. Not sure about contact details for him though.

For places to buy boats, St. Martin is a good choice. Also Trinidad. You’d most likely be looking around yards, not marinas.

I really do think you should be able to find these opportunities online though, rather than just turning up somewhere and mooching. If you do that you’ll eventually get there, but you might have to do a lot of mooching first.
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Old 09-07-2019, 07:39   #13
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Old 21-07-2019, 10:20   #14
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Re: Planning for Caribbean

Thank you all so much for your suggestions and time in helping me decide where to start looking! I appreciate it all and am researching the many options for starting points that you all suggested.
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Old 21-07-2019, 10:37   #15
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Re: Planning for Caribbean

Not sure about bringing gender into the question but, if you are female, hang out in the Rio Dulce and do the FB thing. From the looks of it, stuff happens.
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