Sailing From NYC to the Dominican Republic

[sailing365]

Hello Everyone,

I want to buy a sail boat. I want to travel to the Dominican Republic. I have been told that it takes around 7 days to get there. im looking for a month vacation. spending 14 days traveling, round trip and the other 15,16 days enjoying the island. I will be traveling alone or with another person max. I want to take some sailing classes before I head out. I need help with information on the sail boat. can anyone please tell me if I can make it comfortable to the Dominican Republic with a 30ft? I was reading an article and the person said that he experienced 40ft high waves going to the Caribbeans. is this legit? I got a little worried after reading that I may experience waves bigger then the sail boat i'm trying to buy. I'm not trying to spend more than 40k on the sail boat. background: i'm a newbie, I have never sailed before, this will be my first adventure in the ocean.

thank you for your help.

[maine50]

Hate to rain on your parade. This is a 10 to 12 day trip for a 30 ft boat with a very experienced crew with a perfect weather window & conditions. It's not a trip for a newbee.

[dfelsent]

But don’t let that rain and truth stop you from sailing!!! Start smaller and simpler and build to the trip to the DR.

[huramentzefix]

I think something got mixed up in regards of 7 days and 40 ft.
It will be 40 days and 7 ft.

This person that said he had seen 40ft waves has never seen 40ft waves in his lifetime and never will.

you can not just go alone. what do you want the boat to do when you go to sleep? wait for you to wake up?
you have to plan your passage so that you can go into a marina every night and depending on distances between marinas you can't do that. or you have to check for anchorage. sometimes there is strong winds and you can't make it to a marina or you can't enter single handed and overly exhausted. you will be exhausted if you can survive it at all because of mistakes that you make when you are exhausted.
how and what do you eat and drink in these 14 days of your journey, who is preparing meals if you are steering 24/7?

you are out there on your own and inexperienced. if you get sick or hit by the boom, that's it.

like maine50 says, you need experienced crew and people that you have been to sea with before, on a longer passage. you might leave with 3 others and they will be all sea-sick under deck drinking your water.

it's not a walk in the park and if you are under time-restrains then don't go at all.

like dfelsent says, buy a windrider 16 in your area for 2000$ and take each person that you had in mind for your trip out on a turn with you and see how they react. you need at least 6 helping hands, not 450lbs ballast.

[Ben]

Originally Posted by sailing365

Hello Everyone,

I want to buy a sail boat. I want to travel to the Dominican Republic. I have been told that it takes around 7 days to get there. im looking for a month vacation. spending 14 days traveling, round trip and the other 15,16 days enjoying the island. I will be traveling alone or with another person max. I want to take some sailing classes before I head out. I need help with information on the sail boat. can anyone please tell me if I can make it comfortable to the Dominican Republic with a 30ft? I was reading an article and the person said that he experienced 40ft high waves going to the Caribbeans. is this legit? I got a little worried after reading that I may experience waves bigger then the sail boat i'm trying to buy. I'm not trying to spend more than 40k on the sail boat. background: i'm a newbie, I have never sailed before, this will be my first adventure in the ocean.

thank you for your help.

I can tell you my experience sailing from NJ to the BVI on a 28 foot boat (a Saber 28), back in 2006-2007. I had the boat for many years prior, sailed her as far north as Maine, south to North Carolina (around Cape Hatteras), and many points in between, as well as a prior trip to Bermuda. The boat was surveyed for offshore and had a thorough rigging inspection by a professional as well as new rigging. I had one old sailing buddy along as crew. We studied the weather and chose a time when all looked clear.

We went first to Bermuda, and that leg took 10 days. It should have taken 7 days but we ran into a helluva storm that beat us up for a few days while we were in the Gulf Stream hundreds of miles offshore. Winds 40-45 knots with periods of 50 knots sustained. This was not forecasted, but forecasts are not accurate a week out. Winds were out of the SE so we could make no headway SE toward Bermuda. Under 3rd reef and a scrap of jib I pointed the boat S into the Gulf Stream and though it looked like sailing the GPS showed we were staying in one place - being in the Stream was like being on a treadmill moving but not getting anywhere. Finally the wind slackened and veered SW and we were on our way. In Bermuda we learned that many boats had been rescued so we were thankful to have made it in by ourselves.

After a week or so partying in Bermuda we set off for Jost Van Dyke. One day out there was a loud bang like a pistol shot as one old bolt on the mast parted. Unfortunately that one bolt held two tangs to which all 4 lower shrouds were attached. It was 30 year old bolt that had been overlooked in all the inspections. I thoroughly believe that if you have a flaw, no matter how small, the sea will find it. I saved that bolt, what was left of it, as a reminder of this principle.

Without the lower shrouds the mast would bend frighteningly so we took down all sail and motored back toward Bermuda. We had an Atomic 4 gas engine with 20 gallons of gas and 5 more in a jerry jug, just enough gas to get us back. If the bolt had parted one day later I would not be writing this now. I wrapped a halyard around the mast at mid height and snugged it down on deck to keep the mast from bending in the middle. When that halyard snapped I used another one. Finally we ran out of halyards and the mast snapped in half as we bounced on a wave. I ran forward with wire cutters to cut the rigging away before the mast could hole the boat.

We ran out of gas just as we passed the sea buoy for St. Georges and had to call for a tow into the inlet.

Having a new mast fabricated in Florida and shipped to Bermuda took many months. I renewed my visa so many times that I ran out of renewals and had to leave Bermuda by plane and come back to start the process over again.

Of course by the time I was re-rigged my sailing buddy had run out of vacation time, so my second attempt to sail to Jost Van Dyke was with a Bermudian I met in a bar. We did the trip in a pleasant 8 days without incident.

This was the prelude to a decade of winters I spent sailing all over the Caribbean in that amazihg Saber 28.

I don't think 7 days is realistic but with better luck your trip could be a lot faster than mine. What route are you planning on?

[belizesailor]

You should look for another source of information. At best 7 days will get you from NYC to Bermuda. Thats not including delays for weather or other factors.