Panama to Florida passage??

[Flying Monkey]

I am looking for a bit of thought and opinion on passage making from Panama to Florida.
I have read forum comments here. They are excellent. Seems like some folks see this as a "heck no" passage and call it miserable and difficult. I am up for hard core sailing, but I have to admit, I prefer a comfortable sail over a hard slog.

The particulars:
There is an old boat for sale in Panama. Might be a POS. Might be a steal. If it is a steal, then, I want to buy it and sail it back to FLorida for a bit more re-fit, before crossing the Atlantic (out of hurricane season ).


Part of the boat buying decision is this sail to Florida.


Sailing from Colon to Jacksonville Florida - stopping along the way, as needed for maintenance.


I will have all the time I need, so I will not be in a rush and will choose comfy sailing over other options.


Interested in routes and so forth, weather tips, spots to avoid,



thanks very much,

[Paul L]

It all depends on the time of year. Sometime near the end of April to mid May the trades tend to lay down . We had a very nice sail from Colon to the Caymans first week of May. Sailed on a port tack to just off the San Blas, then tacked and held it all the way to the Caymans in light airs and medium seas. If we had not had the patience and left a few weeks early it would have been a tough passage. The seas generated by the relentless trades pile up on that side of the Caribbean Sea.

[svninkasi]

I just did this in February. The exact same thing as your thinking. I bought a bargain deal boat in panama. It was in an estate and they more or less fire sold it rather than going to get it.

Boat sat med mored in the “jungle” for 4-5 years.

Motor was junk along with sails

I shipped new sails in. And then...

After a 3 month Haulout and much bs with getting parts ect. I had a friend tow me 2 miles out into the ocean and I set sail.

11 days , 1600 miles latter I dropped anchor in marathon fl.

Was a beat but not too horrible. Pick your weather window. The weather comes In cycles so ride one.

Feel free to pm me and we can chat on the phone. I have the whole process ironed out.

Good luck!

[belizesailor]

There are at least a couple of viable options for this run. I think there is a thread discussing them in detail already. Im on mobil app and the search sux, so give that a search w Google custom search or the "site:" operator.

However....why sail back to Florida for a refit? It is viable to do it in Panama (though surprisingly less convenient than some other options). Rio Dulce, Guatemala and Cartagena, Colombia are excellent options, much cheaper, and much closer than Florida. So why not refit more local? Esp if the boat needs some work, why take the risk.

If you want to refit near Colon then there are several decent options: Shelter Bay, Linton Bay Marina, PanaMarina. All are a bit remote so inconvenient for go'fering parts etc, but all have yards and skilled contractors availabld. At least makes sense to so this for the basics (rigging, engine, etc...) before heading off.

From Colon, or anywhere E of Colon, you get seasonal Trade Winds from about Jan-May (varies). After that they die off near Panama but are still in force well offshore and across the Carib Basin. Also get familiar with the Colombian Low. Esp during Trade Winds season this feature interacts w the Trades to amp up wind & seas off the Colombian coast. This feature can expand all the way to Panama/Nicaraguan Banks making for really rough conditions across the whole SW Carib. It usually settles down by April (see Pilot Charts).

[svninkasi]

Parts are scarce, shipping them in is a nightmare and extremely expensive. When you add in the comical lazy local business ways, well good luck on doing any major refit in panama. I have personally done it. GOTO FLORIDA! Do your major hardware items in Florida and then head to either Cuba, or Guatemala for cheap labor on the laborious projects and haul outs if needed.

[Flying Monkey]

Thanks very much for your input. This is great info, for boat refit and passage making.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by svninkasi

Parts are scarce, shipping them in is a nightmare and extremely expensive. When you add in the comical lazy local business ways, well good luck on doing any major refit in panama. I have personally done it. GOTO FLORIDA! Do your major hardware items in Florida and then head to either Cuba, or Guatemala for cheap labor on the laborious projects and haul outs if needed.

There are hard and expensive ways to get parts into Panama and there are convenient and less expensive ways. It does not have to be either difficult or expensive.

[Flying Monkey]

Originally Posted by Paul L

It all depends on the time of year. Sometime near the end of April to mid May the trades tend to lay down . We had a very nice sail from Colon to the Caymans first week of May. Sailed on a port tack to just off the San Blas, then tacked and held it all the way to the Caymans in light airs and medium seas. If we had not had the patience and left a few weeks early it would have been a tough passage. The seas generated by the relentless trades pile up on that side of the Caribbean Sea.

Paul,
Thanks. That’s good info. I am a bit confused on the route. I see the San Blas to Caymen leg. Were the winds out of the South?

[Flying Monkey]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

There are at least a couple of viable options for this run. I think there is a thread discussing them in detail already. Im on mobil app and the search sux, so give that a search w Google custom search or the "site:" operator.

However....why sail back to Florida for a refit? It is viable to do it in Panama (though surprisingly less convenient than some other options). Rio Dulce, Guatemala and Cartagena, Colombia are excellent options, much cheaper, and much closer than Florida. So why not refit more local? Esp if the boat needs some work, why take the risk.

If you want to refit near Colon then there are several decent options: Shelter Bay, Linton Bay Marina, PanaMarina. All are a bit remote so inconvenient for go'fering parts etc, but all have yards and skilled contractors availabld. At least makes sense to so this for the basics (rigging, engine, etc...) before heading off.

From Colon, or anywhere E of Colon, you get seasonal Trade Winds from about Jan-May (varies). After that they die off near Panama but are still in force well offshore and across the Carib Basin. Also get familiar with the Colombian Low. Esp during Trade Winds season this feature interacts w the Trades to amp up wind & seas off the Colombian coast. This feature can expand all the way to Panama/Nicaraguan Banks making for really rough conditions across the whole SW Carib. It usually settles down by April (see Pilot Charts).

This is great info.
I would pass on this boat if it needs “major” refit. I expect it will need typical make ready work. It will also need batteries, lines, a chart plotter and whatever other electronics were stolen while sitting for 2 years. Probably an SSB set up.

If I bought it now, and had a realistic timeline, it would probably be after hurricane season before sailing it to Florida. I have a more unrealistic plan of getting it out of there over the summer.

[belizesailor]

For a early summer run I might be more prone to take the W Carib route than a more easterly route like Panama-Windward Passage-Florida for example. Hurricanes are less likey in the W Carib until late in the season and there are more options to run and hide.

An advatange of doing some of the refit in Panama/Colombia/Rio Dulce is no worries about hurricanes. You could complete some refit/prep in summer months there then jump N in November.

In the summer months you are more likely to get SE wind shifts in the NW Carib and to a lesser degree in the SW Carib, but of course encoutering a hurricane while mid Carib Sea would be a very bad thing. Fortunately, early season storms typically originate in the Atlantic and are forecast way ahead of time...though with disturbing uncertainty in their final tracks. Late season hurricanes can spin up in the NW Carib with very little notice and very little time to react. So in late season the more easterly track could be more favorable. Personally, I would just stay the hell out of hurricane alley in late season.

[SV Sailfish]

You asked a similar question on a thread you started a few days ago.

I just sent you a second PM with route info answering your second PM to me.

How bout you go check out that 39 foot boat that is selling for $6k US dollars? Then if/when you buy it, come back here for help. (and we will all help you)

Otherwise, this is just another dreamer looking for a steal that will never be.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Flying Monkey

Paul,
Thanks. That’s good info. I am a bit confused on the route. I see the San Blas to Caymen leg. Were the winds out of the South?

Winds were primarily easterly. It was hard on tge wind to the San Blas to gain some easting, then a nice light sail all the way to the Caymans. Caymans to the Keys was mixed bag of on and off winds with the current with us.

[sailcrazy]

Following. There may be a Belize-to-Florida, and then to Annapolis run in my future, and I'm guessing this info may be of great assistance.

[txg]

We did Bocas del Toro - Isla Mujeres - Miami in April this year. All in all we had a nice relaxed trip. Some things to consider:


-Leaving from Colon is much better than from Bocas, as there is less wind in the Bocas area most of the time. We used our engine a lot on the first half of the trip and burnt through nearly all of our 190L of fuel.



-Take care with piracy. We decided to stay about 100nm off shore near the Honduras/Nicaragua border and didn't see any local boats. About a week after we arrived in Mexico, another cruising boat was attacked further inshore. See CSSN for details. Being attacked by 20 locals on fishing boats sounds very scary to me.



-If you want to stop in Mexico, avoid Cancun. It's very expensive to check in there, Isla Mujeres is at least a little bit better.



-The leg from Isla Mujeres to Miami was relaxing and fast because the currents help a lot.



-We spent several months in Panama and we loved it, but i would NEVER consider doing an intense refit there. Getting parts is very complicated and even in Panama City the chandleries are focused on motor yachts and fishing boats. Example: Our windvane is using a small and simple dual pulley block to attach to our steering wheel. This block broke on our way to Panama. In the US and in Europe it would be easy to find an acceptable replacement in every chandlery. In Panama we went to about 6 different places and then just gave up.

[waterman46]

We found that in any chandlery south of San Diego, you won't find much if anything that is not of use on a powerboat. So rigging items, etc for sailboats can't be found. And its all more expensive than in the US. We plan to bring our boat from Panama to Florida next year.