Circumnavigation

[KJ]

Does anyone know if anyone has circumnavigated the Caribbean in a trawler? KJ

 

[Marin]

You might want to ask your question on the Trawlers & Trawlering site (T&T). If you aren't familiar with it here is the home page for its various forums including the original T&T. http://www.trawlersandtrawlering.com/index.html I have not participated in T&T for a long time, but there were regular participants who had done or were doing extensive cruising in that area as well as Central and South America. So it might be worth asking on that site, too.

 

[Steve]

These folks, and others, have done most of it. Once you leave Miami it looks like you can Island hop on down to Trinidad and Venezuela with less than a hundred miles between the shores. Then along the coast to Central America and back up to the US direct or along Mexico.


http://www.cruisingfrancesca.org/cf_021.htm

Steve W

 

[johnma]

The best cruising guide i have ever read for the area is "A Cruising Guide to The Caribbean and the Bahamas" by Jerrems Hart and William Stone in 1979. They used both sail and trawlers. The Venezuelan and Columbian coast can be very unforgiving once you are out of the lee of the ABC Islands and the Margarita group. 12-20' seas are not unusual. I have gone to Aruba every April for the last 30 years and generally will charter for a few days. the wind blows at a steady 20 kts so it can be a wet ride. The trip through the Bahamas is great but the run from the Turks and Caicos to Puerto Rico is a long open water ( 450 miles) run. Once you make the Virgins you will never be out of sight of land all the way to Trinidad. Then you have a 500 mile open water run to Bonnaire. you don't want to go anywhere near Venezuela. Very unsafe for gringos.
I've done a lot of pieces of this trip over the years but never the whole thing. Have never been to the Central American coast.
John