Anyone Cruised from New England to Caribbean???

Can you tell me a little about your experience? Specifically, how long did the one way trip take? What kind of boat? Did you anchor or do marinas, etc.?

I'm no where ready for a trip like this yet, but I'm just thinking ahead, while boat hunting. Thanks.

How long does it take? How long is a piece of string? The time it takes depends on the speed of your boat and whether your going offshore on rhumb lines or poking your way during daylight inside. Your talking about 1429 miles from Cape Cod Canal to St Thomas on a rhumb line, the rest is up to you.

I would say use the ICW and the chesapeake bay ,so much to see I would think one month at least probably 2 . Marinas average$ 2.25 a ft so you can add that up Most crusiers do both. I have to just anchoring but that is me . It is nice to set foot on land sometimes after a long day. BTW I know a guy with a fast sportfish that did new england to s florida in 8 days Hate to pay his fuel bill

Greetings,
Ms. GG. The major deciding factor is going to be weather. Add to that, waterway congestion, tides, bridge/lock wait times and potential mechanical breakdowns. Even if you breeze through the passage to a jumping off point to the Bahamas from the US mainland you may have to wait days or weeks for good weather to cross the Gulf Stream depending on the time of year.

Why such a hurry to get to the Caribbean? If you haven't done the ICW, there is much to see and do along the way. Take time and savor the trip. The Chesapeake Bay and Charleston are two of the highlights, but many other areas are interesting as well. Georgia's Cumberland for me is a must stop. Making your way down through the Bahamas from the Abacos through the Exuma chain is a beautiful trip with great anchorages. Then move on South. It's all good.

There are several book on the subject take a look on Amazon. under
Bruce Van Sant, various
Steve Pavlidis, various
J A Rogers Cove hopping to the Virgin Islands
Looks like a great trip and it can be made in short legs with great anchorages and Marinas along the way.
Steve W

We snow-birded from Massachusetts to the lower Keys, Bahamas, western Florida a few times, and back for awhile. Took us all fall and winter to get down, and part of spring! Then all spring and summer to get back! Still not enough time. Never got the urge to do the Caribbean, which has a lot of fun places to go sail boating, which we've done some of.
Maybe some day, but still have many things we want to do in the USA and Canada first.

I have done the trip from the Northeast to Florida around 30 times, the worst trip on a boat with 300 mile range, leaving Florida on a Monday at 9AM and arriving in New York harbor at noon on Thursday. All my trips have been as a paid captain, only once did a slow pace, enjoy the cruising trip. On that trip we left Florida in mid April, got to Maine in August.
So I would suggest a trip lasting between three days and four months!! Actually a month to six weeks would be a good time to get to Florida, then head to the Bahamas where you can spend a long, long time without ever making the longer cruise further south. Georgetown in the Exumas, Bahamas is referred to as "Chicken Harbor." At around 500 miles from Miami it is still far away and many cruisers with intentions of getting further south never get beyond Georgetown.

Won't help you much, but I crewed on a 76-foot Alden cutter-rigged ketch from Norfolk to the Virgins. Took 8 days, 3 of which were in gale (or nearly) force winds and square waves. After that, a lovely trip. Nothing has quite equalled arriving at the islands at dawn, doing hull speed with all 4 sails drawing and Jimmy Buffet on the stereo.

Many times (5) all under sail.

Running down the AICW does nothing to get you down island , tho it is a nice easy trip by itself.

NYC to Bermuda , under sail 650 miles usually 5 to 7 days.

Bermuda to St Thomas or Antigua about 8 days.Further , but usually better weather,so faster.

Great ride!

We took delivery of our blowboat at the factory in Bristol RI and eventually made it to the Carib. As a very general rule we planned 50 miles per day inland and 100 miles a day offshore using displacement speeds with a 25' waterline...but it's like they say for the cost of boats - "If you have to ask, you can't afford it." The corollary is true for asking about cruising transit time..."If you have to ask how long it takes, you can't afford the time."

and 100 miles a day offshore using displacement speeds with a 25' waterline.

Except in the Trades , did you have any 100mn days , with a 25 ft LWL??

FF said:

and 100 miles a day offshore using displacement speeds with a 25' waterline.

Except in the Trades , did you have any 100mn days , with a 25 ft LWL??

Click to expand...

We started using statute miles because of the ICW and never graduated to the nautical mile.

The majority of our offshore miles were only a couple days at a time - if we had a schedule we fired up the iron main to make it. The best memories are the cruises with no schedules.