Baltimore, MD to Eastern Caribbean by way of Central America

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Well, you have the boat for it. Best wishes, and will follow along. Just finished watching "The Wire" for about the 5th time. I would be heading for the Caribbean also. :)
 
Scott

There are several Krogen 42s which seem to come and go in the Eastern Caribbean. We look forward to seeing you arrive.

Fair winds and calm seas.
 
I enjoyed your blog. I will be following along.
 
I read your rebuild blog also and found it rather appalling the condition your KK42 was in due to original construction flaws.

Especially shocking was the nail that was glassed in.

Another TF member posted a Yachtworld link to a KK42 in the Keys that was re-powered with a Yanmar. I was wondering why he chose that route rather than a rebuilt Lehman like you installed.

At any rate, you did a fantastic job on your boat and I am quite envious. Enjoy your journeys!
 
I was quite shocked at a number of things I encountered, that I would consider to be factory flaws. My hull is #61, I have been told they did improve a bit later, but you wouldn't know unless you tore it apart....
I think the design is fantastic, but quality control not so much!

I chose to repower with the Lehman 120, because the original was a running takeout. That left me with a wonderful assortment of usable/tested spares. I also didn't want to reengineer mounts, shaft, gear box etc. Again time and money, the goal was to cruise, not perfect the boat. So compromises where made.

If money and time were not a concern, a newer motor would be nice for part availability, but would still want a naturally aspirated, mechanically injected motor.

Scott
 
Had the pleasure of being invited aboard Sealife to spend the afternoon with Scott and Caroline. What a project these two just completed! It's hard to imagine what condition this KK42 was in when they started. She's a fine looking vessel now and the crew are pretty good people also. :thumb: If you see them on their way south, go on over and say hello. :)
 

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Thanks, Larry, for posting the photos. I have been following their journey, and it sounds idyllic. It is really nice the way that they are enjoying the cruising life. My little granddaughter always wants to know "how Howard is doing." :) I am hoping she will be a cruiser someday.
 
Thanks for posting update Larry. We now have internet again. Caroline will be catching up on blog about trip here etc. I may start a new thread...
 
After almost 2 weeks we will be moving on to Roatan this weekend for a while, before returning here to Guanaja. We will spend some time(waiting on refrig components) before checking out and heading to Providencia on our way to Panama. Guanaja is excellent, cheap to check in, safe, friendly, water is cleanest we've seen yet.
 
I love the little pizza place you found owned by the German dude. What a cool find. You are doing the exact kind of cruising I want to do one day, but I'm getting older every day (obviously, but you get the point), and I keep wondering if I'll ever get anywhere.

Moral of the story, go cruising ASAP. Don't wait for everything to line up perfectly.

OK, I'm done whining...
 
An update for those intersted and not following the blog:

Well, Roatan was interesting. Very touristy, very few locals fish, all involved with the tourist industry. Everyone takes US$ and credit cards, unlike Quanaja which take neither. French Harbor area has an Ace Hardware(just like the US), and several other very good provisioning stops. It is so good in fact, that after fixing the fridge/freezer debacle, the wife has requested a return visit to fill up on frozen goods. So we will return to Roatan, then back to Guanaja for a third time before leaving for good for Providencia enroute to Panama.

On a side note, this area of Honduras and also the Rio Dulce is loaded with cheap boats for sale, both power and sail. Very few get advertised, most did cruise here, then owners grew roots and stayed. In just the last few weeks: 50+ foot wooden flush deck grand banks, 48' Krogen for $30K(going to look at this when I go back for a friend), and a few others. Now most have not moved in years, but for refit material, or get it to Fl for resale not bad. Pretty interesting area anyway.

More later....
 
Scott,


Really been enjoying your blog! Well written and pics are first class! Looking forward to future posts of you journey.
 
For those intersted, we leave tomorrow AM for Providencia Island, Colombia. Approx. 400nm. Should take 65-78hrs depending on currents. Hopefully make landfall Thursday during daylight hours. You can follow our delorme route here:

https://share.delorme.com/SeaLife

Will post on the other side
 
Have a great and safe trip!

Hope you catch a few on the way down.

I can't believe you are not going to the San Blas on the way down. Fantastic cruising!
 
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Yes, we will cruise Panama from Bocas del Toro to San Blas, then onto Columbia by end of hurricane season. From there....thinking Puerto Rico, then down eastern Caribbean to Grenada or Trini for following hurricane season.

Rods will be out! Sometimes its a little hard depending on sleep requirements, depends how rought the seas are.
 
Bill,

FYI, Providencia is an island off of Nicaragua. Between Bay islands of Honduras and Panama. It is just north of San Andrea, also Colombian owned.
 
Bill,

FYI, Providencia is an island off of Nicaragua. Between Bay islands of Honduras and Panama. It is just north of San Andrea, also Colombian owned.

Thanks. The name rang a bell but I didn't figure that out till I saw your SPOT location. :facepalm::D
 
Bill,

FYI, Providencia is an island off of Nicaragua. Between Bay islands of Honduras and Panama. It is just north of San Andrea, also Colombian owned.

Looks like Sealife in now in Providencia! What a great adventure! Hope to read about their passage soon.
 
Well, we made it. Only one "pirate boat" scare. Weather didn't entirely cooperate. We have initiated check in. Going to drink lots of rum and sleep now.

More later....
 
Hi Scott,

I love you trip but going this route doesn't that mean that you fight constantly against wind, waves and current?

I keep on following your trip, i am in the progress of planning a (sailboat) voyage from Florida to the dutch ABC islands and Trinidad & Tobago.
 
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Yes it does! Having done everything else in my life backwards it just made sense though....But any easting in the caribbean is a pain anyway. So east thru leeward islands or off South America it all sucks, which is why most sail past Bermuda then turn south to Virgins. The only REAL disadvantage to my route is the north flowing current from here to Florida. Finally done with that. As for wind and waves, we try to do passages when both are as low as possible. Having an efficient trawler has made this much nicer than on a sailboat I assume.

The original reason for this route was timing. My wife got Key West for the month of December as part of the deal to make this voyage. So leaving Key West in January, your options are extremely limited. Fighting East a couple hundred miles with constant cold fronts just didnt make sense. So we dropped south as fast as possible to minimize cold front exposure.

The next trick is getting from Panama to Grenada for next hurricane season. I think we will do Columbia to Puerto Rico and then down windwards. Most seem to think that jump is a bit crazy. Still figuring it out as Colombia seems constantly windy, and that passage will be about a day or twolonger than my wife would like to tolerate....
 
Yes it does! Having done everything else in my life backwards it just made sense though....But any easting in the caribbean is a pain anyway. So east thru leeward islands or off South America it all sucks, which is why most sail past Bermuda then turn south to Virgins. The only REAL disadvantage to my route is the north flowing current from here to Florida. Finally done with that. As for wind and waves, we try to do passages when both are as low as possible. Having an efficient trawler has made this much nicer than on a sailboat I assume.

The original reason for this route was timing. My wife got Key West for the month of December as part of the deal to make this voyage. So leaving Key West in January, your options are extremely limited. Fighting East a couple hundred miles with constant cold fronts just didnt make sense. So we dropped south as fast as possible to minimize cold front exposure.

The next trick is getting from Panama to Grenada for next hurricane season. I think we will do Columbia to Puerto Rico and then down windwards. Most seem to think that jump is a bit crazy. Still figuring it out as Colombia seems constantly windy, and that passage will be about a day or twolonger than my wife would like to tolerate....

You realy have the boat for this trip, any kind of stabilizers in use? Because i will be sailing (A gentleman never sails to windward ;-)) i am planning to go through the Windward Passage en-route to the ABC Islands, then to the Lesser Antilles, Sint Maarten, to get to Trinidad.
 
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