• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

sailing in the caribbean

Waterbabies

New Member
I am soon buying a 1977 23ft Ericson yacht. I want to sail it from Miami to Trinidad or Tobago. I was wondering if those who may have embarked on such an adventure had any words of wisdom they wanted to share.

Particulary, I am interested to know how long such a trip may take. Of course I want to stop at many of the islands to soak up some of the culture.

Thanks for any help and loveful travels!
 

Bob in Va

Member III
Probably not the right boat

The E23 is a terrific boat, but is probably not the right boat for this trip. It was originally designed as a trailerable sailboat, and a number of owners do multiple day trips, but normally in protected waters. One aspect of the boat's design that would argue against using it for this sort of voyage is the limited cockpit drainage capacity. Many of these boats have been modified by adding additional drains/scuppers, but even that solution leaves a marginal situation in the case of taking water into the cockpit. The low freeboard, coupled with the fact that under way, the cockpit floor is below water level, means that it is difficult to get rid of water quickly. If the boat were to be pooped by an unusual wave, you could be in trouble. The stern would settle, and the boat would be even more susceptible to taking on even more water. Owners of the E23 know that it will take a lot of punishment and likes plenty of wind, but most of us avoid blue water, and those who do venture farther out check the weather VERY carefully - right Sven?
 

Attachments

  • SpringRace1.jpg
    SpringRace1.jpg
    41.3 KB · Views: 246

Seth

Sustaining Partner
Think twice please

Dear Water,


Bob makes some very good points-this is not an ideal boat for this trip.

Remember also that if you decide to go through the Islands (as opposed to the offshore route), you will be sailing UPWIND the entire time. In the Winter months, you will see ESE winds of 18-25 knots (and seas of about 6-8 feet) as the norm-hardly fun sailing upwind in a 23' boat. In the summer, the breezes will be somewhat lighter, but less predictable. And these are the good conditions! When the daily thunderstorm comes through with 30-45 knots of wind in the squalls, the "fun meter" heads south in a hurry.

Your other option, which is also not great for a boat this small, is to do the offshore route, whereby you reach out (close or beam reaching) on an Easterly heading for about 800 miles-DEEP into the open Atlantic-until you pick up the Prevailing NE trades, tack, and beam reach down to the islands.

This is likely a 14 -18 day passage to somewhere like Tortola or thereabouts for a boat like this. It will be much faster that the Island hop, but you won't have to beat the whole time. You will, however, be sailing in the same 20-30 knots of wind, 6-12 foot seas (typically-although they can be much taller), and VERY, VERY far from land. Can't say I recommend this either.

If you are hell bent on sailing the boat there, take about 3 months (at least) during the summer, and PICK your days, make 1-2 day legs, and stop frequently for weather. You could easily spend a week or more waiting for your day to sail, but at least you will be in a nice place.

Trying to go straight through either way will be very roughy duty for the boat, not to mention to poor crew. Possible? Yes. Suggestion? Put it on a freighter and ship it. I can almost gurantee it will be cheaper and faster, not to mention safer..Why cheaper? You will be spending a lot of time and money doing repairs, eating in restaraunts, hotels (the boat will be unliveable after some of these legs), etc.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is a very rough trip-I have done it both ways-numerous times, and on all kinds of boats (smallest was about 30 feet, largest 84 feet).

Safe sailing!

S
 
In addition....

while many times exceptionally seaworthy, smaller boats are very hard on the skipper and crew.....and a singlehander particularly.....having sailed a 20' sloop all over the Gulf of Mexico I can attest to that. You get very tired and then make mistakes...for example: one night I was coming back to port having sailed for 12 hours straight returning from a cruise and anxious to get to the slip(work the next day), when I just knew this ship sailing up the channel was following me....now, I wasn't in the channel and the ship couldn't get to me even if it was devious enough to want to ram me because of water depth, but exhaustion made my vision faulty and the mind went along with it. This had a happy ending, but it made me set boundaries on how far I would sail in a day...my trips were not as exhausting after that as I allowed more time for passage-making. I now have an Ericson 30-1 and look forward to cruises in comfort. Good luck!
 
Top