You've always got to decide for yourself and pick your own weather windows. If you have access to the internet, buoyweather.com ($10 a month) is an excellent resource that I've found to be reliable throughout the Bahamas and the Caribbean. Chris Parker is excellent, but you also need to realize that his recommendations are often based on his prejudices instead of reality. You also need to realize that you cannot always communicate with him or receive his broadcast via SSB. As in navigation, the prudent mariner does not rely on just one source of information.
Peter P323 Now or Never! ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: jim sims <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected] Sent: Tue, February 23, 2010 10:40:57 AM Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] heading to southern caribbean? Looking for flotilla? Jim, Ben's advice is right on target. We left the US mainland in December 2008. Our path was the VanSant suggested route. My wife Sue and I went solo without other vessels, though we met many folks in anchorages along the way and got good advice. We chose to sail single as there is little another boat can do for you and it only complicates the trip with a lot of planning and if something goes wrong there is not much that can be done to help each other) so you both go as slow as the slowest boat and get slowed down too much for various concerns. We stayed in Bahamas a while (to get some of our money's worth. It costs $300 check in for our sized boat. We went solo, however and moved whenever the weather permitted. I would recommend a $200 (or $300 with email weather daily as well) sponsoring subscription with the Caribbean Weather Center run by Chris Parker. Its run completely on HF radio. Currently 8131 at 7am, then 4045 at 7:30 and then 8104 at 8:30 (all times are ATLANTIC Standard TIMES). We found Chris Parker's weather and routing reassuring and you can get advice on weather and routing throughout the caribbean and not get surprised by bad weather. Well Worth it. Chris Parker <[email protected]> Our path and a few notes: NO NAME HARBOR at Key Biscayne BIMINI (north Bimini Island) NASSAU (across banks leaving in good weather with wx routing... and full moon arriving in good light at morning) EXUMA ISLAND CHAIN from top to Georgetown at bottom (we made 5 stops enroute including the water park) GEORGETOWN MAYAGUANNA (Abrahams Bay - waited 5 days for wx) WEST CAICOS in TURKS AND CAICOS (departed by way of south to French Cay and stayed off the banks overnight to shore of DR and stopped for fuel and a $110 entry fee at Puerta Plata during a one hour stop so we could keep moving ) PUERTO PLATA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC BOQUERON, PUERTO RICO (check in at Mayaguez, PR via Taxi) PONCE, PR CHARLOTTE AMALIE, ST THOMAS, USVI (we went south of Vieques, but suggest that going around the north side - with care at the reef on the NW corner of Vieques) LEINSTER BAY, ST JOHN, USVI ROAD TOWN, TORTOLA, BVI (3 day check in and out in one stop for $22) then proceeded to MARINA CAY, BVIs LEVERICK BAY, VIRGIN GORDA, BVIs (left early morning for an early evening arrival at next stop after Annegada Passage after waiting for weather) MARIGOT BAY, SAINT MARTIN (French West Indies) (you can wait in the bay for the 8:15 am bridge opening - they only open 3 times daily and then anchor in the French side inside the lagoon under the Witches Tit - with a Check in fee of only $8)(while in French side you can visit both Dutch side and French side without further costs - leaving your boat anchored in French side) ST KITTS GUADELOUPE (Fr W.I.) MARTINIQUE (Fr W.I.) ST LUCIA BEQUIA CARRIACOU (Grenadines) GRENADA BELOW IS A SAMPLE OF THE GENERAL FORECAST FROM CHRIS PARKER. HE ALSO GIVES DIRECT ADVISE AND DAILY UPDATES FOR YOUR SPECIFIC LOCATION AS TO YOUR WINDS AND SEAS IF YOU ARE A SPONSOR. Chris Parker <[email protected]> Wx Update, E Caribbean, Mon22, 9a 10p last eve ASCAT: Venezuela W of Margarita en...@12-18, lightest Margarita-Tortuga / ABCs e...@16-19 / PuertoRico mostly n...@10-17, but n-...@15-20 MonaPassage & W PuertoRico / DomRep en...@13-17. BUOYs: 60mi SW of Nevis: 1...@10-14, 3-4'. 21N/65W: 0...@7-12, 6'/11sec NNW-N swell. IMAGERY: Isolated showers NW Leewards...just S of StCroix...DomRep's S Coast to 16N, all along remnants of old FrontalTROF, with much less activity NW of FrontalTROF from Virgins thru PuertoRico & DomRep, and little activity elsewhere. SYNOPSIS: FrontalTROF continues dissipating...allowing sub-Tropical Atlantic RIDGE to gain influence, with building E-SE wind most areas late today or tonight into tomorrow. LO developing over GA today strengthens E of Hatteras tomorrow...trailing ColdFRONT thru Bahamas...thus suppressing RIDGE...and allowing E-SE Trades to decrease most of E Caribbean tomorrow & Wed24. That FRONT stalls along DomRep with little significant weather, but allows some rebuilding of E-SSE winds Thu25 into Fri26 morning. Yet another significant FRONT presses thru Bahamas & W Atlantic Thu25...penetrating to DomRep - maybe MonaPassage or PuertoRico - Fri26...allowing E Caribbean ESE-SSE Trades to decrease again, except areas along and N&W of FRONT which see increasing N-component wind & squalls & seas. Some rebuilding of E-SE Trades weekend, but with much-higher N-component swell. F'cst: Precip: Trinidad thru SE Leewards: only a few isolated showers & mild squalls with 5-10k enhanced wind, mostly mornings. NW Leewards: similar, but a bit more coverage today & again late Fri26. Virgins & PuertoRico: only a few isolated showers & mild squalls with 5-10k enhanced wind today, then just slight risk of activity mornings; but more coverage beginning mid-day Fri26. DomRep: periods of isolated showers & mild squalls with 5-10k enhanced wind anytime, but very little activity Wed24 thru Thu25 morning...increasing from W-to-E Thu25, but not extending into MonaPassage till late Thu25 night. Venezuela & ABCs: mostly dry. WIND (for wind in squalls see Precip): Windwards (waters toward Trinidad subtract 2k): 070-090-deg building to 16-17k today, 090-deg tonight; 1...@17 tomorrow morning, 14k most of tomorrow; 1...@12 Wed24; 1...@9-12 Thu25; 090-...@13 Fri26...NIGHTs add 2-3k. StLucia-Martinique area: 080-090-deg building to 16k today, 18k tonight; 1...@18 tomorrow morning; 1...@13 afternoon, 12k Wed24; 1...@8-11 Thu25, 10-13k Fri26...NIGHTs add 2-3k. SE Leewards: 1...@10 today, 14k overnight; 120-...@15 tomorrow morning, 12k afternoon, 8-10k late; 1...@11 Wed24, 5-8k late Wed24 thru Fri26...NIGHTs add 2-3k. NW Leewards & Virgins & E PuertoRico: varying ne...@7-12 today, becoming en...@15 tonight; 120-...@14 tomorrow, 10k late; s...@13 Wed24; variable near 5k late; s...@10-12 Thu25 into Fri26; variable under 10k later Fri26. MonaPassage & vicinity: mostly ene-...@10-15 today, 15k tonight; ese-...@15 tomorrow morning; s...@5-10 late & Wed24, 10-13k Thu25; clocking s-w-n...@10-14 Fri26. W DomRep: mostly e-...@15-18 today; clocking se-...@10-15 tomorrow; variable under 10k Wed24; rebuilding se-s-w...@10-18 Wed24 night & Thu25; n-...@10-15 Fri26. Venezuela: 060-...@17 today & tomorrow; 0...@12-15 Wed24; n...@10 building to 16k Thu25; ene-...@15-17 Fri26...NIGHTs add 3-5k / S of 11N subtract up-to-5k. ABCs: 080-...@18 today; 090-...@18 tomorrow morning, 16k afternoon; ene-...@10-12 late tomorrrow night & Wed24, 7-11k Thu25, 6-10k Fri26, 10-13k late. SEAS: SE Caribbean: NNW-NNE swell to 5'/11sec today, 4' tomorrow, 2-4' thereafter. Swell from E-ESE 5-6'/7-8sec thru tomorrow, 5' Wed24, 4-5' thereafter. Wind-chop to 5' thru tomorrow morning, 4' tomorrow, 3' Wed24 onward. NE Caribbean: N-component swell to 6'/11sec from NNW-N today, 5' from N tomorrow into Wed24, 4' later; 3-4'/14sec from N-NNE Thu25, 6' from NNE-NE Fri26. Wind-chop 2-6' today, 4' tonight, 3-4' tomorrow, 2' late, 3' Wed24, 1' late, 2' Fri25 onward. DomRep: to 6' from N with 10sec interval & from E with 6sec interval into tomorow morning, 4-5' later tomorrow, 3-4' Wed24 into Thu25; 4-5'/5-14sec from NE Thu25 afternoon, 5-6' building to 7-8' Fri26. Venezuela: 5'/5-6sec from E thru tomorrow, 4-5' Wed24 onward...NIGHTs add 1' / S of 11N subtract 1'/ ABCs: 6'/5-6sec from E thru tomorrow, 5' tomorrow night, 4' Wed24, 3' late onward. Thats about all I can say on this limited forum. Feel free to send an email or call us at our SKYPE phone - or we can call you back if you have any specific questions. Ed Kelly on Angel Louise [email protected] (spam protected so you have to verify you are not a junk mail source) 41 foot overloaded and slow Catamaran! We sometimes think of her as a 'squashed trawler' but love her a lot! 202-657-6357 is our phone on Skype with answering machine - we will gladly get back to you. Good luck, Ed On Feb 23, 2010 9:35am, jim sims <[email protected]> wrote: > Already got it - that's what convinced me to seriously consider the > > island hopping rather that straight blue water route :-) > > > > thanks! > > jim > > > > On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 2:37 PM, Ben Okopnik [email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi, Jim - > > > > > > On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 01:33:03PM -0500, jim sims wrote: > > >> Nekkid Joy III is lying Chalreston, Sc and I'm wanting to move her to > > >> the southern, windward caribbean prior to June/July. Looking for other > > >> folks headed that way, advice on whether to island hop or do a > > >> blue-water route (no blue-water experience here), or any other useful > > >> info you have. > > > > > > I strongly recommend Bruce van Sant's "The Gentleman's Guide to Passages > > > South" (and I don't often say this about books related to cruising; > > > there's a lot of nonsense out there, and some of it will kill you if you > > > follow it.) Everything I've learned in my years of passagemaking and > > > island-hopping just serves to confirm what I learned from his book when > > > I first read it; Bruce may not be the most pleasant guy in the world in > > > person, but his writing is funny, his advice in general is right on the > > > dot, and his chapter on weather is pure gold. In my opinion, no > > > first-timer going down to the islands should be without it. > > > > > > > > > -- > > > OKOPNIK CONSULTING > > > Custom Computing Solutions For Your Business > > > Expert-led Training | Dynamic, vital websites | Custom programming > > > 443-250-7895 http://okopnik.com > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Liveaboard mailing list > > > [email protected] > > > To adjust your membership settings over the web > > http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard > > > To subscribe send an email to [email protected] > > > > > > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > > > The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ > > > > > > To search the archives > > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > > > > > The Mailman Users Guide can be found here > > http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Liveaboard mailing list > > [email protected] > > To adjust your membership settings over the web > http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard > > To subscribe send an email to [email protected] > > > > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > > The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ > > > > To search the archives > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > > > The Mailman Users Guide can be found here > http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html >
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