best time to sail from panama to the marquesas
Daniel J. Meggitt
on to the marquesas in may. i may have to work here in minnesota for a
few more months though. i don't have my jimmy cornell's cruising routes
of the world with me and am wondering if anyone knows if it is ok to
sail from panama to the marquesas in august. i will be moving my boat
from antigua to trinidad in april.
thanks,
dan
s/y endeavor
DScha97041
>on to the marquesas in may.
The fleet of boats that will be leaveing Mexico for the Marquesas will star
leaveing Mexico in March with most leaving around the first of April.
>i don't have my jimmy cornell's cruising routes
>of the world with me and am wondering if anyone knows if it is ok to
>sail from panama to the marquesas in august.
The Mexican Hurricanes will be North of you but the Cyclone season in the South
Pacific starts in November so you will need to be ready for that. Other than
that it may not be a problem.
Dick
S/V Morning Star
jameslw...@my-dejanews.com
LGD...@prodigy.com (Daniel J. Meggitt) wrote:
> i was planning to sail my pearson vanguard from antigua to panama and
> of the world with me and am wondering if anyone knows if it is ok to
> from antigua to trinidad in april.
> thanks,
> dan
> s/y endeavor
Where are you going from the Marquesas? If you leave Panama on August 1,
you'll arrive in the Marquesas around September 1 only if you give the
Galapagos a pass (big mistake). That passage should be no problem, save for
the fact you'll be a couple of months behind the bulk of the fleet and
therefore pretty lonely out there.
But, that gives you only two months to be somewhere out of the cyclones. It's
3,000 miles (great circle) to Opua, NZ from Nuku Hiva. You'd be missing some
great places by making such a fast trip.
Jim
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Bob Richardson
jameslw...@my-dejanews.com wrote in message
<7c0kvr$1as$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
>In article <7bu7lu$6tk6$1...@newssvr04-int.news.prodigy.com>,
> LGD...@prodigy.com (Daniel J. Meggitt) wrote:
>> i was planning to sail my pearson vanguard from antigua to panama and
>> on to the marquesas in may. i may have to work here in minnesota for a
>> few more months though. i don't have my jimmy cornell's cruising routes
>> of the world with me and am wondering if anyone knows if it is ok to
>> sail from panama to the marquesas in august. i will be moving my boat
>> from antigua to trinidad in april.
>> thanks,
>> dan
>> s/y endeavor
>
>
>Where are you going from the Marquesas? If you leave Panama on August 1,
>you'll arrive in the Marquesas around September 1 only if you give the
>Galapagos a pass (big mistake). That passage should be no problem, save
for
>the fact you'll be a couple of months behind the bulk of the fleet and
>therefore pretty lonely out there.
>
>But, that gives you only two months to be somewhere out of the cyclones.
It's
>3,000 miles (great circle) to Opua, NZ from Nuku Hiva. You'd be missing
some
>great places by making such a fast trip.
I agree. This sounds like a big mistake. The anchorage at Hiva Oa and
others in the Marquesas get rough and rolly starting in June. You really
want to be out of there by then. Being "pretty lonely out there" isn't a
problem, but having to zip through the most memorable cruising grounds
you'll ever encounter isn't good planning.
rado...@ibm.net
>Where are you going from the Marquesas? If you leave Panama on August 1,
>you'll arrive in the Marquesas around September 1 only if you give the
>Galapagos a pass (big mistake). That passage should be no problem, save
for
>the fact you'll be a couple of months behind the bulk of the fleet and
>therefore pretty lonely out there.
>
>But, that gives you only two months to be somewhere out of the cyclones.
It's
>3,000 miles (great circle) to Opua, NZ from Nuku Hiva. You'd be missing
some
>great places by making such a fast trip.
Its great to be behind the bulk of the fleet--you can talk to the locals
instead of other cruisers. If you do have to leave that late, plan on
leaving the boat in Raietea for cyclone season, so you don't rush through
the best part of the world. Raietea is a good place for the boat UNLESS it
is an el nino year.
Don Radcliffe
s/v Klondike
jameslw...@my-dejanews.com
<rado...@ibm.net> wrote:
<snip>
> Its great to be behind the bulk of the fleet--you can talk to the locals
> instead of other cruisers. If you do have to leave that late, plan on
> leaving the boat in Raietea for cyclone season, so you don't rush through
> the best part of the world. Raietea is a good place for the boat UNLESS it
> is an el nino year.
>
> Don Radcliffe
> s/v Klondike
While I was the first to suggest that he not rush through the South Pacific, I
take issue with "the best part of the world".
With the exception of Suvarov and parts of Fiji, the South Pacific is
overrated. I would take Nusatengarra (Alor - Lombok in Indonesia), Thailand,
Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Oman, Eritrea, Turkey, Tunisia and the Azores over
the Societies and Tonga. While the Marquesas and Tuamotus are much nicer
than the Societies, I would still not include them in the best part of the
world.
These are overall ratings -- understanding that the sailing is excellent in
French Polynesia and not so good in some of the places I listed, but there is
no comparison in the experience ashore. Also, of course, these are based on
1996-98. Ambon, for example, to which we raced from Darwin in 1997, is now in
the news with Muslim-Christian fighting.
Jeff Thompson
list. And you left out the PNG Islands & the Solomons. And we both left out New
Zealand.
jameslw...@my-dejanews.com
Jeff Thompson <jktho...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Now you've started something. Oman and Eritrea don't usually make the Best 10
> list. And you left out the PNG Islands & the Solomons. And we both left out
>New Zealand.
Perhaps an intelligent discussion that may be helpful to others as well as
ourselves? What a novel concept at r.b.c.
I left out PNG and the Solomons because we didn't go there -- no local
knowledge, no opinion here.
New Zealand is a special case. The South Island has some of the most
concentrated beautiful scenery of anywhere in the world. Certainly New
Zealand is the home of some of the nicest people anywhere -- sort of like the
unspoiled parts of Maine. We spent six months in Lyttelton (the port for
Christchurch) and loved it.
But, most of the South Island is not great sailing. The Marlborough sounds
are wonderful, but a long way off the usual cruisers' route. Fiordland is
magnificent, but even further off the cruisers' route and very difficult
sailing as well. As for the rest, harbors are few and far between.
The Bay of Islands (North end of the North Island) is beautiful, but small.
And, of course, you can easily fly to New Zealand for a visit and not lose
much over sailing there.
So, I stand by my list (in trip order, not preference):
Isla del Coco
Galapagos
Marquesas
Tuamotus
Suvarov
Fiji
Nusatengarra (Alor - Lombok in Indonesia)
Thailand (particularly the Similans and Bangkok)
Sri Lanka
the Maldives (Ulegama -- we did not stop at Male)
Oman -- Mina Raysut, the port for Sallalah
Eritrea -- Assab, Massawa, the Dahlaks, inland up to Asmara
Turkey (Iskenderun to Bodrum)
Tunisia
the Azores
That's 15 -- cutting to 10 is difficult. As noted in my previous post, some
of these are not great places for sailing, but the overall experience is what
I'm grading on here.
Jim
Comments based on 1995-98; things have changed in some places.
Jeff Thompson
about cruising places ??
John Abercrombie
>Well, I guess you didn't start anything - does this mean that nobody here knows
>about cruising places ??
Perhaps people don't want to share this info in any great detail? What
do you say when the person in the boat with the loud stereo and the
genset asks you" "What's your favourite secluded, undiscovered
anchorage?" It can precipitate a bit of a moral crisis...
BTW, this doesn't apply to me- I haven't been to enough different
places to contribute to the list.
John
jameslw...@my-dejanews.com
john...@netcom.ca (John Abercrombie) wrote:
> Perhaps people don't want to share this info in any great detail? What
> do you say when the person in the boat with the loud stereo and the
> genset asks you" "What's your favourite secluded, undiscovered
> anchorage?" It can precipitate a bit of a moral crisis...
>
> BTW, this doesn't apply to me- I haven't been to enough different
> places to contribute to the list.
>
> John
Between Panama and Suez, I don't think we had the loud stereo/genset problem
anywhere. Of course, they may have been staying away from our genset and
stereo....
Once, in Galle, Sri Lanka, the man moored just behind us asked me to turn off
our genset at 21:00. I apologized, told him we were just back from a few days
ashore, were leaving again in the morning and needed to run the refrigeration.
We had a couple of beers together and all was well. Almost without exception
the voyagers are considerate, easy-to-get-along-with people.
Jim
Scott Carroll
gone over scope and room to swing when this catamaran pulls up next to us and
anchors at max 10 feet away. We tried giving bad looks and innuendoes but they
were french so they just thought we were being polite. Well my buddy cranks up
the stereo on our boat and starts screaming and being wild and we all join in
drinking singing, and screaming danish cuss words (we were on vacation from
working in Greenland at the time)( none of this was directed at the catamaran,
just wild men from greenland partying on the boat) well the catamaran lasted 10
minutes and they couldn't have gotten away any faster. so we turned the music
down, cooked dinner, went ashore and got wild there, knowing our boat had room to
swing.
scott
jameslw...@my-dejanews.com
Scott Carroll <sail...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I had a charter in Saint Martin. I was teaching a bare boat class and we had
just
> gone over scope and room to swing when this catamaran pulls up next to us and
> anchors at max 10 feet away. We tried giving bad looks and innuendoes but
they
> were french so they just thought we were being polite. Well my buddy cranks
up
> the stereo on our boat and starts screaming and being wild and we all join in
> drinking singing, and screaming danish cuss words (we were on vacation from
> working in Greenland at the time)( none of this was directed at the catamaran,
> just wild men from greenland partying on the boat) well the catamaran lasted
10
> minutes and they couldn't have gotten away any faster. so we turned the music
> down, cooked dinner, went ashore and got wild there, knowing our boat had
room to swing.
>
Ah, yes. It's probably not nice to start on bareboat stories, but...
We were at Huahine, anchored on a nice patch of sand in 10' of water with
maybe six other voyaging boats. We were pretty close together because the
patch wasn't very big, but we all knew one another -- no problem. Every six
hours we swung 180 with the tide, also no problem. Along comes a bareboat.
Anchors among us, no problem. Puts down a stern anchor -- that is a problem.
I row over and explain politely that we're all swinging with the tide and
that in about three hours, he's going to have Sweetwater on top of him.
(Sweetwater probably weighs three times what his boat does). I tell him that
all he has to do is pull up his stern anchor and we'll all swing happily
together. He's adamant that swinging in the tide is unsafe and that he has
to use two anchors. I say, "Yes, but we were all here first and have all
chosen to use single anchors." No result.
I shrug, row back and wait. Three hours later, we start swinging in his
direction. He pulls up both anchors, goes elsewhere.
JLS
I was chased out of an anchorage at Great Harbor, Jost VanDyke, by some fat useless
old rude piece of shit who came in and anchored so close we could smell his wife's
foul breath and his crewmates stinking B.O. reeking bodies. The filthy puke wouldn't
even consider moving and the foul first slut of the boat was down right abusive. (i
do hope that ALL of you Euorpean sailors are not like that....) On top of that,
captain piss-gums had let out a very seamanlike scope of maybe 1.3 as in
one-point-three. Their anchor was almost directly underneath them as they swung
around. It was chain and a charter boat, what the hell did HE care....
Wish you guys had been along......
J
D A L
Anyone has a real advice?
Thanks
Dan Best
the end of the S. Pacific cyclone season. i.e. late April.
- Dan Best