For those of you that have been following this blog, you know that our plans are to obtain a boat by March and then head to the Bahamas. From there we island hop until we get to Grenada, before July 1st (the start of hurricane season - where we have to be outside the hurricane box for insurance purposes). We were up till 2:00am the other night going over our plans.
We've been pouring over charts to figure out the best route to get to Grenada from Florida. After much researching, we've come to the conclusion that there are two ways to get from the Bahamas (a one day sail from Florida) to the Virgin Islands (the starting point to head down to Grenada). The first way involves going through the Dominican Republic and Haiti. These areas are places we were planning to avoid, since they are said to be very corrupt. You tend to have to bribe your way through, and sometimes the weather patterns fall to where you could get stuck there for weeks. This option is very unpalatable. The other option is to head out east into the ocean for a few days, turn right, and spend a few more days in the middle of the ocean till you arrive in the Virgin Islands. Sometimes this is an easy sail with calm waters, and sometimes it's very rough with eight to twelve foot waves. You would have to plan a week out in the middle of the ocean, alone, sailing 24/7, hoping you brought enough sea sickness medication for the lot of you. Needless to say, we are incredibly nervous about this option. We are new to sailing, will be on a boat we've only had for four to six weeks, and none of us are used to full time living aboard yet.
We contemplated options of hiring a captain to go with us. We could all go this way and learn from the experience. However, even with a captain, the wife and kids are unlikely to be ready for this kind of adventure just yet. We contemplated flying the wife and kids to the Virgin Islands, where they would sit awaiting the return of dad and a hired captain from sea. However, we don't really want to separate like that (and we're pretty sure the wife doesn't have enough anxiety meds for that kind of waiting). So we came to the conclusion that we might be trying to bite off more than we can chew so soon. We aren't even sure if we have enough time to get to Grenada by July 1st. All the other cruisers left and headed that way last November. We would be pushing it, unable to stop for any length of time, to get there in time. So, all the wonderful places we want to enjoy, we would have to "pass" on our way to Grenada with plans of coming back up to see those places November 1st (the end of hurricane season). So, after a long discussion into the early hours of the morning, we have decided to change our plans.
We've always had a backup plan to go north on the chance we were unable to procure a boat in time to get south. So we've decided to switch to our backup plan. We will sail around in Florida, maybe go to the Bahamas and back in March, and make our way up the east coast to get north of the hurricane box instead (North Carolina). We could spend the summer up in Chesapeake Bay, and see some of the various sites along the east coast (like Washington D.C. for example). This allows us to "take our time," since we will be in no rush to go that direction, as it is much shorter. It will give us time to get used to living aboard full time in a familiar country, and gain some experience sailing. We have more time to get our Coast Guard paperwork for international travel (another one of those things that might not arrive in time to go south). We can even keep our cell phones, and have more consistent internet to finish the school year.
In October, we could then make our way south again to Florida, and on to the Bahamas. We'll have lots of time, to take as much time as we want, to stop and see things along the way. We will have over six months of experience sailing and living aboard before we "head out into the ocean" for a week to get to the Virgin Islands. Once we get there (planning on mid-December), we can take our time island hopping and cruising the Caribbean till we need to be in Grenada next July 1st.
One of the many goals of this lifestyle switch was to live without schedules or being rushed. Pushing ourselves to make the trip to Grenada would be the opposite of that. The last thing we want to do is push ourselves into a situation where we are anxious and over stressed. So while we are desperate to get to that pretty blue water in the Caribbean, we're going to take our time and head north first, giving us more enjoyment in the long run. So the adventure is still on, you'll just be getting posts from inside the country for a few months longer before we head offshore to the blue yonder ;)
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