# Florida/Cuba to Thailand ASAP!



## Amani Jnana (Jan 23, 2017)

Now I know this is going to rub some Caribbean & South Pacific cruisers the wrong way, but please forgive me for saying: I'm trying to get through the Caribbean and the South Pacific as fast as possible (whew! that was the hard part), and get to Thailand from New York as quick as I can. I know that sounds crazy to many of you.

The soonest I can pick up my new (used) boat in New York is mid-May, and I want to get it to Asia as fast as I can. (BTW- Not interested in having it shipped). And, I am in desperate need of reliable advice on weather windows etc. with the objective of safely passing through the various Hurricane/Cyclone areas as quickly (but prudently) as possible.

For financial reasons, the amount of time I can spend without working is limited, hence the desire to get the boat to Asia ASAP.

Many thanks (in advance) to anyone who can help me in scheduling this very long and potentially dangerous trip.

A.J.


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## RegisteredUser (Aug 16, 2010)

noonsite.com will be a good source for you.
Big storm seasons are opposing, north and south.
When one is calm, the other is 'in season', historically....no guarantees.
Cornell's Ocean Atlas might also help in your planning.

...edit: if you're under tight time constraints, think about selling your new boat in NY and buying in SE Asia or Aus.


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## travlin-easy (Dec 24, 2010)

if you're under tight time constraints, think about selling your new boat in NY and buying in SE Asia or Aus. 

Makes perfectly good sense to me. If you are under time constraints, then a sailboat to SE Asia ain't the way to get there.

Good luck,

Gary


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## Arcb (Aug 13, 2016)

Hot date in Asia and they won't stay up for you? 

These forums are a fun place to chit chat and get opinions, but if you want reliable knowledge I'd pick up a good meteorology text book and read the relevant chapters. 

Reed's Meteorology might be a good place to start. A lot of the offshore sailors are taking advantage of weather routing services and software.

I wouldn't be in too big of a rush to get a 32 footer from New York to Asia, it's kind of a long way with all kinds of hazards; commercial shipping, weather, shoals, government officials, petty thieves and full on pirates in either direction. I wouldn't skip the research portion of any voyage, and public forums are not the place to do serious research, get ideas for research yes, but you need more substantial information from somewhere.


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## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

Have your "financial reasons" included the cost of transiting the Panama Canal or were you planning a more southerly route? For speed, you can't beat the Roaring Forties or the Furious Fifties!


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## aeventyr60 (Jun 29, 2011)

For about a boat buck you can fly here, way less then the Panama canal fees. Your lack of time and money won't help you any here either. Best for you to stay where you are, enough low life, broke sailors here as it is.


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## UPHILL (Dec 22, 2010)

Aevey, How long did it take you to get from west coast of US to Tailand I mean Thailand. You also went the west route correct?


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## aeventyr60 (Jun 29, 2011)

UPHILL said:


> Aevey, How long did it take you to get from west coast of US to Tailand I mean Thailand. You also went the west route correct?


More years then I can remember. Kept running into all these islands: Galapagos, French Polynesia, Tonga, New Zealand, Fiji, Vanuatu, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Borneo, Philippines.y

Why anybody would want to hurry through is a mystery to me.


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## Capt Len (Oct 9, 2011)

Thailand is about 800 canadian dollars from Vancouver .Several months in bungalows of choice while you learn a few things about life and you're still under 2 grand . That's more than some interesting older vessels (twice circumnav) are going for as old farts give up and go home.


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## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

If you are that much in a hurry, just go and follow the well beaten path from Panama to Thailand relying on short term weatherfax forecast info. To save money, load the boat with supplies here in US. I would estimate about 12 months from NY to Thailand. It is 12,600 nautical miles from NYC to Bangkok. That is at least 8 months straight https://sea-distances.org/travel without stopping anywhere for too long. More like a year if you factor in the inevitable delays and R&R time.


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## Amani Jnana (Jan 23, 2017)

RegisteredUser said:


> noonsite.com will be a good source for you.
> Big storm seasons are opposing, north and south.
> When one is calm, the other is 'in season', historically....no guarantees.
> Cornell's Ocean Atlas might also help in your planning.
> ...


Wish I had a penny for every person that told me to just buy a boat in Asia. Obviously, I didn't listen to that advice. Thanks for the tip about Noonsite though. They do have a very good section on Weather. So much to learn!


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## Amani Jnana (Jan 23, 2017)

aeventyr60 said:


> For about a boat buck you can fly here, way less then the Panama canal fees. Your lack of time and money won't help you any here either. Best for you to stay where you are, enough low life, broke sailors here as it is.


I'll see if I can't do something to raise the social status of the sailors there. Nice try, but I'll see you before you know it. I went to Uni in Hawaii; i.e. plenty of experience dealing with the "my beach, my wave, go home" types.

;-)


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

Amani Jnana said:


> .....I'm trying to .... get to Thailand from New York as quick as I can........
> 
> For financial reasons, the amount of time I can spend without working is limited


How limited and can you sail for a few months, return to work, then sail for a few more, etc? I doubt there is any other practical way to do this, without taking hurricane/typhoon risks.

How much crew do you expect to have? This will have a significant impact on "quick". The less crew, the more reefing, the more layovers.

I have a feeling this isn't going to be a terribly realistic passage.


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

Passive aggressive OP


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

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deniseO30 said:


> Passive aggressive OP


Not exactly, I suspect passive defensive. They have a plan they know will be highly criticized, so they're trying to limit conversation to what they want to know.

My post was passive aggressive, trying to bait them into admitting this was also going to be a short handed 12,000 mile passage. 

Kidding, I'm truly interested in the plan, as it directly relates to how quickly it can be done.


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## Amani Jnana (Jan 23, 2017)

Minnewaska said:


> How limited and can you sail for a few months, return to work, then sail for a few more, etc? I doubt there is any other practical way to do this, without taking hurricane/typhoon risks.
> 
> How much crew do you expect to have? This will have a significant impact on "quick". The less crew, the more reefing, the more layovers.
> 
> I have a feeling this isn't going to be a terribly realistic passage.


OK Minnewaska,

I'm not sure if I'm wasting my time or not, but I'll try to answer your questions and try to win you over. The answer to your first question: It's called a _Gap Year_. I can afford to go without income for 18-24 months. Which should be enough to get the job done. But... I would like to keep the time, as short as possible; hence the request for CONSTRUCTIVE advice on pacific crossing timing, weather seasons etc.

In regards to crew; for the legs of the journey where I can't convince someone (that I trust, and that I'd enjoy being in cramped quarters with for long periods of time) to join me, I'll be single handing. Having said that, I am completely aware of the advantages of having a good crew and I will try to find the right people take along for the ride, whenever and where ever possible. First requirement: THEY MUST HAVE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE.

Regarding your final comment; I sincerely hope you are wrong, and that in the future, we can build a healthy (on-line) friendship based on mutual respect.

Best Regards,

A.J.
One man's dream to explore S.E. Asia from the (dis)comfort of his own yacht , Sailing Crystal Blue


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## Hudsonian (Apr 3, 2008)

Given the OP's desire to get to Thailand from New York quickly, he should explore having the boat shipped by ground to San Diego and proceeding from there. He may find that it would be a lot cheaper(both time and money) than taking the boat from NY through the canal.


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## hellsop (Jun 3, 2014)

Amani Jnana said:


> OK Minnewaska,
> 
> I'm not sure if I'm wasting my time or not, but I'll try to answer your questions and try to win you over. The answer to your first question: It's called a _Gap Year_. I can afford to go without income for 18-24 months. Which should be enough to get the job done. But... I would like to keep the time, as short as possible; hence the request for CONSTRUCTIVE advice on pacific crossing timing, weather seasons etc.


Don't have the answer to your question, but I know how to find it. You want a book called _World Cruising Routes_ by Jimmy Cornell. That has all the broad-strokes information about what seasons are best for when and where the favorable winds and currents are *likely to be*, no matter what year it is. That'll be enough to get you to the point of charts and noonsite being actually useful instead of a bewildering maze.

Goddamned housefire ate my library or I'd have had answers instead.


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## Amani Jnana (Jan 23, 2017)

Because of the width of the boat, shipping cross country will cost more than USD $10,000. I have considered it but, it is not an option I want to consider ANY MORE. I'm not going to sell the new boat and buy one in Thailand or Australia either. That part of the analysis is finished and done with.

The part of the equation I am asking for help with is in getting from Panama to Thailand. What I have read so far is that I should wait till March to leave Panama to cross the Pacific (Maybe Feb at the earliest). For me that would have to be March of 2018, as I can't get the boat out of NY until June of '17.

I can get the boat to Florida by as early as August or Sept of '17. But that is the part of the Atlantic hurricane season when hurricanes can, and do hit the caribbean hard. And I was thinking it prudent to hold up somewhere between Beaufort NC and the West Coast of FL till Christmas, and then start making my way down to the Caribbean, and then over to Panama.

On the other hand, I am sorely tempted by the idea of visiting Cuba. I have no interest in seeing the Bahamas again as I've done that more than 50 times while growing up in FL and running weekend dive trips to Bimini with my dad as a kid. But, if I could be relatively certain of finding a VERY safe hurricane hole in Cuba, I'd be tempted to visit or even hold up there for the "right" time to leave Panama and cross the Pacific.

Now, regarding the Pacific crossing: I've been following a fellow named Andy who left San Francisco in his small boat Cascadia, in Oct of '16 and is now nearly to the Philippines. Note: He did NOT take the cocoanut milk run/route. He took a more Northern route.

See: Home - Sailing With Andy This seems to contradict the information about the "right" time to cross the pacific. I noticed that he did duck into hawaii to wait out one hurricane that passed by.

Bottom line: If there's a quicker way to get across the pacific besides the cocoanut run route, which seems to be route designed to take in as many pacific islands as possible (and there is certainly nothing wrong with that), I'd like to learn about it.... As my main goal is to get to Asia, and spend YEARS cruising around THERE, and not spend YEARS cruising around in the PACIFIC.

Once I get back to Asia, I can start making money again to fill up the coffier that will be emptied by the Gap Year (or two) used to get the boat to Asia

So, any useful advice to that end would be greatly appreciated/welcomed etc.

Not to be a complete A$$, but please try to keep your comments relative to that subject.

Thanks to all of those who have already PM ed me with USEFUL information.

My objective is clearly outlined at One man's dream to explore S.E. Asia from the (dis)comfort of his own yacht if that helps you understand what it is I am trying to accomplish.

I know I have rather forcefully tried to redirect this thread back to its original intent, so please forgive me if I've stepped on any toes or egos, but I'm on a mission, and there's a lot to do in short period of time to get ready! To remain on topic, and to conserve time and energy, I won't be responding to any more replies that have nothing to do with my clearly stated mission: Getting the boat to Asia ASAP.

Fairwinds to all.

A.J.


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## Amani Jnana (Jan 23, 2017)

hellsop said:


> Don't have the answer to your question, but I know how to find it. You want a book called _World Cruising Routes_ by Jimmy Cornell. That has all the broad-strokes information about what seasons are best for when and where the favorable winds and currents are *likely to be*, no matter what year it is. That'll be enough to get you to the point of charts and noonsite being actually useful instead of a bewildering maze.
> 
> Goddamned housefire ate my library or I'd have had answers instead.


Thanks. I'll look it up and see it I can find it at the Library. I'm saving my pennies for a hydrovane, or I'd just simply buy it on-line from Amazon.
That way, if my house catches on fire, MY book won't get burned up. It'll be the libraries!


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## Arcb (Aug 13, 2016)

Why not look at a current chart, walk off the distance with your dividers, divide the distance by your estimated speed. That should give you a rough estimate. 

Great circles are faster than rhumb lines, higher latitude routes are theoretically faster than travelling where the Earth's the fattest, provided they don't run counter to currents.

Its the ocean, if you want the fastest route with the fewest number of stops, just draw a great circle route from Panama to Thailand and check your work for counter currents that need be avoided. Be aware of your fuel range, food range and water range.

There's a reason people take milk runs, if you don't want to take one, nobodies making you.


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## RegisteredUser (Aug 16, 2010)

One of, if not the best Cane Holes in the entire carib is Rio Dulce GT....if you're going to be in the zone.
It could be your run and hide spot between Cuba and the canal if looks like badness is coming in.


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## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

Amani Jnana said:


> Now, regarding the Pacific crossing: I've been following a fellow named Andy who left San Francisco in his small boat Cascadia, in Oct of '16 and is now nearly to the Philippines. Note: He did NOT take the cocoanut milk run/route. He took a more Northern route.


He took a more northern route because he was some 2000 nautical miles north of Panama. 
I have the World Cruising Routes by Jimmy Cornell book and I would not leave for a major sailing journey without it.


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## Paul_L (Sep 16, 2004)

Check the Manilla Galleon route.
http://www.gov.ph/2015/04/28/ph-mexico-push-to-nominate-manila-acapulco-galleon-trade-route-to-world-heritage-list/manila-accapulco-galleon-trade-2/


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

18 to 24 months is realistic. Shorthanded is going to be difficult. You'll need to layover frequently, if not just to change out crew. The milk run island hoping has to be your best bet, noting these are not day sails, they're still serious passages. 

The boat will break along the way, nothing can be done to fully avoid it. If buying Jimmy Cornell's book is stressing the budget, that's a precise budget tolerance for a very imprecise voyage. Customs, immigration and canal fees, plus living expenses, repairs, cost of layovers for hurricane seasons, etc, are going to seriously add up. Would you say $25k as a WAG, assuming you live inexpensively and only routine items wear out on the boat? More, if you blow a sail or motor or need serious rigging repair or have any thought of leaving the boat somewhere for a season.

If I were hell bent on this trip, I would get below the Atlantic hurricane alley before summer '17. Wait for it to pass, then move on, then probably end up waiting out '18s Pacific hurricane/typhoon season somewhere, maybe New Zealand. Direct from Panama to Thailand is over 10,000 miles (you're physically closer to Thailand in NYC, facing east as the crow flies). Going direct is not a realistic option.

The one reality of passage making is that the ocean laughs at your plan.

What boat did you buy for the voyage? Gap year is a term typically used for graduates that are taking time before moving on to higher ed or employment. Did you just finish up a degree?


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## Towguy (May 8, 2016)

I was wondering the same thing ,instead of holing up for the hurrican season isn't it possible to make it south of the line of storms ,as in get to Panama which is safe and get through the canal when you can,i know that can take awhile,just ..thinking here...Ralph


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## Amani Jnana (Jan 23, 2017)

Thanks for the tips about Jimmy Cornell's books. Just started reading World Cruising Routes today. I'm certain I'll find the answer I'm looking for in this book. I was torn between the paper version and the electronic version. I ended up going old school. Though there is not much space on a yacht, this book definitely will survive the cut to conserve storage space. I'm very happy to have this book as part of my onboard library! Thanks again for the advice.


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