I was looking at our shower-curtain, world map the other day and realized that sailing around the Caribbean would be a great way to see a lot of countries - including most of Central America and the top of South America.
Caribbean: 13
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Along with all of these except El Salvador (which I have already been to, but my husband has not).
We could also get Columbia and Venezuela. So 21 countries total and about 11% percent of the countries of the world.
Central America: 7
Country |
| Belize |
| Costa Rica |
| El Salvador |
| Guatemala |
| Honduras |
| Nicaragua |
| Panama |
I was talking to Jeremy about planning this trip and he mentioned there are U Tube channels that talk about this. Sure enough, there are.
I think this order might work:
- Leave from Florida to the Bahamas -
- Florida to Bahamas:
- The closest island can be reached by ferry. Miami to Freeport, Bahamas.
- https://bahamashuttleboat.com/ $73.00
- Bahamas to Cuba:
- Air Cubana flies a charter flight between Freeport and Havana on Tuesdays.
- Yes. Travel to Cuba for tourist activities remains prohibited by statute. See 31 C.F.R 515.560 and OFAC's Frequently Asked Questions.
- Currently travel between the US and Cuba is suspended.
- Cuba -
- Cuba to Jamaica:
- cruise ship which goes there once every week from Jamaica?
- The distance between Cuba and Jamaica is 1296 miles.
- Cuba Cruise offers a cruise from to Cuba from Jamaica. There are several small airlines that do fly from Jamaica to Cuba.
- Flying is probably a better option from a cost standpoint. You should consider flights on : 1) Cayman Airways via Grand Cayman, 2) Copa Airlines via Panama City (the one in Panama, not the one in Florida), and American Airlines via Miami. All of these flights make a connection. All of these are rather expensive flights but would be much cheaper than chartering a boat.
- Jamaica
- Jamaica to Haiti:
- The distance between Jamaica and Haiti is 541 km or 334 miles, 377 nautical miles.
freightercruises.com/…World_Cruises. There is a freighter that leaves from Caucedo, Dominican Republic and goes to Kingston, Jamaica. It's not fancy by any means but I hear it is really cheap and what an adventure!
https://www.freightercruises.com/voyages.php#transatlantic
- Haiti
- Landcrossing from Haiti to the Dominican Republic.
- Dominican Republic (Puerto Rico to see Talia if she lives there still).
- We tried to sail from Turks & Caicos to Puerto Rico directly, skipping the DR and quickly discovered it wasn’t possible. As we rounded down along the top northeast corner of DR the sea state became horrific.
- St. Kitts
- St. Kitts to Antigua is 65 miles.
- https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/caribbean/antigua-and-barbuda/
- Liat Airlines (www.liatairline.com) or Winair (www.fly-winair.com)
- Brimstone Fort is impressive
- It is only 60-70 miles anchorage to anchorage and is easily done in a day where sunrise will be before 6am and sunset after 17:00.
- White House is about 50mi from jolly harbor.
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Jolly Harbour Marina Village, Antigua.
- 118 miles from Antigua to Dominica
- 106.37 miles from Antigua to Dominica
- 4 flights per week,1h 0m durationAntigua, Antigua & Barbuda (ANU) to Dominica (DOM)Search flight prices on Google
----T--ANU – DOM
----T--ANU – DOM------SANU – DOM------SANU – DOM - Dominica
- approximately 1.5 hours
- St. Lucia
Barbados is +/- 90 nm east of St. Lucia or a full-day or overnight cruise in open-ocean Atlantic conditions... not much demand for that.
You can try to charter a motor or sailboat... but be prepared, even if you only want to go one-way, to pay for a round-trip as there won't be paying passengers returning.
Check out:
www.exodusstlucia.com out of Rodney Bay
www.sailstlucia.com out of Marigot Bay
Or Bayside Marine Tours & Services out of Vieux Fort www. baysidemarinetours.com or call Captain Ricky 758 460 8628 / Keifer Vitalis 758 285 0997
OR
Eco Dive St Lucia Charters out of Laborie www.ecodivestlucia.com, ecodivestlucia@gmail.com or call 758 713 6047
- Barbados
- 118.25 miles
- St. Vincent
- Has a reputation for being dangerous.
- Flights from St. Vincent to Grenanda 45 minutes.
- Barbados (BGI) to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Vincent & Grenadines (SVD)Search flight prices on Google
--T-T-SBGI – SVDSM-W-F-BGI – SVD
------SBGI – SVD----T--BGI – SVD-M-W-FSBGI – SVD - Grenada
- No ferries from Grenada to Trinidad.
- Flights are only option.
- Book flights 29 days in advance for best fares.
- Trinidad and Tobago (maybe also take in Guyana, Suriname, Brazil, French Guinea)
- Venezuela
- Columbia
- Panama
- Costa Rica
- Nicaragua
- Honduras (land trip to El Salvador for Jeremy)
- Guatemala
- Belize
The Caribbean sailing season is from November to July.
This one talks about how to plan your passage using Predict Wind.
There are also blogs about how much it costs.
Food preferences per Wikipedia:
- Anguilla – rice, peas and fish
- Antigua and Barbuda – fungee and pepperpot
- Bahamas – Guava duff, Conch Salad, Peas n' Rice, and Conch Fritters
- Barbados – cou-cou and flying fish
- Belize – rice and beans, stew chicken with potato salad ; white rice, stew beans and fry fish with cole slaw
- British Virgin Islands – fish and fungee
- Cayman Islands – turtle stew, turtle steak, grouper
- Colombian Caribbean – rice with coconut milk, arroz con pollo, sancocho, Arab cuisine (due to the large Arab population)
- Cuba – platillo Moros y Cristianos, ropa vieja, lechon, maduros, ajiaco
- Dominica – mountain chicken, rice and peas, dumplings, saltfish, dashin, bakes (fried dumplings), coconut confiture, curry goat, cassava farine, oxtail
- Dominican Republic – arroz con pollo with stewed red kidney beans, pan fried or braised beef, salad/ ensalada de coditos, empanadas, mangú, sancocho
- Grenada – oil down, Roti and rice & chicken
- Guyana – roti and curry, pepperpot, cookup rice, methem, pholourie
- Haiti – griot (fried pork) served with du riz a pois or diri ak pwa (rice and beans)
- Jamaica – ackee and saltfish, callaloo, jerk chicken, curry chicken
- Montserrat – Goat water
- Puerto Rico – yellow rice with green pigeon peas, saltfish stew, roasted pork shoulder, chicken fricassée, mofongo, tripe soup, alcapurria, coconut custard, rice pudding, guava turnovers, Mallorca bread
- Saint Kitts and Nevis – goat water, coconut dumplings, spicy plantain, saltfish, breadfruit
- Saint Lucia – callaloo, dal roti, dried and salted cod, green bananas, rice and beans
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – roasted breadfruit and fried jackfish
- Suriname – brown beans and rice, roti and curry, peanut soup, battered fried plantain with peanut sauce, nasi goreng, moksie alesi, bara, pom
- Trinidad and Tobago – doubles, curry with roti or dal bhat, aloo pie, phulourie, callaloo, bake and shark, curry crab and dumpling
- United States Virgin Islands – stewed goat, oxtail or beef, seafood, callaloo, fungee
Found this sage advice here:
If you choose to go island-hopping, it’s best to begin in spring or at the beginning of summer. The Atlantic hurricane season starts in early June and runs until the end of November. However, most of the storms hit during peak hurricane season between August and October. It is best to take advantage of the calm Caribbean sea and sunshine outside of these months.
Several airlines offer the opportunity to buy air passes which can be a good deal.
Regarding Ferries:
Countries without international connections include Cuba, Haiti, the Cayman Islands, Barbados, the ABC Islands Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire (although they used to have connections with each other in the past) and Saint Kitts and Nevis, among other smaller islands. Most other countries and islands have several international and/or domestic services. Although technically not considered part of the Caribbean in this travel guide, a few ferries in Mexico and Venezuela are mentioned, as well as a reference to Central America for more information about Caribbean islands off the coast of for example Honduras, Belize and Panama.
