On Thu, 03 Apr 2014 20:32:38 -0400, wrote:

On Thu, 3 Apr 2014 17:12:38 -0500, Boating All Out
wrote:

In article ,
says...

http://www.news-press.com/article/20...sail-Caribbean


"The couple says they are self-taught sailors. Shaidle took an American Sailing associates class, but learned most of the information he needed by reading and researching online."

I wish them well, though.

As long as they can navigate, watch the weather, and the boat doesn't
break down, they should be okay.
Hope it goes well.
But I'm fully expecting some troubles.
Here's their website.
http://lahowind.com/

These days with a GPS it is a lot harder to get lost. My buddy was
sailing all over the Caribbean and central America for years, dead
reckoning.

They did miss the Keys once and ended up in the Gulf, wondering why
the land was on the wrong side. ;-)

One thing about a sail boat, the only thing you really run out of is
drinking water. You can usually catch a fish if you have tackle.

I think I would have one of those hand pump RO's (or two)

===

They have a couple of challenges ahead of them. It's one thing to
have an accurate lat/lon from GPS but another thing entirely to have
good charts where the lat/lon actually means something useful. I have
no end of saved track plots which show us going across dry land of
some sort on the chart, obviously inaccurate, since our 4 wheel drive
system was not installed correctly.

Another issue that is easy to underestimate for first timers is the
wind and sea conditions. The trip down through the Bahamas is
relatively benign but from there to the Turks and Caicos, and on down
to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico can be 700 miles of really
bad road on any given day. People in small sail boats can get beaten
up pretty badly if they are not mentally and physically prepared for
that. There's nothing around here which is comparable other than
crossing the Gulf Stream on a bad day. Many people get as far as
George Town in the southern Exumas and chicken out, hence the nickname
of Chicken Harbor.

http://www.sailblogs.com/member/fahs/?xjMsgID=80019

Also a discovery on our first trip is that truly protected anchorages,
in reasonable depths under 20 feet or so, are few and far between. You
frequently end up tucked in close to a windward coast on one side,
with totally open ocean on the other. That takes some getting used
to and a bit of advanced preparation to avoid rolling too much during
the night. Because of the depths and semi-open anchoring conditions
you also need a substantial anchor, preferably on a mostly chain rode.
Many sailboats in their size range are not set up for that kind of
gear and they get into anchoring trouble sooner or later. Our anchor
system is an 88 pound Rocna on 400 ft of 3/8ths HT chain, something
close to 700 pounds total. On a smaller boat they could get by with
a 45 lb anchor and 5/16ths chain but that still is a lot of weight to
handle.