Chartering for a crossing

[Pivo]

Hello. My sailing buddy and I are working towards our yachtmaster certification. We need to get some serious sea miles under our belts including a 60nm crossing (or longer) and a night sail or two.

We are having some trouble finding a charter company that will allow us to do these things.

Possible locations include:

- sea of Cortez - la Paz to somewhere
- key west to Cuba
- Miami to Bahamas
- fort meyers to Miami.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thx!

[lorrie]

Do you have bareboat certification?

[s/v Moondancer]

Overnight from Ft Lauderdale to West End in the Bahamas...72 nm. You get another 60+ mile trip on the return.

Qualification to charter a boat is a credit card + some marginal experience.

[jackdale]

My guess is that the night sailing is a problem. I know of few companies that will allow it. A 60 mile trip can be done in daylight.

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by jackdale

My guess is that the night sailing is a problem. I know of few companies that will allow it. A 60 mile trip can be done in daylight.

How would they know?

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by cwyckham

How would they know?

Most charter policies do not permit sailing in restricted visibility or at night. Some require that you be on the hook or docked by a particular time.

Have an incident at night. Not going to be pretty.

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by jackdale

Most charter policies do not permit sailing in restricted visibility or at night. Some require that you be on the hook or docked by a particular time.

Have an incident at night. Not going to be pretty.

That makes sense. I didn't know that

[s/v Moondancer]

The Florida charter companies usually have a 'night sailing exemption' for the Gulf Stream crossing.

Even they accept that entering West End close to sunset is more dangerous than crossing at night and what would you do if the crossing took longer than expected? and you arrived after dark!

In the pre-GPS 'olden days' we would use the radio towers lights and the depth sounder to determine our position as we approached the Bahamas near dawn and then enter in the light.