Sailing in November and Hurricanes

[stevesailor]

hello
my boat, a cal 2-29, is currently in dominican republic. im thinking of sailing it to southern florida starting november 1st. hurricane season is until nov30th, but the frequency of hurricanes in november is low (usually one every other year and there was one last year).

basically, i'm worried about the risk and looking for advice. what do you all think?
-steve

[Tellie]

Are you living aboard full time? Were you looking to get the boat here dock it and live ashore? I've lived here all my life. While many here will poo poo this, the hurricane doom and gloom hype is usually over blown. I wouldn't ignore it but I don't freak out over it either. When Andrew came through my boat was in Ft.Lauderdale. I helped my friend in Dade county sail his boat north a few days before hand. When Wilma came through I headed north about 150nm and tucked into the ICW, read a few good books and went home after she passed. Watching the weather carefully with the intentions of moving out of the way is a good idea. If you have to leave your boat in the water locally when a hurricane comes through it's good to be way back in the finger canals of S. Florida. That's where I'd be looking for dock space anyway. The odds are highly in your favor of having no problems, but life is a risk.

[Kay Koudele]

We shared your concern many years ago when we left the Rio Dulce, Guatemala in late Oct. after waiting out most of the hurricane season, and began working our way north, arriving in Florida in late Nov. Always we had one eye on weather info from a Weather Fax, and ham radio reports, believing we would have enough time should one develop, to track it's course and find a hole or safe place if it was headed towards us. We did encounter one hurricane- it was while we crossed the Okeechobee Waterway after arriving in southern Florida!
Kay Koudele
www.kaykoudele.blogspot.com

[stevesailor]

thanks y'all. yea, i was sailing last year in hurricane season and dipped into to avoid hurricane bill and one other, it was all fine. i just need to work reliable weather reporting and i think it'll be ok.

[Hud3]

Check out caribwx.com. If you have a SSB receiver, you can listen to Chris Parker's daily weather analysis for the Bahamas and T&Cs.

[barnakiel]

The 'season' may be till November but you can get one in November, and in December too. And just one (even if statistically insignificant) is all it takes to wipe out a boat and her crew.

Late hurricanes have been known to form in the W portion of the Atlantic more often than in the E part of it.

Then again measure your planned voyage in days at sea and see if you can undertake it with a good eye for the weather. Modern hurricane predicting is quite good and I would say if they err, it is rather by giving us a false warning rather than overlooking a forming system that might endanger us.

barnie