Sailing Jamaica to Panama and beyond

[Sylvia Lindgren]

We are new to the forum and though we have some coastal experience (Gulf Islands, BC) we are new to cruising. We have our eye on a suitable and ‘in our price range’ boat in Jamaica. Its complicated to try to buy a boat far from home but we think we can manage that part. The tricky part is that we are not ready to sail full time yet (two years to retirement). Because we both work for the school system we both have two months off in the summer to sail. If we were to buy a boat in Jamaica we would look forward to sailing it to Guaymas, Mexico by way of the Panama Canal and (slowly) up the coast into the Sea of Cortez. My questions is this….is this a possible sail during summers? Is it too hot? Is the weather and winds suitable to take us northerly? We would want to take it part way the first summer, leave it in a marina for the winter and take it the rest of the way the second summer (or maybe not….but eventually) and then would be planning to spend 4 - 5 months on the boat over the Canadian winter. What advice can you offer?

[boatman61]

Dunno if things have changed a lot at Colon but when I went through it was a 6 week wait for a pilot to get through the canal.

[HeywoodJ]

Sylvia,

welcome to CF. Summer is the hurricane season in both the Caribbean and the coast of central America. If insurance is a concern of yours you may find it hard to come by for that time of year and passage plan.

Frequency isn't too bad, about one a year on each side for the path you are talking, you would have to weigh the risk for yourself. From experience, the west coast of central America can be hot, muggy, and still during the summer, you may need to be willing to motor a bit.

Here's a site where you can look at past hurricane tracks to allow you to make your own evaluation: https://coast.noaa.gov/hurricanes/

And a couple of plots:

Hurricanes in the last 20 years


and over a longer period

[dlj]

A good resource for planning are the pilot charts. https://msi.nga.mil/Publications/APC

Download the region and months you are potentially needing. They are free. Takes a bit of work to learn how to read them. But it's a good exercise.

Only you can decide if it's too hot for you. Some people love the heat, some hate it...

Had a friend from Iceland that sailed his boat during his vacations, then left it places and came back the following year to continue. He sailed from England into the Med then back north finally arriving in Iceland something like 5 years later...

dj

[AiniA]

When we did the canal we could have gone the day after we registered. You don't get a pilot, you get an 'advisor' who may be useful or totally useless. Summer isn't ideal but you should have enough notice of a hurricane to either get to Panama or at least to the coast of Colombia where hurricane risk is very low. Can't comment on hurricane risk on the Pacific side. How big is the boat, counting all the bits sticking out at both ends? Price goes up a lot at 50'

[SVTatia]

Originally Posted by Sylvia Lindgren

We are new to the forum and though we have some coastal experience (Gulf Islands, BC) we are new to cruising. We have our eye on a suitable and ‘in our price range’ boat in Jamaica. Its complicated to try to buy a boat far from home but we think we can manage that part. The tricky part is that we are not ready to sail full time yet (two years to retirement). Because we both work for the school system we both have two months off in the summer to sail. If we were to buy a boat in Jamaica we would look forward to sailing it to Guaymas, Mexico by way of the Panama Canal and (slowly) up the coast into the Sea of Cortez. My questions is this….is this a possible sail during summers? Is it too hot? Is the weather and winds suitable to take us northerly? We would want to take it part way the first summer, leave it in a marina for the winter and take it the rest of the way the second summer (or maybe not….but eventually) and then would be planning to spend 4 - 5 months on the boat over the Canadian winter. What advice can you offer?

Is sailing thru the canal really desired? If not, sail the boat to Texas and truck it from there to San Diego. It will save you a lot of time and costwise you'll probably be ahead, the canal isn't cheap.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by AiniA

When we did the canal we could have gone the day after we registered. You don't get a pilot, you get an 'advisor' who may be useful or totally useless. Summer isn't ideal but you should have enough notice of a hurricane to either get to Panama or at least to the coast of Colombia where hurricane risk is very low. Can't comment on hurricane risk on the Pacific side. How big is the boat, counting all the bits sticking out at both ends? Price goes up a lot at 50'

The 'Advisors' are pilots making extra's on their days off or when its quiet on the commercial front.
I went through with a 35ft mono tied alongside and a 38ft Cat on the other going through all the locks.. I was driving a 54ft mono.
There was an 'Advisor' on each of the boats..

[picklesandjesse]

Originally Posted by SVTatia

Is sailing thru the canal really desired? If not, sail the boat to Texas and truck it from there to San Diego. It will save you a lot of time and costwise you'll probably be ahead, the canal isn't cheap.

Done this and the canal trip too. Trucking is for sure cheaper but not as adventurous. Maybe a coin flip. Each way it will change your life one way or the other. Funny how that works.

[mvweebles]

Leaving aside that hurricane season is June 1 through! Nov 1 and insurance will be difficult to impossible until you're well south, summer happens to be the wet season in Panama. Average rainfall during Jun-Aug is over a meter per month. Plus relentless heat. Plus relentless humidity. Plus relentless mosquitos. And then there is the +5000 nm distance and expense.

Boat better be a helluva unicorn. It can certainly be done, and early summer months are some of the calmest of the year in the Caribbean (except for those pesky hurricanes). But it's hard to imagine this plan is practical. Especially since you won't have use of the boat.

Peter

[picklesandjesse]

Forgot to mention. If you visit Port Antonio in Jamaica you might have to pay a bit of protection money. We paid Presley, Moses, Tony Macaroni and Leroy Brown. Moses said it would be a shame if our boat sank when we were downtown. Cheap insurance. Although it might have changed, not up on the current situation there but the town was suffering a few years ago.

[quartersplash]

I have gone through what you are proposing for the most part. Ended up in the Sea of Cortez where I wanted to be, but would not ever do it again. Too long of a story to tell. Too make the story short, take your time and buy a boat in the Sea of Cortez and enjoy it without the stress of a rushed passage and all of the costs and dangers involved!

[rhubstuff]

If you're not planning on serious cruising for two years, I would advise you to wait on the boat purchase, especially since the one you're looking at is so far away. Scams are a concern. And if you buy now, two years of boat expenses will be gone before you even start your journey. I think that two years from now some of the people that bought boats to get away from Covid will be selling them, having found that full-time boat life is not for them. There will be plenty of deals on the market, some of then much closer to your goal, both financially and geographically. You might find one just where you want it to be. A study of the pilot charts should indicate that your proposed voyage will not be easy. Surely there are (and will be in two years) boats that meet your needs closer to home. I would spend the intervening time getting more experience offshore in your local area and perhaps chartering a time or two in your proposed destination.

[donradcliffe]

The best part of the trip. Hurricane season in the eastern pacific starts May 15.

[skipmac]

Not only would your trip be during hurricane season and a very, very long cruise for new boaters, the trip north from Panama to Canada is a really nasty trip.

Leaving Panama you will be in calms for some time, then when you get out of the area of calms you will have the wind and currents against you all the way from Mexico to Canada.

Then there is getting by the countries between Panama and Mexico. Don't know about the Pacific side so much but on the Caribbean side the seas around parts of Central America have become very dangerous and are avoided by cruisers.

Bottom line, this is not a voyage for new sailors for many reasons and the costs will probably far exceed what you save on buying the boat in Jamaica.

[Sylvia Lindgren]

We appreciate all the sage advice. We had a lot of similar thoughts, particularly about safety and costs. We sold our last boat, which was moored on Vancouver Island, in March of 2020….just as COVID hit. The plan had been to sell the boat and travel in our VW Westy for a couple of years. Then COVID happened and traveling even within Canada went out the window. We are now leaning towards hitting the east coast of Canada and the US in our van this summer and will try to travel to England/France the following summer. At that point I will be retiring and in the right space to buy the boat. Happy travels to you all and thanks for the well thought out responses.