If You Could Live Aboard / Cruise One Area, Where ?

[ty.gregory]

For those of you who have been around, I'm looking for ideas as to a region of the world to stay and cruise for a few years. I want to sail, but sleep nights on the hook. I'm hoping for some ideas of places that are not expensive and hopefully warm. I will be single handeling and writing. I know El Caribe is one choice. Is it the best one? Where would you go? I guess I can ship my Gemini anywhere, right?

[callistov42]

We have been sailing up and down the Eastern Caribbean for 12 years now. I just never get tired of it. Want a little taste of Europe, head for one of the French islands. Want French/American glitz and glamor go to St Barth. Want to get away from it all, head to Anguilla or Barbuda. Granada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Bequia... And nothing is more than a long day sail or possibly an over night sail away from the next island and the next adventure! It just keeps changing and unfolding in front of me! I love it. And for all the nay sayers who say, well you should have seen it 20 years ago, I'm sure it was nice but it is still real cool right now!

Just GO! Go NOW!

[Jimbo485]

SE Asia is cheap and warm. Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines.

Caribbean is more expensive unless you want to just stay in the DR or Rio Dulce. Always an option to hang out with Bruce in Luperon or wreck your liver with the other expats in the Rio Dulce in between writing another chapter!

[roarsong]

Gods country, British Columbia. Sailing range X Seattle WA to Alaska. Over 30,000 miles of beautiful coastline with thousands of secure anchorages.

[Strait Shooter]

Originally Posted by roarsong

Gods country, British Columbia. Sailing range X Seattle WA to Alaska. Over 30,000 miles of beautiful coastline with thousands of secure anchorages.

+1 .... What? 5 characters? Really?

[sarafina]

See, that's the beauty of cruising. You don't have to choose a place. You can travel whereever you wish.

Were I you and set to cruise I would sail south from SB to Panama over the course of a coupla of years, spending a fair bit of time in the Sea of Cortez, La Paz and north.

Then I would go east and south and hop along the coast, stopping for however long a place appealed to me. I would spend a good bit of time in Panama, and then slip thru the canal and head east to San Blas for another long pause. Some of the most untouched diving in the world there.

I'm a big chocolate fan and would be interested in Venezuela, but would make my decision real time, based on the current climate, about heading there for a stop before making my way out into the islands.

I think I could spend a looong time there before I got the urge to wander to the Med. But I would be happy to know that the option was there awaiting me.

And what's up with "shipping" your boat. The whole point is to cruise it!

[David M]

The South Pacific including Tonga, Fiji, Moorea, Bora Bora, Tahiti and Samoa. I have been there but never by sailboat. To me that is paradise.

[Jimbo485]

If the OP wants cheap, the Med and French Polynesia are out of the running. If he wants year long warmth, he can doubly forget the Med.

[bewitched]

Philippines

Cheap, largely friendly, english speaking, largely undeveloped, warm, 7,000+ Islands, calderas, reefs, wrecks, flat water, underground rivers, beaches, diverse wildlife etc etc

Love it

[zeehag]

i woul ddo as i am doing--- down west coast of socal , mexico, to panama and theu a canal then south a smidge, around up thru the caribean and do more gulf of mexico,puerto rico and cuba...

[Jim Cate]

Ann and I have been stuck in the South Pacific Eddy for about 20 years now: Oz or NZ in the cyclone season, any of the western island groups in the winter. Can't say if it is the best area, but it'll do for us.

Cheers,

Jim

[Bash]

Wait... You're from Santa Barbara and you're looking for cruising grounds that are warm?

Uh.... Let me think about that.....

How about something with a whole mess of Channel Islands nearby?

Ventura? Oxnard? Carpenteria?

[zeehag]

are those warm?? they lie in cold water.. one could always sail south.....is warm here...

[Bash]

Originally Posted by zeehag

are those warm?? they lie in cold water.. one could always sail south.....is warm here...

I guess it's all relative. But we would certainly agree that from Santa Barbara there's a direct path--in more directions than one--to warmer waters and less expensive berths.

[zeehag]

is a good jump off for south.......practice fields...