I suppose to some people the most important part of a journey is the map, although I've come to the conclusion that in sailing putting set plans and destination will only leave you disappointed in the end. The best option is to follow the winds, and the current, let the tide bring you out to sea, and enjoy the beauty of the world. That doesn't fret for a few of us dreamers to draw a line on the map and show you what an ideal voyage would be, however unlikely of the events that would hold you from such a journey, to include a damaged boat, an emptying of your sludge fund(rainy day fund), or some family emergency in order to get home, or just falling in love with a location and just enjoying life.
Regardless of the stereotypes and dilemmas behind choosing a route, we are hardly reinventing the wheel, although when going on different boat, and different economy then past years we must put these into consideration when making our plans. The questions come in different forms depending on which part of the world you are in, and alot of the routes can be found in Jimmy Cornell's Book, which has been a great find for us in order to plan routes. The next thing when planning a route is to have global charts, as well as pilot charts. Although these pilot charts cover mass times of weather in all locations it will give you an idea of where you want to be and which routes you want to take during what time of the year. Even though there are freak weather as we all know, it is to play to your favor to follow histories example.
Now that we have our charts, and we have our boat, we need to take into account.......our budget, yes that's right, people who can afford different places and activities will choose on which route to take in order to accommodate their budget. For Example, French Polynesia has you put down a deposit for a plane ticket home and refunds you in another currency, usually leaving you out of 1500 dollars depending on your home country, this may not be acceptable depending on your budgetary constraints.
Also we need to take into account the amount of time we are going to spend in the different areas we are going to visit, as mentioned we look at the pilot charts to see the areas affected by storms, as well as reference history. We know we don't want to be in the Caribbean during April-November, and we don't want to be in the pacific from December-march. In order to have the best trip through the trade winds we will follow these principles. So Logic tells us there is only a few options to go in order to fully enjoy ourselves during the best seasons for the right places.
Below you can see a picture of our various thought process as we went through this process. Always placing safety and season first we have the option to explore the Caribbean or rush through to the canal, or do we go to New Zealand and wait out the cyclone season, or rush past to get out of dodge before the bad weather hits. Finally we decide as we leave Australia do we want to go north towards the Gulf of Eden, or South Around Cape Hope?
While these choices may seem in important in certain areas depending on your experience and surrounding could mean the difference between life and death. In choosing the route there are not only weather hazards, but the even more dangerous human factor. There have been reported robberies and stabbing across the Caribbean on cruisers, as well as the known pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia.
In taking these all into account we have chosen to follow the route to drop to New Zealand in order to avoid the cyclones, and then again drop around the south of Africa in order to avoid the pirates. These are both decisions on our experience and our lack of being able to bring weapons on our route. This also would give us an extra year to our trip letting us take it slower and enjoy our selves a little more in New Zealand and Australia. Although, we were tempted to stream by these areas since they are the most expensive cruising areas in the world.
I seem to have left out an important part of the trip. The panama canal. Although we could go around the south south America, that would add an extra six months to our trip, and we don't have a metal hull boat and it would be very dangerous through the icy waters that far south. The panama canal has been said to be a headache, from it processing delays and its fees. Also its rules and regulations make it so most people feel that it is a headache they would not want to deal with. Although I have not been through the panama canal I do not fret this, as we have a decently powerful engine size for our boat, which was built to fight the currents in the English Channel.
The initial fees at today's time are around 450 dollars standard for small yachts, and as with any operation its the hidden fees that I am told will get you. You need rope handlers, two on each side, so four total with 200 yards of rope minimum. You also need to go a minimum of 7 knots with your boat. If your engine breaks down you will be fined, if you are too slow you will be fined. I have heard you wait up to a month to even get through and in the meantime you have to hang out in a city, paying fees.
I hope you all take into account the points before planning your own route, most importantly the weather, crime rates, and your ability to deal with both. After you find where you would like to go, figure out where you can afford to go. Although the world is "free", there are better areas for cruisers on a budget to spend their time then the french Polynesia, although it is some of the best cruising areas in the world, its better to cruise longer then to go bust attempting feet's out of your price range.
As mentioned before I do not agree on making plans on a sailboat or promising when to be where, and when. All we can do is point our bow in the general direction we want to go and hopefully the wind favors us, if not we'll just have to enjoy where it decides to blow us!
