Boating around the Caribbean

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Scarpozzi

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,391
1,780
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Yesterday I was chatting with a friend of mine about taking lunch breaks on a boat because his office is next to a lake. I used to keep my boat at a marina 2 miles from there. I did a quick google search of Cuddy Cabin boats and sent him a few $10k-30k options....half-way joking that he could live on the boat and cut his commute. When I did the search, I found an add for a 49' yacht for $70k that had twin 450hp diesel engines and a 650 gallon tank...3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms...

This reminded me of a guy I knew when Bush got elected for a second term. He had been a sailor most of his adult life on nearby rivers and lakes, sporting a 25' Hunter and then upgrading it to a 30' something with more bells and whistles. Anyhoo.....he was so irritated that Bush got re-elected that he quit his job, had his wife sell their house (she was in real estate), and they put all their belongings in storage...then they went on a 1 year sailing adventure to the Caribbean. I thought he was a nut for doing it, but the idea kind of appeals to me now. I don't really know how much Bush had to do with the trip...it was just probably easier for him to explain the seemingly crazy move to us land folk.

Back to the 49' boat... I was wondering what it would take to go from a port like Charleston and maybe hit a few islands and come back, similar to what a 5-7 day cruise route would be. I plotted a course using an online tool and from Charleston to Key West to Cancun to Grand Cayman to Freeport and back....it was around 2500 nautical miles. The estimated fuel consumption on one of those engines, from what I can tell is around 5 gph at 8 knots and half load. I realized pretty quickly you could get probably 3-4 days on that 650 gallons, but filling up would be pretty expensive. I'm not serious about actually getting that boat, in particular, but more curious about learning what it would take if I decide to spend 3-6 months on the ocean in my retirement. (basically, buy or rent a boat to use...then cash out after an adventure) I'm going to likely have a decent retirement nest egg and will want to blow some of it on life experience before my health goes.

The sailing route may actually be best because wind power = free and you can actually travel pretty fast that way if you follow the seasonal patterns and have a decent engine and fuel tank as a backup plan. Anyone ever looked in to this? One of the things my buddy showed me were pictures of all the other boaters down there. I was intrigued that so many people were doing the same thing he was doing and living off-grid in boats. His had solar panels and was pretty self-sustainable, minus potable water, LP and gas for the engine.
 
L

Luna1968

Golden Member
Mar 9, 2019
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687
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sounds like a cool adventure but not my cup of tea. i would be so sea sick and it sounds like a whole lot of work and a insane amount of money.

i could never live on a boat, i like my space.
 
Midwayman

Midwayman

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2000
5,723
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I'd love to sail around the Caribbean. Get away from the big touristy islands and just take it slow. I dive, so I'd probably just spend a lot of time going from reef to reef and filling up at a big town for food and air refills.
 
Scarpozzi

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,391
1,780
126
Luna1968 said:
sounds like a cool adventure but not my cup of tea. i would be so sea sick and it sounds like a whole lot of work and a insane amount of money.

i could never live on a boat, i like my space.
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I totally agree with you...I'd be sick too, but I'm sure after vomiting for the first month, I'd be used to it.

I'm a big guy and like my space too. I've got a huge house, but am thinking I could start saving up cash...maybe fix up and sell one of my cabins to close the gap on a $250k catamaran or something....then turn around and sell it after a year of use. This is all a dream...chances of me actually doing it are less than 3%. It would be far less risky and probably cheaper to charter a single private cruise. With that, I could do it sooner rather than later.
 
gill77

gill77

Senior member
Aug 3, 2006
813
250
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Maybe take a couple short vacations, something like what is offered to some of the out islands in the Bahamas. Find out if you have salt in your veins.

We always see pictures of nice boats in calm seas, but storms happen. They do provide memories you will never forget.
 
BarkingGhostar

BarkingGhostar

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2009
8,410
1,617
136
I would imagine it would be analogous to those people sporting $250K RVs and traveling by road. Not sure I would care for either unless it was someone else doing the driving/piloting. I always joked with the wife if we got rich the chauffeur would have to be this hot looking women that could (ahem) operate in high heels and a miniskirt. That is the only way things like this could be 'doable' for, and to, me.
 
herm0016

herm0016

Diamond Member
Feb 26, 2005
8,513
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a 49 foot what though. you don't just take any boat on the open ocean. whats the hull design like? does it have stabilizers? etc. . . i grew up on boats from 26 feet to 100 feet on the great lakes.
650 * 3.84= $2496 3.84 is seems to be the spot price for fuel on the ICW.

also, a 49 foot boat that costs 70 grand is not going to be in great shape.
 
Scarpozzi

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,391
1,780
126
herm0016 said:
a 49 foot what though. you don't just take any boat on the open ocean. whats the hull design like? does it have stabilizers? etc. . . i grew up on boats from 26 feet to 100 feet on the great lakes.
650 * 3.84= $2496 3.84 is seems to be the spot price for fuel on the ICW.

also, a 49 foot boat that costs 70 grand is not going to be in great shape.
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It's a 49' motor yacht....and fueling the twin diesel engines paired with a flooded market, and a motivated seller are likely why the cost of the yacht is so low. Someone wants to unload it and gph fuel consumption is crazy expensive on a non-sailing vessel.

Open ocean is all relative. You can stick to the inter-coastal water ways to have smoother sailing up the coast and the Caribbean can be rough, but it can also be quite tame when paying attention to the weather reports. This is what my friend did when he went on his adventure. He used canals to get out of the Southern US lake systems to the Gulf of Mexico...then headed to the Caribbean in the Spring/Summer and rolled up the inter-coastal waterway to Maine through the Fall months. It allowed him to refuel and stop in cities...was likely easier on his wife/daughter.
 
Scarpozzi

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,391
1,780
126
herm0016 said:
i dream of something like this: https://www.denisonyachtsales.com/yachts-for-sale/58-Fernand-MARSEILLE/230319-yc

70 grand gets you a boat that size with 3 or 4000 hrs on the engines, high fuel consumption and old electronics/systems that are unreliable.

i did not find this one by a random google search. its a very particular and custom design.
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That's pretty serious. I was looking at some of the 40' leopard cats and those can be had for around $220-250k pretty easily. Monohulls are much more cost effective....you can get a decent 37-40' yacht for under $100k all day long. I really think the cat may be the way to go because I could probably turn around and sell it a year later losing sales tax, brokerage fees, and mandatory safety fixes before making it sea worthy for a trip outside of hurricane season.
 
Scarpozzi

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,391
1,780
126
I did more research on this and found that I can get a decent boat under $20k pretty easily in the 30-35' range. If I put another $10k-20k into it, I could make it really decent for some fun trips. I've got a boat house with a 22' pontoon, but the dam is under repair...so I don't have water under my docks at the moment. If I got a sailboat for my home lake, it'd have to be careful because the lake has a lot of shallow spots and I wouldn't want to infringe on my neighbors too much if I were to keep it in the water during the summer. It could be cool though if I could keep it at my cabin from May-September and put it in deeper water for the winter.

I'm in a landlocked state, but can actually drive a boat about 120 miles of here and drop it in a river that locks through to the Gulf. That might be a fun 2 week trip with my kids over a summer break in a few years. If I can get the boat to the Gulf, I could park it somewhere at a marina for a few months and plan another 1-2 week excursion. That's basically the same course the guy I worked with took. I'm just intrigued by the whole thing for some reason right now. I suppose it's because the thought of being on the water, cruising, and relaxing beats working.
 
gill77

gill77

Senior member
Aug 3, 2006
813
250
136
Used to have a boat and a travel trailer parked on a river a mile or so from the Gulf. It made for some great weekends, mainly fishing the bays.

Nothing like being on the water.
 
squirrel dog

squirrel dog

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
5,564
48
91
do a search for doing the loop . All protected waterways , intracostal canals . In the open ocean , 20~30+ ' waves could turn your world upside down .
 
Jeeebus

Jeeebus

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2006
9,181
901
126
On the Jeeebus wishlist - which Mrs. Jeeebus has not said no to yet - is the 38' Boston Whaler Outrage:

7256386-20191019113203734-1-XLARGE-1.jpg


Boston Whaler 380 Outrage - boats.com

Discover the new 2020 Boston Whaler 380 Outrage - research, view pictures, specifications and dealers near you for this boat or search for more Boston Whaler boats for sale on boats.com.
www.boats.com www.boats.com

I wouldn't take it hundreds of miles away to the Virgin Islands, French Caribbean, etc., but we've been looking at buying a place on Bimini (50 miles), Grand Bahama (60ish miles), or Abaco (100 miles) and the crossing is very comfortable on a boat like this. That said, weather and waves are always the key factor even on a 40'+ boat. It could be flat off the coast here and once in the gulfstream you're looking at 10'+ waves. That's not fun on any boat.
 
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gill77

gill77

Senior member
Aug 3, 2006
813
250
136
Jeeebus said:
On the Jeeebus wishlist - which Mrs. Jeeebus has not said no to yet - is the 38' Boston Whaler Outrage:

7256386-20191019113203734-1-XLARGE-1.jpg


Boston Whaler 380 Outrage - boats.com

Discover the new 2020 Boston Whaler 380 Outrage - research, view pictures, specifications and dealers near you for this boat or search for more Boston Whaler boats for sale on boats.com.
www.boats.com www.boats.com

I wouldn't take it hundreds of miles away to the Virgin Islands, French Caribbean, etc., but we've been looking at buying a place on Bimini (50 miles), Grand Bahama (60ish miles), or Abaco (100 miles) and the crossing is very comfortable on a boat like this. That said, weather and waves are always the key factor even on a 40'+ boat. It could be flat off the coast here and once in the gulfstream you're looking at 10'+ waves. That's not fun on any boat.
Click to expand...

445 gallon gas tank.
 
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