+xAhoy!
I'm a 60ft Ocean schooner, draft 8.5ft, beam 15ft, currently lying northern Lake Michigan. I plan on a 2 (3?) year voyage to the Caribbean beginning with passage to Nova Scotia where I will winter 2022-23, continuing on (maybe) in the spring of 2023.
So I'm interested in any and all experiences, good or bad, suggestions, dos & don't's that anyone who has made the trip, full or partial, is willing to share with me.
Fair winds,
Jack Callahan
Ocean Adventure
Hi Jack,
Where in Lake Mich? My sailboat Alchemy is currently in Harbor Springs, MI, after being stuck in Newfoundland for ~~2 years because of covid. We were coming Great Lakes way anyway and decided to have the boat trucked to LM when it looked like we were going to miss a whole other season (and thereby missed coming on her own bottom and all the wonderful places along the way).
Except for the passage to salt water from the GLs, I have sailed the waters where you are headed. You will have a great time.
There is too much to say to just respond blindly. Come back with questions.
If planning to cruise Newfoundland, I, with a group, have been working on the CCA guides, both the book and the online updates, but I am unsure of the publication schedule, so you might wait a bit for purchase.
I have the following guides (below), some of which might be useful and which you could borrow.
Also, as you likely know, the Great Lakes Cruising Club has very thorough piloting/port information for the route down the river which syncs with CCA material on the east end by plan.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
PS., I will say, and I agree, that many who have done similar trips often say that they wished they had spent more time on the east coast of the US: that the smell of tropical breezes and sand beaches got in their nostrils and drew them south and they missed a great deal.
Arctic & Northern waters
CCA guides to Newfoundland & one for Labrador
Guide to Gulf of St. Lawrence
Guide to SL River and the Quebec waterways.