Caribbean Circumnavigation
Friday 6th March 2020 – Key West Florida
32 countries
Around 6000 nautical miles (6600 land miles)
Over 50 sets of clearing in and clearing out with innumerable forms, rubber stamps and officials of every ilk.
100+ islands with countless bays beaches and bars.
Tropical rivers, rain forests and rocky headlands
Communities ranging from the super-rich with super yachts to hunter gatherers with dug-out canoes.
We have experienced the after-effects of the worst hurricane season on record but thankfully not the storms themselves and been met with kindness and humour everywhere, even the most devastated islands. Of course there are bad guys and nasty people here as there are in US and Europe but we didn’t meet them and perhaps the warmest welcomes were in the least expected places. Places like Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala with reputations that might keep you away but little basis in reality. Like home there a bad areas to be avoided but the vast majority of people are honest and peace-loving.
Our lives have been so much richer by the friendships we have made with fellow cruisers, service providers, officials and local ‘landlubbers’. As always many will be short-term acquaintances whose company we enjoyed briefly but there are also friendships that go much deeper and will be lasting. The music nights, pot luck suppers, sundowners and beach parties will last far longer in our memories than the occasional hang-over.
Not all the passages have been gentle down wind romps. The very first ones from Florida to the Virgin islands included over 300 miles of bashing to windward in near gale conditions with rough seas and torrential wind but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and I’d do it all again and probably will. The squalls down here can be vicious and we’ve swung on the anchor unable to see the shore or neighbouring boats for the torrential rain and the foam whipped off breaking waves but far more often we’ve dived (well I dived) off the back of the boat into warm clear seas.to cool off and play with the fishes.
The wildlife has been extraordinary in and under the water and on land. Some of the best diving in the world was made even better by my great diving buddies and our inland trips have taken us to howler monkeys, sloths, Roatan rabbits and countless new bird and animal encounters. We’ve seen Mayan ruins cliff top mansions and the Panama canal.
It’s good to be back in the land of plenty but I’ll miss the adventure of provisioning by sign language in local markets and with boat vendors or the childish glee when you come across the very occasional great supermarket in the unlikeliest of places and can fill the fridge and cupboards for a while.
I would be sad to leave it all behind and so, God willing we won’t. A trip up to Chesapeake and maybe New York this summer and then back down to the Western Caribbean next winter. I’m not sure we will do another circumnavigation but our favourite places are now in the Western Caribbean and it is just so accessible to go direct – two days from Florida and you are in Mexico, or maybe even less if you stop over in Cuba (not recommended on the way back, US officials still take a dim view). Two days from there the Honduras Bay Islands or coast hop down through Belize in day sails. An overnight to Guatemala’s Rio Dulce for the hurricane season and the opportunities for land diversions along the way to mountains, lakes ruined cities from lost cultures and rivers that tarzan would have been at home in.
Besides, I didn’t see a whale shark and I’m just not prepared to die before I see one of those amazing creatures swimming free in clear, warm waters. Bring it on…..