phuket to bombay

[Chetan]

hi all

1. would appreciate any advice on a phuket to bombay passage

2. what is the best time of the year to make this passage and what kind of winds can one expect? plan is to make the hop between mid february to mid march

3. can anyone give me an idea of "standard" reimbursement for delivery crew? does the owner pay for travel to and from the boat / only one way / not at all?

appreciate the help

tks

chetan

[Jack Tyler]

Chetan:

Re: the timing of your planned run and assuming you can't buy a copy, see if you can borrow a copy of Jimmy Cornell's World Cruising Routes from another yachtie; it's as good a distilled description of weather and cruising routes as anything in print. His routing advice & recommended waypoints fold in consideration of prevailing currents as well as the shift in the monsoon season up your way. My own hunch is that you might be leaving a bit early.

Re: arrangements with delivery crew, it varies widely and will depend on how popular your destination is and how eager the crew to have an experience vs. viewing their presence as meeting your needs. A friend has just finished an Atlantic Circle plus a year in the Med and, on every leg, had crew willing to fly out to join him, fly themselves home, and his obligations were only to look after the boat's expenses; they all shared in food costs. OTOH he was moving between popular cruising venues and he was always near a large supply of interested sailors - the UK, N Europe and N America.

Along with the web & the yachtie grapevine, you might consider using http://www.crewfinders.com/index.html - my friend had some good crew members come from that source.

Good luck on the passage!

Jack

[JeanneP]

This is when the boats are leaving Phuket to cross the Indian Ocean. The end of December, beginning of January is the preferred time. This is when the winds are most favorable. Much later and I don't think that there are going to be many boats, if any, to sail in company with.

This board has its own crewfinder pages, have you checked there?

http://www.cruiserlog.com/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=4 for crew looking for positions, and http://www.cruiserlog.com/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=5 for yachts looking for crew.

If the boat is being delivered by a professional delivery skipper who is being paid for his services, I believe that there would be some compensation, particularly for locations where it is difficult to find crew. However it's true that many crew join just for the adventure. Each situation is different, I think.

Fair winds,

Jeanne

[dnelson]

Hi Chetan,

I just completed the passage as far as Sri Lanka. The passage from Phuket this far was a dream - Beam reach or broad reach all the way. This is just the start of the season, but lots of boats did the crossing the same time we did - a virtual flotilla.

As far as the delivery crew - as Jeanne said - each situation is different - each boat, and each owner is different. What they want, and what they are willing to pay for is all negotiable.

Best of Luck

Dave