Im Heading To The Caribbean. Time To Get On The Water.

[travelersunion]

Alright I can’t take it anymore. I’m currently in Illinois and the cold weather just isn’t doing it for me. I have decided to go to the Caribbean until I start school in Aug. I’m 24 and I am about to start school to become a geologist. That means 4 years of all work and minimal play. This will be my last great adventure where I still consider myself a kid. Where does the time go! This brings me to the reason for this post. I have been living out of my backpack for the last 4 years and have gotten pretty good at being in the right place at the right time. My plan is to hang out around the docks all day and hoping someone will have room for a country boy to come aboard. (I have gotten several jobs this way, never on a sailboat but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.) So my question for the more "seasoned" members of this site is this. "Where should I start?" I will most likely begin my journey in Puerto Rico, I have some friends there I would like to see. I of course have a passport so I guess I could start anywhere really. I would love it if some of the other members could recommend some towns or maybe even specific docks I should check out. On the off chance there is somebody currently sailing in the Caribbean, reading this post, and thinking, "Hey I could use some company for a while." Well then by all means get a hold of me. Other then that any bit of knowledge you think I should have please feel free to let me know. I would really appreciate any help or tips I could get.

[JeanneP]

Gee, you just missed the Caribbean 1500 Rally, which left Hampton, VA on November 1. You have time to meet the fleet at its finish in Tortola, BVI. Caribbean 1500 rally

The Virgin Islands, US and British, are a good place to look for cruising boats. Next would be Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, when the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers fleet arrives there. The boats leave Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on November 21, but I wouldn't recommend you fly to the Canaries to try to pick up a boat. But check info out here: ARC 2010

Philipsburg, St. Maarten (Dutch side) is home to a lot of day-trip catamarans that very often need crew during the winter high season. You might want to look there, too.

Puerto Rico, generally, is an island that most cruisers just try to get through and so don't really congregate the way they do elsewhere in the Caribbean, so you might have less chance of finding a boat there. But you could get lucky. The south coast of Puerto Rico is where the boats would be traveling.

Good luck