Hurricane Season Options
(Props to Patrick of SV Starfish Enterprise for the impetus for this post!)
Vermont sunset. Too bad we can’t take Calypso here!
For many US East Coast-based cruisers, insurance companies place pretty strict geographic restrictions on us for the Atlantic hurricane season, officially June 1 to November 30. Many companies tell boaters we need to be north of xxx (typically Cape Hatteras) and south of xx (used to be south of 15 north; I understand it’s frequently more like 12 north) for at least some large portion of the season. So what’s a boater to do? Grenada and the Chesapeake Bay- let alone points further north - aren’t exactly next door to each other. If you’re choosing south or north, how do you decide where to actively cruise during hurricane season? Here are a few questions that might help you figure it out.
A caveat. Know that nowhere is totally safe from hurricanes. Following the dictates of your insurance company won’t negate the need to pay close attention to the weather forecasts, all the time. Have a plan and be ready to execute it.
What do you like? From weather to parts availability to adventure opportunities, the extremes of either end of the so-called hurricane box invite some introspection. The north coast of South America is hot and humid - and remote anchorages are hard to find. Boat parts are more challenging (as a general rule) to obtain. You’ll be dealing with different cultures, different foods, possibly different languages and currencies. Piracy is a concern, especially in the waters around Venezuela. You can, however, jump off the boat for a swim or a snorkel as a matter of course, if you’re in an anchorage and not a marina. Scuba diving in Bonaire is astounding. If Trinidad opens up, that island nation is hard to resist for so much, from the music to the friendliness of the people to the food to the variety of landscape. Basically, choosing to be outside the southern end of the box gives you access to an incredible variety of cultures and experiences, with all the joys and challenges that come with variety.
The US East coast is, well, the US. You’ll be able to obtain parts with relative ease, buy familiar foods, and generally not struggle with any language barrier. You also can explore iconic cities like Baltimore, Washington DC, New York, Boston, and Portland with the comforts of your own home right there with you. You can also find private bays to tuck in all by yourself if you want that isolation. The Chesapeake jellyfish make swimming difficult; going farther north means colder water. Yes, there are massive differences in temperature and geography between the hot and humid, largely flat Chesapeake Bay and rocky, cold, foggy Maine, but. It’s still the US, with all the pros and cons that brings. As of May 2021, Canada isn’t open, so that’s as far north as you can go.
What are your future plans? Looking at what your cruising dreams are for the next year or so might help you decide which way to point your bow. It’s a lot easier to head to the Panama Canal from Grenada than from Maine; wanting to experience a winter in Greenland might mean starting from Long Island Sound. And if you know you want to explore the Eastern Caribbean during not-hurricane season, heading north from Grenada is easier than heading south from the Chesapeake Bay. You’d already be there, ready to play.
How ready is your boat? Getting to the Caribbean from the US (or even the Bahamas) starts to involve longer and longer passages. Anchoring is more difficult, either because of depth or bottom conditions. That said, Maine and its lobster pots and fog are legendary.
How ready are you? If your ideal trek to your next destination is a short afternoon sail and the thought of an overnight (or multi-day) passage spins an anxiety attack, the US East Coast is far more conducive to that kind of cruising than Grenada and south.
So what will we do? For this year, our plan is to go north. We prefer to get out of the windless, muggy heat that is the Chesapeake Bay in summer and are eagerly anticipating the challenges of Maine. The chaos and reportedly huge numbers of boaters in Long Island Sound give us major pause; though my dream is to sail past the Statue of Liberty, I could see us choosing a longer passage direct to Cape Cod to avoid all of that and a similar move move move through Massachusetts. Or not. We have family in Fairfield, Connecticut and Boston, Massachusetts - they might be understandably perturbed if we pass them by so blithely. And for 2022, it all depends on how many boat projects still are on the list as well as COVID restrictions in other countries. It also depends on where we get to this winter, and how much we like Maine this year, and if we find we love long passages at sea, and how much we’re jonesing for a roti in Carriacou, and and and . . . you get the picture. It all depends!
Sailing to Bonaire . . .