For sheer beauty I think that the islands off of Venezuela had to be
some of our favorites. The water was unbelievable, there were plenty of
well protected anchorages and it was downwind sailing. Be sure to
inland and explore. What more could you ask for!?!

Colombia was very enjoyable too. Cartagana was a fantastic place to
spend time in, however the water in the bay turned all kinds of
interesting colors due to industrial pollution and the boat got grimy
from air pollution, but the old city of Cartagana was a FUN place to
visit. Note that the wind BLOWS in Colombia, so make sure that you're
headed west...

If you like to dive the atolls off of Belize are fantastic. Bonaire was
great too, but the anchorage is noisy. Unfortunately we didn't get a
compressor until Panama, so before that we were limited to diving at
locations were we could get tanks filled, so we missed a lot of diving
in the eastern Caribbean and Venezuela.

Other Favorite places:

Anguilla was very quaint.

St. Martin had great food on the French side.

Saba was steep and rolly but had good diving.

St. Barts was a playground for those with big bucks but the people
watching was fun.

Pinney beach on Nevis was exquisite; Gualaloupe is large and has
beautiful rain forests.

The Saints off of Guadaloupe were one of our favorites for the wonderful
town and anchorages.

Dominica was beautiful, but the boat boys drive you crazy;

Ditto for St. Lucia.

Petite St. Vincent and the Tabago cays in the Grenadines have impossibly
blue water.

Until Ivan through Grenada was a great place to leave the boat for
hurricane season.

Margarita island off of Venezuela is a great place to get stuck for an
extended period of time as it has great, inexpensive restaurants, lots
of boaters and lots of things to do.

San Andres island off of Nicaragua was like Margarita but it had great
diving too.

Cay Caulker Belize for an incredibly laid back experience.

Roatan, Honduras's West End for the diving & town.


Places that I'd skip:

St. Kitts due to the inhabitants.

Guanaja, Honduras due to theft issues.

Utila, Honduras due to the ferry induced wakes and noise at night.

Most of the Atlantic Mexican coast as it just didn't hold any real
interest (Puerto Adventuras is nice for a marina from which you can
explore inland).

Colon, Panama as it's one of the armpits of the Earth, but provisioning
is good.

Xcalak, Mexico as it's a one horse town and the horse was on vacation
and you can get trapped inside the reef for weeks.


Of course these are only my impressions. Others may like completely
different things. I can only speak for me.

-- Geoff

Wayne.B wrote in
:

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 02:26:40 GMT, "Geoffrey W. Schultz"
wrote:

I appreciate the comments. I spend a lot of time on the web site and
it's nice to know that people find it valuable. I've always been
amazed at how many people that I've met who literally have copies of
the web site aboard their boat.

==================================

Geoff, since you've already cruised a lot of the areas that I aspire
to, I'd be interested in your opinion on "favorite" areas, and why.

Thanks in advance.

What type of compressor did you buy? Are you happy with it?


"Geoffrey W. Schultz" wrote in message
7...
For sheer beauty I think that the islands off of Venezuela had to be
some of our favorites. The water was unbelievable, there were plenty of
well protected anchorages and it was downwind sailing. Be sure to
inland and explore. What more could you ask for!?!

Colombia was very enjoyable too. Cartagana was a fantastic place to
spend time in, however the water in the bay turned all kinds of
interesting colors due to industrial pollution and the boat got grimy
from air pollution, but the old city of Cartagana was a FUN place to
visit. Note that the wind BLOWS in Colombia, so make sure that you're
headed west...

If you like to dive the atolls off of Belize are fantastic. Bonaire was
great too, but the anchorage is noisy. Unfortunately we didn't get a
compressor until Panama, so before that we were limited to diving at
locations were we could get tanks filled, so we missed a lot of diving
in the eastern Caribbean and Venezuela.

Other Favorite places:

Anguilla was very quaint.

St. Martin had great food on the French side.

Saba was steep and rolly but had good diving.

St. Barts was a playground for those with big bucks but the people
watching was fun.

Pinney beach on Nevis was exquisite; Gualaloupe is large and has
beautiful rain forests.

The Saints off of Guadaloupe were one of our favorites for the wonderful
town and anchorages.

Dominica was beautiful, but the boat boys drive you crazy;

Ditto for St. Lucia.

Petite St. Vincent and the Tabago cays in the Grenadines have impossibly
blue water.

Until Ivan through Grenada was a great place to leave the boat for
hurricane season.

Margarita island off of Venezuela is a great place to get stuck for an
extended period of time as it has great, inexpensive restaurants, lots
of boaters and lots of things to do.

San Andres island off of Nicaragua was like Margarita but it had great
diving too.

Cay Caulker Belize for an incredibly laid back experience.

Roatan, Honduras's West End for the diving & town.


Places that I'd skip:

St. Kitts due to the inhabitants.

Guanaja, Honduras due to theft issues.

Utila, Honduras due to the ferry induced wakes and noise at night.

Most of the Atlantic Mexican coast as it just didn't hold any real
interest (Puerto Adventuras is nice for a marina from which you can
explore inland).

Colon, Panama as it's one of the armpits of the Earth, but provisioning
is good.

Xcalak, Mexico as it's a one horse town and the horse was on vacation
and you can get trapped inside the reef for weeks.


Of course these are only my impressions. Others may like completely
different things. I can only speak for me.

-- Geoff

Wayne.B wrote in
:

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 02:26:40 GMT, "Geoffrey W. Schultz"
wrote:

I appreciate the comments. I spend a lot of time on the web site and
it's nice to know that people find it valuable. I've always been
amazed at how many people that I've met who literally have copies of
the web site aboard their boat.

==================================

Geoff, since you've already cruised a lot of the areas that I aspire
to, I'd be interested in your opinion on "favorite" areas, and why.

Thanks in advance.

I bought a MaxAir compressor and had quite a few peoblems this year. The
4th stage cylinder froze up and I had a new one FedEXed into Belize City
and a live-aboard dive boat brought it out to us. Not only was the part
expensive, but the shipping and duty really jacked the price up. Shortly
after replacing the 4th stage it began taking too long to fill tanks. I
hauled the compressor back to the US and they rebuilt it. When I got it
back to Belize it was having the same problem. They eventually shipped a
whole new compressor down and I had to ship the old one back. Never heard
what the problem was, but the end result was that I spent close to $1K in
shipping, rebuilding, shipping, parts, shipping, etc, etc. MaxAir is a
small shop and I didn't find them overly helpful.

I believe that the real problem lies with the Italian made compressor. The
rest of it is reasonably built, but definately could use some improvments
in the placement of bolts to ease assembly/disassembly.

I was forced into the MaxAir due to storage compartment size issues. Had
that not been the case I would have gone with a Bauer. I have quite a few
cruising friends who have Bauers and don't have any problems with them.

-- Geoff

"Jim Lea" wrote in :

What type of compressor did you buy? Are you happy with it?


"Geoffrey W. Schultz" wrote in message
7...
[clip]
If you like to dive the atolls off of Belize are fantastic. Bonaire was
great too, but the anchorage is noisy. Unfortunately we didn't get a
compressor until Panama, so before that we were limited to diving at
locations were we could get tanks filled, so we missed a lot of diving
in the eastern Caribbean and Venezuela.
[clip]

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 18:17:15 GMT, "Geoffrey W. Schultz"
wrote:
For sheer beauty I think that the islands off of Venezuela had to be
some of our favorites. The water was unbelievable, there were plenty of
well protected anchorages and it was downwind sailing. Be sure to
inland and explore. What more could you ask for!?!

============================================

Geoff, thanks for the all of the info. It's always interesting to get
the perspective of people who have actually been there and don't have
anything to sell. I'm sure there are many stories behind the scenes
that have shaped your views. Ever think of writing a book about it
all?