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Has anyone been there recently? Margaret and I plan to go down in December and maybe spend the rest of the winter in that area and points farther south. We would appreciate any suggestions or recommendations regarding charts, guide books, anchorages, marinas, places to go, things to do, etc. We'll probably leave from Key West and might stop at the Dry Tortugas on the way down.

Thanks for any help.

Phil McGovern
s/v Sunshine
36036

I've sailed down there several times, but not in the last 3 years. How long will you be in the area? I've got LOTs of info, but it depends on the length of your stay. Ed

Hi, Ed:

Thanks for the reply. We could spend all winter down there. It all depends on what we find when we get there. We'll be there at least a month and may stay for the whole season and venture farther down to Belize and maybe to Rio Dulce if things are going well. We flew to Belize several years ago and would love to go back by boat.

We are reading Freya's guidebook and have Calder's on order. Also, I have found a few "trip reports" online which have been interesting and a little scary. I have invested in Garmin's chartplotter G2 chip for the Northwestern Caribbean, but don't have any charts -- paper or digital -- yet.

No habla Espanol, so I plan to get "Spanish for Cruisers" and see what I can pick up before we leave.

It appears that both the current and the wind will most likely be against us as we head south and west. Was that your experience? Our only other "passage" so far was from Miami to Nassau a couple of years ago, so we don't have a lot of blue water experience.

Any suggestions about things to do or avoid will be most welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Phil McGovern
s/v Sunshine
36036