Fort Lauderdale to Trinidad trip

I was finally able to make the run from Fort Lauderdale to Trinidad on a 60 bert at the beginning of December. Made the trip with a local captain who has done this run about 40 something times


The run was about 1465 nautical miles with stops in 9 islands over a period of 10 days, with the trip being made in the following legs

Fort Lauderdale to Bimini approx 60 miles. Bimini to staniel cay approx 180miles. with a stop in Nassau for fuel. Staniel cay to Clarence town Long Island approx 130 miles Clarence town to Providenciales Turks and Caicos islands approx 200 miles. Turks and Caicos to San Juan Puerto Rico. Approx 450 miles. San Juan to st Maarten about 200 miles. St Maarten to Nevis. About 60 miles. Nevis to st Lucia about 215 miles. St Lucia to Trinidad. About 220 miles.


Seas were decent for the most part with some 8ft seas and some high wind for the Lauderdale to Bimini leg, with speeds down to 17 kts. After that it was mainly a 10-12 ft swell at 11 seconds on the outside with a beam sea which allowed us to run at 24 kts. Once we hit st Maarten it was light wind and a small long swell

first group of pics cover the lauderdale to Staniel Cay run

this set of pics is from the run between the T&C islands to St Lucia

Thanks Dockmaster, was one hell of a trip. really glad I got the chance to be a deckhand for this run. For this long leg we had to do some slow steaming to save fuel for that leg, we burned about 1450 gallons out of the 1800 gallons onboard. The 60 normally carried 1600 gallons fuel and this one has two additional 100 gallon saddle tanks in the engineroom. we ran for about 14 hrs at 23-24 kts at 88 gph and 10 hrs at 10 kts at 20 gph. Was glad that the estimated fuel burn was close to reality. We also had the option to head south into Dom rep if needed.

Took on fuel at Nassau and PR as you said, Clarence town, then Provo Turks and Caicos, st Maarten and then st lucia. Other than the Turks to PR run, generally ran 200-250 nautical miles per day burning between 700-800 gallons.

One thing to say about this trip. This was my first run on an enclosed bridge sporty. Compared to running on an open bridge of a same size. I would have to say I was way less fatigued at the end of the day, due to the less sun , salt spray and noise exposure. If I was a boater who did many long distance runs, an enclosed bridge would be high on my priorities.

Unfortunately no fishing this run. Most of our slow speed running was at night, then we hauled ass in the day.

Hi captain pascal, definitely agree about the night time visibility. That was a challenge as the forward part of the helm just below the windscreen had some cream colored gel coat that reflected light off of the full moon against the windscreen. If I personally had an enclosed bridge and did regular night cruising I would have the forward part covered with a good dark, light absorbing material. I assume it’s this ways on the newer boats.

she is a 1999 60 bert, from the good days of bertram