Dear Jimmy Cornell,

In your Cruising Routes, you dismiss East-About Pacific routes to Panama, but I am thinking about going South down the Red Sea, then to Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and eventually to the Panama Canal. Apart from returning across the Med and Atlantic to Panama, do you have suggestions or comments for a Pacific East-About route from NZ?

Thank you for your email. I do not “dismiss” east-about routes to Panama, I simply describe them as very difficult for cruising yachts – after all the title of my book is World CRUISING Routes.

If you want to sail east from New Zealand you do have the traditional route in the Roaring Forties. Such a route would take you past Cape Horn and into the Atlantic. If you prefer warmer waters and want to make for Panama, you can sail east as far as Tahiti (I describe this route in my book) then continue north towards the Line islands and east just north of the equator, ideally taking advantage of the equatorial counter-current…but you’ll need a lot of fuel to make progress in the light winds.

Jimmy Cornell