We are a large sloop planning to depart Palma for Cairns via Suez Canal early August and are under an extremely tight time frame to meet the owner’s wishes. They want to cruise Great Barrier Reef, PNG, Indonesia, Thailand, Red Sea, and the Black Sea. We need to be through the Torres Straits by end Oct. Our suggestion is the owner does the rest of the Med season then to the Pacific via Panama and back through the Red Sea. Any advice re-routes and weather will be greatly appreciated! New owners want to be picked up in Fiji Sept.

Going eastabout there is only one possible route: South through the Red Sea, across the N. Indian Ocean to Singapore, through Indonesia at the best possible angle (Bali may be too far west) so you ought to try to make it as far east as possible so as to have less of a beat to Torres Strait. Then south inside the Gt Barrier Reef.

On this route, you CANNOT get to Fiji by late Sept. Only in a 747!

This is probably feasible, albeit quite tough, but I would never do it as it would mean rushing to Oz without seeing much on the way. The logical route would be westabout… but then the seasons are not easy to fit in.

You could cross the Atlantic in late August and keep in very low latitudes to avoid hurricanes, and carry on that way to Panama (ETA late Sept), then to Galapagos and on to Marquesas. With a bit of luck you might be able to do most of the S Pacific in the safe season and get to Fiji by late October or more likely early November.