Hi friends:

Starting to look at how I'm going to cross the Gap. I have a boat reservation with the Steelraht which is $820 for me and my bike. I'm wondering how this compares to other recent prices people have paid for the same trip. The lowest I've seen (if you want to do the cargo ship shuffle is $600 or so for me + the bike. I'm 100% interested in sailing with the bike and am not interested in flying/shipping. I have a boat reservation on March 6th with the Steelraht.

1) Am I accurate in my idea of current pricing for boats?
2) From all my research, the Steelraht seems to be everyone's favorite boat... or at least one of the top 3.
3) I have probably 1-1.5 years more for this trip. I'm wondering whether it's best to just take this boat reservation on the 6th and spend more time in South America than Central America. The alternative would be to have an extra month or two in Central America but have to arrange my own passage in Panama when I get there... It seems like I might have to wait up to a few weeks to arrange passage to Colombia. I'm leaning towards must making the boat reservation on the 6th and having more time to explore south america (I have already been on the road exploring mexico/central america for 5 months).

thanks for your help!

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Hi I'm David; headed to South America via a Suzuki V-Strom 650.
http://www.davidparkinson.com