Hello Wifey B, thank you!!
Yes we will start in and around Florida, our current home and then Bahamas for quite some time but with the hopes of hitting some of the Caribbean islands in the far off future.
I am excited to hear your input about the boat choice.
Wifey B: I love the Mainships and their functionality for coastal cruising as well as Great Lakes and Rivers. In fact, we made friends with two grandparents and their grandson who were on one when cruising the Great Lakes as part of the loop.
I see it as a good Bahamas boat, just as long as a good window to cross. Good interior space, shallow draft, some speed flexibility. All good.
I don't see it as an ocean going, rough seas type boat. In the Caribbean you cross pretty large expanses of open water, the first being just to get there. Often people jump from Turks and Caicos to the DR, then down from there. On average you'll experience rougher seas than cruising the coast or Bahamas. Range on a Mainship may not be adequate either for the distances to be covered.
Now, every boat has it's strengths and weaknesses. Mainship you could cruise the entire east coast and the gulf coast, you could do the Great Loop. You could do the TN and Cumberland Rivers and even the Ohio. You could spend weeks and months and years in the Bahamas. Now by the time you've done all that, you've likely cruised 15-20,000 miles or more and put well over 2000 hours in and all that without ever going to the Caribbean or elsewhere. Perhaps do that and sometime charter a boat in the Virgin Islands to get in your Caribbean fix.
The ideal boat for the Caribbean would likely be too big for you to easily handle at first, costly, might be difficult to even cruise the ICW due to draft. Just as an example, a 60' Nordhavn would make a good boat for the Caribbean, but I sure wouldn't want it's 6'8" draft for the ICW in GA and SC or in NJ. If your primary objective was the Caribbean then I'd advise you to go charter that but also check out the boats in use there and at the docks. Might want a nice Catamaran.
Focus on what is most important to you, your 95% use. People buy boats with great plans to cross open water and cruise long distances. Then five years later they realize that's not in their plans and they downsize to the boat that fits their current cruising.
If you decide Caribbean is critical to you, then I'd suggest a bit larger and more seaworthy boat. Budget also becomes a factor because the more seaworthy boat is likely to cost more.
What boat have you been out on the water in these last five years?
