Bruce Van Sant, Whose Passages South Guided Thousands, Dies at 88
Bruce Van Sant, author of the cruising classic Passages South: The Thornless Path to Windward, died June 1, 2026, at his home in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, at age 88. A former IBM systems engineer, Van Sant developed his passage-making techniques while cruising aboard his 52-foot ketch Jalan Jalan, then shared them in seminars and a guide that sold more than 50,000 copies across 10 editions.
He changed the way generations of sailors made the voyage to the Caribbean. Bruce Van Sant’s cruising guide, Passages South: The Thornless Path to Windward, became required reading for cruisers sailing from the U.S. East Coast to the Eastern Caribbean, offering a smarter way to tackle one of offshore sailing’s most challenging passages. Van Sant died June 1, 2026, at his home in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. He was 88.
Born in San Francisco and raised sailing in Florida, Van Sant worked as a systems engineer for IBM before setting off to cruise the world on his 52-foot ketch, Jalan Jalan. Along the way, he kept meticulous records of weather, currents, and sea conditions, eventually developing the passage-making techniques that earned him a devoted following throughout the cruising community.
Van Sant first shared his knowledge through seminars for cruisers in Georgetown, Bahamas. When copies of his lecture notes began circulating, he published A Gentleman’s Guide to Passages South in 1989 as a spiral-bound guide that sold out within three months. The guide grew through 10 editions, with the final edition, Passages South: The Thornless Path to Windward, released in 2012. More than 50,000 copies have been sold, and it remains one of the most trusted cruising guides for sailors bound for the Caribbean. Van Sant later also wrote Margarita Cat: Sketches of a Cruising Life, a memoir drawing on more than 40 years spent afloat.
Cruisers knew Van Sant as much for his willingness to help as for the knowledge he shared. From answering questions after a seminar to helping first-time passage makers prepare for the trip south, he always had time to point sailors in the right direction. Decades later, sailors bound from Florida and the Bahamas toward the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the Eastern Caribbean still plan their departures around his weather windows, and “the thorny path” remains the name cruisers use for the route he made navigable.
Carol Bareuther has written for ALL AT SEA since 2004.
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