New and Need Some Information

When we arrived in Lautoka I spotted a wooden sloop in the marina that was not longer than 18 feet. It could almost have been our tender so to speak. I asked around and found out that the boat belonged to an Englishman whose girlfriend had left him for NZ. As he had no funds to fly he build himself a boat from scrap wood and sailed from the UK to NZ. After arriving he realised that he preferred sailing above his girlfriend and decided to continue up to Fiji. This guy was taller than me (6'7'') and had long black hair and a wild beard. I wonder wether he is seen in other marinas over the world. This was May 2005.

Indeed, sailing in these conditions is camping. One shower every 2 days from a pressurised spray bottle and bolognese sauce with corned beef ...

Yeah, that's the reason. Nothing to do with his GF kicking him to the curb after his "long black hair and a wild beard" showed up after sailing across the world on a boat made of scap wood, and with no funds. How could she have let such a catch get away?

Nearly pi**ed myself laughing when reading your entry
Sure, that's another way to look at it.

Keep in mind it can often come down to a few bad moments.
I asked a friend who is an airline pilot if he gets bored on "long haul" flights where they are basically watching that the auto-pilot is doing its job.
His answer was that it all comes down to those few moments every now & then when "it all goes wrong"!
That is when the experienced, trained persons, or in your case prepared, makes the difference.
He gave me some examples where less than 5 minutes of pilot intervention probably saved a few hundred lives.
Not saying you should not try for yourself, you should GO FOR IT!
Just keep in mind, when there is a real problem, you should have some sort of preparation.
A 23' boat can do the job of even the finest yacht......until things go wrong. I know this because this was my first boat & an overnight deep sea fishing trip was no problem at that time A LONG time ago!
Now I know better & 20 plus boats later, I would not risk it!

Your safety is largely dependent on the quality of your weather reports and your ability to read them properly. Here's a link for Dial-A-Buoy: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/maps/West_Caribbean.shtml. Explore the site. Forecasting is very much an art, but this gives you what is actually happening at a given location.
Your lifeline is you VHF radio, plus satalite phones, etc.

Crime is more of a problem than piracy in the areas you're talking about. These days I'd be very concerned traveling through Mexico & Central America. There was a man slain just recently in Honduras when he and his daughter put into a secluded cove during a storm. Check the search feature under pirates and you will get plenty of info. There has been much written here on that subject & personal protection in general. Basically, it's the same as on land, i.e. don't go to some areas and always be aware of your surroundings.