How Long Does it Take??????

Depends a lot on the size of the boat and as you mention, intangibles such as weather. I'm guessing 5-7 weeks with a few stops along the way. Novice sailors survive ocean passages just fine, assuming they have a reasonably competent skipper who they can learn off. I'd be thinking about making sure you aren't susceptible to seasickness before embarking!

Firstly: Does the 'sailing season' fit your time frame? No point wanting to leave Panama NOW - most boats leave early in the year to take advantage of best weather on the way. First part of the trip is often called 'Coconut Milk Run' if you want to google some yacht blogs.

How long does it take? To get an idea, look back through listings at any of the main 'crew wanted' sites (7knots, Cruiser Log, Find a Crew)....... people often indicate a schedule. As #1 points out, small boats are usually slower (and less comfortable), 5-7 weeks is way too short a time.

Quickest: A delivery trip where someone is taking a boat on behalf of the owner.
Movin' Right Along: Some people can only take a sailing season off; boats in the Blue Water Rally whizz in and out of ports that others happily spend many days (or weeks) in.
Slowest: Yachts on a flexible 'round the world' or 'off to the South Pacific' schedule; some just spend a season in the Pacific Islands and head on down to Australia or New Zealand for the cyclone season, others return again and again.

Sailing from Panama to Australia is no more dangerous to a novice than any lengthy trip at sea, you should certainly try to go sailing offshore for a time before you commit to such a voyage and you should check for yourself that the boat has the necessary safety equipment on board (hard to do if you've never sailed before). The Offshore Passage Opportunities (OPO). site has a really useful section on 'what to expect', what to ask'.

Sailing long distance, expect things to go wrong - you may have to wait in a port for spare parts to be flown in, for a variety of reasons crew may get off leaving the boat short-handed and you wait to find extra crew.

If you are looking at it as a cheap way to get to Australia, do the maths - you will be expected to pay for your own food and sometime share in boat expenses - this can add up and may equal an airfare. And you can't take along a pile of luggage either! Look at the first discussion on the Cruiser Log 'crew finder' section for a heated debate on the important topic of what is a reasonable 'ask' from crew members.

Good Luck.

Here ... in the event you should pass through a mid-pacific time warp and travel back in time. You never can tell what may happen out there.

Probably you would leave the Canal in April and arrive in Australia about November because of the South Pacific Cyclone season and the beautiful places along the way.

If it were a pure delivery trip, minimal stops, you could go down the Ecuadorian coast on starboard tack, flop over, stop in the Galapagos for maybe 24 hours for some new provisions (maybe not stop at all), sail direct for Vanautu again for 24 hours (again maybe not stop at all) and then for Townsville or north (Brisbane is farther south and would take longer). About 70 days on a 12 meter yacht (Tropicbird's size) pushing it; less on a larger one.