The Great Recession birthed a new concept, the “staycation,” in which you enjoyed a mini-vacation without venturing far from home. Hotels loved it because they filled empty weekend rooms, and local businesses benefited too. Today, expanding the concept a little, a staycation can ...read more
Heaps of history—that’s not usually what comes to mind when you plan a sailing charter, but if you like a bit of culture mixed with your cruising, Croatia is the place to go. Caught between two worlds, (the whitewashed laid back vibe of the Mediterranean and the brash demeanor of ...read more
Cruising from Guadeloupe to Grenada, heading more or less south with the wind east-northeast, basically on the beam the whole way—yup, sign me up for that! That’s how I approached a recent delivery charter of 12 days and 400 miles, including a few loops and harbor hops. With only ...read more
Ducking out of the pouring rain in Trinidad, Cuba, we ran smack into a thin man with a few missing teeth and a woven basket. He made room for us under the shelter and started suggesting in Spanish that we buy some food or beer from the bar upstairs. When we politely declined, he ...read more
Irma and Maria wreaked havoc in much of the Caribbean leaving us with heartbreaking images of devastated homes, displaced citizens and destroyed bareboat fleets. Photos of dismasted monohulls and flipped cats have flooded the Internet, with the fleets looking more like piles of ...read more
So you’re looking for adventure. Not of the bareboat party barge variety, but the kind where the weather is sketchy, the wildlife plentiful, the sailing serious and the boats rugged with serious looking reels of anchor rode and line on deck. Whether you’re seeking to cross ...read more
The back of my tongue erupted in flame and the heat of a thousand suns spread in my mouth like lava gushing from the depths of Hades. Tears ran down my cheeks as I gasped for air and groped for the nearest liquid—fortuitously a bottle of Singha beer, which I downed in three ...read more
The two things you’ll notice almost immediately when you land on the island of Bequia are that you’re probably mispronouncing the name (it’s “Bek-way”), and that you’ve just found possibly the friendliest people in the West Indies. The largest of the Grenadine Isles, Bequia has a ...read more
The Great Lakes have long gotten a bad rap for everything from cleanliness to the quality of the sailing there. But the days of burning rivers are ancient history, and while it’s true the lakes are not dotted with the same abundance of islands and bays as, say, the Eastern ...read more
Time was that mapmakers would append the designation “Here be dragons” to those portions of the globe still unknown to them. But the terrors of the unknown pale in comparison to the fog, tides and rock (and lobster pot!) strewn harbors of coastal Maine—or so I thought until I ...read more
There’s a reason New England sailors are so dedicated; New England is simply one of the world’s best cruising grounds. The southern side of Cape Cod and its off-lying islands—Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, the Elizabeth Islands and Block Island—are a cruiser’s dream. The weather ...read more
It’s not every day you can run aground twice in the space of 10 minutes and extract yourself gracefully each time. Chesapeake neophytes, we were feeling our way into the picturesque harbor of Rock Hall, and as we discussed the approach to the marina the boat slowed ever so gently ...read more
Desolation SoundWe’d been warned that there wasn’t much in the way of wind at the upper end of Vancouver Island in the summer, so as we left the Desolation Sound Yacht Charters base in Comox, headed across the Strait of Georgia toward the mainland, we were pleasantly surprised to ...read more
Contrary to perceived wisdom, the Caribbean can be a delightful place to charter in the summer. It’s true that yearnings for sun-kissed isles and turquoise waters tend to be strongest in the winter, but a mid-year Eastern Caribbean cruise has many benefits and may just become ...read more
“The last time I visited Baja, it was 1972. I was 18 years old and on a road trip from Rapid City, South Dakota, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. There were five of us in a four-seater Jeep with a spare tire on the roof. I was the youngest, so they gave me the ‘fifth seat,’ perched on ...read more
For years I’ve been hearing about the Spanish Virgin Islands, as they’re called, on the eastern edge of Puerto Rico: how they’re like the U.S. and the British Virgin Islands once were before being discovered by the charter and tourist trade, with their wide-open anchorages, ...read more
I was feeling nervous as my mom, my brother and I walked to the baggage claim area at St. Thomas airport to meet my three best friends from college. Non-sailors all, Andrew, Alex and Wayne were joining us for a week’s bareboat charter in the BVI aboard a brand new Moorings 45.3. ...read more
If you want to get your catamaran vacation fix this winter (or next summer) and want a unique experience, consider one of the following 10 destinations. Maybe you’ve only got a week and want to stay close to home. Or perhaps you have loads of time off and don’t mind a long ...read more
When people ask me to name my favorite charter destination, my answer is always the Sea of Abaco, in the Bahamas, in the off-season—in fact, smack-dab in the middle of hurricane season. This, of course, is completely contrary to conventional wisdom, owing to the area’s seasonal ...read more
The first sunset set the tone for the week. I’ve been lucky enough to see dozens of them at sea, in some of the most beautiful places in the world, but that first evening anchored in Belize was nothing short of surreal. The sky turned blood-orange red, and the line of ...read more
I spent many years exploring the wonders that lie along her shores. Fourteen miles wide, 125 miles long and up to 400ft deep, Champlain serves as the border between Vermont to the east, upstate New York to the west, and Canada to the north. Framed by the towering Adirondack ...read more
A quarter mile offshore, the depth gauge was showing 50ft, but it might as well have been 15ft. The bottom was clearly visible, expanses of sand showing green-filtered white between dark swatches of weed. I’d not seen water that clear at that depth for many years. It was yet ...read more
Sampling some goat roti may not rank high on your culinary bucket list, but I’m here to tell you it’s a very underrated dish—especially when eaten off a tin plate, with a tree stump for a table, at a street kitchen beside a winding mountain road in St. Lucia. Besides being ...read more
Twenty years ago, I sailed to Anegada—almost—when I boarded a plane in Los Angeles and after too many connections arrived on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands for my first-ever charter in paradise. On the itinerary was Anegada, a low-lying coral island 15 miles to the ...read more