October 10, 2013
Hola! By boat to Havana
Cuba’s by far the biggest island in the Caribbean. Roughly 1,200 km long x 200 km wide at its widest point with something like 3,700 km of coastline it’s the ideal destination for Canadian boaters, right? Canadians can and do go by boat to Cuba but it’s not always simple. The Cuban government, the American government and the currents in the Straits of Florida complicate passage but don’t let any of those deter you. For those who do cross to the land of sunny Latin skies and the convertible peso, there’s a quite reasonable array of marine facilities and a very warm welcome.
October 10, 2013
Taking the Maple Leaf to the Bahamas
It’s an awkward fact of life for us at Canadian Yachting magazine that while we know the majority of our readers are power boaters, the majority of people who want to write about their cruising experiences are sailors! In addition to that, the greatest attraction seems to be far-off and exotic locations that can be both expensive and challenging to anyone’s skills as a skipper. So, we wanted to offer the power boater’s perspective too and to remind our readers that some of the most memorable and spectacular scenery is really closer than you’d think.
October 10, 2013
Provisioning and Preparation Before You Go Yachting
As exotic and exciting as a bareboat yacht charter sounds (and is) it can still be accessible to the yachting novice because the preparations and details are all clearly spelled out and frequently, are reasonably priced too! For example the Sunsail website explains that yacht sailing is available to all. You don’t need any previous experience to start and the cost is comparable to a villa holiday.
October 10, 2013
Destination: Bitter End Yacht Club, British Virgin Islands
As I left Toronto to join our flotilla in Tortola I must admit I had some sympathy, (not much mind you) at having to leave behind the other two Galley Guys, Andy Adams and Greg Nicoll whom both had other commitments. The first leg of the trip took us from Toronto to Miami and then on to St. Thomas where we were met by Elvis our taxi driver who took us to Red Hook Marina where Captain Camille of Dolphin Water Taxis shuttled us over to Tortola.
October 10, 2013
Alluring Anegada
Shaun Clare and his wife Anne are members of the Britannia-Rideau squadron. In April 2012 they chartered La Bella Vita, a 42-foot Robertson and Caine Leopard catamaran, and toured the US and British Virgin Islands. They will continue exploring the area in April 2013, and are including Anegada once again on their itinerary. While Anegada is off limits for many charterers, some charter companies may allow their boats to be taken there if the charterer can demonstrate sufficient navigation and sailing experience. Shaun and Anne were required to submit a sailing resumé, which included a transcript of their successfully completed CPS courses.
August 2, 2013
Jewels of the French Antilles – Iles des Saintes and St. Barthélemy
Spring is a beautiful time in the Caribbean. The trade winds become more gentle and the persistent northerly swells found in the winter boating season, formed by storms “up north”, subside. This general calming of conditions opens up a plethora of anchorages throughout the islands just when most cruising sailors are beginning to leave the Caribbean for home. Even the more popular anchorages become less crowded as a result. So why is everyone leaving?
January 2, 2013
Tempt Your Taste Buds in St. Maarten
St. Maarten is one of the tiniest islands in the Caribbean; for its 37-square mile size, it packs a huge punch in tourism, with duty-free shopping, 37 beaches and 325 restaurants. With so many places to eat, you can find a wide range of cooking styles and ethnic food, including French, Italian, American, Mexican, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese and Chinese. St. Maarten boasts the highest concentration of fine restaurants per square mile in the entire Caribbean — don’t forget the roadside stalls with their focus on local farm to fork. Their offerings are authentic Caribbean and downright delicious.
February 10, 2012
Sint Maarten – Serious Fun
The horn signals the start of the Round-the-Island race in the 31st running of the Heineken Regatta. Our boat incises the waters off Sint Maarten’s south coast with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel. On every side the white triangles of other boats decorate the horizon line; in the distance I can see the misty blue heights of Saba.
October 18, 2011
Cruising Into the Sunset
It hits me as hard as the waves crashing into our bow just outside the shelter of Sunsail’s St. Vincent base, strong as the thirty-knot winds gusting out of the east, that I have not planned this trip as well as I should have. We ship two good friends as crew – both relatively experienced sailors – but they aren’t ready for this. Nor am I. Supposed to be a bucket list adventure but it starts as a romp from hell.
January 12, 2011
A Ration of Grog
From the ubiquitous red shirts and baseball hats with the yellow map of Barbados emblazoned on them – the secret code of serious sailboat racers worldwide – to the Royal Navy tradition of serving up a thick, syrupy and brain-befuddling concoction daily to her sailors, it seems like rum and boating are synonymous. For what sailor worth his salt doesn’t savour a ration of grog? Almost a moral imperative.
January 12, 2011
Island Grooves
It is so hot in Codrington, Barbuda, even the chickens are napping. Then the afternoon explodes in sound. Around the corner come people swaying their hips in time to a band, one musician grinding out chord roots on a bass, a drummer pounding cross-rhythms.
January 12, 2011
BVI Dreamin’
All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey. Is it time for the BVI Spring Regatta yet? This summer was a wonderful one – I put a lot of water under the boat, had a ball and it didn’t seem to rain on a single weekend! But now the boat is under its tarp and my deck sneakers have that wandering feeling. The pull is stronger than in years past because just before launch last spring, I started my season extra early by taking in the BVI Spring Regatta.
January 12, 2011
Skinny Sailing
“IC24’s have a crew weight limit of 850 pounds and there are five of us,” said Tyler Rice, a high school senior from St. Thomas, USVI, and my skipper for the 2010 Rolex International Regatta during a pre-race phone call. “We did some math last night and we all need to loose some weight before weigh-in.” Thus began a time of thirst and hunger but the trade off was compelling: ten days of sacrifice for the serious fun of sailing in a legendary Caribbean event.
January 12, 2011
Looking For Vinci in All The Wrong Places
Just outside the elegance of the reception office at Young Island Resort in St. Vincent, crown jewel of the Grenadine Islands in the southern Caribbean, are two perfectly happy Vinci parrots, perched lazily on tree trunks in very nice cages. Just as happy as you, these birds, lodged – like you – in a luxury resort that Johnny Depp used as a pied-a-terre while filming the first УPirates of the CaribbeanФ, that Bill Gates fully booked for his millennium celebrations.
January 12, 2011
Champagne Cruising
It’s 11:59 p.m. on New Years’ Eve and I’m ensconced like a king on his throne in the cockpit of a sailboat. The clock strikes twelve and a hundred ships’ horns shatter the night. Cheers echo across waters that shimmer with the Christmas lights strung from the railing of the candy cane lighthouse.
January 12, 2011
History’s Harbour
The sun breaks over the cactus-studded slopes of Shirley Heights, spotlighting the wooden crosses of a two-century-old cemetery, bathing in a scarlet-hued glow of the crumbling battlements that still stand sentinel over the opening to Antigua’s English Harbour. It rises higher, illuminating villas and a beach that fronts on waters that glitter like a sugar-glazed donut.
January 11, 2011
Sun, Sea, Sand and Sails
You have shovelled snow from more than enough driveways. Your parka feels like a straightjacket. The only ice you want to see is in a glass of rum punch. And you have had enough of wind chill minus a million. Celsius. Little do you know that your recipe for happiness needs very few ingredients, that with a cornucopia of island paradises and a brisk cruise thrown in for good measure, you too can increase your happiness quotient.
December 22, 2010
Cruising the Leeward Station
As the sun died in the western sky we strolled across a cobblestone parade ground, following its path like the faithful. We watched it burn a pink and orange penumbra onto a harem of undulating mountains. We watched it etch deep shadows into east-facing slopes, silhouetting the palms that surmounted their heights.
December 17, 2010
Grenada of Land and Sea
Just off the headland of Grenada’s True Blue Bay a huge rock bathes in the Caribbean Sea. It is thirty feet high and ruggedly beautiful. Wind has etched lines upon its face; the sea has softened its rougher edges. We sail past in the Bavaria 46′ we’ve chartered from Horizon Yacht Charters, gazing out toward waves hurling themselves against the rock, shattering into a million pieces.
November 1, 2010
The Way South – Bahamas to the Caribbean
The past year had been filled with adventures – a new boat built in England, the transatlantic passage bringing her across to our side of the Atlantic Ocean, a winter in the Caribbean, spring in the Out Islands of the Bahamas, and a fast trip home to Lake Ontario via New York and the Erie Canal.
October 28, 2010
St. Martin to the BVI
Our overnight passage from the island of Barbuda to St. Martin had been boisterous. The easterly winds had built through the night so that by the time St. Martin came into view, bright green and mountainous on this mid-January day, we had a reef in the mainsail and had changed down from our 135% genoa to our sturdy little self-tacking jib. Distant Shores, our Southerly 42 sailboat, charged along in the confused seas her variable draft keel down the full 9-feet keeping her motion steady and comfortable.
June 16, 2010
Eleuthera Bound
It looked like we were floating in the world’s largest swimming pool. For as far as our eyes could see was the most beautiful sparkling clear water with no land in sight. It was a warm windless morning in early June and as we motor-sailed along over the glassy calm we could see bright red starfish slide by on the pure white sand bottom beneath us.
June 11, 2010
St. Martin – Half Dutch, Half French
Sometimes everything just comes together to make an island landfall the perfect experience. We approached St. Martin in an absolute torrential tropical downpour. We had sailed overnight from Barbuda – leaving at midnight to arrive in the day. The night was a rollicking sail with nice strong winds from behind and we flew along at over 8 knots.
June 10, 2010
Anguilla – Sailing for the Stars
I didn’t see much on my first cruise through Anguilla Passage in the Leeward chain of the Caribbean Sea. I was crewing for Steve Fossett on a one-hundred-twenty-five-foot catamaran called “Playstation” and we were chasing the Heineken Regatta’s round-Sint-Maarten record.
June 10, 2010
Hopetown and the Other Loyalists
The first thing I see on my approach to Hopetown is an undulating emerald silhouette rising up from the horizon, dominated by a circa-1864, candy-cane-painted lighthouse that still uses kerosene for power. Inside the harbour is a forest of sailboat masts. A chorus of dancing casuarinas trees, feathery branches seductive as a burlesque dancer’s boa, serenades me.
June 9, 2010
Petit St. Vincent – The Real Fantasy Island
It is twilight when we step onto the dock at Petit St. Vincent, a tiny tropical resort island snugged down like an anchored sloop in one of the most beautiful bays in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. No Ricardo Montalban waiting to greet us in a white suit, but this is no TV show. This is the real Fantasy Island.
June 9, 2010
Bahamas – Out Islands
This year Paul and I celebrated 20 years of long-distance cruising. As writers and documentary filmmakers we’re fortunate that we can work while we travel and since setting sail from Toronto in September 1989 on our first international voyage we have logged 76,000 nautical miles cruising to over 50 countries on 5 continents. And whenever anyone asks, “What’s your favourite place to sail?”, we both say without hesitating, “The Bahamas!”.
May 31, 2010
Our Caribbean Arrival
Our goal when we set out to cross the Atlantic Ocean aboard our Southerly 42 sailboat from the Canary Islands was to arrive in the Caribbean island of Antigua in time for the legendary Sunday night jump-up atop Shirley Heights. We almost made it.
April 26, 2010
Southern Comfort
I awake from a deep sleep with a warm breeze blowing softly through the hatch and Annie’s Toy, a Lagoon 380, rocking gently at anchor. Brilliant stars provide the only light in the pitch-black cabin. Aside from the water softly rippling against the hull, not a sound is heard. It’s our first night of a seven-day charter in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and we share our secluded anchorage with just two other boats. My hometown seems a planet away and I fall asleep eagerly wondering what adventures tomorrow will bring….read more
November 11, 2009
Tantalizing Temptations in Trinidad and Tobago
By four in the morning I was starting to wonder what I was doing, nearly naked, painted in silver mud and dancing through the streets of a tropical city. Even though I am on the greying side of fifty I wasn’t alone in the dawning light. Tens of thousands of people, some even more ancient then me, were dancing through the streets of Trinidad’s Port of Spain, having a great time kicking off Carnival.
November 11, 2009
St. Maarten/St. Martin
Two cultures – one island. Where can a winter-weary Canadian Yachting reader go to “get-away” this winter? How about someplace that offers the breath-taking atmosphere of the Caribbean and the combined flare of European and Caribbean cultures? If that sounds good – then St. Maarten/St. Martin might just be the “two countries in one” island for you!
November 11, 2009
Saba and Montserrat – Hidden Treasures
The longer we sail, the more we realize that some of our most treasured cruising experiences are often in places that are a challenge to get to or stay at. It seems that if a destination is tricky to reach navigationally, has few harbours with good all around protection or is off the main cruising route because of distance or prevailing winds then often that place is really special – quiet and undeveloped and people, unscathed by massive tourism, friendly and welcoming.
November 11, 2009
Guadeloupe’s Northern Anchorages and the Rivière Salée
You wouldn’t exactly say that the French island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean is “off the beaten path”. With a population of 406,000 and an area of 1,780 sq. km., it’s among the largest of the islands in the Leeward Islands. There is a major international airport there where thousands of tourists from around the world flood in daily to enjoy the sun and sea and French ambience.
November 11, 2009
Grenada
Come winter – when I can’t sleep at night and February grabs me by the throat – I conjure up a view of the falls. But my falls is no mere Niagara. This is Concord, a cascade coursing down the side of a mountain in Grenada. A nation of three islands less than three hundred kilometres from the coast of South America, Grenada is crown jewel of the Windward Islands.
November 11, 2009
Becoming a Belonger in the British Virgin Islands
In Tortola’s far eastern reaches a causeway crosses a strait etched by the Caribbean. It leads to Beef Island, one member of the forty-island archipelago called the British Virgin Islands. Two hundred years ago cattle grazed here. Today it is home to the airport.
November 11, 2009
Anchored in Anguilla
Sometime before dawn this morning a snare drum roll of rain beat out a tattoo on the coach roof of our Gibsea 42′, chartered from Sunsail in Sint Maarten. Thunder growled through the night. Rain cascaded from black cumulus clouds swirling over a cacti-studded ridge. A medley of line squalls passed overhead, each ending as soon as it began.