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Cruising the Caribbean at Your Own Speed |
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Tis the season to cruise the Caribbean. Thousands are scrambling now to
secure cabins with the various cruise lines—Carnival, Cunard,
Celebrity, Radisson Seven Seas, Royal Caribbean, etc. They will pay hundreds
to thousands for the experience of piling on a huge liner with thousands of
other folk, and bopping around to several islands where the cruise ship
passenger mongers will greet them. |
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The food will be suitable, for the price they paid and the
line they chose. Some will enjoy
fabulous gourmet cuisine and others will schlep down the equivalent of a
floating Old Country Buffet.
Entertainment will be geared of course for the masses. The itinerary overall, is
geared to what suits the cruise line, based on surveys they took, after the
accountants put in their two cents. |
Twin hull catamaran |
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Some cruise lines do it well. Some suck. |
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But at each port, the cruise passenger will look out and see
sailing yachts moored with carefree folk tanning, diving, mooning cruise
passengers and basically having tons of fun. That's when they think, "Those guys are probably the millionaires." |
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Not necessarily. That could easily be you. |
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Inside the master cabin |
Galley |
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One doesn’t have to be Tiger Woods to have fun on a
private yacht. More importantly,
you can charter a Tiger Woods-like yacht and really snub you nose at the hoi
polloi! |
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You can even choose how you wish to sail. If you have sailing experience, you
can “Bareboat” charter, which means you pilot the ship yourself. Or you can order a crewed vessel with
a captain, cook etc. Even then the captain will "hand over" the helm to you
at your request for any part of the journey. |
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You get to choose your own dining menu as well. Do you want steaks every night, so be
it! Are you a hot dog
hogger? No problem. There are on shore outfitters that
specialized in rounding up all your grub or you can just go to nearby
yachter’s grocer and do you own shopping. |
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> Aboard a 93 footer that sleep 10
very comfortably |
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The best part is choosing which islands you wish to visit
and when. Heck some folk only go to two islands! Some just drop anchor off the coast and relax. |
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As a charter you also choose with whom you are
sailing. The most economical way
is to invite a few close friends to join you. No more awkward conversations with the octogenarian whose
children are about your age. |
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Activities can range from fishing, diving, mooning cruise
ships, or pulling into harbor for a little island fun. |
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Options of course include choosing between a mono-hull,
catamaran, of even a motor yacht. Catamarans are generally nice for people
who get seasick easily, mono-hulls offer the authentic sailing feel. Of course, a motor yacht gets you
there faster. If you choose bare
bones you will not need a license, but most charters grill you on your
sailing background. If they don’t you should be wary of quality of their
vessel. |
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Most charters have a minimum of one week for the charter,
though some are flexible with day charters. A good resource for locating charters is Oasis Maigot with charters throughout the
Caribbean. If you are in the
Virgin Islands, Bareboats BVI
has an excellent collection
of both sail and motor yachts for your self sailing pleasure. Of course if
you choose to grab a captain, they are available at reasonable rates. |
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> Serenity Now! |
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When is the best time to charter? Before somebody else grabs the yacht
you were thinking about! The best time to go? When you are ready to moon the cruise line passengers! |
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One great time to go is in August during the Black Boaters Summit in the US and British Virgin
Islands. It is the largest
gathering of African American yachtsmen in the world. |
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