Politics aren't Clyde Rawls' cup of tea. Customer service is his passion and the area he hopes to employ his skills in the near future.

Rawls, who in the spring of 2008 was appointed general manager of Camper & Nicholsons' Port Louis in Grenada, left his position at the end of the year.

“I enjoyed working in Grenada; Port Louis is a wonderful project,” Rawls said. “But I was uncomfortable being on the nightly news and in the hot spot on behalf of a foreign company.”

I first went to Japan in 2001 to deal with a 37m yacht being bought from a Japanese owner. We organized a freighter to ship it to the United States, but we would have more than two months before it left Kobe.

“How often are you going to have a yacht in Japan?” I said. “Let’s go cruising.”

I joined the yacht in Japan; however yachts generally approach from two directions. From the north, the first port of call is Hakkodate on the northern island of Honshu or an extra day and a half down to Yokohama and Tokyo.

Gibraltar is a place of contrasts; history vies with the modern life at every corner. Many people consider that the brash Main Street with its duty-free shops is all that Gibraltar has to offer, yet with the minimum amount of effort, an interesting history awaits.

A swath of blood red sky bathes the morning horizon as the brooding hulk of Pitcairn Island emerges from the Pacific.

As the M/Y Turmoil pushes into a heavy swell, the somber red sunrise is a fitting backdrop to a bloody and tumultuous history for this small wind-battered rock that lies at 25 degrees south.

The M/Y Turmoil spent five weeks this spring in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. We cleared into the Sollies at the capital, Honiara, after the long haul down from Hawaii. Our local agent was Gerald Stenzel from Tradco (tradco@solomon.com.sb ).

Clearance was straightforward, though we did notice that most officials down this way ask for lunch when they come onboard.

One of the vagaries of European law allows many yachts to stay in the European Union without paying VAT, provided they leave European waters at least once every 18 months. It used to be that such vessels would visit Malta, often on their way to or from Greece. The visit would clear the VAT status for another 18 months and allow the boat to fill up with duty-free fuel.

Malta went and spoiled this easy option by, rather selfishly, joining the EU.

Of more than 60 inlets in Florida, Bakers Haulover Inlet is one that requires clear local knowledge or just plain avoidance, say local captains.

This man-made inlet was dug in 1925 to connect Biscayne Bay with the Atlantic Ocean. Known as Haulover, it is located at statute mile 1080 on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), and is the only inlet between Miami’s Government Cut and Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale.

Captains and crews of two British Virgin Islands’-based charter yachts spent Christmas transporting gifts and supplies to residents of Ile a Vache, an island off the southern coast of Haiti.