Cruising Grounds

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January 18, 2010

The island of Elba is Italian, and has been so for much of the past three or four thousand years, but it is inextricably linked with French history. It was, of course, the place where Napoleon was banished for his first period of exile.

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December 14, 2009

The Equatorial Indian Ocean spreads endlessly blue before us, hiding Addu Atoll just over the horizon. With landfall just hours away, we stared ahead, searching for a sign of land. Finally, we made out a few buildings, coconut palms and the white crest of waves breaking on the fringing reef.

October 27, 2009

If you talk to people about the northwest of Italy, most folk will think you mean Tuscany, or Toscana as the Italians would have it. They have heard of Tuscany mainly because of Florence, with its plethora of churches and arty things, and Pisa, with its ubiquitous tower, yet few seem to have heard of Liguria, which lies to the north and west of Tuscany.

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September 30, 2009

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.

September 27, 2009

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.”

August 26, 2009

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.

July 22, 2009

Bequia, (pronounced BECK-wee) is a sailor’s island. Indeed, until relatively recently, the only way to reach Bequia was by boat; the island had no airport until 1992.The island lies a few miles southwest of St. Vincent in the Windward Islands, and forms part of the nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It is a small island, just seven square miles in total.

June 24, 2009

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.

May 22, 2009

The Isles des Saintes are universally known as the Saintes. They are a group of small islands a few miles south of the French island of Guadeloupe. Although they are administered by Guadeloupe, they have a unique charm, and they seem to have avoided the worst of modern development. Indeed, not much has changed since I first went there in 1972.

April 29, 2009

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.

April 29, 2009

The hot topic at the 2009 St. Thomas Yacht Show in April was plans for a proactive future for the island’s charter industry in the face of economic woes.

March 25, 2009

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.

February 23, 2009

Port Louis is a new full-service marina that has emerged from the ruins of the old GYS, in the lagoon of St. George’s.

Even when GYS was in its heyday in the 1970s, it always seemed to have a ramshackle, tumble-down air. As the years passed, the wooden docks began to disintegrate, to the point that last time I was at GYS, one had to leap across gaps in the wooden decking to get ashore.

January 21, 2009

After two years of logistics and planning, a megayacht delivered more than $16,000 worth of donated medical supplies to the Belize Emergency Response Team in December, courtesy of the efforts of YachtAid Global.

Founded by Capt. Mark Drewelow in San Diego, YAG puts donated items on yachts heading to Third World countries to deliver to the coastal communities they visit.

January 21, 2009

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.

December 26, 2008

Eight years ago, Kathy Parsons published "Spanish for Cruisers" and made communication history amongst the charter captains, cruisers, marina and boatyard workers, marine technicians, mechanics and others who work on, live on, repair, maintain or have anything else to do with boats – and who speak only English or only Spanish.

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November 24, 2008

When we arrive in Turkey, we usually clear into Fethiye and the deal that the agent is able to make is that we deliver the papers and passports to him in Fethiye, then we get permission to go to the comparative tranquility of Gocek. He does all the running round to the various offices and eventually delivers the Transit Log and various papers to us on board in Gocek.

October 29, 2008

The southwestern coast of Turkey offers some delightful cruising. Unfortunately, because it is so nice, it can get crowded. There are literally hundreds of the locally built wooden Gulets that charter in the area, especially from Bodrum and Gocek. Many of them are rent-a-bed operations and tend to have some rowdy, cheap and cheerful punters on board. A few of those can spoil any anchorage.

October 29, 2008

No, I am not lost, and I have not lost my mind. I am standing in an orchid farm in Jamaica, far from my comfort zone.

I’m supposed to be a yachtie, but I’m not working, again. I need to be on a yacht or in a shipyard, otherwise I feel completely lost.

Well, there is a hose here, so that helps.

September 23, 2008

"You’re cruising the Pacific Coast of Mexico from June to November? It’s hurricane season. Are you crazy?"

Actually we are not crazy, or even big risk takers. With a close watch on the weather and the excellent forecasting available nowadays plus common sense on locations for each month, summer turned out to be an ideal time to cruise this magnificent coastline.

September 23, 2008

Greece has two well-known cruising areas: The Ionian on the west coast and the Aegean to the east, between Greece and Turkey.

August 24, 2008

If you have recently applied the "been there, done that" attitude to most regular charter destinations, consider the exotic tropical region of southern Brazil.

Of course, there is spectacular Rio de Janeiro, but head south about two hours to a region the locals refer to as Angra and discover 365 islands and more than 2,000 beaches.

August 24, 2008

It can be a bit of a bureaucratic nightmare clearing into Greece for the first time. When Greece joined the European Union, because of its long history of shipping and the size of its commercial fleet, it got many dispensations granted to protect the shipping industry.

Whilst this has no doubt been of benefit to the prosperous Greek ship-owners, it has led to many problems for visiting yachts.

August 24, 2008

When it is time to head east, the Corinth Canal saves quite a lot of miles compared to rounding the often windy southern tip of Peloponnesus. It is perhaps the world’s most expensive canal on a cost-per-mile basis, but you can save a lot of time and fuel by going that route. There are several possible anchorages along the Gulf of Corinth, with Galaxidi being my favourite.