Destinations

The Best Of Times

by Charles Mason, Posted August 13, 2008

Charter a boat, sail your own boat; stay near home or cross the country to sample the waters. Summer is a good time to do it“To every thing there is a season,” said the writer of Ecclesiastes. If you’re reading this, you’re probably a sailor, and you don’t need me to tell you that this statement should be needlepointed on a pillow in the saloon of every sailboat. Generally,

Last Mango In Paradise

by Dana Williams, Posted August 13, 2008

Splat! A large lump of something yellow hit the path in front of us. Then another, and another. Flinching, I glanced up into the rain-forest canopy. Flashes of movement and an insolent chattering betrayed the culprits—monkeys, and plenty of them. Splat! Now we recognized the somethings as the remains of mangoes dropping from the canopy as the monkeys finished munching them. Messy

It's All Greece To Me

by Amy Ullrich, Posted August 13, 2008

A charter in the Ionian sea yields a sampling of the "real" GreeceWe sailors are lucky. Thanks to the availability of boats that can be chartered in many of the world's wonderful places—and to my mind, many of these wonderful places are islands—we can travel around at will, complete with housing, a kitchen, and a clothes closet. Within certain parameters, of

The End of the World

by Sail Staff, Posted August 8, 2008

Cruising the challenging waters of the Beagle Channel and Cape HornThe change in the weather is as emphatic as it is fast. One moment we're meandering along, running wing-and-wing before a light northerly breeze that's just enough to get our heavy 56-footer trundling along at 5 knots. The next, the sky to the west takes on a gunmetal hue and the jib shakes itself as the

Expert's Choice: Windward Islands

by Chris Doyle, Posted August 8, 2008

A resident of Grenada, Chris Doyle wrote his first Cruising Guide to the Windward Islands in 1980. The current 2007-08 guide is the twelfth in the series.By Chris DoyleFOOD AND DRINK» ProvisioningThere was a time when charterers set off for the Windwards with bags of food—who knew what you would find down island? Forget

Expert's Choice: Leeward Islands

by Chris Doyle, Posted August 8, 2008

Chris Doyle has been writing and updating the Cruising Guide to the Leeward Islands since 1989.FOOD AND DRINK» ProvisionsIf you decide to self-provision or just need to restock, it doesn't get better than in St. Martin, where the supermarkets are giant and waterside provisioning services ensure that superyacht guests (and you) are never

Split Decision

by Sail Staff, Posted August 8, 2008

A thousand islands, a balmy climate, friendly people: Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast knocks the socks of most other cruising groundsWith my wife, Roz, and my old Scottish mate, Patrick, I’d bought tickets on a low-price airline from London to Split. Two and a half hours later we were losing altitude over a fairytale fortress on a tiny island. We’ll sail there for sure, I

Dreamcatcher

by Rebecca Waters, Posted August 7, 2008

Myth, mystery, and Midnight Magic evoke childhood adventures on a Lake Michigan charterWe were lost in the woods on Garden Island. The trail we followed from the Native American graveyard had melted into a woodland clearing, leaving us guessing at the path ahead. My brother Xander had even stopped pointing out peculiar vegetation and was instead studying the trail map

Five Mornings In Maine

by Sail Staff, Posted August 7, 2008

When you hit the weather right, the Maine coast is simply Shangri-laThe Maine cruise my new fiance, Caroline, and I took over the long Fourth of July weekend was a preemptive honeymoon. We’d been together and sailed together for over seven years when I donned my tuxedo and popped the question on a borrowed Rhodes 19 as the sun set over the Boston skyline on the summer

A Series of Fortunate Events

by Kimball Livingston, Posted August 7, 2008

Riding a mild breeze along Turkey’s rugged Mediterranean coast, a charter sailor doesn’t have to be a poet to wander freely as a cloudFortunately, the people in the French charterboat had so much trouble anchoring that they gave up and went away. Unfortunate for them, I suppose, but we set our hook, swam a line to shore, and settled into what I regarded as the kingpin spot