The theme of this month’s All At Sea is CRUISING, and what a splendid life it is. We are blessed with good writers and I particularly enjoyed working on this edition because it brought back so many memories. For me, cruising goes hand-in-hand with voyaging but I don’t think you should confuse the two. [...]

Sailing the Caribbean waters, living aboard indefinitely, taking your floating home from one exotic place to another is an interesting concept … To many people living a ‘normal’ life on land, living on a sailboat represents a life of freedom, beauty and perfect tropical weather. They imagine the sailing couple—whether they are friends, family or [...]

It’s the season to enjoy merry-making. Since the Caribbean region is more sea than land, there are several ways to enjoy nautical-themed holiday celebrations, everything from boat parades to dockyard parties and raft-ups to watch fireworks. CHRISTMAS BOAT PARADE The evening of December 8th is a big one for parades. Club Náutico de San Juan [...]

Christmas Morning in the USVI We walked into Emancipation Garden in Charlotte Amalie just before dawn. Despite the early hour, a few hundred people milled about; a television crew manned cameras placed around the grandstand and babies in holiday finery held their bottles and watched, wide-eyed, as choral groups in various costumes warmed up around [...]

In 2011, my wife Mia and I crossed the far north Atlantic. We sailed from Annapolis, bound for Ireland, finally taking our departure from St. Pierre, a tiny French island ten miles south of Newfoundland. Twenty-three days later, we landed in the village of Crookhaven, just around the corner from Fastnet and the famous rock. [...]

Back in my landlubber days Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs) were always a highlight of the winter holiday season. We would suit up for the weather and spend the day counting birds within our ‘count circle’. At the end of the day we would meet up with the other birders and tally our observations. The Christmas [...]

As a child, a very dog-eared copy of ‘Peterson’s Field Guide to the Atlantic Shore’ kept onboard my parents’ sailboat proved to be a very flexible and consistently-available science teacher to me. Whether fixating on a diagram or reading up on a new animal, I was well occupied with that book. I fondly scrambled ashore [...]

So this sailor walks into a bar, plunks down his money, and says, “One Bequia Blast.” Makes sense to the sailor (me). The bar sports a whale’s jawbone for an entrance arch and stools made from whale vertebrae. And it reclines beside the harbour at Port Elizabeth on Bequia in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. [...]

What do you do when you have post Olympic blues? Why, of course … have your own Oh-lim-pix (well you do have to be careful of copyright these days)! The London games are over and here in Grenada the Kirani James hysteria is slowly dying down. After watching so much fantastic sport, what better way [...]

Old Fogies with Old Engines… The title of this column isn’t a code phrase for geriatric sexual performance—really, is your mind that much in the gutter? Instead, it is an essay about old diesel marine auxiliaries. My new boat (well, new to me but built in 1981) has a FOUR-154 Perkins in it. At first, [...]

Sights of St Lucia   The first thing you notice about Saint Lucia is its magnificent, rugged green landscape. It’s an emerald jewel jutting into the sky, surrounded by deep, sapphire-blue seas. Two of these emerald jewels at the southern end of the island are the Pitons: Gros Piton and Petit Piton – two volcanic [...]

Power boaters, it’s been said, are happy because they are going somewhere special. Sailors are happy because they’re already there. Whatever your perspective, whatever your vessel, one thing’s for sure, when you cruise the British Virgin Islands, it’s when you snug down in one of the multitude of special places that you’re truly seduced by [...]

Those seeking a true island paradise and the experience of an authentic Caribbean culture should consider Bequia island. Until 18 years ago, Bequia was only accessible by boat and has thus far been saved from overdevelopment. There are no imposing resorts obstructing the view or wreaking havoc on the environment. Instead, there are simple, yet [...]

ABSAR is hosting a safety at sea affair to raise awareness on the importance of safety equipment at sea. We will be featuring a video narration of the capsize and rescue of FV Gully Creaping. You may recall the youtube video posted on this 2 months back. We will also have various experts on hand [...]

NEW AREA CODE? NOT REALLY -  With Jamaica’s recent clean sweep of all medals in the men’s 200 metres at  “London 2012”, the rumour quickly circulated that the government was changing the country’s area code to “One, Two, Three”!  Not so!  It’s still “Eight, Seven, Six”.  Sometimes down in the Caribbean if you don’t hear [...]

Abandoned vessels under scrutiny French Saint Martin – Métimer, the French Marine Trades Association, met in July to discuss the number of abandoned vessels and wrecks littering the Simpson Bay Lagoon. At least 25 wrecks have been identified on the French side of the Lagoon and Métimer say they would like to see them removed. [...]

On completing my first Atlantic crossing, I strutted around the waterfront bars of Martinique like Jack the Lad. With a glass of rhum agricole in hand and half a dozen under my belt I regaled everyone with tales of my daring, my head inflated to the size of a harbor tug’s mooring buoy. The bragging [...]

Tucked away on Antigua’s south coast, English Harbour is home to the only working Georgian dockyard in the western hemisphere. Nelson’s Dockyard began life providing a base for the fleet of British ships patrolling Caribbean waters in the early 1700s. English Harbour is a great natural harbour cut deeply into Antigua’s rugged coast line. It [...]

Hurricane season is the prime time to haul boats for routine maintenance and repairs. Yet, during the peak of the Caribbean’s winter yachting season it’s good to know that there are a variety of boatyards throughout the region that can offer a number of state-of-the-art services. Here’s a round-up of ‘What’s New’ at a sampling [...]

No nonsense Tyrrel Bay Yacht Haulout (TBYH), where we first pulled our Sun Odyssey 40 Boldly Go for bottom painting and general repairs in 2009, is a strong brown moth now in metamorphosis. In July we again chose Tyrrel Bay for its atmosphere, people and value. Piero Zipoli, who bought TBYH in March this year, [...]

Bocas del Toro, Panama, which many sailors consider the Undiscovered Caribbean, is about to become even more alluring, and I’m not referring to the streamlining of their clearing-in process and their affordable, full-year cruising permit. What has many sailors so excited is a new boatyard, which will soon open after years of bureaucratic delays. The [...]

Facilities for servicing yachts in the Caribbean took a giant leap forward this year. Subbase Drydock, located on the western side of Charlotte Amalie Harbor on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, has added to its impressive facilities, enabling recreational and commercial megayachts, motoryachts and large catamarans to undergo much needed or emergency work without having [...]

After the tropical downpour, the dense jungle foliage sparkled in the first rays of sun. The giant trees and the rig of our boat reflected in the calm, tea-colored waters of the forest stream. Around us, the forest awakened; animals started calling, chirping, clucking and humming. Colorful birds and butterflies flutter around the boat. Suddenly, [...]

“If you want to bury your head in the sand, then best stay on the beach,” is how one Caribbean skipper put it when his crew were complaining about trying to repair a piece of equipment while at sea. Plato put it another way, he said “necessity is the mother of invention” and he must [...]

Yacht Outer Limits, Strikes Whale – Crew Evacuated On the night of May 18th the yacht Outer Limits, taking part in ARC Europe 2012, struck a submerged object, possibly a whale, approximately 330nm northeast of Bermuda. The yacht sustained damage to the hull causing significant water ingress. Whilst the yacht’s emergency pumps were able to [...]

Thousands of yachtsmen can thank goodness that Donald Street, Jr., an avid sailor who has spent over half a century cruising, charting and writing about the Caribbean, didn’t follow his mother’s advice. That is, she wanted him to get a banker’s job in the ‘canyons’ of New York so he could make money and buy [...]

Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, offers a charming blend of old and new. With its cobblestone streets, ancient forts, and 16th and 17th century colonial architecture one feels as though time is suspended, and yet the city is quite cosmopolitan. Its seven square blocks are filled with fine boutiques, museums, art galleries and restaurants specializing [...]

The dangers on the weather side of Martinique never bothered Donald Street. Before charts were drawn—and while he was drawing them—Street navigated and explored the windward coast of the French island in his engineless yawl Iolaire. With Street in mind and Iolaire’s namesake charts on the navigation table, I set out from Roseau, Dominica, with [...]

Anse a L’Ane, Anse Mitan & Trois Islet Opposite Martinique’s capital Fort De France, on the other side of the bay, are three anchorages that are often overlooked. Each have their own character but all with the same sophisticated charm that is expected of the French West Indies. Trois Islet, Anse Mitan and Anse L’Ane [...]

Budget Marine’s Annual Customer Party – A Rocking Success Sint Maarten –Budget Marine treated their customers to a Rock Star Party for their Annual Customer Appreciation night in February. Guests were encouraged to turn up dressed like rock stars and many spared no effort to do just that, the crew of the Mega Yacht Paraffin [...]

LIFE … before GPS Forty years ago the Global Positioning System, a satellite computerized mapping system was not even on the horizon, so to speak, for the private yachtsman. If you wanted to cruise offshore you had to know celestial navigation. And the knowledge of this art/science kept many would-be cruising sailors either coastwise sailing [...]

There is now a little piece of Poland in the BVI. A group of Polish sailors recently honored Wladek Wagner, the first Pole to sail around the world and former BVI resident. On January 21st a plaque unveiling ceremony was held on Bellamy Cay. More than 30 charter sailboats in Trellis Bay flew red flags [...]

Jim Scott – global sailor, VISAR co-founder & author All of the tales, yarns and adventures of Jim Scott’s lifetime would not fit into a single book. Perhaps that’s why he’s written three. In these pages, filled with both prose and poetry, are tales of how this UK native turned Canadian resident has sailed the [...]

Moving freight under sail In February crowds gathered at the St Maarten Yacht Club (SMYC) to watch Tres Hombres – a 32-meter engineless brigantine – pass through the Simpson Bay Bridge. Despite delays, due to the engineless vessel struggling in gusty winds, the brigantine was given a warm and friendly welcome by spectators and mega [...]

Approaching Montserrat from the south we see a stark rubble hillside with a high mountain wearing a cap of cloud and there is a faint smell of sulfur from the Soufriere Hills volcano. A stop in Montserrat has been on our list for several years, but you need to time your visit for a period [...]

Voyages South available at Epub bookstores Free Cruising Guide is pleased to announce the release of the 2nd edition of A Thinking Man’s Guide to Voyages South ~ the Many Facets of Caribbean Cruising by Frank Virgintino. The new edition includes an expanded section on the options to leave the North American Coast as well [...]

Trinidad guide plus directory now available at Epub bookstores Free Cruising Guides is pleased to announce the release of the 2nd edition of A Yachtsman’s Guide to Trinidad + Directory by Frank Virgintino. The new edition now includes a directory of vendors in the vicinity of Chaguaramus of importance to cruisers, from boatyards and marine [...]

This is a rare opportunity to cruise the South Coast with knowledgeable leaders! A flotilla of cruising boats will organize at Marina ZarPar in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic during the first week of February 2013. Weather permitting the flotilla will depart to cruise west to Isla Beata, a small island, off Cape Beata at the [...]

Check out the First Episode from Alex and Taru The World Tour.  Many of you, especially on Antigua, know this cruising couple. Somehow we believe this will set the goal of Cruising firmly in the minds of many of the viewers… Enjoy! episode 1: an introduction from worldtourstories on Vimeo.

We’re fifteen minutes out of Marsh Harbour in the northern Bahamas’ Sea of Abaco, our chartered Sunsail monohull as happy as a Sunday morning. That’s when my heart skips beat. The waters are the colors that you dream about – aquamarine and neon lime. But these are colors you want to admire from your beach [...]