Don Street is a legend in his own time; a lifetime sailor,
Don has spent forty nine years cruising, charting and writing about the
Caribbean. Forty of those years were spent aboard his 46 ft. engineless yawl,
Iolaire,
built in 1905. He has made 12 transatlantic crossings, all of which were hand
steered with no auto pilot. After taking Iolaire back to
the UK, Don purchased the red 28 ft engineless yawl Li’l Iolaire, which was, unfortunately lost
in Grenada when a charter boat dragged down on it during Hurricane Ivan 2004.
Don comes
from a long line of sailors, on his mother’s side. His great grandfather
raced ice boats and sand baggers in Barnegat Bay. He learned to sail in Port
Washington at the Manhasset Bay Yacht Club. “I took to it like a duck to
water.” After a stint in the U.S. Navy, in submarines, and at Notre Dame
University he landed a job as paid hand on Huey Long’s Ondine, a beautiful 53 foot
Abeking and Rasmussen Yawl where he became the skipper. He
spent the next few years
racing in Europe & the U.S. where he sailed with Arthur Knapp, of the
International Class IOD’s
in Bermuda and Europe; Sven Hansen – who subsequently won the
Fastnet and the Bermuda Races back to back on his 48-ft.
yawl Anitra;
Colin Ratsey of Ratsey
& Lapthorne, Charlie "Butch" Ulmer Sr.
and the famous Swedish Designer Knut Reimers.
After
stints with some of the most famous sailors in the world, Don came to St.
Thomas as a Land Surveyor followed by the “charter business, exploration
business and writing business.” There he bought Iolaire, from the late Captain
Bob Crytzer and began cruising, writing and providing
data for Caribbean charts. Chart coverage for the Eastern Caribbean
historically was haphazard until Don created the Imray-Iolaire
chart series. During the past several decades almost every move
Don has made has been recorded in sailing history.
His
newest book Seawise was republished in 2004 with a Prologue
updating each chapter as to what Street has learned in the last 50 years and a
Epilogue that, according to Street, “complains about and lists the
deficiencies of modern cruising yachts.” Likewise, his soon to be
released “Transatlantic
Crossing Guide – A Guide to the Atlantic islands,
Transatlantic Crossings, getting to and leaving the Caribbean from the East
Coast of the U.S. and an Introduction to the Caribbean ” will give the long distance sailor much needed advice.
Street lists some examples:
1. Going westward across the Atlantic you cannot rely on the
trades until mid January. In November of ‘85 there was no wind from the
Canaries to Cape Verde. In 2002 the wind went literally southwest and 100s of
boats left the Canaries and were forced down to the Cape Verdes. Again, in 2005
the same thing happened – southwesterlies or no
wind. The trades don’t really fill in until January.
2. Heading east – anyone that leaves the Caribbean
before the second week in May is out of their cotton picking minds. There are
severe gales in April. After May, the entire crew still needs really warm
clothes, foul weather gear and sea boots as the water is still cold.
I truly enjoyed my chat with Don Street and totally
encourage all sailors, no matter how little or much experience, to own and read
his books as they contain a wealth of information. For more details please
contacthttp://www.street-iolaire.com
His numerous books include -
A Cruising Guide to
the Lesser Antilles:Written in
1965, this guide opened the Eastern Caribbean to the cruising yachtsmen/women
and made bareboat chartering possible.
Street’s Cruising
Guide to the Eastern Caribbean: Puerto
Rico, Spanish, U.S. & British Virgin Islands – was the first
comprehensive guide to all of the Virgins.
Ocean
Sailing Yacht Volumes 1 and 2:Is filled with information on boats and equipment, gear and rigging
tricks of the trade and has been recently updated since its first publication
in the mid- 1970s.
Street’s Cruising
Guide to the Eastern Caribbean: Anguilla
to Dominica – The only cruising guide with detailed inter-island
sailing directions for quiet and even deserted anchorages in some of the most
beautiful sailing area of the world.
Street’s Cruising
Guide to the Eastern Caribbean: Martinique to Trinidad - Is the only guide
to cover Martinique to Trinidad including Tobago and Barbados in one volume.
Street’s Cruising
Guide to the Eastern Caribbean: Venezuela and the ABC Islands – The
definitive Venezuelan guide for sailors wishing to explore along the northern
coast of Venezuela and the ABC islands. While this guide is out of print, the
navigational information is still as valid today as it was in 1989.
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