Caribbean Sailing

Hello,

Does anyone have any information on chartering a sail boat to cruise the Caribbean with a family? Would love to leave out of Texas if possible but it isn't required. Looking for a private charter with captain and crew that would do several ports over a 2-3 week period and be equipped to handel divers with all their needs. The main purpose of this would be to dive at several locations so any operation that has a private boat that would cater to divers is needed. That of course means having the ability to do fills in the middle of nowhere or carry enough tanks to dive between ports. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Matt

Hey...

I dont have any paersonal experience with what you want to do.....but a suggestion.

Go to Yahoo....lycos.com....alltheweb.com....and any other search engine and in the search box put in something like..."private cruise rentals".....and the search came up with quite a bit of options. Change the wording and you could get more options.

Just a thought....didnt know how computer savvy you are and if you already tried it. I search like that prior to every vacation i go on and find all kinds of info. Good luck.

I haven't done this myself, but my boss uses The Moorings (www.moorings.com) for his annual charters with a group from his yacht club. I've seen lots of pictures and heard lots about the trips. They are always very pleased.

While you are going to have no problem getting a sailboat, you ARE going to have problems finding one with the capacity to fill tanks onboard. Most of the mainstream charter companies like Moorings will NOT have this option.

I suggest narrowing down a geographical area before you start looking: The Bahamas or BVIs would be good. So don't forget about air travel.

Another thing to keep in mind about geography is the fact that sailboats do not travel very far or very quickly. IOW, you will not be doing a lot of long distance island hopping. Especially when you remember that there is not just the "going out" but the "coming back".

The next thing is size of the vessel & how many people you are going to have on board. Frankly, we never took more than 4 people at a time on our 43' Hunter when we ran our sail/dive charter. Yes, we could have slept up to 10 onboard, but would we really have wanted to?

And don't forget about a little thing called Hurrican Season. Weather is even MORE important on a sailboat.

Just a few thoughts...

~SubMariner~

diveaustin,

You should check out http://www.dolphindivers.com/
They sail and dive the Bahamas. I have not gone out with them, but know them from reputation. They used to run a dive operation from Travanier FL where I have dived.

Mike