Editor’s Log
TIME TO Go
Among the numerous things that could pull at a sailor’s heartstrings in Newport, Rhode Island, there used to be a shop on lower Thames Street named the Armchair Sailor Bookstore. Once very much a going and healthy concern, it became an early brick-andmortar casualty to progress in the Digital Age. And it’s a place that’s earned a spot on my ever-growing list of regrets, for not having spent more time there when I had the chance, before it closed its doors after 32 years in business. As Joni Mitchell said: “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”
If you never had a chance to visit, the Armchair Sailor was a place to go to read up on how to navigate the world’s oceans, but, ironically, once in the door, a visitor couldn’t help but get totally lost, thumbing through the books and magazines and charts piled up on the shelves. For anyone planning a voyage or curious about a particular landfall, the store contained a treasure trove of all things nautical that you could reach out and touch with your fingertips—for real—instead of Googling or tapping on a glass screen as pixels zoom in and out.
I’m not entirely sure why, but the bookstore comes immediately to mind when I think about how I’ve spent the past 16 months, hogtied by a pandemic and, like just about everyone else on the planet, unable to step out and actually travel and touch the world. Particularly now, while we’re putting together this, our annual chartering issue, I think of the store because sailing vacations give you a reason to pick a destination, and then rustle up a crew, pack a bag, hop on a plane, and go by boat to just about anywhere in the world that you have the mind to. And the good news is, now we can do that again!
For what it’s worth, here, in no particular order, are five good places to think about booking a charter as the world reopens by fits and starts.
I’d gladly return to Union Island and take another hike up into the hills surrounding
Chatham Bay. From the beach, you walk up a dirt road that winds to the top, where there’s an opening that looks westward to the vast and blue Atlantic. And then, I’d stroll a bit farther up and around the corner, to the spot from which you can see the Windward Islands disappearing into the tropical haze and waves crashing on Horseshoe Reef and the Tobago Cays.
If you get the chance, go swimming with the sea lions in the Galapagos. From a panga, you jump in and are immediately surrounded by swirling, diving, bubble-blowing dancers that are as eager to play with you in the water as they were to charge and bite at you ashore. Put me on a boat and take me back there. Please.
I would definitely like to someday revisit the sea caves that we came upon one morning while sailing out of Bayfield, Wisconsin, through Lake Superior’s Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. I’d want to wake at dawn and get there while the sun is still low, when the red rocks are glowing and the shallow water is fluorescent green. I have a photo of the caves that a friend took while we were there and have kept it framed on my own boat for years.
Ditto the coves and bays that pockmark the southern end of Grenada. We found them at the end of a weeklong one-way charter that began in St. Lucia, and we had only a day to explore. Next time, I’d fly straight to St. George’s, where the charter bases are located, and from there, we’d sail south to Grand Bay and beyond.
And last but not least, I’d gladly pay another visit to Canada’s Gulf Islands and make a return trip to Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island. Only this time, rather than renting a slip in nearby Sidney, we’d anchor in the quiet cove near the flowers and surrounded by evergreens. It looked awfully peaceful there, and I wished we’d done it.
Perhaps after a year-plus cooped up in the house, you’re planning a sailing vacation sometime soon. Do it— because now you can.
Sailing vacations give you a reason to pick a destination, and then rustle up a crew, pack a bag, hop on a plane, and go by boat to just about anywhere in the world that you have the mind to.