PLANNING YOUR CARIBBEAN ESCAPE

As vaccinations ramp up, more and more islands will hopefully be open to accepting guests, those arriving on planes and by yacht. Now is the time to begin researching your options, be it on your own boat, chartering a bareboat, or on a crewed charter yacht with a skipper and chef.

The eastern Caribbean has hundreds of islands in a 500-nauticalmile arc, from the Virgin Islands down to Grenada. It is possible, even desirable, to explore the entire eastern Caribbean in a single winter season; but then again, you could stretch it into a lifetime. After all, you’ll want to linger in each anchorage for a week or two, even a month. A one-week charter might include an island or two, and you can do the BVI in two weeks. But the last thing you want to do down there is rush around. Here are what I consider eight groups of islands, each worth a full two weeks of exploration: The Virgin Islands: US and British Anguilla, St. Martin and St. Barts Antigua: with 365 beaches and two dozen anchorages The big French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique Dominica: Ashore is worth a few days St. Lucia and St. Vincent The Grenadines: Bequia down to Union Island, including the Tobago Cays

Grenada and Carriacou You can go anytime, but the best weather is late fall and late winter into spring, when the weather is more settled and the bareboat charter rates come down. To begin planning, you’ll need Chris Doyle’s cruising guides to the Windward and Leeward islands (doyleguides.com). Doyle updates his guides yearly with detailed information on shoreside amenities, hikes, shops and services.

In the old days, before Doyle and the internet, there was legendary Caribbean cruiser Don Street’s Cruising Guide to the

Lesser Antilles. You can still find used copies online. My copy is from 2000, but as Street would say, “The rocks are still in the same place.” Street’s guide is for serious sailors and navigators, and includes compass bearings on approaches to all anchorages (remember, this was before GPS and chart plotters). If you are looking for secluded anchorages, Street has them, but they are often difficult to enter. Street, now in his 90s, is still racing sailboats in Ireland. His website is full of good stories and advice (street-iolaire.com).

Finally, download the Navionics app, then download the individual charts for the entire island chain (navionics.com). This app provides three valuable tools: You can zoom in and view detailed charts of each anchorage; there are notes and recommendations from Active-captain cruisers who have been there and have the latest updates; and the app has a tool to measure distances between waypoints, and to estimate course and distance for route planning.