By David H. Lyman
This article originally appeared in Carubbean Compass Magazine, April 2020
(The Story of David's Delivery from Antigua to Martinique, with his family, appeared in the November/December 2021 issue of Cruising World Magazine. Also availale on this website.)
Last fall, I was sitting peacefully in my studio in Maine trying to find anything I could do so I didn’t have to writing another book. Then, an old friend dropped his hook in my harbor and upset my life.
“You busy this fall,” he asked.
“Why?” I asked. I already had an idea.
“Want to get back to sea?” He asked. “How about helping me sail my boat down to the Caribbean next month?” My friend is owner/skipper a 54-foot classic charter sailboat. He was on his way south for the winter after spending the summer chartering in Greenland north of the Arctic Circle. Three weeks at sea? I had to give this invitation some serious thought. That took me all of 6 seconds.
“When we get there, how about minding the boat for me while I take a few months off?” he asked. “I need a break. I’ve not been off this boat in more than two years.”
Two months looking after this 54-footer, in the Caribbean? Hummm . . . this was an invitation I was finding hard to refuse.
“Your not hauling out?” I asked.
“Not this time. The first charter is late January. There’s not enough time to get to Trinidad and back. I need the boat in the water, ready to go when I return. You can invite your kids to join you for Christmas. They can help you sail the boat down to Martinique for me.”
“Why me?” I had to asked.
“You’re the only other skipper I’d trust,” he said. This was an honor indeed coming from a skipper whose spent more than 30 years charted in Antartica, the Arctic, the Canadian Maritimes, and each winter in the Caribbean.
“You know boats,” he said. Yes, I know boats. I’ve owned, or been owned by, four of them over 40 years, 34 to 57 feet.
“And what might that entail?” I asked, trying not to appear too eager. It’s been 10 years since the family and I were living in the Caribbean on our Bowman 57, Searcher. The kids weren’t yet teens then. Now they’re out of high school. Our daughter, Renaissance, 21, is at Maine Maritime Academy; our son, Havana, 19, in the UK playing soccer. Getting back to the islands has been on my mind since we left.
“Simple, keep the boat afloat,” he began. “Keep the bottom, prop, decks and interior clean. Check the bilge daily. And have the boat in Martinique by the end of January. Our first charter is a week later, so I need the boat operational and ready to go.”
“Well, I guess I could be free for those months,” I reluctantly replied, barely able to contain my glee at the prospect of three months afloat on his well appointed yacht, in the Caribbean.
“Well, I guess I could,” I said. And we did
We left Maine on October 20, joined the NARC Rally in Newport, departed in late October, with a third crew we’d picked from OPO the crew network, stopped in Bermuda and arrived in Antigua in early November. (That story appeared in the January edition of Caribbean Cruising.)
Boat Sitting
On November 20th, my friend left for a two-month vacation. I was left alone to take care of his classical sailboat for two whole months. All I had to do was check the bilge daily, to keep the boat afloat, scrub the green slim off the boot-top and the barnacles off the hull. There was stainless steel to polish, the topsides to clean, the rigging and winches to see-to. My daily routine would keep the pumps working, the solar panels topping off the batteries, and Oh, yes . . . sail his yacht from Antigua to Martinique by the end of January. The family did join me as we sailed down the island chain: Antigua, Guadeloupe, the Saints, Dominica, Saint Pierre and into Saint Anne on Martinique.
It was a great fun. I do it again.
Boat sitting is one option owners have when they need to return home for an emergency, or a break in cruising. There are other options, and I’ll get into those in a minute. First, in favor of boat sitting. This can be a win-win-win situation. The owner has someone looking after their boat, the boat and its systems get to be worked, and the sitter has a place to reside while in the Caribbean.
A boat with someone living on it, will be in better shape than one tied up in a slip or on the hard. I was alone for six of those weeks, writing, photographing, swimming, keeping the systems aboard operational, the topsides and bottom clean. But, there are other options for parking boats for a few weeks or an entire season.
Summer, and Hurricane Season is Coming
With summer and the hurricane season approaching, what are you going to do with your boat? Sail it north, out of the hurricane zone? There’s only one place on the entire East Coast that hurricane avoid: Maine. We’ve not had one near us in 100 years.
Is your boat staying put in the Caribbean for hurricane season? There is only one solution in my book. Haul out, south of the Grenadines, Trinidad preferably.
Hank Schmitt, from SailOPO.com, the crew network, keeps Avocation, his Swan 48, at Bobby’s Mega Yard on the Dutch sides of St. Martin for $624 a month. Hauling costs him another $500.
Jolly Harbor in Antigua charges $550 to haul a modest 40-footer, and power wash her. Add in $280 to move and block the boat within the yard. Then add a monthly shortage rate at $15 a foot, that’s $600 a month. Bare minimum is $1500 for one month. There are cheaper places, but not many.
Advantages of storing on the hard: your boat won’t sink, you can lock her up and walk away for a few months or a season. My friend added the followingWhen you get back “Your boat is left clean on the hard, the inside stays immaculate. We spray Lysol in the corners that could attract mound like the inside of draws and the head lining. If you haul out you can then clean the bottom and give it its annual anti fouling. The varnish and stainless steel hardly needs attention as they are not effected by salt spray. The sails are removed and sent to the sailmaker. The dinghy engine gets an overhaul. When you get back nothing is broken inside or outside, no wear and tear, no lost or stolen dinghy.”
When you get back, your boat may need a week or two to re-rig, varnish, provision, and re-supply your boat before its ready to launch, but it will have survived another hurricane season. There are a host of details to a summer haul, which we’ll go into in a later article.
Parked in Slip
Another option is to park your boat in a slip at a marina. According to a recent NGO report, of the 22 islands in the Caribbean, there are 111 marinas with close to 6,000 slips. Should be one somewhere. Yet many are full in season. You need to make reservation, early, or there may be no slips available, where and when you want one.
A slip can be fine for a few days, perhaps a week, but not a month.
In the water storage at a slip in Jolly Harbor Marina is 85-cents per foot, per day on a monthly contract. A 40-footer then costs $1000 a month. Advantages? You can step on and off your boat, no dinghy to deal with. No costs to haul or time spent getting ready to launch. Your boat is already in the water, but in what condition? One owner I interviewed found his yacht infested with ants on his return. Others found cockroaches, decks dirty, and bird dropping on the sail cover. The major problem with marinas, is while they are all located in nicely protected harbors, those harbors tend to be stagnant, and marine growth is rampant. You get back after a month away to find the bottom and prop are foul, perhaps needing a haul out, a diver, or you spend two or three days on the hook in some clean anchorage scraping off the growth yourself. I’ve done it.
The Anchorage off Pigeon Beach, English Harbor, Antigua. Clear water, a 4 minute dinghy ride to town, music from ashiore on the weekends.
Where and How to Park Your Boat
In The Caribbean
The Dove, off Pegion Beach
The Anchorage off the village of St. Anne, Martinique
The Anchorage off the village of Desaies, Guadeloupe
David, hard at work, boat sitting.
Haul out, tied-up in slip, or find a boat sitter,
If you have someone living on your boat, not in a marina, but in some safe cove where the water is clear, there’s good holding ground, and there’s a market and WiFi a short dinghy ride away, your boat is ready when you get back. There are a few such anchorages, read on.
By having me enjoy myself on his sloop, with my family, the boat would be ready to go when he returned. And for the most part, it was. The freezer, packed with fish we caught on the way south, was up and running. The cabin, cockpit, bottom and prop were mostly clean, and while his fastidious First Mate, on her arrival, spent two days cleaning to her standards, crew and boat was mostly ready for their first charter.
Finding a Boat Sitter
There are people and services in a few harbors who will watch your boat for you, for a fee, if it’s in a slip. A live aboard boat sitter, someone you trust might cost you nothing, certainly, less than half the other options, and the boat will be ready when you return—or should be.
Bareboats, like rental cars, are all the same and ready to go when you step aboard. A private yacht, especially an older one (my friend’s boat is over 30), is not like a rental car. These grand ladies of the sea are full of idiosyncrasies only the owner knows about. After spending a month on the delivery from Maine to Antigua, I got to know this boat, her rig, nav systems, pumps, fuel and water systems, and the way her owner likes things done. Before he left I’d written a three pages Operational Manual to follow.
I had a couple living on one of my yachts years ago and it was to the boat’s benefit, as well as mine and the couple’s. So I can recommend this as an option.
If I were looking for someone to mind my boat for a few weeks or few months, this is what I’d be looking for.
• Someone I’ve sailed with on my boat.
• Someone who has owned a boat similar to mine with similar systems. Boat swapping with other owners of the same boat is a great option.
• Someone with extensive sea time, perhaps a professional license.
Delivery skippers jump on an owner’s boat and within a few hours are ready to go to sea, trusting they’ll be able to fix anything that goes wrong underway. But pro delivery skippers get paid $500 a day. Look for a retired delivery skipper who wants a vacation in the tropics.
What might it cost to have someone mind your boat? That’s between the owner and sitter. No money exchanged hands in the deal I had with my friend. An owner might offer to cover transportation, a stipend for food, but it would still be half the cost of a haul out and storage ashore or a slip. Want some refinishing done, varnishing, the boat delivery to another destination? That might involve a fee negotiation.
A written contract might be in order.
Your insurance company may have something to say about such an arrangement. They, or you, might stipulate that your boat minder have their own lability insurance policy. I have one.
I’d also want someone onboard who knows the waters, the islands, the best anchorages, where to provision, obtain fuel and water, and the customs and immigrations policies of the various islands.
I spoke with Hank Schmitt from Offshore Passage Opportunities, SailOPO.com, the crew network that connects pro skipper and owners with crews for deliveries. I asked, would his network of sailors and owners find this a valuable service? He’s thinking about it.
A Good Place to Park
This needs some thought and research.
• What islands have good flight connection and reasonable prices to get you away and back?
• What anchorages are near a fuel dock for water and fuel? Not many.
• What anchorages have good holding ground, clear water, and are a short dinghy ride to town for provisioning and WiFi? See below.
• What Islands have a friendly customs and immigrations policy, and staff. The French Islands are the best. Some islands restrict the length your boat can stay.
• What anchorage are safe and crime free. Some aren’t.
My five favorites from past winters include:
• The anchorage off the Hermitage Resort beach, in Five Islands Bay, Antigua. It’s a 12-minute dinghy ride into Jolly Harbor, and the best super market on the island but WiFi is limited. The fuel dock is easy in and easy out.
• Off Pigeon Beach in Falmouth’s outer harbor, Antigua.
• Deshaires on Guadeloupe—I’d like to recommend this nifty harbor, but the holding ground is iffy and if there’s a northerly swell running its time to leave. No fuel or water.
• Saint Pierre, Martinique--finding a spot is challenging as the bottom falls off quickly, but the town is picturesque with a great outdoor market.
• Saint Anne, Martinique, join another 200 yachts in this popular anchorage with a nice village, and a 15 minute dinghy ride into Marin, the largest yachting center in the Caribbean.
Bequia in the Grenadines is ideal. Lots of room, clear water in Lower Bay, and adequate providing ashore.
From prior years, Red Hook in the USVI is still free and close to services ashore, but many of the anchorages in the Virgin Islands now require you to pick up a government mooring and for a limited amount of time.
St. Martin on the Dutch side is too rolly.
There are others and Chris Doyle’s guides has descriptions.
Nelson's Dockyard, English Harbor, Antigua
Jolly Harbor Marina and Boat Yard, Antigua
Jolly Harbor Marina, Antigua
The Yachts Club Marina, English Harbor, Antigua
David, hard at work, boat sitting.