Rumble: Cruising guide and charter companies.

For those tuning into this blog for the humanitarian aid posts, I apologize. We will be back soon to the 'real world'. For the moment, let me rave and mesmerize a bit longer about the Caribbean and sailing ;-)... Life is too short not to enjoy it... ;-)

For those interested in sailing in the Caribbean:
A must-have are the cruising guides by Chris Doyle (http://www.doyleguides.com/). The one we used this trip is 'The Cruising Guide to the Leeward Islands", and covers Anguila down to Guadeloupe and Dominica. 500 pages full of all what you need to know to sail in the are, with well written background info and useful tips with maps and navigational info for not even US$30.

Another tip. We always charter bareboat from a company called "The Moorings" (www.moorings.com). This was the fourth year we chartered from them. Apart from a real bad experience last year, when chartering out of their Tortola base (the boat was really poorly maintained and the service was just no good), they do everything to ensure you have a great and trouble free sailing holiday. You can charter with a skipper too. In the past, we took a skipper onboard for the first days to get the boat, but I gathered this year, I had enough experience to handle the boat from day one. But, people, if you don't sail regularly, do take a one or two day course in harbour maneuvers before you charter..! I do a refresher course every year, even though I am an RYA powerboat instructor. The horrors you see when freshmen try to moor, anchor or berth a boat are not pretty... More on that in a later post.