Tag Archive for: Tobago Cays

The launch of the new Barefoot Lifestyle brings new boats along with new exciting sailing opportunities. 3 new Catamarans have arrived in the Barefoot Yacht Charters fleet.

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These boats are spacious, affordable, easy to handle, comfortable and efficient for families or groups of up to 8 guests. Click the images to see more details on each new boat in the fleet.

ISAPHIL (the Mermaid) 2014 Lagoon 38

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Isaphil (the Mermaid) is fast, easy to handle and safe, the Lagoon 38 is the most popular boat  for circumnavigations and one of the most successful production charter yachts in the world.

She is extremely well-equipped with a full suite of electronics, and her fastidious owners have also added several touches not usually found on charter yachts of this type – both hot and cold water at the deck shower; additional fresh water capacity; solar panels; and high quality upholstery.

She has a simple but efficient deck lay-out, 360 degree vision in the rounded saloon and extremely well insulated engine compartments located a good way from the living quarters. This yacht can easily be handled by just two people, but is comfortable for up to 6.

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AMARYLLIS Belize 43

Amaryllis is an extremely efficient sailing catamaran and one of the fastest in her class, easily handled by a smaller crew but with many of the amenities one might expect to find on a much larger yacht.

This Belize 43 extremely well-equipped (including air conditioning), and every navigational aspect on this yacht has been optimised – the helm station protected by a fixed plexiglass screen, access to the gangways, under-deck stowage of halyards, direct anchorage and more. Meticulous attention has been paid to each detail for greater sailing ease.

Architect Olivier Flahault has succeeded in maximising space and storage capacity making it comfortable and eminently practical for long-term cruising. The saloon has a strikingly spacious feel, and an ingenious innovation enables the seating to adapt to either a circle or square arrangement.

TIR NA NOG Lagoon 38

Tir Na Nog is a 4-cabin / 2-head catamaran providing sufficient space for up to eight guests.

The aft cabins are slightly larger than the forward ones. Two heads with showers are centrally located in each pontoon. The panoramic salon and galley connect directly with the cockpit to offer fantastic indoor-outdoor air flow.

It has a huge interior volume for a 38-footer. Add to this, a large and comfortable cockpit for lounging and dining al fresco, as well as easy transom access to the water or your dinghy, and you have the ideal yacht for larger groups or families.

Choose one of our new, premium or value line boats and come experience the best of The Barefoot Lifestyle and the turquoise waters of the Southern Caribbean on an epic sailing adventure sure to last a lifetime.

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The Barefoot Family 

 

St Vincent and the Grenadines Show-Stopping Coral Reefs

Throughout St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barefoot Yacht Charters transports snorkellers and divers to diverse and magical worlds of healthy, living, revitalised coral reefs.  Four islands in SVG have been designated as Marine Conservation Areas; additionally, there’s one Marine Reserve and two Marine Parks, one of which, Tobago Cays-Mayreau, also has Marine Reserve status.

The silent, seemingly effortless choreography of coral reefs belies the centuries it took to create these undersea spectacles – the ones we see today are 5,000 to 10,000 years old.  Compare that to a major Broadway production that might take a few years to produce and, if lucky, a decade or two of performances.

Coral reefs are reality shows, real life on Earth – rare, awesome, slow in the making yet easy to destroy.   Worldwide, many coral reefs are degraded beyond recovery.  Even more are in critical condition.  In SVG, however, coral reefs are thriving and strong.  The Tobago Cays, for example, have been described by many sources as being one of the largest remaining pristine coral reef groups in the Windward Islands.

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The natural, underwater sets are constructed by tiny animals called “polyps,” which have calcium skeletons that connect to each other with living tissue to form communities.  They build on past skeletons so that only the top layers contain the living designers.  Pencil, brain, star corals, with sponges in a rainbow of colours, dark red gorgonians, Christmas tree and feather duster worms, and many other striking organisms complement the scenery.

The cast includes vaudevillian types of otherworldly characters clothed in varying and vibrant costumes: weaving chromis, creole wrasse and boga; fascinating entertainers such as frogfish, seahorses, flying gurnard and white-spotted octopus; and the lovely butterfly, angel and trumpet fish and sea turtles to name but a few.

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But even SVG’s coral reefs aren’t immune to the ravages on their ecosystems, both of the natural kind (e.g., hurricanes, rising sea surface temperatures) and man-made (litter, chemicals, etc.).  As one person on a planet of billions, you can do your part to save coral reefs by being aware of, and reducing, your own carbon footprints and by voicing your concerns over such things as overfishing and oil spills.

On a more immediate and specific level: anchor on sand rather than near reefs or use moorings if available; do not touch any of the sensitive corals; stay off the bottom because stirred-up sediment can settle on coral and smother them.  Use environmentally-friendly products; don’t throw any kind of garbage into the sea; properly treat sewage; only empty holding tanks at pump out stations or when more than three miles offshore in the open sea.  There are other ways to preserve the world’s coral reefs, but that’s a start.

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Let Barefoot Yacht Charters guide you to the various extravaganzas that play beneath the sea throughout St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  The St Vincent and the Grenadines Coral Reefs are bound to make your trip unforgettable. They’re all box-office hits, sure to please and inspire, amaze and electrify.

Enjoy your dream vacation!

Two years down and more to go

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Nancy Hancock

Nancy Hancock, ASA Sailing Instructor for Barefoot Offshore Sailing School

For 2 years now, I have worked as a Sailing Instructor at Barefoot Offshore Sailing School – who would have thought it – after a 25 year career as a clothing designer/manufacturer and mother of 4 grown sprogs that I would be doing this 10 years later.

Well perhaps I did have an inkling of it when I first took sailing lessons 17 years ago – and got well and truly hooked. No different from most of the students I teach here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, many of whom cannot believe what they have ventured into when we set sail from the Blue Lagoon on the south shores of St. Vincent (where Barefoot Offshore Sailing School is based) and head across the Bequia Strait on a beam or broad reach to Bequia.

After seeing their nervous reaction to the seas I often laughingly ask them if they know where they are, “Where is this place you’ve chosen to take your sailing lessons?” – blank response – my answer “the Windward Islands” and the look of realization always makes me laugh. And in 6 days these same people are taking the same Bequia Strait upwind back to Barefoot in the Blue Lagoon happily crashing through the waves and loving every minute of it. And they always want to know exactly how high these waves are for the purpose of bragging rights of course.

The American Sailing Association 101 to Bareboat Skipper curriculum we teach here at Barefoot, and the location in which we teach it is the perfect blend of information mixed with hands on experience, and of course FUN.

This live-aboard offshore sailing school travels from the Blue Lagoon to Bequia, to Tobago Cays, Union Island, Petite St. Vincent, Mayreau, Canouan and back. It includes living aboard, which takes a bit of getting used to, but is totally embraced by all of our adventure seekers, and everywhere we go after anchoring we’re in the water, and every location we sail to has fabulous snorkelling. For many students this is the first time they have snorkelled in water that is so clear it feels like you’re flying above eagle rays, turtles, barracudas, moray eels, squid and more, all living in underwater gardens of an infinite variety of corals and sponges.

We prepare food together on board some nights and on others we eat at a couple of really fabulous and reasonable restaurants, but the eating out experience most of my students take away as the best is when Tim cooks them a family style meal in a shack on the beach called “Bolheads”, why bolhead? Because the owner is bald?

Barefoot Sailing School

Barefoot Sailing School

And in 6 days many of the students, especially those with some previous sailing experience are confident, competent sailors. And most of the time our small group has become very fond of each other and tears are sometimes shed when we part, and invitations to each other’s homes.   There is also much talk about the boats they will buy and my opinion of how to conduct their research etc.   That’s when I feel I have done a really good job. They are as hooked as I was. So when I hand over their log books I strongly urge them to take the logging of their sailing time seriously. Who knows, they might want to pay it forward some time in the future.

I’ve just finished teaching my last course this season and am now preparing my boat, MoondancerX – my home, for a leisurely sail down to Grenada where I will leave her for the hurricane season, and then home to Vancouver Island, British Columbia to spend the summer with my children, grand children and friends.  Not sure how much sailing I’ll be able to do while I’m there, and I do still love to sail in our Gulf Islands, but as the summer wanes I’ll be thinking of my second home in St. Vincent and the job of a lifetime which I am so lucky to have at this time in my life – a combination of all that I love to do – Sail, Snorkel, Dive, and teach while I introduce people from all walks of life to what I have learned and what I hope they would also love to.

So I’ll be back for my third year with Barefoot Offshore Sailing School in the fabulous Windward Islands – St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where I know I will meet with past students who are coming back for more, and for the new recruits whose expressions always make me chuckle when we head out of the Blue Lagoon, sailing across the Bequia Strait on their first foray.