Sail on a Luxury Tall Ship

We’ve invited renowned travel writer Robin Esrock to help refill our bucket list.
This month he takes us to the Caribbean on board a luxury tall ship.

Let’s turn our attention to the Caribbean, where trade winds blow hot and the warm sea sparkles.  I confess that I’m no sailor. Salt runs in my veins like integrity in politics. Inspired by the thrill of new experiences, the history of pirates, and tourism’s much needed shift to sustainability, I felt drawn to the experience of sailing.  Which is how I found Star Clippers, a Swedish-owned company sailing passengers around the world on three tall ships, attracting romantics, bucket listers, sailing veterans, and curious newbies like me.  I flew to St Maarten to board their luxury Star Flyer for a week-long adventure in the Caribbean, and a very different kind of cruise experience.

On first sight, the clipper takes your breath away.  With four towering masts, polished teak trims and a dizzying web of ropes, the Star Flyer looks like it sailed through an 18th century wormhole.  It’s a classic tall ship:  62.7 metres high at the mainmast, with 16 sails, a 15-metre-wide beam, a heavy ship wheel and traditional thick rope rigging. It accommodates up to 166 passengers, served by a tireless team of 74 international staff and crew.  The well-appointed cabins, fantastic dining, deck bars and evening entertainment will be familiar to those who have cruised before. The sunset sail-aways - when sails are hoisted to the epic soundtrack of Vangelis - is an altogether different, goose-bump inducing experience.  Get ready to toast reliable golden sunsets with champagne and cocktails, aided by quirky maritime toasts suggested in the daily program. “To our wives and girlfriends… may they never meet.”  ​

On the bowsprit, looking for dolphins

I found myself among the bowsprit passengers, those who enjoyed gathering in the netted bow where we lounge, hammock-like, above the inviting Caribbean.  During one magical moment, a pair of dolphins breach below me, because that’s what happens on a bucket list sailing adventure.  It’s a genteel affair, lending itself to conversations with beneath the stars glittering above the pool deck.  Travelling alone, as a couple, or in a group, it never takes long to find your crew.  One evening, six of us realize we represent six decades of age, from a twenty-something biochemist to a seventy-something American retiree. Sailing, we all agree, is a timeless, passionate pursuit, steeped in tradition, adventure and legend. ​

My itinerary was called Treasure Islands, consisting of a 7-day sailing that called on Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, St Kitts and St Barts, before returning to St Maarten.  Loaded on my e-reader was a book about pirates, the rogues who roamed and ruled these blue waters in piracy’s Golden Age between 1650 and 1730.  I don’t read about planks, eye-patches, parrots and pegs, but I learn all about a pirate’s oath of democracy, equity and non-discrimination, which was so many centuries ahead of its time.  Pirates even ruled a republic of sorts in the lawless Bahamas, patrolling the islands that now welcome cruise ships and sailboats.  It’s fascinating history, and it came alive when I snorkelled into the coastal caves of the uninhabited Norman Island,  which inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure Island. What loot lies buried beneath these rocks?  ​

The Baths on Virgin Gorda

Under sail and significantly smaller than a cruise ship, the Flyer can visit less-trafficked beaches and jetties.  Small tenders deposit us on largely empty beaches, allowing me to snorkel, stand-up paddleboard, and pop into legendary bars like Tortola’s Soper’s Hole, and the infamous Soggy Dollar on Jost Van Dyke.   The week’s highlight excursion is the Baths on the island of Virgin Gorda, where massive boulders create glimmering clear rock pools to both explore and soak.  We interact with these environments in a more intimate manner, evident when we land at St Kitts to find four large cruise ships, depositing thousands of passengers into a bustling duty-free port side shopping mall.  I won’t judge a mega cruise ship, if that’s your cup of rum, but sailing on a clipper takes an altogether different tack. “We’ve done 25 cruises around the world and this beats all of them,” says my shipmate Debbie, a retired nurse from Toronto.  Adds her husband Dave: “Some boats say they sail but they don’t, it’s just a cruise ship with flaps.  This is real sailing, with just the right combination of adventure and comfort.”

Captain Burowka, a Polish sailing veteran who clearly runs a tight ship, tells me that the clipper uses just 15% of the fuel typical for a ship of its size, relying primarily on sails while burning high quality, low sulphur gas for internal power use.   Luxury sailing will always be decadent, but the clipper’s low carbon footprint points to a viable and sustainable cruising alternative. 
 
Sailing at the mercy of wind demands a recalibration of pace.  Things slow down, there’s time to relax (at least for the passengers, if not always the crew).  I quiz a fellow passenger about her extensive sailing adventures around the world.  “You get home after a few months at sea, sit in traffic, and you think the world has gone mad,” she sighs.   On-board wifi is available, but it’s expensive, and limited to the bar and library.  Few passengers are glued to their screens. For now, at least, the mad world can wait. 

You can find out more about Star Clippers and their different itineraries here. ​