Windjamming the Caribbean
aboard the S/V Fantome

Here are some pictures and a few thoughts on each of the six days we spent on the Fantome cruising the West Indies. This is an incredible trip.

S/V Fantome

Built in 1927 for the Duke of Westminster, the 282 foot FANTOME is among the world's largest four masted staysail schooners. Former owners include the Guiness Brewing family and Aristotle Onassis who purchased her as a wedding gift for Princess Grace and Prince Rainier. Onassis was not invited to the wedding and the gift was never delivered. She joined the Windjammer fleet as their flagship in 1969. The recent completion of a 6 million dollar refurbishment makes FANTOME the pride of the Windjammer fleet.

Antigua

Fantome sails from Antigua Monday morning, although you can spend Sunday night aboard at dock, giving you some shopping and gambling opportunities before she sets sail. The dock is a short $8.00 cab ride from the airport, and all of the islands gladly take US currency, so there's no need to change money.

The captain recommends saving your shopping till St. Maarten for the best buys, but we liked the low pressure merchants in Antigua much better -- although we didn't spend much...

St. Barth

This is a picture of the Polynesia, another ship in the Windjammer fleet based in St. Maarten. We snorkled nearby in the afternoon, and had a great wine and cheese party aboard the Fantome sampling the French wines we bought in the lovely village ashore.

St. Maarten

This was the highlight for us. A beautiful island with tons of shopping if you are so inclined, but the next pictures show why we (being sailors) found this island particularly attractive.

Stars & Stripes

Yes, this is THE Stars & Stripes (or at least one of them), and we crewed Stars &Stripes 86 in a short race against Stars & Stripes 87 and Canada 2. I've raced a number of time before, but nothing compares to racing yachts like these. DO NOT go to St. Maarten without taking a half day to try this out.

The only problem is that you are likely to come home wanting to buy one of these yachts (and move to the caribbean)

St. Kitts

St. Kitts is a beautiful island with some incredible snorkling and scuba opportunities. We will be certified to scuba before we go back, as we felt we were barely scraping the surface snorkeling. This is a picture of the fort at the top of the island which is a nice short trip to take.

Nevis

This island is the most untouched by tourism of all of the islands we visited. That will change soon as they are building a dock to welcome the cruise ships that bring the tourists and their money. The highlight of this day was a hike into the rain forest. The cloud that hangs over the mountain top in this picture is there all year long, and explains why it's called a rain forest. It was hard to imagine how an environment like the Nevis rain forest could exist so close to the tropical beach below it. This is another 'must do'.