Once a year, Aquanimity sails north from Grenada to the British Virgin Islands. It is about 450 nautical miles. You can come along.
Read the rest of this page before you decide you want to. This is not a week at anchor in calm bays. It is an offshore passage, and it is the hardest thing we do.
What the sailing is actually like
Three of the days are spent sailing more or less continuously, twenty to twenty-four hours at a stretch. The boat does not stop at sunset. Someone is awake and on watch through the night, and sails get trimmed at three in the morning the same as at three in the afternoon.
You feel the motion the entire time. There is no anchorage to duck into when the swell builds — that is what open water means. If you do not know how you handle it, this is not the trip to find out on.
What you get in exchange is the part people who have done it never stop talking about. No land in any direction. The boat settled into her stride, the same heading for hours. More stars than you have seen, because there is nothing within a hundred miles making light.
What you actually do aboard
As much or as little as you want. None of it is required.
Some guests want the whole thing. They take the helm, they learn to trim, they stand night watches with the crew, and they come below at four in the morning pleased with themselves. The crew will teach you. Most people who ask have never done it before, and that is fine.
Others do not stand watches at all. That is equally fine — but be clear about what it does and does not get you. Off watch is not the same as comfortable. The boat is working whether you are or not. Sleep comes in pieces. Meals are simple and sometimes eaten one-handed. Reading below in a seaway is how most people find out they should not have.
Nobody aboard will push you to do more than you want. But nobody can make three days offshore restful either, and I would rather tell you that now than have you find out on night two.
You do not have to decide before you come, and you do not have to decide the same thing every night. Plenty of people try one watch, find they love it, and take one every night after. Plenty try one and decide once was enough. It also means two people who want different amounts of involvement can book the same trip.
We do not sail it in a straight line
On our own, we would. Without guests aboard, the delivery is a straight shot north and the crew pushes through.
With guests we break it up. We stop for fuel, for food, and to sleep. Tobago Cays comes early, just north of Grenada — shallow turquoise water behind a horseshoe reef, and worth the stop on its own. Saba comes late, a single volcanic rock standing straight up out of deep water with almost nothing around it.
There is not much else on this route, and that is the honest answer. The island chain has gaps and this passage crosses them.
Who this trip is for
People who want the sailing itself. If you have read about ocean passages and wondered whether you would like doing one, this is a way to find out with a professional crew aboard and a boat you do not have to own or insure.
Who this trip is not for
If what you want is a Caribbean holiday — swimming, beach bars, a new anchorage every afternoon, dinner as the sun goes down — book the BVI week instead. That is a different trip, and it is the one most people are after.
This passage is not a slower version of it. The ocean is the whole point. If that is not what is pulling you, the week will suit you better.
When it runs, what it costs, and how it books
Once a year, in late October, as the boat comes north for the BVI season that begins November 1. Allow about five days including the stops.
The passage books as a whole boat, up to four guests, at $19,800. It is not sold by the berth, so you will not be sharing with strangers.
The ship’s standard bar is included, the same as on any Aquanimity charter. Premium wines and spirits are not. While we are under way, service is at the captain’s discretion.