This is the story of a really successful 4 week Sabbatical Sail in the West Indies. I had reached a stage in my life when I needed a big break following many years in business.

Having been to the West Indies particularly St Lucia several times and having experienced visiting various other islands on a yacht before, I decided, with my wife‘s support to undertake a big sailing holiday in the WI with friends – part of a sabbatical.

To achieve that I recognised that I needed: a boat, a skipper, a sailing route plan, and guests/friends to participate!

Step one was to find the skipper/boat. I knew and trusted a great Kiwi sailing skipper who was himself committed elsewhere during the period concerned but he unreservedly recommended Robin.

Well what a success! Not only was Robin a great sailor who knew the Caribbean backwards, but he was: fun, a good cook, enjoyed scrabble, wine and was a great rugby supporter.

Over a period of months he corresponded and helped me plan the route and the 4 1/2 week dates from towards the end of January till the end of February 2020. I invited a group of 11 participating guests for different stages. The 46 ft Catamaran -Shadow was beautiful and had four en-suite double bedrooms (including one for the skipper).

I invited 2 guest couples for the first week and we headed south from St Lucia to Grenada stopping off at different Islands throughout the St Vincent and the Grenadines each day and with a evenings ashore and a great overlap dinner party in Grenada with the couple who were swapping in for the next leg.
So the next day the guests changed over and we headed back via different islands in the Grenadines towards St Lucia. In St Lucia we had a similar stop/change over party which was the end of week 2

We spent time swimming and snorkelling, had lots of time to wander on different islands to shop and/or sight see whilst absorbing local cultures normally ending up with sundowners somewhere beautiful before supper either ashore or afloat.

Once back in St Lucia, three male crew joined and my wife and Theresa left the lads to sail north towards Antigua.

We had very attractive but more windy/ tougher sails going north, again via Martinique, Dominica, Les Saintes, Guadeloupe and finally Antigua. We had the added attraction of an onshore day to explore Dominica, and a big shopping expedition at Forte de France. Separately six nations rugby was watched in different on and offshore locations.

We visited over 16 islands in total in the 4 weeks (several twice on the way there and back), had a few days of exciting sailing in  stronger winds and many more days of smoother sailing with gorgeous, sunny weather.

We had chosen our schedule to fit distances and timings. We sailed overnight once, and generally short hops between 2 to 5 hours each day with 6 days of no sailing. Typically when we arrived on an island, we would anchor in a bay and go ashore to explore, eat, shop or go farther afield on the island,

The videos that are linked to this summary really do, I believe, reflect the range of different islands and wonderful experiences that we had. The time that we had, together as a group and individually was fantastic.

In summary I would repeat the trip in a heartbeat and I’m hoping to do so as soon as possible.

Thank you MSST 1,2,3, and 4 [Mike’s sabbatical sailing team] AND huge thanks to skipper Robin!