We've had quite an adventure sailing down island this summer! The months of planning and preparation have been worth the effort. The weather was great...thankfully! We recently read a quote written by William Beebe in 1828 that accurately describes our feelings about this magnificent journey.

"Your attention swings from wonders to marvels and back again. You begin to say things to yourself, gasps of surprise, inarticulate sounds of awe, you are troubled with a terrible sense of loss that (as the case may be) 20, 30, or 50 years of your life have passed and gone without you knowing of the ease of entry into this new world...All I ask of each reader is this- don't die without having borrowed, stolen, purchased or made a helmet of sorts, to glimpse for yourself this new world...this unsuspected realm of gorgeous life and color existing with us today on the self-same planet earth. "

Our two charters in St. Martin, St. Barts and Anguilla went beautifully. St. Martin is fun with it's twin cultures, both Dutch and French. It was interesting to experience the contrasts between the two. St. Barts is the epitome of perfection...clean streets, pretty houses, nice anchorages, amazing French cuisine (and gorgeous people!). Anguilla is the perfect spot to park oneself on the beach and simply "be"! The islands continue to become more green and lush as you travel further South. St. Kitts has it's imposing fort perched high atop Brimstone Hill. Surrounding the island is a great train ride adventure complete with green back monkeys that will gently pluck treats right out of your hand! Montserrat is quiet and lush on one side with very visible destruction from the August volcanic eruption on the other. Its amazing to see Mother Nature's destruction of thousands of homes. We wondered how many hundreds of years it will take for the island to recover. Deshaies in Guadeloupe held up it's reputation as a quaint fishing town. We spent time with a local fisherman who taught us about fishing by the phases of the moon.

Just off the tip of Guadeloupe lies the Iles des Saintes. They are an irresistible group of islands with Gallic style charm. Mountains climb over 1,000 feet on this tiny cluster of islands and there are lots of quaint little roads to explore via scooter. Dominica was our first experience with real backwoods style island farming and living. We hired a guide that took us up the Indian River (watch out Indiana Jones!), guided us through a waterfall and came to final rest at a warm boiling spring. We've never seen SO many banana and coconut plantations. Its quite an experience to eat those tropical fruits right out of the fields! We have a new appreciation for how all those fruits get to our grocery stores. Exploring the reservation home of the Carib Indians was fascinating too. There are very few people left of this once fierce tribe. After a few days of quiet, Martinique was quite a shock to our system. Its super highway stretches among more fields of tropical Caribbean fruit. Fort de France was way too busy for us and we retreated to the quieter town of Marin in the South. We had a great time practicing our French in all the windward islands. Everyone was warm, friendly, and eager to please everywhere we sailed.

St. Lucia was a major highlight of our trip down island. One of our favorite memories was sailing mid-way down the coast to the Pitons. The sheer size of the mountain face plummeting into the bay was mind boggling. And the snorkeling below was delightful! We had a super dinner under the stars at the famous Lord ....restaurant. We even had the pleasure of meeting this amazing entrepreneur. The whole town showed up for the entertainment and the party went on until wee hours of the morning.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines revealed themselves as a lady blessed with lush mountains, unspoiled landscapes, and crystal clear waters. We encountered many "boat boys" along the way; but one of our favorites was living in Chateau BelAir, St. Vincent. "Boy-boy" as he was called, fascinated us with his stories about his life on this island. Albeit very simple, his life was filled with more joy than many people will ever know. Bequia lies 9 miles to the south of St. Vincent and is the largest of the Grenadine islands. She is a very compact 7 square miles! Her history has been deeply entwined with the sea for generations. The age-old traditions of boat-building, fishing and whaling are still evident. Mustique is the "escape island" for the rich and famous. Beautiful, expansive homes were quietly tucked among the island's 7 valleys. We had most of the island to ourselves as the jet set crowd were cavorting in other parts of the world. The islands of Canouan and Mayreau went by as a turquoise blur as we sailed on to Union Island and the Tobago Cays. Many say this area is much like the British Virgin Islands were 20 years ago. For many, this area gives true meaning to the "stop-the-world-I-want-to-get-off", Caribbean fantasy. Our final stop in Grenada on the trek to Trinidad was interesting. It was fascinating to see the ruins of the hotel still standing from when the U.S invaded Grenada many years ago. We filled our backpacks with fresh nutmeg on one long hike up to a beautiful waterfall. And we experienced the local "yachtie" neighborhood anchorage filled with friends from St. Thomas.

Perhaps we should have departed Grenada earlier in the evening; but whatever the case, we ended up arriving Trinidad on a moonless night. After celebrating our "unknown area" night landing, we let a sigh of relief and headed to bed. The next morning, we hauled anchor and hopped around the northern point of the island to Chaguaramas. Chaguaramas has entirely devoted itself to taking care of yachts and boats of all sizes & types. Three Moons was hauled out of the water at Peake Yacht Services and we were pleased to be taken care of by such a professional crew. Arrangements were made for all the sails to be refurbished, and a new and improved bimini & dodger was ordered. Trinidad is the home away from home for so many people. We loved the camaraderie of fellow cruisers and the feeling of being "at home".

As we reflect back on our adventures, the questions remain...will we do it again? Yes, but perhaps not every year. We truly love the US and British Virgin Islands and are happy that we chose them as our home port. The sailing there is superb. There are very few areas that one can sail from island to island by way of short hops. Its a long, long way from St. Thomas to Trinidad; but we savored every moment of our down island adventure!

Capt. Randy & Shelly

It sparkles like a jewel. A vivid turquoise that shimmers in the sunlight and dances with stars by night. Its gentle waves lap the ship's sides. Breezes rustle the sails. Birds squawk, dip and dive.
Land is in sight, but there's no hurry to get there. The moment is paradise, a day you'd like to capture in a box and take home. It's an escape like no other, the water, sun and sails.
The water is the Caribbean. The place, the Virgin Islands. The yacht a pristine 72-foot Irwin Ketch. She's a beauty from stem to stern. Posh. Immaculate. Appointed with style. And Captained and crewed by Randy and Shelly Tucker of Franklin, Tennessee.
This 30-something couple did something many of us dream of; chucked it here, sold successful businesses, and headed to the Caribbean to sail full time. The Tuckers had their first taste of salt and sea on a vacation to St. Thomas where they sailed some 11 years ago.
It was a day that ultimately changed their lives. A few charter yacht Caribbean vacations and a sailboat on Percy Priest Lake later, the opted to dramatically alter their lives and move to the water and islands they had come to love.
Three Moons Yacht Charters is the result. This magnificent sailing vessel is yours for a week. Her large, equal-sized cabins accommodate up to eight guests. It's a family trip or a couple's trip or just a week for two.
"Usually, we collect our guests in St. Thomas, USVI. It's only a 3 hour, 45-minute flight from Nashville to the islands (not including layover time in Miami). Then its eight days and seven nights of sheer luxury, fine food, and an open agenda. We cater each trip to our guests," Shelly says.
The Franklin couple spends the summer months with family in Franklin before their guest season begins Nov. 1. This will be their fourth season as full-time sailors and charter operators. The Tuckers offer Three Moons for charter through July 1, all holidays included.
Randy had been a custom builder and historic home renovator. Shelly owned the award-winning New Beginnings Salon in Franklin.
"We have the destinations planned for our guests, as to where we will anchor each evening, but the actual schedule and agenda is determined by our guest's preferences. If they want to shop, we accommodate that with longer stays on the islands that offer such. If they want to snorkel every day, we make that happen. For divers, we offer rendezvous diving so our guests can be picked up on board, taken to diving spots, then returned to the yacht," Randy says.
The Tuckers send guests preference sheets before their sail asking about what foods, drinks, activities-or lack thereof-they wish to pursues. Special needs and diets are accommodated.
Among the locals who have sailed with the Tuckers are Gary Chapman who twice has traipsed the British Virgin Islands aboard Three Moons.
Guest cabins offer private bathrooms with showers, air conditioning, stereo systems and plenty of storage. Water onboard is plentiful. The day begins with breakfast topside, served amidst the breezed and brilliant blue of sky and shimmer of turquoise.
Coffee is hot and steaming. Or perhaps it's a spot of tea. Starched linens lie beneath china topped with pina colada pancakes, or perhaps a hearty frittata or coconut rum French toast.
The breezes ruffle the hair and calm the spirit. Bare feet stretch the legs behind them out to the sun. It's a morning swim for some, for others a quiet bask in the sun.
The sails flap. Three Moons moves gingerly forward to its first destination. All sailing is done by day; the ship is anchored each evening at a different island. Land is never out of sight a comfort to some first-time sailors.
One of the stops is Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands. ItÕs referred to as "Treasure Island" by the locals. Legends are resplendent with tales of pirate treasure. Caves on the island offer excellent snorkeling.
Then there's Peter Island, a privately owned piece of paradise on which rests a world-class five-star resort. A botanical rail is perfect for re-establishing land legs, though the call to wear shoes of any kind is unwelcome.
Salt Island offers divers the legendary Wreck of the Rhone, a mail steamer whose demise has provided legions of divers delightful days.
Ahh, and then there's lunch at Cooper Island, followed by a dip in the sea and a short sail to Marina Cay. Marina Cay is a tiny nine-acre piece of perfection. Next, is the Baths in Virgin Gorda. These famous granite boulders have crossed the lens of thousands of cameras.
A quick hop to Little Dix Bay is next. This Rockefeller resort is world famous for its posh beauty and celebrity guests. And don't forget a trip to the Bitter End Yacht Club, also tucked away from the maddening crowds.
The days slip by like the ship from its moorings.
It's a week where visibility is computed downward; 30 feet, 40. Where what you see below equals about and above. A week to swim with dolphins. You may be one of the lucky ones to swim with Splash, the resident tame dolphin of the islands.
Spa services are available onboard. Facials, manicures, pedicures, mini massages. As if anything extra is needed here.
Sailing — arguably the most genteel sport in the world in one of the world's most beautiful regions, the British Virgin Islands.
What's not to like?

Caneel Bay, St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands: the end of the first perfect day.
Can that diamond in the sky be the Southern Cross? It sits right on the southern horizon, which seems promising. We're conferring with a collection of know-the-constellations books, including one that glows in the dark, hut we can't identify the surrounding celestial real estate and are confused by masthead lights swinging into the field. The answer: Yes, you can see the Southern Cross in the Virgin Islands in the spring.

Mongoose Junction, Cruz Bay, St. John: the beginning of the first perfect day.
Shopping trips are times that try (most) men's souls. but not many women's. And not, apparently, the soul of Randy Tucker, captain and owner, with his wife, Shellv, and partner, Mike, of the Irwin 65 Three Moons; he is demonstrating his second-most-important qualification as a charter boat host by being relaxed, content to read the paper and people-watch (Mongoose Junction is a prime place for it) for as long as it takes.

We are newly arrived on Three Moons, having just a few hours before boarded the boat at Red Hook, on the east end of St. Thomas, confirmed Shelly's first-most-important qualification as a charter boat chef by tucking into lunch in the cockpit, thrown our bags in our cabins—photos first, Shelly warned; the cabins will never again look this good—and made haste to Caneel Bay, our first anchorage. All this has given Randy a chance to demonstrate his first-most-important qualification as host, which is the flexibility to scrap his thoughts on our route for the week to accommodate our wishes—in this case an exploratory mission in Cruz Bay before we clear in to the British Virgin Islands.

For Beverly, a college friend who lives in San Francisco, Mary Ann, a friend from home, and me, this is research: What is life like in the third "metropolis" of the Virgin Islands? With Shellv to offer guidance, we poke around the funky little town, which yields evidence of a devotion to Sport (clay trips, dive trips, kayak trips, you name it) and to hand-made products. It seems that a good many of the locals must be goldsmiths. potters, painters of watercolors and painters on wood and fabrics, photographers, sewers of canvas and cloth, as well as those who come clown for the winter (creative eavesdropping) to sell these wares or work in the restaurants. It's tropical without being West Indian, more expat than local; there's no colorful open market with oddly shaped fruits and vegetables. Charlotte Amalie, whose well-known shopping area is St. Thomas's mecca for the mass-produced. it's not; nor does it have the bewildering combination of offshore banks, heavy traffic and chickens that greet you in Road Town Tortola.

Cannel Bay: fish shopping.
Since we've agreed to clear in at just Van Dyke, a short sail away, we have time to dinghy over to Cannel Bay's reef— fortunately, it's out of the considerable current that sweeps past the boat—to check out the local talent pool and Randy's fish-finding abilities. There we snorkel with a herd of reef squid, whose remarkable characteristics include wearing iridescent blue clots, changing color from brown to almost clear as they move over rocks and sand, and, unlike any other reef inhabitants we encounter, exhibiting what seems to be equal curiosity about us.

Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke: bar hopping.
I should have known. when the diet, fitness, and sports magazines appeared in the cockpit, that I was sailing with health mavens. Beverly exercises on the aft deck every morning, our breakfast frittata was made with Egg Beaters and Mrs. Dash's non-salt seasoning. and we are careful to have at least five daily units of fruit and vegetables and to keep our physical activity units at a high level. Do we have to deduct some when Randy hands us carefully (Beverly has recently had knee surgery; Mary Ann was just in a car accident; I appreciate the chivalry) in and out of the dinghy?

This is the perfect time to rev up the kayaks (Three Moons carries two two-person sit-upons) and acquire some activity units by paddling over to White Bay for some fruit units (and rum)— Painkillers at the Soggy Dollar Bar. The breeze is down, the sun is shining, the current isn't bad, and the view of the 1,000-foot-high hills dotted with blooming century plants is more loomingly impressive from sea level than from the Sailboat's elevated deck. Shelly and I each take a neophyte kayaker, who are both pleased to find that the learning curve is short and not steep.

Randy follows us with the dinghy for a tow back to Great Harbour and dinner out—rotis and ribs at Ali Baba's. We can't help responding to the rhythmic call of the Friday-night band at Foxy's, where we dance and join a full house of people-like-us looking, in some amazement, at a crowd of I-wouldn't-wear-this-at-home sailors engaged in I-probably-wouldn't-do-this-at-home activities. Beach-bar nirvana. Since the customs and immigration office closed unaccountably early on Friday and seems inclined to a late opening on Saturday. we have time for nirvana of a different sort—spa at sea. Spameister Shelly owned a salon in Tennessee before she and Randy came to the Caribbean, and she offers a variety of luxurious treatments for hair, nails, and skin, as well as massages. We each have an aromatherapy pedicure. which includes a whirlpool foot bath, foot massage with various creams that smell heavenly. and nail polish. Foot nirvana.

En route, Jost to Norman Island.
Irwins were long the mainstay of Virgin Islands chartering, justifiably celebrated for their creature comforts. Three Moons, 65 feet on deck (72 feet overall), has three equal cabins aft, each with a sizable head and shower, plus an upper-and-lower guest cabin forward; a spacious salon and large dining table; a foredeck just made for a hammock, sunbathing, stargazing mats; room on the aft deck to get away from your friends; and a comfortable bimini-covered cockpit. Contributing to these obvious comforts are the huge refrigerator and freezer, from which many good things flow, stowage for more things (all that spa equipment, for one) than she actually carries, tankage for 1000 gallons of water (showers are no problem). and a generator that provides air conditioning and power for hair dryers, should anyone feel the need. In fact, despite the lateness of the season, it's comfortable sleeping with just the portholes open and the large hatches closed against the every-night rain showers.

No Irwin has ever been described as a swift-sailing sylph; this particular version displaces a hefty 47 tons and measures over 17 feet at the waist, and some Irwins have tubs or whirlpools. So does she sail? Early May supplied us with winds still north of east (the wind moves south and lightens in the summer) at the anticipated 18 to 22 knots every clay, and Three Moons picked up her skirts and fairly bustled along, supplying us with good sailing every day with a turn at the wheel any time we wanted. Most one-week charters end up being an elaborated circumnavigation of Tortola, though my at-every-opportunity snorkeling requirements put us on a somewhat different route. Still, we got to wherever we wanted to go, under sail and without rushing. I was alert enough to check the wind speed and direction every day, but my watch got put away when we boarded and I never thought about boat speed more than to note that it felt as if we were moving right along.

Here and there: reef shopping.
There are a few things you don't get in Virgin Islands cruising—deserted anchorages (few and far between), long passages (though you can certainly make longer hops than the ones we took), and derring-do at sea (not necessary if you check the weather'). But the Virgin Islands are, in the best sense, a sort of nature's own Disney World for sailing vacationers, full of magic towers, hidden caves and passages under the sea, thrilling rides, wild animals (well, fish and birds), and no problems (definitely not, if you have a captain) except feeding yourself (no problem if you have a cook).

We soon discovered ("Tell us how a nice couple from Tennessee ended up on a boat in the Virgin Islands" was our subtle approach) that Randy and Shelly and I shared a cruse instructor, Gwen Hamlin. Their charter with her was their first sailing experience and led to their purchase of a small boat, a larger boat, bare boating. and finally to Three Moons. So in Gwen's honor we decided to include some of her beginning-diver spots on our route.

Norman Island's caves—the real treasures of this "treasure island"—had enough visitor's that I had to wait in line to swim in, but despite the crowds the water was about as gin-clear as water gets and the rocks sported garish swatches of orange cup coral and red covering sponge. Thanks to the loan of lightweight wetsuits, we stayed warm enough to dinghy over to the four towers of the Indians, which we had to ourselves in the late afternoon. For the three of us divers the Indians had been our first experience (I still think of the swim-through tunnel with some trepidation), but snorkeling alongside the steep walls is as satisfying as exploring from the 50-foot bottom up.

We gave Cooper Island a temporary pass when the wind lightened to about 14 knots and the seas flattened out enough for snorkeling on the Rhone, a popular dive site off Salt Island that is usually too rough for comfortable snorkeling. We had equally good luck at—and terrific sails to and from—Great Dog, midway between Marina Cay and the Bitter End, where there is often chop and current. This time we were able to snorkel both the coral canyon on the northwest side and swim-tour around the shallow reef on the south side. Wind and swells kept us on the inside of Eustatia Reef, beyond the Bitter End resort on Virgin Gorda, and cut short our snorkel, but left time to stop at Saba Rock, which has metamorphosed since last year from a frequently raucous bar-and-burgers stop into a manicured hotel.

We can't help but wonder if the formation means they have something gustatory in mind, this being breakfast time, but they stay in place guarding the buoy line as we swim off. Then sure enough, a couple of small hawks-bills appear and allow us to follow them around the rocks until we at last get our fill of turtle watching.

Hawk's Nest Bay, St. John: the end of the perfect week.
Here's a place to think of on a long winter night—a smallish bay with restricted anchoring and three little beaches. We kayak over to the smallest, a mere spot of white sand in a rocky alcove, and then to the larger, central beach, which has enough space for a (very short) walk. It's a lovely place for a quite lovely last dinner (clams casino, grilled lobster, Cuban rice and beans, and cheese-cake) on board and a last search for the elusive Southern Cross.

Boston, Massachusetts: afterglow.
The polished fingernails lasted two clays, one to show off and one to do some heavy duty gardening. The tan faded fast, victim of days of rain and unseasonable temperatures. Then I went for my annual physical. I've just come back from sailing in the Virgin Islands said my doctor.

Me too, I said. Jost Van Dyke, Marina Cay. Virgin Gorda, Cooper Island. All those. said my doctor, plus Loblolly Bay. (Top that tone.)

I saw schools of blue tang. squadrons of barracuda, reef squid and a couple of turtles, I offered. Me too, said my doctor, plus leaping spotted eagle rays and turtles everywhere.

I didn't mention the red, red wines, the grilled lobster, the salmon with pecan crust, the breakfast breads or the massages. I knew he couldn't compete with the spa boat.