You know that I am a fan of fractional ownership as a way to own your piece of Paradise in the Caribbean.  The large majority of property purchased in the Caribbean is accomplished with fractional ownership.  Bargains abound from Aruba to the Dominican Republic in the world of fractional condos and villas.  For the past two years I have personally witnessed the newest Caribbean resort’s development and construction, and it is now having it’s coming out party this month – Scrub Island Resort, the first resort to open in the BVI in 15 years!  This tropical paradise is on 230 acres on an unspoiled paradise. Read the rest of this entry »

Hopefully,  you already know that I am a raving fan of the U.S. Virgin Islands Governer – Gov. John deJongh, Jr.   He is the brightest hope that the Territory has had in recent memory.  I paid close attention to his State of the Union address last month to make sure my respect and esteem for him was correctly placed.  It is!  The initiatives that he began three years ago are creating a new and vibrant economy and future for the Virgin Islands.  His address was before a packed at house of the Legislature with all of his government officials in attendance.  His opening comments of, “Tonight, although we may not be out of the woods yet, I believe that we are on the right path,” deJongh said.  “If we persevere together, we will overcome these challenges and we will see a better tomorrow in the days, months and years to come.” His words have been put into action before all of our eyes.  He has created one of the most open governments I have seen since I arrived in the Caribbean in 1975. Read the rest of this entry »

The Port-au-Prince area of Haiti, is located about 500 miles to the west of Red Hook, St. Thomas where Caribbean Islands Realty is headquartered.  Tuesday it was hit with a devastating 7.3-magnitude earthquake that has caused much of this city of millions to collapse.  The tide of human suffering is beyond any thing we can imagine.  Gov. John deJongh Jr. said in a news release Tuesday that the prayers of the people of the Virgin Islands are with the residents of Haiti,  and that help is on the way from every Caribbean nation, plus the world.  “Eyewitness accounts of the quake indicate a catastrophic situation,” deJongh said, adding that many Virgin Islanders have both family and friends in Haiti who are tonight anxiously awaiting word about the fate of their loved ones. Read the rest of this entry »

Diageo’s Captain Morgan Rum’s distillery in the U.S. Virgin Islands is finally scheduled to produce rum by the end of the year.  Diageo, the parent company of Captain Morgan Rum, and a United Kingdom-based company that is the largest distilled spirits maker in the world, expects the construction of their new St. Croix location to be completed by October and have rum in the aging barrels by December.   This week’s simple announcement is packed with controversy that has been boiling for over a year.  The rest of the complicated “story” is worth the read.

For many years, a third party distiller in Puerto Rico has been producing Captain Morgan Rum and selling it to Seagram’s.  Diageo bought the Captain Morgan Rum label in 2001 inheriting this third party manufacturing agreement.  They have looking for years how to arrange a way for them to produce their own rum under the Captain Morgan Rum label.  With the manufacturing plant now being built for Diageo to produce the rum themselves, Puerto Rico will be losing millions of dollars that were coming to their territory from the rum excise tax.  Since they will not be getting any of these taxes, they are protesting to the Congress that the U.S. Virgin Islands should not get any of them either, because the USVI is going to use these taxes in order to finance the construction of the new distillery on St. Croix. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, December 1st, was a somber day of celebrations in the Caribbean for World AIDS Day.  The celebrations were focused on repealing the laws that criminalize homosexuality in all but two of the Caribbean islands.  Did you know that the Caribbean is second only to Sub-Saharan Africa in new HIV/AIDS infections?  And, still governments deny the basic human rights to sexual minorities in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities.  We are not even talking about laws that ban gay or lesbian marriages.  We are talking about laws that criminalize homosexual behavior!

For example, today a gay man in Barbados could still be sentenced to life in prison if he is found guilty of homosexual acts. In Jamaica, a man can be sentenced to ten years hard labor.  In Trinidad & Tobago a man found guilty of homosexual acts can be sentenced to twenty five years in prison.  However, there are still some Caribbean countries that don’t criminalize female-to-female sexual acts.   ALL of the Caribbean island nations except for the Bahamas and Cuba have criminalized homosexuality to in some manner.  There are just a few acts in this world that greatly anger me, and one of them is discrimination in any form.  Universal access to AIDS prevention, education and medical treatment need to happen NOW! Read the rest of this entry »

Eric Ackerson, the VICL Executive Director has produced one of the best and largest fleet of charter yachts for the Fall Boat Show in many years.  What an impressive sight to see the line-up of boats along the promenade of Yacht Haven Grande’s marina.  From mega power yachts such as m/y Runaway to intimate monohulls, such as s/y Honinari, the charter yacht brokers have any option available for their customers seeking the vacation of a lifetime experiencing the Caribbean from their own luxury yacht with a rock-star status crews.  In addition to viewing the charter yachts,  Erik has scheduled a variety of programs for the crews and charter brokers to attend.  From Mr. Joe Hosie – Commercial Banking,  presenting an overview of the Territories economic health, to Ms. Carolyn Stevens-Lanchlos from the Department of Tourism regarding the critical role of the charter industry is to tourism in the Virgin Islands, the participants will certainly leave the show with a clear understanding of the economic health of the Virgins Islands. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the newest charter crews in the BVI fleet arrived at the 2009 Charter Yacht Show this week – Dan and Susie.  Their “story” is as unique and special as all of the crews at this year’s show.  They are from London.  Dan was a London fireman, and Susie started out in the world of investment banking and then owned her own sports physical therapy company there.  They love traveling the world and were seeking out new adventures.  They were both weekend sailors as their passionate hobby.  But, being stuck in the world of very traditional jobs finally brought them to the realization they wanted to disconnect that cord and experience the world in a much different way.  It started with Dan ending his career as a firefighter and taking on a position with Overland Adventures leading expeditions in South American and Northern Africa for several years.  One day, while standing on the shore looking out at the sea, they talked about how they were tired of saying, “Wouldn’t be fun to just get on a boat and set sail for distant shores and discover new adventures?”  So, they came up with a three year plan of doing exactly that. Read the rest of this entry »

Today I spent some time with Kirk Gilbert, the captain of s/y Shiwara. What a surprise was waiting for me when I learned that he was a fellow surfer from Southern California.  His passion for surfing and diving was realized by sailing down the coast of California, Mexico and Central America.  He found work all along the way, and when he gathered enough funds to take off again in search of that perfect wave he was gone.  During these adventure connected to the sea, he met the love of his life, Tiffany.  She also loved the sea and he talked her into sailing to Australia and New Zealand to explore that part of the world’s diving and surfing opportunities.  While in New Zealand, Tiffany informed him that she was pregnant.  That was a defining moment for Kirk, because he decided that a bit more stability in his life was required now that he was to become a father.  Because they both loved the tropical life they decided to head to the Caribbean and make a go of it.  They showed up on Tortola in 2003 with Kirk looking for a dive instructor’s job, which he found at Hodges Creek. Read the rest of this entry »

As you are discovering from my BVI Charter Yacht Show reporting, every crew has their amazing story of courageously leaving the traditional career paths that most of us are on and launching out to unknown shores.  This is also the case with Andy Armshaw and Elli Rea as they take on the crew positions of SWISH – a 50’ luxury catamaran.  They come to the chartering crew life from very traditional careers – Andy from managing a construction company in England and Elli as an elementary school teacher.  They have been connected to the sea all of their lives.  Andy decided to fulfill his passion for the ocean by retiring from his construction company and become a skipper for a vessel that ferried crew back and forth from the offshore wind farms in the North Atlantic. ( The North Atlantic are some serious seas to gain experience as a captain.)  In the summers Andy taught windsurfing and sailing at a water sports center.  Elli was in charge of the kid’s activities at the same center which is where they met.  What I learned during our time together yesterday is they are part of the growing community of charter crew members that keep arriving in the BVI from Wales.  I have written many times about Captain Jonny and Kelly, who were my crew during my 60^th birthday celebrations.  Well, Andy and Elli were at their wedding last August along with many other of the BVI charter crews who are from Wales.  Wales and South Africa now seem to be the home base to a majority of BVI crews.  But, more to come on that topic later. Read the rest of this entry »

In order to post articles to a blog site you need to have internet connection.  So, here I am in Road Town at Village Cay Marina with all intentions of producing four to five articles a day for the Charter Yacht Society’s annual boat show, but with only moments of having in internet connect.   Because of the 80+ yachts and a 100 or more Charter Brokers wanting to get on-line the internet connection has been close to impossible.  I made a commitment to Janet Oliver from Charter Yacht Society,  and the various cjarter clearing houses to cover the show, and it is taking all of my creativity to get the articles to the internet.

Let’s back up.  Here is the definition of an internet blogger – a citizen journalist writing about things she/he is observing in their world.  What is around me in my world this week are charter crews doing all that can to show off their yachts in the best light possible so the Charter Brokers stopping by for a visit will mark in their books that this is a yacht and crew I will recommend to my clients for the upcoming season.  My task each day is to discover four or five human interest stories a day to write about and add photos to the article. This is my third year providing this service to the BVI and the St. Thomas boat shows.  THE critical tool in order to complete my daily work is an internet connection.  With the jammed up internet service I am having to be very creative.  For example, yesterday morning I was sitting in the lobby of Marie By The Sea at 5AM using their free wireless service in order to get my first day of articles posted.  Yesterday at noon I spent two hours at CharterPort’s office using their wireless service to do my photo editing work – thanks to Dick Schoonover’s kindness. Read the rest of this entry »