# Island shopping



## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

We had a unique charter last week. They were a Danish couple in their seventies who had never been sailing before and their only "boating" experience was the occasional ferry trip in Scandinavia.
After adding them as passengers at immigration (we have our "charterboat License" in SVG now) I got back to the boat to find they had already stowed their belongings in the drawers and lockers of their cabin and the boat ready to go. How nice to have an able partner. A few minutes to familiarize them with the boat and safety equipment, and a solemn silent vow to see that they would not hurt themselves and we were underway.
They run from Port Elizabeth in Admiralty Bay to West Cay was done under jib alone as always, with the main going up as we rounded the island and beam reached south. It was blowing 15 to 20 from the east, with the swell at around 6 feet, so for once we weren't sailing that "effing 60 degrees". We barreled south, anchoring in Charlestown Bay just 4 hours after departing Bequia.
As we sailed south, it became apparent that these folks weren't particularly interested in clubbing, snorkeling or hiking ashore. I kept gently digging, asking about the various adventures they had taken previously (and there were indeed some interesting ones) to suss out exactly what we could do to make this a special and memorable vacation. In every story they recounted, there was always a mention of how many countries, cities or places of interest they had visited.
Ah ha! Eureka! Our adventure became about how many islands they could get "boots dry" upon. They had to be named islands (on my chart), though not necessarily inhabited. As the weather was typical 15 to 25 (with a 45 knot squall one morning early), a lot of the lesser islands would not have safe anchorages and landing spots for this septuagenarian couple.
We did our best and they left with 13 islands in 6 days. Never before has this been the goal of a charter, but I must admit, except for the extra wear and tear on the windlass and davits, it was a lot of fun. 
I wonder what next week's charter will bring?


----------



## RegisteredUser (Aug 16, 2010)

Seems like a fine idea to me...Carib Island Rally...


----------



## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

RegisteredUser said:


> Seems like a fine idea to me...Carib Island Rally...


Or how about a multi-island treasure hunt? Something fun to do in the summer.


----------



## RegisteredUser (Aug 16, 2010)

capta said:


> Or how about a multi-island treasure hunt? Something fun to do in the summer.


Any season really.
Be creative, be different...stand out.
It's not just limited to sailing, snorkeling...what everybody else promotes.
Wait, there's more.....
Promote your treasure hunt/s towards some of the young people too. A twisted geo cache map thing with exotic/weird stuff....
Issue a compass with map....

Play the history there.
As a marketing type of person, I get off on this kinda stuff and could go on and on....


----------



## ianjoub (Aug 3, 2014)

They sound like fun people. I hope you enjoyed it with them.


----------



## SavvySalt (Sep 16, 2014)

Given the title I really thought your twist was going to be "they were trying to decide which of these islands to buy via sailboat"...


----------



## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

Now if you get some other boats involved, and leave a deck of cards on each island, you could start the world's longest "poker run" !


----------



## mbianka (Sep 19, 2014)

I can relate to that couples goals. You can keep the T-shirt shop lined tourist harbors and your remote island beach bars. We have been "one and done" with that scene for many years. But, let us jump off the stern onto a nice reef where we have the possibility of coming across a sea turtle or two and we are in heaven. However, we don't need to see every reef in the world since every look down below always has something different to see.


----------



## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

capta said:


> Or how about a multi-island treasure hunt? Something fun to do in the summer.


There's one stupid one (somewhere, forgotten where) they race to the island, swim to shore, run up the highest peak, back, race to the next island. 
No fun at all!

Be easy to do a treasure hunt. Cryptic clues and they take a photo for evidence or have to buy the souvenir, drink in that bar etc.


----------



## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> Be easy to do a treasure hunt. Cryptic clues and they take a photo for evidence or have to buy the souvenir, drink in that bar etc.


So let's see if we can't get a few dozen adventurous souls who will forego the tenuous safety of Grenada and do a treasure hunt through the Leewards? Are you in?


----------



## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

capta said:


> So let's see if we can't get a few dozen adventurous souls who will forego the tenuous safety of Grenada and do a treasure hunt through the Leewards? Are you in?


Yes. I will be back in the Caribbean at the end of 2018. So anytime January thru March 2019.
I will give you a hand but can't do on site stuff till I get there.

Mark


----------



## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

Hazy memory that it was the Johnny Walker folks who already did that maybe 20? years ago. They ran a big ad campaign giving mysterious clues as to where they'd stashed a case of booze, every month, in some exotic location. And left it as a public treasure hunt for people to go find it.

And there's some guy who claims to have stashed a million(?) dollars out in the Rockies, with sparse clues. Made the news because someone went out looking and died, so of course The Bleeding Hearts want him to call off the treasure hunt. (I'm sorry sir, you can't leave your bedroom without a permit. Were you authorized to get out of bed?)


----------



## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> Yes. I will be back in the Caribbean at the end of 2018. So anytime January thru March 2019.
> I will give you a hand but can't do on site stuff till I get there. Mark


If the damn pilot would ever end his strike, I'd send the Lear Jet so you could start earlier than that! But forget about using the Rolls. We must have gotten a lemon, 'cause this one seems to spend a lot more time in the shop than out.
Oh the trials and tribulations of being a "proper" yachtie, however we do have the attire correct, right?


----------



## Capt Len (Oct 9, 2011)

Backin the old days I did island hunts for 'the treasure of the Aztecs' Mostly on Chatham and Discovery since I was dealing with youth hostellers out of Victoria. Lots of navigation (compass and bearings) on a cryptic chart that lead to a box of chocolates. Included was lots of chatter about the Spanish and English pirates who were in this area before Cook and Vancouver.


----------



## RegisteredUser (Aug 16, 2010)

You also could involve established businesses on the different islands.
I could see some of them getting onboard. 
I don't know how serious you want to go.
You could go small and simple or biggly.


----------



## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

When I first did Antigua Race Week, it was basically just an end of season party for the crewed charter boats that worked the Windward and Leeward Islands. A few dozen boats, lots of Mt Gay and 5 days of sailing our boats for ourselves. The 'race' was a Le Mans start from anchor in the dockyard, by rather tipsy charter boat crews, not professional racing crews on maxi-racers.
Still not much interested in serious, just fun.


----------

