St. Thomas Harbor appears to be approaching critical mass. Big liners form an almost solid wall of high-gloss metal along the pier. All are off-loading passengers thousands of them each one dreaming of duty-free shopping bargains.We watch the bustling scene from the afterdeck of a sleek sailing yacht, sipping welcome-aboard rum punches and feeling very serene.
Our yacht, Arabella, is a virgin to the Virgin Islands' cruise scene. Launched in February 2001, she's a 160-foot three-masted schooner built to carry just 44 passengers in luxurious style. That would have been enough to lure me aboard, but there's also the prospect of a trip powered mostly by sail diesel fumes never fail to reduce me to pale, seasick green.
As the sun sets and Arabella glides away from St. Thomas, we go below to unpack and surrender our suitcases for stowage. Though the cabins are spacious, there's no room for nonessential gear. Afterward, we claim a comfy perch on deck to watch the Technicolor extravaganza of our first Virgin Islands sunset.
Our anchorage at St. John marks our introduction to a unique Arabella tradition: dinner ashore. Even though the yacht has a well-equipped galley and an excellent chef is on board imaginative breakfasts and lunches are served in the gleaming formal dining room all evening meals are on an island. In three nights we have three disparate dining experiences: an island-style tapas bar on St. John; the boisterous Billy Bones Beach Bar on Norman Island, where the house special, a Painkiller cocktail, is paired with babyback ribs smothered in spicy barbecue sauce; and a buffet extravaganza at the Bitter End Yacht Club on Virgin Gorda. Arabella's policy treats these shoreside dinners as on-board meals: The price of the food is included; drinks are extra.
Despite the size of the vessel, there are plenty of creature comforts. Each of the 22 air-conditioned staterooms has its own private bath, along with satellite TV, VCR and telephone. There's even turndown service, complete with pillow mints.
The clincher for me, however, is that Arabella's size permits her to sail right up to the tiny deserted cays scattered through the Virgin Islands archipelago. Most cruise ships have only one choice in the BVI the dock at Tortola. But Arabella can sail in almost anywhere, letting us explore the tempting arc of whatever white-sand beach or no-name island is a few yards away, snorkel a remote reef or kayak in and out of wave-carved cliffside caves.
Days aboard Arabella quickly fall into a rhythm. Each morning I carry my breakfast out on deck to watch the islands slip by. Around midday the sails come down, and the crew launches kayaks and hands out snorkel gear to the more ambitious passengers. Motorized zodiacs stand ready to ferry the lazy to shore.
And if I choose none of the above, everyone else's activity leaves me lots of private quiet time for reading, napping and just enjoying the newly discovered charms of rocking gently on the swells, watching sunlight play on turquoise waters. All without even a hint of seasick green.
Posted online 07/20/01.
