When I tell stories about our trips to the Grenadines... the BVI... Tahiti... the San Juan Islands... each time on our own boat without a skipper or crew to cramp our style, most people look at me in with complete and utter doubt. "Are you joking? Someone let YOU take a boat by yourself in paradise?" Then, after I explain that I've been sailing my whole life, actively cruising and racing, they then withdraw with that a look that says, "Oh... I see... you know some secret handshake or codeword that the mainstream doesn't... I knew there was a catch."

But, the reality is, there's no "catch". It's possible for just about anyone. Too few people, other than diehard sailors that crawl the many ads in the back of sailing magazines, understand that you CAN charter a boat in paradise. Charter companies WANT to charter their boat to you (especially in this economy!).

What I commonly find is that people simply lack the understanding of the basics of how to go about chartering. From my experience, there are a handful of decisions that need to be made in conjunction to get things rolling towards a great charter experience. These are decisions including: who you want to charter with, what company you want to choose, and a handful of others. However, the single most important decision - in my opinion - is the destination.

The BVI (British Virgin Islands) are where bareboating got it's start. But, it's a great big world out there with many choices that constantly expand for chartering. That's why we've created a Charter Planning Guide that can help people new to the experience (and experts too) sort out their priorities. Choosing a Destination is a key factor and you can learn about the basics here.

In fact, this guide helped us recently. We were seriously considering a charter in the Sea of Cortez this spring. One of it's advantages is that most of the anchorages and destinations are incredibly remote. I've spoken with others that said they saw only a handful of other charter boats over a weeklong trip. Upon reflection - and asking ourselves, "do we really want to escape from it all?" and "what types of cultural experiences are appealing?", we realized that it just wasn't a great fit for our group which included small children and many that wanted to experience more social interaction with locals.

So - you can bareboat. Get started with considering your locations. And, if you have questions, be sure to register for Charter Island (it's free!) and post your questions in the Forum. We're happy to answer them.