Charter Concerns
Before you charter any boat you should ask them the following...
- Does your vessel have Charter Insurance to Protect You? Ask to see their policy.
- Is the Captain Licensed by the U.S. Coast Guard?
- Does your Captain have a License that allows more than 6 passengers?
- Is your Captain in a random drug screening program; which is required by the U.S. Coast Guard
- How much experience does the Captain have? Captain Bob has over 60,000 blue water miles and has crossed the Atlantic 3 times.
- Does the boat carry the proper safety equipment & first aid?
- Meet the crew and tour the boat prior to spending
- Look at Windsong before you spend
- Other boats pictures can be deceiving. Windsong has more room than any other sailboat within 500 miles. (photo below) Windsong on the left...
"Windsong is the largest legal sailing vessel on Galveston Bay."
Selected 5 Star Charter Yacht Broker
Caribbean Soul Charters is located in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. We’ve cruised and lived in the Caribbean for almost 20 years and know many of the yachts and crews as friends. We also attend the Tortola and St. Thomas Charter Yacht Shows to personally inspect hundreds of gorgeous yachts and meet the wonderful crews. An all inclusive charter on a private yacht in the Caribbean is the perfect vacation for families and friends alike. Just sit back and let the crew wine and dine you as they sail you to a different anchorages each day. It’s all about you!
The Virgin Islands provides the perfect backdrop for your family vacation or gathering of friends with its protected warm waters and a multitude of anchorages within sight at any given time. If you want to see the islands from a local’s perspective and experience the sunrise and sunset from a different anchorage each and every day, this is your next vacation.
Visit their website here:
Caribbean Soul Charters
Featured Charter Yacht
Yacht Sweet Thing, a 48' Cat
Sweetest Thing is a luxurious 48-foot, state-of- the-art catamaran. This design was brand new in 2008, from renowned yacht builder Fountaine Pajot, replacing the Bahia 46. The Salina 48 is exceptionally roomy, with large windows - ideal for two or three couples and their children or up to eight total guests. She offers huge salon and cockpit social areas, plus an aft sun deck, foredeck seating, and an elevated 3-seat flybridge helm station with panoramic views, yet easy access to the cockpit.
Captain Tofer was born and raised in Wyoming, graduated from the University of Wyoming with a Bachelor of Science degree. During a brief hiatus from college he moved out to Washington State where he met a beautiful girl. He married Rebecca Knight in 1988 and they moved back to Wyoming to finish University.
Shortly after they were married they began working with troubled youth. For six years Kristofer took court referral and school referral kids out on high impact backpacking, kayaking, and river rafting trips. This experience moved Kristofer and Rebecca to start a home for troubled boys in Montana. For 14 years they were known as the place you sent your kid if no real hope was left, or often, if no one else would take them. Backpacking, Kayaking, Rock Climbing and other outdoor adventures were still a big part of the program. They also raised farm animals and the kids were responsible for helping with the running of the farm. In 2001 Kristofer and Rebecca, whose own five children were now getting older, decided to make a big life change.
They began to charter sailboats in Washington, state and took all of the American Sailing Association courses. They began to take a select group of boys from the home out to Washington to get certified by the ASA as well. During this time they were already looking for a boat to buy for themselves. In 2003 they bought “Wandering Dolphin” a 41 foot aluminum cutter designed by Gary Mull. After loosing their home and business in an uninsured fire “Wandering Dolphin” became their full time home. Since then they have sailed her up and down the East Coast of the USA, the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the Leeward and Windward Islands and Trinidad.
Kristofer became a US Coast Guard Licensed Captain in 2007 and has delivered sailboats all over the US and Caribbean. He has over 30,000 OFFSHORE sailing miles and continues to sail offshore around 10,000 to 12,000 miles every year.
Visit their website below
Yacht Sweet Thing
The Kemah Boardwalk at Night, a great place for the kids while your sailing aboard Windsong.
A night view as Windsong returns to dock after a day on the water.
Sail Galveston Bay
A Taste of the Caribbean; done best by Captain Jan Robinson and her Ship to Shore Cookbooks - Featuring Her Sip To Shore Drinks, "Cookbook ?".
Capt. Jan Robinson a native of New Zealand, was Captain and Chef aboard her 60-foot yacht VANITY. For more than 20 years Jan cruised the Caribbean islands and entertained many charter yacht guests.
Her growing reputation as a sea-going chef, and incessant entreaties for her recipes from her charter guests, prompted Jan to collect recipes from other yacht chefs and write her first cookbook Ship to Shore I, now in its 17th printing.
This month we are featuring Jan's famous "Sip To Shore" drink cookbook.
250 recipes from 80 chefs. 178 pages. 4-color cover. 6" x 9". Lay flat binding. A snappy volume of cocktails and hors d'oeuvres recipes. The hors d'oeuvres are unique and creative. Drinks include alcoholic, non-alcoholic and diet. Plus, helpful hints for the discriminating host or hostess. A fun addition to the collection to make your sunsets sizzle.
An outstanding dining experience requires both knowledge and planning. Sip to Shore provides the guidance and information needed to insure success in the first step - cocktails and Hors d'oeuvres. These two words carry special meaning. The word cocktail is derived from the eighteenth century slang term for a "docked tail", first applied to a horse of mixed bread and then to a nag on a race course. A combined allusion to the society in which drinks are popular and the notion of mixed breeding must have led to the word being applied to alcoholic recipes.
The first cocktails originated in England at the height of the Victorian era. Many cocktails were being made by the end of the century and some of the names are still being used. Coolers, cobblers, cups, daisies, fixes, flips, juleps, nogs, punches, rickeys, sangarees, slings, and smashes all suggest the hilarious nature of those gentleman's origins of some of the mixes.The drinks are delicious and include alcoholic, non-alcoholic, and diet, plus helpful hints for the discriminatng host or hostess with such favorites as Bushwhacker, Pussers Pain Killer and Goombay Smash.
An hors d'oeuvre is a delicacy served before a meal as an appetizer. It is unusual, extraordinary, and exciting so to stimulate enthusiam for what is to follow.Hors d'oeuvres are always eagerly anticipated and happily devoured. The recipes are fun and easy to prepare. They will brighten the moment, whether on land or sea, when the sun slips over the yardarm.
Sip to Shore is a true collection of delicious award winning recipes from the Caribbean charter yacht chefs and captains, who have many years of experience in meeting the needs of discriminating guests. It is the fun addition to the Ship to Shore collection that will make your sunsets sizzle!
More about Captain Jan Robinson below.
The overwhelming success of Ship to Shore I, led inevitably to Ship to Shore II, then Sip to Shore, a collection of cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, followed by Sea to Shore, a treasury of scrumptious fish and shellfish recipes, Sweet to Shore, "Life is uncertain, have dessert first"- decadent desserts, cakes and candies, Slim to Shore, recipes for a healthier lifestyle, Bahama Mama's Cooking, recipes from the Bahamas There is also Store to Shore, featuring 400 recipes with complete menus and detailed shopping lists, and Famous Virgin Islands Recipes.
When not sailing, Robinson divides her time between her homes in the Virgin Islands and North Carolina, where she is active in local culinary circles and does much of the research, recipe testing, and writing for her cookbooks. Jan is an active member of The American Institute of Wine and Food. She holds certificates from the Cordon Bleu Cooking School, The Ritz Cooking School, and the Culinary Institute of America. She makes personal appearances at major boat shows throughout the United States. Coordinates culinary contests and has made numerous cooking and autograph tours promoting her cookbooks around the country, the Caribbean, and New Zealand.
Jan's adventurous life and culinary expertise have been featured in numerous national and international publications; she is a much sought - after speaker, host, judge and coordinator of culinary competitions.
Robinson's television cooking credits include "The Morning Show" with Regis Philbin, and the NBC Special "The Cruise of the Vanity" which featured Jan and her yacht. As "The Gallery Gourmet" Robinson authors a monthly column for All At Sea, Yacht Essentials, occasionally Yachting Matters and other international publications.
Since 1983, "Captain Jan" has been a revered household name in this part of the continent. That's the year the effervescent New Zealand native and charter Yacht captain Jan Robinson published her very first cookbook title, "Ship to Shore." Pardon the unabashed pun but locals and vacationers ATE IT UP - and wanted more.
How in the world did it all begin? According to Jan, she and her husband Pero were living in North Carolina until 1979. He was a civil engineer and attorney; Jan was making her living in real estate. They both decided it was time to retire and they purchased a 60-foot steel hulled motor vessel to enjoy in the tropics.
"Back then, it was one of the largest yachts in the Caribbean," said Jan with a bright smile. "I soon learned that my husband's idea of retiring was cruising the middle of the ocean and working on the boat. Mine was heading for the marina and putting up the cocktail flag. The perfect compromise was that we become a charter boat."
Captain Jan also discovered that chartering meant preparing meals four times a day for seven guests, seven days a week. "I was working 12 hours a day," said Jan. "We decided that we'd only charter for three years. But guests were re-booking with us as soon as they got off the boat. We had a 60-per-cent return guest rate." Little wonder. Jan was born a magnificent hostess. She is also an accredited member of the American Institute of Wine and Food with certificates from the Cordon Bleu Cooking School and the Culinary Institute of America. "I love to give parties," said Jan, adding that every meal she served aboard had a fresh place setting and a new look. As Jan put it, "People eat first with their eyes, then with their nose and finally with their taste buds."
The Robinson's ended up chartering for ten years. During that time, Jan's efforts to swap recipes and serving tips with fellow charterers evolved into culinary creativity at its finest. "Ship to Shore" was born containing 680 Tastes of the Caribbean from 65 chefs and Captain Jan Robinson sailed previously unchartered career seas as The Gallery Gourmet. Multiple publications followed as well as a video cookbook, "Tropical Temptations." Over the years, each of the eight publications from The Galley Gourmet has enjoyed a personality all its own. "Slim to Shore" brought us gourmet tastes without the guilt. "Sweet to Shore" was a divine offering to the dessert gods. "Sip to Shore" was a fun-filled exploration of beverages and hors d'oeuvres.
Captain Jan has recently completed the quintessential cookbook encompassing every aspect of charter yacht hosting. "Store to Shore" goes the extra mile - or knot, as the case may be - offering comprehensive full-day menus from 50 international yacht chefs as well as proven recipes and shopping lists. Over 400 mouth-watering recipes are spotlighted along with hints on planning, preparing and hosting. As always "Store to Shore" is equally appropriate for landlubbers' events.
Want to know more or order Captain Jan's cookbooks? Checkout her website here:
Ship To Shore Cookbooks
