Mid-winter is approaching and Christmas Holiday adverts are already on the television, could there be a better time to be thinking about cruising in the Caribbean? A string of Islands running roughly perpendicular to the prevailing winds sounds like a sailor’s paradise, safe comfortable anchorages on the leeward side of every island and a broad reach from one anchorage to the next. In the season between January and May the weather is dry and warm and the winds are reliable.
If you are sold on the idea of Caribbean cruising there is a well-trodden route from Europe and the organisation World Cruising has helped to simplify the logistics with two established rallies; the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (The ARC) and the ARC Plus which takes in the Cape Verd Islands adding a bit of early South in the passage West. Both rallies have now departed and all entries should be comfortably in the Caribbean for Christmas and the entries are filling for next year's events.
As usual, yachts built on the Swedish Island of Orust are well represented with 21 yachts in total and over half of them are Hallberg-Rassys. A tradition of building well-found offshore yachts with a reputation for comfort at sea or in harbour has made these yachts eminently suitable for the Atlantic crossing and subsequent Caribbean cruising. So, an Island, a little smaller than the Isle of Wight (reference for Solent Sailors) has made quite a contribution to these events and of course many other cruising rallies and regattas.
It goes without saying a Hallberg-Rassy is the right boat for you if you are planning an Atlantic sabbatical next year and if you would like a ready-made world cruising package we have some great options available, one of the last Hallberg-Rassy 53s built would give you the performance of a Frers designed hull with Generator water maker and comfort a plenty. If you need something a little bigger to keep your crew comfortable how about a recently refitted Halberg-Rassy 62 her huge water capacity can be topped up daily with a water maker and a tonne and a half of fuel could keep you living comfortably at anchor for weeks without the need to put into harbour.
For details of these and many other yachts that could fulfil a Caribbean dream have a look at our list of Hallberg-Rassy yachts for sale or better still call into the office to discuss your plans and requirements, we always like talking about yachts!