Tall-ship Arabella sailing again

Great news for tall-ship, windjammer-style sailors--sailing yacht Arabella is back and sailing the Caribbean again! Manhattan Yacht Club now owns her and uses her part of the year as its clubhouse (!), but this winter/spring, she has begun cruises open to all. More info here: http://arabellavacations.com/

We'll be on board March 1-8..yoohoo!

You can also call Dan Fahy for more information at 212-786-0400,

dan@arabellavacations.com

:)

This great news. Maybe we should join the Manhattan Yacht Club for a discount!

Sigh.....That might be the thing to do. I discovered yesterday that the website says it is being re-done and to be up by Aug 1, but as of today it's still not offering any info other than her photo and that she is available for "corporate and private charters in NY Harbor."

About a month ago, I learned via our American Sailing Association (ASA) membership that two weeklong sailings in the British Virgins are planned for Feb and March, and we signed up for March. However, to date my credit card has not been charged, and when I called a week ago, I was told none of the cards of those who signed up had been charged "yet."

I'm wondering if they are waiting til they have enough sign-ups or if they are waiting decision by MYC re going forward with these sailings or any other public ones. Or something else.

If not, well, we've been fortunate enough to sail her three times (twice pre-MYC ownership), and we'll forever treasure those experiences. We do have another favorite tall-ship cruise company.

If you want to try your luck re Arabella, I can give you phone contact info.....

Just talked to folks who appear to be in-the-know.

Arabella now has two websites, one for charters and the other for other sailings.

The latter website it arabellavacations.com. There is a list of planned sailing dates for next Jan-April up on that site. I feel a lot better now!

I'm not sure if you will see this SailorJM but I am also signed up for one of the sailings but have not been charged yet, even though I have been told I had. I did some searching and have found that the yacht is for sale. I am told it is a go but things don't seem to be falling in place.I would love to hear if anyone else has any insight into whats going on. We have already purchased airfare so we are heading to the Virgin Islands regardless but need to make sure we have someplace to be!

We keep being assured that all is well, including by our contact at the American Sailing Association, since we're sailing one of the ASA weeks. But like you, our deposit has not been processed. We haven't yet gotten our airfare, but I can assure you that the BVI is a great place to visit, Arabella or not. I'm interested in where you found info that Arabella is for sale again. I'm hoping that was an old ad from when she was for sale in 2012. I"m going to make some calls again.

I did some searching, too, and I found that she definitely is for sale. I'd hoped maybe it was an old ad, but when I downloaded the brochure, it's dated Sept. 13, 2014. Not good news for those who have booked for early next year.

Our payment has just been processed and I got another confirmation sent

I imagine that it could take some time to sell this yacht but hopefully the sailings that are already booked will go on as scheduled. We are going to go forward with our travel plans but definitely will book travel insurance. Hope yours gone on as well!

I've had conversations today with Siofra, the one booking Arabella sailings in the MYC office, and also with an American Sailing Association rep who had a meeting today with a key person from MYC. Both Siofra and the MYC person were adamant that Arabella is not for sale and that action will be taken to get the online for-sale notice and downloadable brochure removed. I surely do hope they are correct and being upfront. But you have to wonder: just how did those get posted?

I'm trying to be careful because I was left hanging, with fare paid, and one day from sailing on a Windjammer Barefoot Cruises ship, in Oct. 2007 when WBC pulled the plug. I was one of the fortunate ones who got my credit card company to refund my money, but many, many others weren't so lucky.

I am hoping that they just didn't take the deposit because I was questioning what was going on. I have talked to Siofra many time and although very pleasant to deal with, I felt that something was amiss. I had asked Siofra's partner about the sale of Arabella and and she denied it. I suppose it could be possible that they wouldn't know. I had emailed ASA last weekend and got no response at all.

I would think that there are many others out there questioning what is going on and I hope we can either proceed with confidence or find out early on that we need to make other arrangements. I just don't want to get to Tortola and find no ship, no place to stay (and our money gone)!

I'm going to think positive now.

I have gotten numerous "absolute" assurances from Siofra and American Sailing Association (ASA) that Arabella is NOT for sale, that the planned Dec-April public sailings will happen--and that Manhattan Yacht Club is working now to get the incorrect info removed from the web. MYC has a major connect with ASA, so MYC really doesn't want ASA unhappy. The only thing I can figure is that someone at the company that handled the sale of Arabella in 2012 somehow updated the old Arabella-for-sale site instead of another ship’s for-sale site.

Our prior sailings on board Arabella were wonderful and such fun, including the one with MYC as her owner. This am, I went ahead and updated my cc info with Siofra. By the way, she told me she'll be on board, too.

Still, I'm keeping every email I have from them on Arabella re my cruise. Paying by credit card and having a key email was what saved me and my husband in 2007 when Windjammer Barefoot Cruises closed the doors, stranded the ships and crew, and kept a whole lot of the bucks.

What's your Arabella date? Ours is March 1.

My ASA contact, the gal who is coordinating the two ASA weeks on Arabella (and talking about adding a third!) is Cathy Christensen. She was on board with the ASA group last March when there was just one ASA week. If you want her email, email me at jm.walker05@gmail.com, my "junk" email, but I do check it!

Thank you for your input in all of this and I hope I didn't get you worried over nothing. I wouldn't have started digging deeper if I hadn't been getting some questionable information. I am also going to go ahead with all our other arrangements. I did contact a Kathy (KC) with the ASA. This was last Saturday and I have not gotten any response. Can't say for sure it is the same Cathy (my contact was Kathy was a K not C).

Like yourself, I am now keeping all my emails. Initially, everything was done verbally but then I had a problem with the cabin booking so now it is strictly be email and credit card.

We have signed up for the January 18th trip. There are four of us. I did found your review way back when we were considering signing up for the cruise. It sounds wonderful. Lets hope for smooth sailings for both of us!

It should be with a K. Hmmmm, I don't know why she didn't respond.

But let's hope it's all good now! And you will enjoy Road Town.

Some hints:

Getting there involves either a water taxi from St. Thomas on a puddle-jumper flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Beef Island and then a taxi ride to Road Town. We did the latter, and I didn't like that 9-seat plane. Too small for me. We'll do the taxi next time. Most of our fellow passengers did the taxi. If you do that...be sure to check it's schedule and it's location. St. Thomas is a large island, so you'll want to know how far the ferry landing is from the airport. There are specific times and days the ferry runs, and you'll want to match that up with your flights.

http://www.tortolafastferry.com/schedule.html

Arabella’s tender picks up passengers in the am on day of sailing, from the Village Cay Marina Hotel's dock. We stayed there: Very nice hotel, right on the harbor, good open-air restaurant, good rates--and not far from where ferry docks (or so I'm told, since, as I said, we flew in). villagecaymarinahotel.com.

Best wishes for good travels!

Thank you SailorJm...We are actually flying in two days early and spending the first night in St Thomas probably at Windward Passage right by the ferry or the Emerald Beach Hotel by the airport. We will take the ferry the next day and either stay at Maria's by the Sea or that Village Cay Marina Hotel that you are talking about the night before the cruise. Coming from MA, I was afraid of any delay in flights so we are being extra cautious. We have only booked airfare going to STT so far. Now I will start to finalize the hotels and flights out. Thanks again for all your information. Sandy