Star Clipper Transatlantic crossing Nov 15

We arrived in St Martin a week ago on SC after a fantastic crossing - our third.

SC is in great shape, looking good and with an enthusiastic team although a few crew left around the same time as us - such as Igor the Bar man on routine changeovers.

Sergei the Captain tried very hard to sail with full sail at every opportunity - in the event 40% was under sail alone which was good.

Peter Kissner as Cruise Director was in his usual good form with a multitude of talks and lots of written information on sailing ships and related matters was released. There wer plenty of talks, quizzes, deck games, shanty singing, etc - unlike when Monja was in charge!

We were amazed to see one of the sports team re employed & aboard once more An extremely idle young man with little interest in anything but himself. Very disappointing.

The crew attitude was otherwise excellent. Good in the dining room and polite and chatty deck crew.

Food seemed to have picked up a little although the hors doeuvres were frankly not very exciting (but probably not needed anyway!)

The bar prices remain excellent value with good house wines starting at €15.50 and beer at €3.00. About half big cuise ship prices. This is quit an attraction!

There were 131 passengers with most cabins occupied as there were many singles.

Sadly this is SC's last Caribbean season before relocating to Thailand. This means only two Flipper ships to make the crossing in next Nov and both already nearly booked up ....Windstar here we come!

I have rather poor internet on my sailboat in Antigua right now but if there are any queries I will do my best to answer.

Good sailing.

Simon

Good to hear as we shall be seeing her soon.

Igor the barman! We loved him! Glad he's able to spend time with his family for the holidays. And Peter could talk all day if he had to. Lol

My husband and I will be doing our first crossing in October on the Star Flyer. We've also booked the week prior from Malaga to the Canary Islands to get our "sea legs" working before the 14 day trip. I have a stupid question but just must ask. Is there any Internet access at all during the 14 days at sea? Was not sure how satellite Internet works.

Thank you!

Paula

A very wise question!

On our first Wind Star crossing, 4 years ago, wifi failed on day 3.

Wifi was maintained throughout on last 2 voyages we did, but with very slow data transfer rate.

The route taken is not generally used by many vessels so satellite coverage with weak demand is poor. However apparently further satellites are to be or have been positioned recently which could improve the situation.

TV from satellite incidentally generally fails after 3 days and is not restored until reaching the Caribbean.

Given the expense, slow speed and in our view unreliability, we to not bother wifi during these voyages. It is well to be prepared for loss of wifi!

Hope his helps.

Thank you for the satellite Internet information. It's pretty sad that I'm stressing about being disconnected from the world seven months out, isn't it? Am sure I'll rediscover the joy of curling up with good books without being interrupted by beeps and dings :)

One more question, what was your weather like? Not sure if we need to prepare for mostly cold weather or mostly warm.

Paula

Thank you for the satellite Internet information. It's pretty sad that I'm stressing about being disconnected from the world seven months out, isn't it? Am sure I'll rediscover the joy of curling up with good books without being interrupted by beeps and dings :)

 

One more question, what was your weather like? Not sure if we need to prepare for mostly cold weather or mostly warm.

 

Paula

Just a thought. What if you did have the internet? You will be in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight for days. . . It's better off not knowing, because there is nothing you can do anyways. . . Bon Voyage!

Thank you for the satellite Internet information. It's pretty sad that I'm stressing about being disconnected from the world seven months out, isn't it? Am sure I'll rediscover the joy of curling up with good books without being interrupted by beeps and dings :)

 

One more question, what was your weather like? Not sure if we need to prepare for mostly cold weather or mostly warm.

 

Paula

From the Canaries the daytime weather will be mid 70s and getting warmer by the day! Lovely. A little chillier in the evenings to start with & in the air con in the dining room most of the time! T shirt weather anyway, but not necessarily sun all day every day during the Transit.

The leg before the Canaries is more changeable and strong winds have caused diversions in the past. Probably temperatures of mid 60s. Maybe similar to weather where you live in October thinking back to gong down the ICW at that sort of time.

But it will be good fun.

We are having to go on Wind Star this time as Star Clipper will not be doing the crossing having moved to Thailand & your trip is too early for us.

Thanks so much. Just the kind of weather I was hoping to have!