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Arabella no longer sailing..ever again?


SailorJM
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I'm in mourning! The wonderful Arabella, a triple-masted sailing cruise ship (40 passengers) has ceased sailing for 2012 and "the foreseeable future," per an email just received. We were signed on for our third sail, and this is just so sad. The plus side is that there apparently is an effort being made to find new owner/operator.

 

The message....

Dear valued Arabella passenger:

 

It is with great regret that we inform you that Atlantic Star Lines will not be operating the 2012 Arabella itineraries as scheduled. After the death of company founder Don Glassie earlier this year, we committed ourselves to completing the full 2011 schedule. However, due to estate obligations and associated business restructuring, we find that we must suspend the operations of the cruise yacht Arabella for the foreseeable future.

 

Please rest assured that we will be refunding any payments/deposits you have made to us immediately. In the case of credit card payments, this process should be finished this week, in which case you will see the credit on this month's statement. If by check, you will receive a refund check within the next 5 - 7 business days.

 

We wish to thank you and all the other wonderful passengers who have joined us over the last ten years — whether in the Caribbean or New England — and the great captains and crew who have helped make these trips so special. Over these years we've seen many changes in the world and in the travel industry, but the one constant we could count on was the pleasure in joining a group of fellow sailors aboard a tall ship reaching under full sail with a yet-to-be explored island beckoning on the horizon. With this in mind we are making every effort to place Arabella with a new owner/operator who can continue the traditions we've started. We will keep you informed as to any plans for a resumption of operations as they develop.

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Yeah, I just got the same letter in the mail ( I didn't get an email).

This is a real bummer, as the Arabella was a wonderful vacation and great way to explore the smaller islands of the Caribbean.

I had seen earlier this year that they'd listed the boat with a yacht brokerage around March or April (just happened to stumble upon it online) so wondered if something like this would come up and unfortunately it has.

If you get any more email communications let us know!

This is a real loss to the small cruising community.

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If the Arabella has been listed with a yacht broker for several months now, I'd guess the odds of a quick return to sailing is probably not going to happen. Even if they do, what do you think the chances are that the itinerary, prices, etc will remain the same?

 

I think I'll have to change my countdown clock........

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I do have to commend Atlantic Star Lines, who let me know about Arabella's non-sailing via email, snail mail and a personal call. Plus promise of deposit refund by end of today. I was booked on Windjammer's Legacy and didn't find out WJ was done for til day before supposed sailing (got all my money back via credit card, tho). I wasn't using Cruise Critic prior to that non-sailing, but I sure use it now. Friends were booked on Renaissance Cruises when it shut down, and they lost thousands. Although maybe ASL could have let us know earlier, I'm very happy to be informed now well in advance of our cruise and with much better letter/email than "we're not sailing for safety reasons," which is what WJ said to us in a terse email day before we were to sail. Of course, that was after WJ had stranded many passengers and her crews.

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While hold good thoughts for Arabella to sail again, we're going to give S/Y Diamant a try. She's the tall ship that Island Windjammers sails in/out of Grenada, to rave reviews.

 

You will love the Diamant. We sailed her last year and are returning for two weeks in December. Pack light! Amanda

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Diamant: that's all I've heard; all good! We're excited to learn that Capt. Matt will be our captain once again. Sailed with him on Windjammer's Mandalay. Other crew are from WJ's Polynesia and one from WJ's Yankee Clipper. Gotta be a good cruise! But still in mourning for Arabella. May she sail again soon! What a gorgeous tall ship she is.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry to be so long getting back here after our Nov. cruise on IWJ's Diamant to say: IT WAS FAMTASTIC!!! So much fun, wonderful crew, ship, passengers. Nothing to complain about except having to get off. Reason I'm posting this here is because while onboard, we learned that Island Windjammers was in discussions to buy Arabella. Now that would be something to really celebrate.....fingers crossed and praying to the gods of the sea for this to be!

Sailor JM

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Sorry to be so long getting back here after our Nov. cruise on IWJ's Diamant to say: IT WAS FAMTASTIC!!! So much fun, wonderful crew, ship, passengers. Nothing to complain about except having to get off. Reason I'm posting this here is because while onboard, we learned that Island Windjammers was in discussions to buy Arabella. Now that would be something to really celebrate.....fingers crossed and praying to the gods of the sea for this to be!

Sailor JM

Hi Sailor JM,

We've sailed on a lot of the same boats. The Arabella being our favorite, sailing six times on various Caribbean itineraries. I've been trying to get info on her current status, so thanks for the update. Can you post if you hear anything more? The Diamant sounds great!

Thanks,

Deb

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Reason I'm posting this here is because while onboard, we learned that Island Windjammers was in discussions to buy Arabella. Now that would be something to really celebrate.....fingers crossed and praying to the gods of the sea for this to be!

Sailor JM

 

 

That would be great! I am still holding out hope to sail Arabella. We would have done Diamante, but could never find an easy way to get to Granada.

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So far, I've heard no more news about Arabella.

 

You're right, there's no easy way to get to Grenada that I've found......I'm on the left coast, so it makes it extra trying. We're taking one of Diamant's new 10-day, 9 night cruises next November, leaving from St. Lucia and ending in Grenada. We took a chance on American being still in business and got flights that have us fly out of LAX and onite in Miami (we use the airport hotel) and then fly directly into St. Lucia. From Grenada, we'll fly direct to Miami and then to LA, all in same day.** A 10-day, 9-nite cruise makes the cost and effort more acceptable.

 

**I say that with fingers and toes crossed. When we returned from Grenada last November, AA had mechanical probs with flight from Mia to LA, and we returned to Mia, where we had to wait (in the terminal, thank goodness) for 5 hours before AA could get us another plane. We have had no end of mechanical probs with AA flights in last 2 years and had decided to avoid AA from now on, but AA was the only way to get from left coast to Diamant and back without going to JFK, so we're hoping for the best.

Ok, yeah: harumph.

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So far, I've heard no more news about Arabella.

 

You're right, there's no easy way to get to Grenada that I've found......I'm on the left coast, so it makes it extra trying. We're taking one of Diamant's new 10-day, 9 night cruises next November, leaving from St. Lucia and ending in Grenada. We took a chance on American being still in business and got flights that have us fly out of LAX and onite in Miami (we use the airport hotel) and then fly directly into St. Lucia. From Grenada, we'll fly direct to Miami and then to LA, all in same day.** A 10-day, 9-nite cruise makes the cost and effort more acceptable.

 

**I say that with fingers and toes crossed. When we returned from Grenada last November, AA had mechanical probs with flight from Mia to LA, and we returned to Mia, where we had to wait (in the terminal, thank goodness) for 5 hours before AA could get us another plane. We have had no end of mechanical probs with AA flights in last 2 years and had decided to avoid AA from now on, but AA was the only way to get from left coast to Diamant and back without going to JFK, so we're hoping for the best.

Ok, yeah: harumph.

 

SailorJM, I agree with you about the longer cruise making the airfare more acceptable, we loved the Mandalay 13 day between Antigua and Grenada and were fortunate to do it several times. We are still waiting to sail her again but since she is also for sale that is very uncertain. Your trip report from the Diamant trip sounded fantastic, I would have loved to have been there for that "WJ Captain's reunion" and listen to the stories, not to mention the wonderful sailing and ports. Would love to sail with Matt again too! I just finished reading Parson's book about about WBC and even though I followed the demise of the company on the Flotilla, CC and CruiseMates there was a lot I didn't know. I feel fortunate we are only out one trip.

 

Nancy

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Nancy, I wish we'd had the opportunity to sail Mandalay more than once. We. too, are hoping and praying that she'll be sailing once again soon. At least she doesn't seem to be headed to the scrap heap like Legacy and Flying Cloud. You might enjoy a topic on the jammerbabe site: Final Resting Spot for Flying Cloud, under View Active Topics. It is a sad topic, with even sadder photos, but it has now evolved into a discussion about some of the WJBC people/places. I recently posted a photo there, taken last November, of Capt. Matt as captain of IWJ's Diamant and former WJBC captain Paul Maskell, aboard Diamant for one night as Matt's guest.

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Nancy, I wish we'd had the opportunity to sail Mandalay more than once. We. too, are hoping and praying that she'll be sailing once again soon. At least she doesn't seem to be headed to the scrap heap like Legacy and Flying Cloud. You might enjoy a topic on the jammerbabe site: Final Resting Spot for Flying Cloud, under View Active Topics. It is a sad topic, with even sadder photos, but it has now evolved into a discussion about some of the WJBC people/places. I recently posted a photo there, taken last November, of Capt. Matt as captain of IWJ's Diamant and former WJBC captain Paul Maskell, aboard Diamant for one night as Matt's guest.

 

SailorJM-Too sad about Flying Cloud, we sailed her Christmas 1996 with Captain Adrian and were booked for another trip when they took her out of service so we switched to the Fantome in 1998, we got off 10 days before she was lost in Hurricane Mitch. I do have lots of video and photos of those trips.

 

Nancy

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  • 1 month later...

This is an email I received from Kim at Atlantic Stars. It looks like the Arabella might sail again!

 

Unfortunately Arabella is not running overnight cruises at this time. She is in Newport, RI (her Home Port) and will be running solely as a day sail vessel this summer. We will be doing evening sunset sails as well a special event cruise here on Narragansett Bay. Its possible that she will be back running in the Caribbean in 2013 but not 100% on that just yet. We will be sending out an e-mail to all our past guests as soon as she is available again for her week long cruising.

Im very sorry we wont be able to take you sailing in 2012. Do you ever get up to Newport, RI? If so, let me know ahead of time and I will let you know what her schedule is to go for a sunset sail on the bay.

Best regards to you,

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Little birdie says Island Windjammers has been looking at Arabella as a sister ship to Diamant. And S/V Mandalay has been purchased by newcomer Windjammer Sailing Adventures (also former Windjammer Barefoot Cruises people, like IWJ). So life on the seas is looking extra good!

 

Oh how I'd love to see ALL the fantastic Arabella team together again and Arabella looking beautiful and majestic on the seas, sails raised and full. I'm ready to sail them all: Diamant, Arabella, Mandalay! May the gods of the seas make it happen......We never thought Mandalay would sail again, and now she will. As Jimmy Buffett says: Believe it, and it will come true! Me, I'm gonna keep believing re Arabella!

 

Tail ships rule!! IWJ just won an award as Best Caribbean Cruise Line via online voting.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 9 months later...
Nancy, I wish we'd had the opportunity to sail Mandalay more than once. We. too, are hoping and praying that she'll be sailing once again soon. At least she doesn't seem to be headed to the scrap heap like Legacy and Flying Cloud. You might enjoy a topic on the jammerbabe site: Final Resting Spot for Flying Cloud, under View Active Topics. It is a sad topic, with even sadder photos, but it has now evolved into a discussion about some of the WJBC people/places. I recently posted a photo there, taken last November, of Capt. Matt as captain of IWJ's Diamant and former WJBC captain Paul Maskell, aboard Diamant for one night as Matt's guest.

 

Paul Maskell

Wow a blast from the past. I met him when I signed on the Fantome as a deckhand in 1973. He was first officer, under Captain John Andersen, of late (then) of the Dannmark.

Paul became captain, and Andrew Kitchen the first. I hope that they are both well.

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I sailed on Island Windjammer's Diamant in November 2011* and Capt. Paul joined us for a day and a night...and what fun that was! Diamant's captain was Capt. Matt, also formerly with the late Windjammer Barefoot Cruises. Paul lives in Grenada, and Matt invited him aboard for a night. Also on board, as a passenger, was an 83-year-old gentleman named Blaise, who as a very young man, had crewed on windjammer ships. The 3 of them shared stories of the golden days of windjammin' and the rest of us were enjoying being a part of it all. So many laughs! Photo shows Matt, Blaise and Paul (if I managed to attach properly!).

 

* We sailed with Matt on Diamant again in Nov. 2012. We're sailing on Diamant this November, and I do hope we'll be lucky enough to sail once more with Matt, altho I hear he's partially retired.

 

And yes, Arabella is back! I got to sail her last February, and we'll be sailing her again come this March. Still beautiful, and the British Virgin Islands are super!

1451652429_MattBlaisePaul-4178s.jpg.e6611457879a68f14730e1a9f522b073.jpg

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My wife and I sailed on Arabella New Years Eve 2009. A great adventure! I have a solo sailing booked on Sagitta for December 14 2014. Really looking forward to it.

I wonder what happened to Captain Sandy and his crew from the Arabella.

IMG_1022.jpg.a7ccfce5d0c43952ab4652f90098c3aa.jpg

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Capt. Sandy retired and is living a life of leisure in the New England area, last I knew. When we sailed Arabella last Feb, the first mate/engineer was Steve, who did the same when we sailed with Capt. Sandy and then with Capt. John in the pre-Manhattan Yacht Club days. I'm hoping Steve will still be with Arabella when we sail her again next March. Tall guy with a strong Maine accent.

 

As far as the others from Arabella, I know one of the gals, Tiffany, told us she was going to go to an underwater welding school (!) during our last sail on Arabella (back in 2011). That was just before the cruises ended and Arabella was put up for sale. I don't know what happened with the others. I would love to sail with Capt. John again.

 

Last Feb, under MYC, our captain was Deb, and she was fabulous, but I hear there is a new captain now. Since for half the year, Arabella acts as the MYC clubhouse and does charters and only does public cruising the other half, it's undoubtedly hard to keep a crew just for those cruising months. I'm guessing Steve, as engineer, has a year-round job, tho.

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I forgot to acknowledge your Sagitta sail coming up.

Since you so enjoyed Arabella, do be aware that Sagitta is a gorgeous ship and a fun crew, but she's a motoring ship that's had sails added: a motor-sailer that motors more than she sails. Island Windjammer's other ship, Diamant is a sleek schooner, a true sailing ship and is my favorite. I'll be sailing her again in 2 weeks!

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