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Windjammer Polynesia


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Last week we were in Aruba and I saw the SV Polynesia mouldering away at the pier. We sailed on her in 2002 from the same port. It was a very sad sight to behold. Does anyone know where the other ships from the defunct Windjammer line are now?

 

Here's a link to the photos I took of her.

 

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=19h28ykr.6g45m6ib&x=0&y=6xpv5s&localeid=en_US

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  • 2 weeks later...

Those pictures could break your heart!!

 

I sailed on her a coupla times in the 80's when she sailed from St. Maarten...... Great stories from those cruises, great memories too.

 

I loved their ships and sailed on them frequently...back in the late 70's to late 80's.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I understand that the Mandalay was sold to an organization that cruises the Galopogos (sp?) Islands following refurbishment. I believe that both the Legacy and Yankee Clipper remain seized. Windjammer ceased operations in the fall of 2007

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Those pictures could break your heart!!

 

I sailed on her a coupla times in the 80's when she sailed from St. Maarten...... Great stories from those cruises' date=' great memories too.

 

I loved their ships and sailed on them frequently...back in the late 70's to late 80's.[/quote']

 

You're right, the pics are heartbreaking. So sad. I, too, sailed on the Polly out of St. Martin, and also on the Fantome in the Bahamas.

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  • 2 months later...
Last week we were in Aruba and I saw the SV Polynesia mouldering away at the pier. We sailed on her in 2002 from the same port. It was a very sad sight to behold. Does anyone know where the other ships from the defunct Windjammer line are now?

 

Here's a link to the photos I took of her.

 

 

Such a shame! Those Windjammer cruises always intrested me, but right when I was really planning to go on one they went belly up. :( Hopefully someone will resurect the line since they tend to go to many islands most lines don't, plus the close atmosphere limited crew and passengers really gets back into the true sailing days.

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  • 4 weeks later...
You're right, the pics are heartbreaking. So sad. I, too, sailed on the Polly out of St. Martin, and also on the Fantome in the Bahamas.

 

Loved the Fantome. That was my first with Windjammer back in the dark ages.

 

I'll never forget leaving the dock in the Bahamas. I forget if it was Nassau or Freeport. In any case, the Captain (Mike?) was dressed in full pirates regalia and was standing way out on the bowsprit, sword held high, as a live piper on the dock played "Amazing Grace"......wow! Always a good show.

 

Another cruise, same ship, it was past midnight and most everyone was seated in a huge circle on deck telling tall tales and playing drinking games. We were under light sail someplace around Saba, I think...can't really recall. My traveling companion noticed the Captain and his fellows were in the circle and playing along..... Wondering who might be "driving", he walked back to the wheel - and, there was his 14 year old son in charge!!!!! Captain had set the wheel and advised the youngster to keep it and the compass right where it was...while he joined in the festivities.

 

Remember the "boat races"?????? Everytime I look at those pictures, I laugh........and wonder how I got so darned old so quick.....HA!!

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Ship+Photo+Polynesia.jpg

 

s/v Argus (1938-present) Built in 1938 as a four-masted fishing vessel named Argus, the ship that would go on to become (sailing vessel) Polynesia plowed through the waters of the Grand Banks as part of the Portuguese fishing fleet. One of the last schooners to serve with that fleet, Argus attracted international attention when she was featured in a lengthy article in National Geographic in 1952. Later, maritime author Allen Villers would go on to write a book about the legendary schooner entitled, “The Quest for the Schooner Argus.”

After she was retired from the Portuguese fishing fleet, Windjammer purchased the historic schooner in 1975. After massive reconstruction and remodeling that included the addition of passenger cabins with more modern amenities and adding an upper deck spanning the entire length of the 248-foot ship, Argus was re-launched as s/v Polynesia. Under the Windjammer banner, she has travelled through Caribbean waters ever since with service to Dutch/French St. Maarten and the Leeward Islands or the Dutch ABC (Aruba, Bonaire & Curacao) Islands.

 

On 7-day itineraries, Polynesia would stop in St. Maarten, St. Bart's, Anguilla, Tintamarre, Saba, St. Eustatius, Nevis, and St. Kitts. For the ABC Islands, she would switch to 6-night itineraries with stops in Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, and Klein (little) Curacao.

 

Weighing in at 430 tons, Polynesia was literally dwarfed by even the smallest of mass-market cruise ships she anchored near. With room for only 112 passengers and a crew of 45, her four decks, two of which are exclusively passenger cabins, provided ample space for guests to "hang out".

 

Her public spaces were extremely limited, and passengers used to hours of exploring the fourteen deck behemoths that make up most of this industry found themselves quite comfortable with the layout of Polynesia in only a few minutes. Aside from a small bar and dining saloon where all meals were served, the only other public space aboard the former Argus consistsed of a large, uncovered teak deck that sprawled the length of the ship.

 

Her decor remained fairly unison from room to room. Passenger staterooms, the bar, saloon and top deck were all coated in virtually nothing but wooden panels that were slathered with varnish week after week.

Below top deck, which is where passengers could help hoist sails or listen to a 30-minute morning briefing by the Captain, guests found a small bar and the dining saloon. Directly in front of the tiki-style bar was a small teak floor measuring no more than 25 feet squared. While small, the space frequently became a dance floor or hotspot for socializing for those wishing to escape the sun on the top deck.

 

Behind the bar and located at the very aft of Polynesia was her dining saloon. While those used to “normal” cruising were at first put off by the appearance of the space, which featured long bench-style seating in a very utilitarian setting, most quickly warmed to the charm of dining at the aft of the ship, surrounded with a panoramic view of the ocean.

 

 

WindjammerBarefootCruises-Polynesia.jpg?t=1233213613

 

Windjammer ships would sail into Caribbean island ports already full of behemoth cruise ships, raise the pirate flag and shoot blanks out of their cannons at the regular cruise ships. Once the blanks ran out, knowing they had the other ship passengers' full attention, the Jammers would present "arms" or more accurately other body parts, pulling down their shorts for an en masse "mooning" of the vessels they were passing.

 

In September 2007, Windjammer's entire fleet was suspended from operating any further cruises. In November, 2007, the last remaining working Windjammer vessel sailed its last cruise. Although the company initially stated that it intended to resume service, no significant steps in that direction took place. Customers who were already booked on future cruises didn't receive refunds from the canceled voyages. All remaining parts of the company that were still operating were shut down in April 2008. Later that year, the company's assets were auctioned off. The four ships they operated are all laid up and were left in a neglected state of condition.

 

No further information has been distributed by the company since November 2007, and no cruises are currently scheduled. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has received numerous complaints about Windjammer since its shutdown, because the company has not refunded prepaid fares for the canceled cruises. The Department has responded to these complaints with statements indicating that Windjammer is no longer in business.

 

Today s/v Polynesia is sadly tied up at a dock in Oranjestad, Aruba, awaiting her fate

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Ship+Photo+Mandalay.jpg

 

sv Hussar (1923-present) built in 1923 as the 236-foot Barquentine sv (sailing vessel) Hussar in Copenhagen, Denmark for the investment banker E.F. Hutton. Below deck, she was luxuriously appointed, with a Louis XV bedroom, an Edwardian sitting room with a marble-rimmed fireplace and Oriental rugs, a dining salon with stained-glass windows, and bathrooms with gold faucets.

 

Apparently, Mr. Hutton's wife did not care for the Hussar so in 1934 she was bought by Georg Ungar Vettlesen, a shipping magnate, who renamed her Vema after the first two letters of his family name and his wife’s name, Maud. Like all oceangoing yachts in this country, she passed to government ownership during World War II, at first patrolling coastal waters for the Coast Guard. Later she underwent a drastic conversion to a floating barracks and training ship for the U.S. Merchant Marine, losing her gold faucets and other amenities. After the war, she lay abandoned and aground on mud off Staten Island for several years, until she was salvaged by a Nova Scotian captain for use as a charter vessel.

 

In 1953, she became a floating laboratory for Columbia University, keeping the name of Vema and completing more than one million miles of oceanographic research all over the world, the first ship ever to achieve that mark. Evidence gathered on those voyages for the university confirmed the theory of the continental drift. Columbia University retired her in 1981,

 

Windjammer purchased the historic barquentine in 1982. After a refit and remodeling that included the addition of passenger cabins with more modern amenities, the sailing vessel was re-launched as s/v Mandalay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_4420.JPG

 

A Barquentine is a vessel with at least three masts, all of them fore-and-aft rigged, except for the foremost one, which is square rigged. Three-masted barquentines were very common in the Baltic and the North Sea, and three- and four-masted barquentines also sailed on deep-water trades.

 

In Windjammer service, in the good days, Mandalay operated with a 30-person crew and 72 berths for her passengers. It was the kind of ship you only saw in the movies. Mandalay would sail throughout the Caribbean, offering itineraries with service from Antigua to the Eastern Caribbean and from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, to the British Virgin Islands.

 

IMG_4721.JPG

 

On 13-day itineraries to Antigua, she would make stops in Bequia, Tobago Cays, Carriacou, Dominica, Grenada, Iles des Saints, Martinique, Mayreau, Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenada.

 

On 6-day itineraries to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, she would stop in Grenada, Carriacou, Bequia, St. Vincent, Mayreau, Union Island, and Tobago Cays.

 

Lastly, on 6-day itineraries to the British Virgin Islands, the sailing vessel Mandalay would make stops in Cooper Island, Jost van Dyke, Norman Island, Peter Island, Salt Island, Tortola, and Virgin Gorda.

 

In September 2007, Windjammer's entire fleet was suspended from operating any further cruises. In November, 2007, the last remaining working Windjammer vessel sailed its last cruise. Although the company initially stated that it intended to resume service, no significant steps in that direction took place. Customers who were already booked on future cruises didn't receive refunds from the canceled voyages. All remaining parts of the company that were still operating were shut down in April 2008. Later that year, the company's assets were auctioned off. The four ships they operated are all laid up and were left in a neglected state of condition.

 

No further information has been distributed by the company since November 2007, and no cruises are currently scheduled.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has received numerous complaints about Windjammer since its shutdown, because the company has not refunded prepaid fares for the canceled cruises. The Department has responded to these complaints with statements indicating that Windjammer is no longer in business.

 

Ship+Photo+MANDALAY.jpg

 

Today s/v Mandalay can be found at an inner anchorage off Christobal, Panama where she has been since at least late 2007.

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sv Flying Cloud (1926-1998) Originally designed as a destroyer for the Italian Navy, her keel was laid during the First World War in Livorno, Italy, however work on her was never completed. In 1927 during the Roaring Twenties, she was finally commisioned for Great Britain's Duke of Westminster, He named her Flying Cloud, a floating palace, and had her idle along the French Riviera. Built for luxury on a grand scale, Flying Cloud was a steel-hulled, four-masted stay-sail schooner and at 282-foot and 676-ton, one of the world's largest.

 

In 1937, she was purchased by A.E. (Ernest) Guiness of the Guiness Brewery fame who renamed her Fantome II. She sailed into Seattle in 1939 and became stranded by the outbreak of the Second World War. After the war ended, King County blocked her departure in an effort to recover property taxes from Guiness. The vessel ended up resting at anchor in Portage Bay for a total of nearly fourteen years.

 

In 1956 she was again sold, this time to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. He planned to make her a wedding gift for Princess Grace and Prince Rainier of Monaco. However, Mr. Onassis and the Prince were not the greatest of friends, and after an argument, Onassis decided to cancel his bid. Basically, his present was never delivered because Mr. Onassis' name was not on the guest list for the wedding. Instead, sv (sailing vessel) Fantome was towed to Kiel, West Germany where she would lay rusting and deteriorating for thirteen years.

 

She was rescued from mothballs in 1969 by self-made Miami entrepreneur Mike Burke, founder of Windjammer Barefoot Cruises, Ltd., who found her laying on her side and who subsequently purchased the tall ship from Aristotle Onassis. After a six million dollar renovation, Burke had her convertedinto a luxury sailing vessel for up to 128 adventurous guests. He registered her out of exotic Equatorial Guinea in West Africa and began operating her in the Caribbean.

Ship+Photo+FANTOME.jpg

 

In her Windjammer service, Fantome would sail the Caribbean, carrying passengers on week-long fantasy cruises, spiced with rum and sun. Breakfast was a Bloody Mary; dinner attire was a T-shirt and shorts; her passengers dived off the side to snorkel, and climbed back up on rope ladders, all the simple tropical pleasures that $1,500 to $2,000 a week could buy. One of her itineraries offered was a six-day trip from Antigua to Nevis, St. Kitts, Dominica, St. Barts, Guadeloupe, Iles des Saintes and St. Maarten. Her last couple of years found her home ported in Omoa, a small harbor just south of Puerto Cortez, Honduras, offering summer/fall itineraries in the Belize and Honduran Bay Island areas.

fant-8.jpg

Her final, fateful trip began in Omoa on Saturday afternoon, 25 October 1998, where she embarked one hundred passengers with a destination of Belize and the Barrier Reef for six days of diving and snorkeling.

 

Nearly 1,000 miles away to the south, 98-mile-per-hour 'Mitch', a late-season Caribbean hurricane, was tracking northeast towards Jamaica. Fantome's captain would play it safe: rather than sailing north to Belize, he would hug the Bay Islands off the Honduran coast. But around 2 AM Sunday morning, 26 October, with her passengers asleep, Fantome changed course. At 6 a.m. those same passengers learned that Fantome would make a sprint for Belize City, where they and all nonessential crew members would be dropped off. The hurricane no longer appeared aimed for certain at Jamaica. Its path seemed erratically northwestward. It was now blowing at 127 mph, a strong Category 3, serious enough to scare a ship of any size.

 

She arrived at Belize City at 11:30 a.m. on monday, 27 October, after a rough crossing and discharged her passengers who were taken to Miami, Fl on a charter flight arranged by Windjammer. Ten of her crew were also put ashore. After this was completed, Fantome left Belize City that same afternoon in an attempt to avoid Hurricane Mitch's fury. When contact was made on 27 October, her crew was experiencing 100-knot (110-115 mile per hour) winds and 40-foot waves. At that time, the four-masted ship was 10 miles south of Guanaja Island off the Honduran coast.

 

 

The plan was for Fantome to make for the lee side of the island of Roatan, which lies east to west, parallel to the Honduran coastline, perched between ship and storm, giving protection from large swells. But around noon on Tuesday, 28 October, with forecasters still predicting that the storm would bend west and northwest, Mitch dipped south instead and began churning directly toward Roatan.

 

Fantome's captain set sail to the east, hoping to slip out as the eye passed above. Instead, Mitch kept coming and coming, trapping Fantome between the dangerous coastline and the eye, the proverbial rock and a hard place. Around 4:30 p.m. on tuesday, Fantome had moved east of Roatan, about 40 miles south of Mitch's 155-mph eyewall fighting a 100-mph gale and 40-foot waves and Mitch taking dead aim at her. Tragically, Fantome was not heard of again.

 

A U.S. Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft began searching the waters east of Honduras on thursday night, 29 October as soon as the bad weather cleared. The search resumed friday morning, with the Honduran Navy joining the effort. On the fifth day of the intense search, the crew of 'Monty 45' a Lynx helicopter, dispatched from the British Royal Navy frigate, HMS Sheffield, spotted debris in the water near eastern Guanaja: eight life vests, two life rafts. Stenciled on them was the name S/V Fantome.

fant-sign-23.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

My honeymoon was onboard the Flying Cloud, so the Windjammer ships have a special place in my heart! Later, we sailed on the Yankee Clipper in the Grenadines where we met up with the Mandalay.There was a rather good book written about the loss of the Fantome-I forget the title, but it was still available about a year or too ago. It was quite disturbing to read & realize that i had met some of the people involved. Also a year or 2 ago-I read that the Cloud was sunk as an artificial reef, but I don't recall where. (sorry for the wealth of partial information!) Now the happy part-I just found out that a new ship is being launched by a group of Windjammer fans from Grenada starting this weekend. It's smaller, but the pictures will look familiar to anyone who sailed Windjammer! It will be interesting to see what happens!

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I sailed on the Flying cloud a million years ago, and DS was married aboard the SV Legacy in 2005. Very sad - lots of greedy infighting within the Windjammer family. (The kids). I got an e-mail on 11-9-09 from a company called "Island Windjammers", aboard the SV Diamont - a 101 brigantine schooner. They are doing 6-day cruises from St. George, Grenada, beginning in mid-November of this year. Cruising the Grenadines, obviously. There is a website, which has their phone number. It's pricey. Don't mean to advertise, but just relaying an e-mail I got. If CC monitors allow, I can post their phone number. I'm a veteran cruiser of a beloved tall ship which sank during Hurricane Lenny in 1999 while anchored at St. Maarten.

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My honeymoon was onboard the Flying Cloud, so the Windjammer ships have a special place in my heart! Later, we sailed on the Yankee Clipper in the Grenadines where we met up with the Mandalay.There was a rather good book written about the loss of the Fantome-I forget the title, but it was still available about a year or too ago. It was quite disturbing to read & realize that i had met some of the people involved. Also a year or 2 ago-I read that the Cloud was sunk as an artificial reef, but I don't recall where. (sorry for the wealth of partial information!) Now the happy part-I just found out that a new ship is being launched by a group of Windjammer fans from Grenada starting this weekend. It's smaller, but the pictures will look familiar to anyone who sailed Windjammer! It will be interesting to see what happens!

 

I think this is the same company I mentioned above,

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  • 1 month later...

Our first Windjammer trip was on the Polynesia with Capt Marcel Dekker in 1993. After that we were hooked, our favorite ship is the Mandalay and we were able to do three of the 2 week cruises on her once with Capt Mick then twice with Capt Matt and our last time was the 7/15/07 cruise out of Panama when the bowsprit broke on the way to San Blas Islands so unfortunately we turned around and headed to Colon for repairs. After spending a few great days with the late great Capt Casey we headed back to Panama City because they could not get the ship fixed that week and they canceled the cruise. It is my dream as well to sail the Mandalay again, it will be very expensive to do the Galapagos with Angermeyer Cruises but the Mandalay is worth it.

 

We also sailed on the Flying Cloud in the BVI's with Capt Adrian before she was taken out of service and the Legacy in the BVI's

but it wasn't the same as those grand old sailing ships. Our most painful memory was our Fantome trip in November 1998, we got off 10 days before she sank in Hurricane Mitch. We had known Capt Guyan Marsh for three years and were devistated when he and the crew were lost without a trace.

 

We will kept the memories of the wonderful sailing ships and crews of Windjammer in our hearts forever.

 

Nancy

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Last week we were in Aruba and I saw the SV Polynesia mouldering away at the pier. We sailed on her in 2002 from the same port. It was a very sad sight to behold. Does anyone know where the other ships from the defunct Windjammer line are now?

 

Here's a link to the photos I took of her.

 

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=19h28ykr.6g45m6ib&x=0&y=6xpv5s&localeid=en_US

 

Well, the Fantome went down with all hands (31 crew) off the coast of Honduras during Hurrican Mitch in 1998. They had off-loaded the passengers in Belize a day prior and were trying to find safe-harbor. 50 foot waves and 100 mph winds caused her to flounder and she sunk.

 

The Mandalay was "arrested" in Trinidad when the company went out of business and supposedly bought by a German company for Galapagos sailings---Amazing Grace was with her.Legacy was being stripped down last I heard. Flying Cloud sunk in BVI and, last heard, they were trying to raise her to once again sink her for diving purposes by some Scuba organization. Don't know if that happened.

 

I have wonderful memories about this cruise company and some of the best at sea days were spent aboard one of these beautiful tall ships. Polynesia and Fantome were my favorites and I've spent many many happy days and nights on their decks.

 

It's a shame.....

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The Windjammers have been on my mind this weekend-the Travel Channel did a cruise ship marathon (I believe it was Saturday) and in addition to info on the ships of the usual lines, one of which we will be sailing for the first time later this year, they had a segment on one of the shows that showcased the Poly in her heyday. While we never sailed her, we did sail the Cloud & Clipper & it brought back such nice memories!

 

I gave very sketchy info earlier on a book that was published about the fate of the Fantome & her crew-here's a bit more (I found the book!) The title is "The Ship And The Storm" by Jim Carrier. I found it to be well done & will bring back memories for anyone who has sailed any of the fleet, but of course we all know how the story ends....so sad.

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