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Florida Keys - Marquesas Cays
- Dry Tortuga Trip with Florida Yacht Charters -
April 10-17, 2008 - SOLD OUT!
New trips for 2009 posted!!
Thanks
for stopping by and venturing into the wide world
of John Kretschmer Sailing. First time
visitors – welcome. To the rest of you, I know
what you are thinking. And you’re right this
update is long overdue. As you navigate
through the site I hope you’ll find that it’s been
worth the wait. 2008 and 2009 feature
some of the most challenging and exotic sailing
and travel opportunities
I’ve
ever offered.

At The Mercy of the Sea
I poured
my heart into this book, published in October 2006
by McGraw Hill. It is a sad story but a good one
and I worked hard to get it right. The book
traces the lives of three sailors, one my dear
friend Carl Wake, who converged by fate in the
tiny circle of a hellish Caribbean hurricane. Its
tragic story but also one of incredible bravery
and redemption.
Peter
Nichols, author of Sea Change and A
Voyage for Madmen, wrote this about At The
Mercy of the Sea:
“The tale of Carl
Wake and the hurricane that was waiting for him
goes straight to the heart of the greatest sea
stories: they are not about man against the sea
but man against himself. John Kretschmer’s book is
as perfectly shaped and flawlessly written as such
a story can be.”
Many of you have
read the book and emailed your comments to me,
thank you. I have posted some of them on the
Books and Articles
link. Others have offered
comments on Amazon and I appreciate you taking the
time to post these. They reach a broad audience
and let others know about the book. You can buy a
signed copy of At The Mercy of the Sea from
me through this site, but
you’ll save money and time by purchasing it
through
Amazon or
Barnes&Noble. Better still, pick it up at your
local bookstore. The book is widely distributed.
Bring your copy along when you come sailing with
me and I’ll sign it then. And please, let me know
what you think about it.
Training Passages
My
offshore training passages of the past few years
have been extremely rewarding. Since returning from Europe,
Quetzal
has ranged from Trinidad to Nova
Scotia, with several passages to Bermuda, the
Bahamas and the Caribbean as well. We’ve
encountered plenty of gales and a couple of
genuine storms. My shipmates, without fail, have
been sensational. They have stood watch in fair
weather and foul. They have navigated when it
really mattered and made some impressive
landfalls. They’ve reefed the main with green
water crashing over the deck and they’ve hauled in
on the jib furling line with a vengeance. They
have made some amazing emergency repairs, the
alternator, fuel system, mainsail and running
lights come quickly to mind, and they’ve washed
the dishes in the cockpit while huddled beneath
the dodger. And they’ve told plenty of good jokes
and some bad ones too. I am proud of all of you
and can’t thank you enough for sharing these
adventures with me. I have been sailing more or
less nonstop for 27 years and the past couple of
years have been, truly, some of the best. I am
pleased that so many of you have chosen to sail
with me more than once, some have made three,
four, five even six passages!
The
2007 training passages are nearly sold out.
However, I always have a few cancellations and I
have also added a couple of new trips so keep an
eye on the Training
Passages, link.
Quetzal will be
heading back across the Atlantic this May, her
third crossing in two years, and my sixteenth
overall, and then we’ll be based in the Med for
the next two summers. I have some great passages
planned. I’ve just added a third Med trip for this
(2007) summer. From July 28 through August 7 we
will sail from Genoa,
Italy to Barcelona, Spain. Landfalls will include
Corsica, Cannes,
Ile de’Heyes, and Narbonne. The
passage will include some vigorous sailing, three
overnights, great landfalls, food and wine – not a
bad combination. These Med trips are really a
blast. I have one opening on each of the other Med
trips scheduled in September and October. If you
are interested don’t tarry, they fill up fast.
Several
new adventures are on line for
2008.
First, in February, I have organized a one-way
charter aboard a 51 Jeanneau from St. Martin to
Grenada. This is a two-week Caribbean passage
that will touch just about every island on in the
Windwards and Leewards. If you have dreamed of
making a 400-mile cruise through the Caribbean
this is the trip for you. In April, back aboard
Quetzal, we will launch a special passage.
Beginning from the ancient harbor of Troy in
Turkey, we will spend three weeks retracing the
route of Odysseus. We will explore several Greek
Islands, drop down to Tunisia, and then head up to
Sicily and back to Ithaca. In May, you can join
Quetzal for a passage from Corfu, Greece north to
Montenegro, through the Croatian islands, and
across the Adriatic to Venice. In September we
will begin heading back west in a series of
ten-day passages. The first passage will depart
Venice, round the boot of Italy and conclude in
Rome. The second passage will depart Puerto de
Roma for Sardinia, then across to Menorca and
Majorca. The last passage will take up from
Majorca to Gibraltar.
On
November 20 Quetzal will head for home, back
across the Atlantic. We’ll sail from Gibraltar to
Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
We’ll spend three days catching our breath, making
final preparations before shoving off for
Antigua. Last time we made it across in 17 days,
we’ll try to beat it this time. Take a hard look
at the schedule, and then see what works for you.
Expeditions: Around The
World in Five Weeks!
In mid
June of 2008 we launch our most ambitious and
arguably our most exciting venture, An
Around-The-World sail and travel expedition.
Let me explain. Of course you can’t sail around
the world in five weeks, or can you? This
expedition, limited to 6 lucky people, will begin
when we assemble at LAX in Los Angeles. We’ll
board a plane and head west. Our first stop will
be Papeete in the Society
Islands.
After a day and night in Tahiti we’ll fly to
Raiatea where we board a 47’, four-cabin sloop.
We’ll spend six days sailing the magical islands
of French Polynesia: Bora-Bora, Huahini, and Taha.
We’ll return the boat, and fly to Sydney,
Australia. We’ll spend two days in this vibrant
city before heading up to Hamilton Island in the
Whitsundays. These spectacular islands are perched
along the Great Barrier Reef. We will spend 6 days
gunkholing through this enchanting archipelago
aboard a 43’ catamaran before heading for our next
destination, Thailand. We’ll land in Bangkok and
spend two days in this extraordinary city before
flying south to Phuket. There we’ll board a 50’
sloop for six days of cruising the alluring pearl
green waters and gravity defying islands of Phang
Nha Bay. Airborne again, our next stop will be
Istanbul, Turkey. We will spend two days in this
intriguing city before heading south to Marmaris
along the Lycian Coast. We’ll spend six days
aboard a 49’ sloop exploring islands resplendent
with ancient ruins and peaceful anchorages. Back
in Istanbul we will fly to New York, where our
incredible around the world adventure concludes.
For more details see the Expeditions link. This
trip will sell out very quickly so if interested
contact me pronto.
Expedition: Working Sail in Belize
I am
also continuing my quixotic quest to identify and
sail the last working sailboats throughout the
world. I invite you to be a part of this noble
venture. This year’s working sail expedition will
take us to Belize. From December 1 – 10, 2007 a
team of 12 will sail sprightly Belize sloops from
their origin in Sarteneja in the north to lovely
Placencia in the south. This will be an
unprecedented 200-mile expedition. The sailing is
unmatched as we reach south before the northeast
trades just inside the magnificent Belize reef.
Belize
sloops are jaunty, plank on frame wooden boats.
They really sail, they don’t have engines, and
they range from 22 – 30’. They are the working
boats of local conch and lobster fisherman. In the
off-season they haul cargo to remote islands and
cays. They are a viable alternative to gas
guzzling outboards and heavy skiffs and typically
remain away from homeport for weeks at a time. We
will have a fleet of four boats, each with a local
skipper who will show us how to handle the sloop
in a variety of conditions. We will sail by day,
and mix interesting overland excursions into the
sailing schedule. Our team’s evening
accommodations will range from camping on the
beach to comfortable resorts along the cays that
dot the thundering reef. I am very excited about
this expedition and strongly suggest that you
check out the Expedition link for more details and
then contact me ASAP.
Quetzal
Quetzal, a 1986 Kaufman 47 cutter, has now logged
just over 30,000 miles since I launched her in
June of 2003. She has proven to be the ocean
going thoroughbred I knew she’d be when I first
spied her propped up in a snowy Maryland boat
yard. She’s fast and
has
a very sweet motion in a seaway. She has
here issues but what boat
doesn’t? And like any boat she demands love
and money and I have given plenty of both. I have
documented her many upgrades in two Sailing
Magazine features.
Workshops
As many
of you know, in addition to training passages I
also conduct weekend workshops on how to buy a
great cruising boat. These workshops are hands
on, and that’s putting it gently. We spend two
days crawling in, through and around boats. I
limit the workshop to 8 participants so we all
have room to operate. Best of all, we have
unfettered access to the boats, nobody’s trying to
sell you anything. I have one workshop scheduled
April 28-29 and have just added a second November
17-18. Check the
Boat Buyer’s Workshop link for more
details.

Apparel
I have finally
succumbed to crass commercialism, well maybe
flogging tee shirts doesn’t qualify as crass
commercialism, and besides, the shirts are cool.
See the Apparel page for more details and ordering
instructions.
John
Kretschmer Sailing is devoted to providing
unique sailing and travel opportunities,
quasi-useful information, a bit of entertainment
and dose of perspective about offshore sailing and
living life on your own terms. Thanks for
visiting the site and I hope that we can sail
together soon.
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