Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine - March 2020

Growing Together
The Blue Lagoon Hotel and Marina (previously Sunsail) in St.
Vincent was taken over by new owners in 2013 and, after major
renovations, reopened its doors in 2015.
Having an excellent relationship with the Compass team, we
have continued to watch them grow over the years, maintaining
and developing this working relationship. We strive to continue
to build our tourism product, developing especially our
yachting community, of which Compass is a huge part. We
have developed contacts within the ARC and Viking Explorers,
bringing yacht rallies into St. Vincent and encouraging these
visitors to discover St. Vincent & the Grenadines for the first
time. Many of them return after the rally is completed.
We look forward to working with Compass to develop all our
projects further and we thank them for the support thus far.
How time flies!
We congratulate Compass for this achievement and wish you
all the best for the next 25 years and more!
Sophie Hadley, General Manager
Blue Lagoon Hotel and Marina
St. Vincent
50 Years Afloat:
A Way of Life
by John Everton
Caribbean Compass’s 25th anniversary prompted me to reflect on my 50 years of
cruising. One thing I have learned is that it never gets any easier. It always involves
hard work, which has great rewards: every time you go out you become more alive;
reality becomes heightened. Cruising becomes a way of life, unlike any other.
I started cruising in 1969 when I moved to St. Thomas to get a teaching job — a
draft deferment to keep me out of Vietnam — and lived on a sailboat in the meantime.
Thus my boating life began.
march 2020 CARIBBEAN COMPAss pAGE 26
5th, 10th & 25th Anniversaries
This year marks ten years of my association with the Caribbean
Compass. My “A Cruiser’s Day in Class” featured the Bequia
Reading Club in 2010. What I knew then, living aboard and
actively cruising the Eastern Caribbean, was that I wanted to
be a part of supporting local youth development. My inclination
initially was to support reading clubs within the Windwards.
Though I continued that over the years, with the progression of
Hands Across The Sea and other leading groups, I realized that
my background racing small one-design sailboats and work
with children in recreation over the decades predisposed me
to support and network on behalf of Caribbean youth sailing.
The Compass crew was instrumental in distinguishing this with
me and helping me launch the “Y2A” (Youth to Adult) series in
2015, a column that still appears monthly.
Compass is more than a publishing company; it is a community
support mechanism that is powerful and important.
For me personally, it is my tenth cruising and fifth “Y2A” anniversary.
The major kudos go to Compass and its 25 years of success
and service to the Caribbean community.
Congratulations!
Ellen Birrell
“Y2A” columnist and
freelance feature writer
S/V Boldly Go
Christmas Day 1987 in the North Atlantic.
After sailing and living aboard my first boat, a Pearson 26, between North Sound,
Virgin Gorda and Isleta Marina off Fajardo, Puerto Rico, for a couple of years, I
traded up for a 35-foot Crocker ketch, which, after sailing to Grenada and back, I
sold. Then I sailed across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and back on a friend’s
all-teak gaff-rigged Brixham Trawler yacht. Sixty-three days at sea returning to the
US was both my record and rite of passage outside of Caribbean cruising.
Later that year I ended up in St. Barts, where Aildee and I found each other. She
was a beautiful 35-foot gaff cutter built in France on the lines of a tuna fishing boat.
I cruised on her for close to ten years and Roni and I started raising two children
aboard, born in Tortola in 1981 and 1985.
In 1986 Roni, the kids and I moved onto Gaucho, a famous 50-foot double-ended
ketch designed by Manuel Campos, built of the hardwoods lapacho and viraro, and
launched 1943 in Buenos Aires. The 1947 Blue Water Medal was awarded to the
Uriburu brothers for their 27,000-mile cruise aboard.
—Continued on next page
Culture and Camaraderie
Happy birthday Compass!
You are the essence of what it is to sail and live in
the Caribbean and be a part of a special sailing
community. For a generation your pages have
reflected the culture and camaraderie, and helped
connect all the parts. You bristle with interesting stories,
places and people. You’ve stayed true to tradition,
yet ride with the digital times.
I don’t know how you do it — well, actually, I do. The
Compass owes its distinct personality to the team’s love
and knowledge of the Caribbean islands and waters.
Fair winds to you and a toast to the future.
Elaine Bunting, Group Editor, Marine
Yachting World, Yachting Monthly,
Practical Boat Owner, Motor Boat & Yachting
TI Media
UK