A charter for relaxation
It sounded like the perfect idea for a reunion. A group of us from high school would charter a yacht in the Caribbean and sail on azure seas.
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But when my friend set a date and asked for a deposit, I panicked. What were we going to do for 10 long days? Sure, there would be a lot of snorkelling and reminiscing about old teachers and old loves. But there would also be a lot of looking at each other in a small bobbing boat in the same blue water. And we'd have to sail the thing ourselves.
Then I heard some reassuring words - a promise that I would have to do minimal cranking and jibing. Normally, charters include a captain and skipper but my friend is a seasoned captain, so we chose the cheaper option of going "bareboat" - meaning that the rest of us would do the manual labour. In any case, I was convinced I could carve out a job description making rum punch cocktails.
I sent in my share of the cost - split among eight - which was about $1,400 for a surfboard-sized bed on a 52ft sloop in the Grenadines. (We rented from the charter company Moorings, which has a base in Canouan.) So far, it was the best decision of my 30s.
The two biggest charter companies, Moorings and Sunsail, which rent out monohulls and catamarans at bases around the world including the Caribbean, Mediterranean, south Pacific and Indian oceans, report rising sales in the past five years. Despite the recent hurricanes, the Caribbean remains one of the most visited destinations.
Prices range widely, depending on the season and the size of the yacht. For example, a 41ft "bareboat" monohull with three cabins costs from $2,080 to $4,030 for a week in the Caribbean with Sunsail. You can add a skipper for $160 a day and a cook for $140 a day. A similar yacht runs from $2,600 to $4,200 a week at Athens, Greece, with Moorings.
At the higher end, a fully crewed 57ft Sunsail catamaran, which includes every???-thing from meals and alcohol to water toys, goes for $16,800 to $20,800 for eight people for a week in Tahiti. Moorings offers a comparable package on a 62ft catamaran for $21,100 to $28,500 in the British Virgin Islands.
If we weren't sailing to nearby islands, we spent our day doing absolutely nothing. At first, all that unstructured time seemed somewhat oppressive but it didn't take long before I relished the chance to organise an entire afternoon around the cocktail hour. In fact, I was so blissed out I didn't even mind raising the occasional sail.
Otherwise, we gossiped, read, swam and gazed at the water, which was so shockingly, obscenely blue, it looked artificial, like a menthol-flavoured cough drop or something made by Willy Wonka.
The sailing pace depends largely on distances between islands. We chose the Grenadines, an archipelago comprising 32 islands about 90 miles (145km) west of Barbados, which was the setting for the film Pirates of the Caribbean. The tourist board of the government seat, St Vincent, which seems to have just discovered the concept of marketing, calls them the "best sailing waters in the world". Superlatives aside, they are pretty spectacular and only a few hours apart.
Even if you have only a week, you can fit in quite a few stops - from quiet Mayreux, which, with its palm trees, looked like Gilligan's Island, to tiny Mustique, a haunt of Mick Jagger (yes, we saw him.) The photo favourite was the deserted island of Mopian. It was more of a sandbar, really, where the only sign of human presence was a single thatched umbrella sheltering a single bottle opener. (Yes, we used it.)
The undeniable highlight was the Tobago Cays, a group of small uninhabited islands protected by a horseshoe reef. There, yachts clustered in a picturesque fleet - bobbing in concert with yellow lanterns swaying. Although everyone talked about getting away from it all, when the wind came at night, it was oddly reassuring that we were just a shout away from borrowing our neighbour's corkscrew.
I thought we might need one - because I had anticipated boozy nights of poker and witty banter. But we were so sleepy most days by 9pm that we could barely summon the energy to reflect on our day - let alone revive the hilarity of our youth. So we dragged ourselves to the belly of the boat and listened to the wind carry away the smell of barbecued dolphin fish and coconut oil from the laundry whipping off the back.
By 10pm, the boat was rocking hard. As I clung to my tiny bed and tried to fall asleep, I was comforted that we were all there together - with our serene faces and shared history.
租艘游艇去聚会
租
个游艇搞聚会，这个主意听起来棒极了。我们一群中学时的老同学就打算在加勒比海租一艘游艇，在碧蓝的海面上来一次航行。
为租船询价
不过，当我的朋友敲定了日子、通知我们交押金时，我却觉得有点惶恐。在长达10天之久的日子里，我们将做些什么呢？当然，一定有很多机会潜泳，还会勾起不少关于以前老师和旧日恋情的回忆。但是，大概也少不了在一成不变的蓝色海面上、坐在颠簸的小船里面面相觑。而且，我们还必须自己开船。
后来，我听到了一些让人安心的话――他们保证尽量不给我安排船只操控的职责。租船的人通常也会聘请一位领队兼船长。不过，我的朋友是一名经验丰富的船长，所以我们选择了更便宜的“空船”――这意味着我们其余人得干点儿体力活。不管怎样，我相信自己可以借此研究出一份用朗姆酒调制鸡尾酒的工作规程。
租船费用由八个人均摊。我交纳了自己的那份费用，大约 1400美元，在一艘航行于格林纳丁斯群岛 (Grenadines)海域的52英尺单桅帆船上，得到了一张冲浪板大小的床。我们向租船公司 Moorings租来了这艘船，该公司在卡诺安岛 (Canouan)有一个基地。这可是我长到30多岁以来所做过的最棒的决定。
Moorings 和Sunsail是两家最大的租船公司，在过去5年中，它们公布的销售额不断攀升。它们在全球范围内出租单体船和双体船，在加勒比海、地中海、南太平洋和印度洋地区都有基地。尽管近来屡有飓风光顾，但加勒比海仍然是游客最常光顾的目的地之一。
根据季节和游艇型号的不同，租船价格相差甚远。例如， Sunsail在加勒比海出租带有3个船舱的42英尺单体“空船”，一周的报价在2080美元至4030 美元之间。如果加一位船长，每天就加收160 美元；加一位厨师，每天再加收140美元。而 Moorings在希腊雅典出租同样的一艘游艇，一周的报价在2600美元至4200美元之间。
更高级一些的话，八人塔希提岛一周游还可以租用57英尺长的双体船，配备全体船员，船上带有从食物、酒水到戏水用具的所有东西，Sunsail的报价是1.68万美元至2.08万美元。Moorings提供另一种可比“套餐”：租用一艘62英尺长双体船到英属维尔京群岛旅游，报价是2.11万美元至2.85万美元。
航行在岛屿之间
如果不开船去往附近岛屿，我们就会整天无所事事。一开始，所有那些毫无计划可言的时间看上去似乎有些令人难以忍受，但很快，我就开始借此机会用整个下午来安排鸡尾酒时间。事实上，我非常幸运，甚至都不介意偶尔去升起船帆。
除此之外，我们还会聊天、读书、游泳或者凝视大海。那里的海水呈现出如此惊人的、撩人的蓝色，看起来像人工产品，好比薄荷味的止咳片，或者电影《查理和巧克力工厂》里那个古怪的威利旺卡(Willy Wonka)生产的某种东西。
航行速度很大程度上取决于岛屿之间的距离。我们选择了格林纳丁斯，它是一个由32个岛屿组成的群岛，在巴巴多斯(Barbados)以西约90英里(合145公里)。电影《加勒比海盗》(Pirates of the Caribbean)就是在巴巴多斯拍摄的。圣文森特岛(St Vincent)上的政府旅游委员会极力鼓吹这里是“全球最好的航海水域”，听起来好像他们才发现营销概念。除此之外，这里的岛屿非常壮美，而且彼此只相距几个小时的航程。
即便你只有一周的时间，你也能周游不少地方，包括宁静的麦瑞克斯岛 (Mayreux)――那里生长着棕榈树，看起来仿佛是《梦幻岛》(Gilligan’s Island)中的场景；还有滚石乐队主唱米克贾格尔(Mick Jagger)常去的、小巧的马斯蒂奎岛 (Mustique)。（没错，我们在那儿见到他了。）拍照胜地莫过于荒芜的莫琵安岛 (Mopian)。确切地说，这里更像是一片沙洲，岛上惟一的人类痕迹就是一个茅草顶的凉棚，下面放着一个开瓶起子。（我们用了它。）
不可否认，风景最为旖旎的地点当数多巴哥珊瑚礁(Tobago Cays)。这里由一些杳无人迹的小岛组成，四周由一片马蹄状的礁石形成天然屏障。这里，游艇密密麻麻地停泊在一个风景如画的港湾里，船身随着波浪上下起伏，与摇曳的黄色船灯交相呼应。尽管大家都说要远离这种拥挤，但是当夜风拂起的时候，这种情境却让人无比安心。我们之间的距离仅有咫尺之遥，大喊一声就能向邻船借到开酒器。
难得的闲适一刻
我曾以为我们或许需要一个开酒器，因为我曾设想此次航行将会在牌局与幽默笑话中度过一个个酣醉之夜。但在绝大多数的日子里，刚到晚上9 点，我们就困意沉沉，几乎无法打起精神回忆我们白天的活动行程，更别提狂欢作乐一番了。于是，我们拖着疲惫的身躯，爬进船舱里，听着从船后方掠过的风声，风中还夹着一丝烤鬼头刀鱼的香味，以及洗衣服的椰子油味道。
晚上10点，船身在剧烈地摇晃。我紧贴着自己的小床，试图入睡。这时令我感到宽慰的是，我们所有人都在一起――大家脸上不仅挂着沉静安详的神情，头脑里还拥有一段共同的回忆。
