No less an expert than Tom Reardon, for more than 20 years the skipper of the legendary 72-ft Herreshoff ketch Ticonderoga, claims that the best time to be in the Caribbean is right after New Year’s. This is because most of the manic vacationers to places such as St. Barth have returned to their manic lives in the States and France, leaving the islands to become peaceful once again – at least until the high part of the high season starts about the end of January.
However, this certainly doesn’t mean that there is nothing going on. Just the other afternoon, for example, the crew of Jimmy Buffett’s new motoryacht, as well as the crews of numerous charterboats, were bug-eyed at the spectacle of Tom Perkins’ Belvedere-based 287-ft Maltese Falcon sailing into the outer anchorage. Lordy, what a sight she is!