The charm of a luxury crewed charter vacation is that you get to enjoy a taste of a yachtsman's relaxed lifestyle whilst losing few of the comforts you have come to enjoy in life. You can take each day at a time, at whatever pace suits you. There are no schedules to keep, no dress codes to adhere to, and no limit to the activities. The only pre planned itinerary is to have the best possible vacation. You may plan your own cruise destinations, or you can put yourselves at the mercy of the captain's experience, if decision making is not on your menu. Rather than espouse our opinions of what a great vacation this is, we thought that you might like to hear what some major publications have to say . . . Los Angeles Times By PETER S. GREENBERG . . .Across from the marina is the Wanderlust, a 65-foot trimaran that is the queen of the island's charter sailboats. A luxury yacht accommodating 12 you get the ship with the islands' best chefs (and menu). After Paul McCartney chartered it for three weeks he wrote a song about the boat. . . (Six Miami Dolphins football players also chartered it and in the course of five days consumed 32 cases of beer, setting the unofficial B.V.I. record.). . . Brides Magazine "The British Virgin Islands are islands of simple beauties. Blue waters curving round coves and lapping beaches where pirates once swashbuckled. White sailboats skimming bays; pelicans swooping in dive-bomb ballets. Slim roads you share with skittering goats, waving school kids. Sunset clouds that float like free form pearls, ushering in the Milky Way. No big name restaurants. No freeport frenzy. Not a necktie in sight. But if barefoot wonders, unrushed living, and some of the Caribbean's nicest people sound like paradise to you, you couldn't pick more enchanted honeymoon isles. What's more, they are easier to reach than you might think." Chartering Magazine The Baths You are suspended as if in space, floating languidly over the panorama of the sea floor thirty feet below. The sun above you slides out from a cloud's brief restraint. The water lights up; the world below opens as if a curtain had risen on stage. A carpet of minnows, thousands upon thousands unwinds in an undulating swell that breaks formation as you approach, then immediately resumes its shape as you depart. Beneath, the schools of yellow-tail snapper and horse eye jack lazily pass through archways of rock and pinnacles of coral. Beyond, where the seas crash on the reef with the impact of cymbals, other orchestras of fish dart as if in time to the music. A barracuda barges past, intent on its business and paying no attention to its world - as preoccupied as any downtown pedestrian in a busy city. And what a city this is: an Atlantis of strange flagstones, boulders and coral formations. Such coral: flat blue curtains waving in the current likes fans clutched in the hands of 19th century debutantes, vertical brown ropes rising from the bottom like Indian rope tricks from a fakir's basket, gnarled red branches reaching from chimneys and crevices like the antlers of a majestic elk, crouching masses of brain coral grouped on the slabs of a post-mortem room. And you: lying on the seas so warm you could be in your own bathtub. You are floating in The Baths. A snorkeler's paradise. Andy Rooney, Tribune Media Services "TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands - I am at the moment of writing, seated with my small typewriter at a perfect little mahogany desk below the teak deck of Walter Cronkite's 48 foot sailboat, Wyntje. There are six of us aboard with sleeping space for all. We are anchored in a little cove, protected from the wind and the waves of open water, that is perfect in every detail. The green hills rise sharply from a short distance behind the crescent-shaped beach. The sand is so white and regular there isn't a grain that couldn't be used in an hourglass. Looking over the side of Wyntje, it would appear as though I could stand at the bottom. I know though that the water would be over my head. I watched the 40 feet of anchor chain rattle off the bow before the anchor grabbed the bottom. That's how clear the water is. All the earth's oceans must once have been this pristine." Christian Science Monitor A place of lazy days sailing brilliant, azure seas. British Virgin Islands are a boater's dream The Walter Mitty part of me has always wanted to run away to sea. Oh, to be on a 60 foot Morgon now that winter is here. Or something along those lines. Sure I had learned my starboard from my port by sailing down the dammed-up Ohio River in something called a "Penguin". But I wasn't what you would call a duck taking to water. I capsized the boat while it was still tied to the dock. Nevertheless, I fantasized of balmy tradewinds and the sounds of halyards twanging against a mast. So when the opportunity came to leave the driving to somebody else, I grabbed my resort wear and headed South to where the stuff of sailing dreams are made - the British Virgin Islands. Here are azure seas, trade winds as regular as milk runs, and more than 40 hibiscus-carpeted islands and cays nosing up through the waves. To the yachting set this is the Holy Grail of ocean cruising - consistent breeze, protected seas, and simple eyeball navigation. As one of the world's most frequented sailing areas, the regions earns roughly 60 percent of all its tourist dollars from charter boat operations. Whilst more experience boaters have begun to head for the Lesser Antilles, which offer more open ocean sailing conditions - several charter boat operations based in the British Virgin Islands have recently opened branch facilities there - beginning sailors remain loyal to the Virgin Islands. In fact many professional yachtsmen rate the area as the No. 1 cruising spot in the world. Hideaway Report Very Special Hiding Places In the British Virgin Islands Those who appreciate the difference between natural and synthetic pearls will cherish the purity of the British Virgin Islands as compared with their adulterated U.S. namesakes. Situated 60 miles east of Puerto Rico near the American islands of St. John and St. Thomas, these closely knit islets constitute my favorite archipelago in the West Indies - their deserted cays, secluded beaches, hidden coves and mountainous green silhouettes providing a wealth of sensually pleasing scenery and solitude.

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