When I told friends I was going to sail on a Dream Yacht Charter around St. Martin and St. Bart’s for six days with a small group of passengers I had yet to meet, they made lots of references to “Below Deck,” the Bravo reality TV show about yachts and yachties.
I wasn’t familiar with the show, so I tuned in. Whoa! Was I going to be onboard with inebriated women jumping into the sea for a midnight swim in their designer cocktail dresses and middle-aged men suffering from the delusion they are Justin Timberlake on the dance floor? Would the crew dismiss us as a bunch of snobs and talk trash about us behind our backs? Fortunately, the answer was no. When I boarded the Dream Baliceaux at the marina in Anse Marcel, a lush island at the northern tip of St.
Martin, I met my delightfully drama-free sailing mates — a couple from Delaware who were proud grandparents, a 30-something woman from Florida who loved snorkeling and a Frenchman who was a professional photographer. Come hell or high water — and I really hoped there would be no high water — these were my companions for the next week on the Lagoon 620, a 62-foot catamaran with six cabins for guests and crew. That’s how it works with this cabin charter .
Each passenger or couple rents one cabin that starts at $1,115 and shares the common spaces, such as the dining area and spacious decks, with their fellow sailors. Bottom line: Your name doesn’t have to be Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos to afford a yachting vacation in .
