Leeward Islands

[Placerville]

My wife and I have been on dozens of cruises, but never "under sail". We are thinking about the 7 day leeward island cruise. My wife is not a fan of wind. Is there much wind under sail? Is the cruising mostly done during the day or night? How about the side-to-side motion of the ship?

Thanks,

Dave

[JOBAKE]

Some answers to your questions. You would be sailing in the Trade Winds. The winds (warm tropical breezes!) are usually easterly(ish) and, usually, between, say, 10 and 25 knots. It looks as if you are looking at the Star Clipper rather than the Royal Clipper?. Either way your holiday would take you to a new place each day, Typically the ship departs late afternoon/evening and arrives at the next stop the next day early/mid morning, i.e. overnight sailing with the daytime spent at the port/place of call. The side motion on a sailing ship is usually less than on a conventional cruise ship of about the same length as the sails have a steadying effect. Should you decide to go on one of the Clippers, which we thoroughly recommend (and we have been on the Royal Clipper 9 times and on the Star Clipper 3 times with most of our trips on the RC in the Caribbean) it would be very unusual if you did not both thoroughly enjoy it. Tears (for a wonderful holiday) are not unusual at the end of it. We, and no doubt other contributors to Cruise Critic, will be happy to try to answer any more questions that you may have. We would be interested to know what you decide.

[Placerville]

Thank you for your very informative reply.

Dave

[sssteph]

We sailed on Star Clipper in April of this year, Leeward Islands.

 

It was windy, for the first few days, however, it was a warm wind. The sailing was in the evening and into the port in the morning. The sea and water motion was noticeable and quite a few people reported being sick after the first night at sea. Nothing a patch or pill can't fix.

 

I don't want to scare you off it was absolutely wonderful. As our Captain Sergey said "This is a sailing ship" Sails require wind, and the ships do not have cruise ship type stabilizers.