Oct 11, 2007
Ever heard of Canadian Sailing Expeditions? It's apparently a viable alternative to Windjammer Barefoot Cruises
With Windjammer Barefoot Cruises in such difficulty (it has now definitively cancelled its sailings of October 14 and 21), a great many fans of these devil-may-care, passenger-carrying, large sailing ships will now be looking for tropical substitutes this winter. The single alternative I've found is a thriving firm called Canadian Sailing Expeditions, whose fleet of eight sailing ships is mainly maintained in the Canadian Atlantic or Europe, but which has assigned one of its ships -- the 245-foot, 77-passenger Caledonia -- to weekly, seven-day cruises of the French Caribbean and Dominica (Guadeloupe, Les Saintes, Marie-Galante, Dominica) starting December 22 and continuing through May 3. Rates are $300 a day per person for most cabins (they have upper and lower bunks at the $300 rate), and though the clientele seems a tiny bit older and more sedate (but how serious can a sailing passenger be?) than the insouciant crowd which used to book Windjammer, its sailings seem otherwise similar to those of the troubled American line. Take a look at www.canadiansailingexpeditions.com, or phone tel. 877/429-9463 or 902/429-1474 for more information. Incidentally, in a press release just issued, the grandson of Windjammer founder captain Mike Burke, who is Danny Walsh, writes that "We are actively working with several investor groups on a viable plan to continue the Windjammer tradition." Keep watching for the (possible) reinstatement of the full-scale Windjammer website.
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Labels: cruise, windjammer
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
