St Thomas Sailing Charters

Danish sail came first. In 1672 the Danish West India Company planted a permanent settlement on St. Thomas, and Charlotte Amalie grew around one of the deepest natural harbours in the Lesser Antilles. In 1764 the Danish crown declared that harbour a free port. Cargo sloops, schooners and smugglers filled it. Two centuries of working sail taught the island its trade winds and the shoal channels of Pillsbury Sound, and that pilotage later underwrote the first st thomas sailing charters tours. On 31 March 1917 Denmark transferred the islands to the United States for twenty-five million dollars in gold. Transfer Day closed the commercial era of sail here. The pleasure fleet came slowly. The establishment of Virgin Islands National Park on St. John in 1956 gave day boats a protected destination across the sound. After 1961, when American travel to Cuba was cut off, capital and crews for Virgin Islands yacht charters moved east. Skippers who had carried freight began carrying guests. Red Hook, on the eastern end, shifted from fishing anchorage to departure point; its proximity to St. John and Christmas Cove made it the natural base for a private or group st thomas sailing charters tour rather than the cruise berths downtown. Disaster twice reset the fleet. In September 1995 Hurricane Marilyn sank or wrecked hundreds of vessels in island harbours, and recovery took years. In September 2017 Hurricanes Irma and Maria struck within a fortnight, tearing out docks, moorings and marina infrastructure across the territory. Owners rebuilt with sturdier catamarans and smaller owner-operated fleets. What survives at Red Hook Marina, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands is that inheritance: a working harbour, Danish masonry among the oldest St. Thomas landmarks, and st thomas sailing charters tickets sold by captains whose private and group routes still follow the leeward passages the Danes charted.