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Gender bias aside, ShowBoats International is
predominantly a magazine for men who own and love boats. Our audited demographic
profile confirms that our high net worth readership is 97 percent male and 75
percent married. The common and clichéd wisdom is that men are the ones who
initiate the purchase of a boat, while their wives or girlfriends go along
kicking and screaming. It’s widely believed that women would take the chalet in
Aspen, Colorado, over the boat on any given day.
 The 112-foot Kelly Sea anchored off the Baths at Virgin Gorda. (Click image to enlarge)
As a female editor in a male-dominated world, I am not one who
subscribes to clichés. I am convinced that it is not only men who dream about
cruising aboard their yachts or booking a charter on someone else’s. Statistics
aside, my female intuition and my life’s experience tell me that women like
boats (almost) as much as men, and that occasionally they pick up an issue
of ShowBoats and like what they see.
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I was recently invited to partake of an all-female cruise in
the Virgin Islands archipelago aboard Kelly Sea, a 112-foot composite
motor yacht built by Westport Shipyard in Washington state. Owner Kelly Colleen
("Kelly C") Schmidt left her husband at home. This was a ladies trip from the
get-go.
Top: High-end shops at Yacht Haven Grande, St. Thomas. Bottom: Breakfast is served. (Click images to enlarge)
Most of us knew one another beforehand, but the common
denominator and driving force behind the trip was the inexorable Kelly, a
beautiful, fun-loving woman who loves her yacht. We were all working women: a
real estate developer, a nurse, a sales executive, a yacht brokerage principal,
a photographer, a magazine editor and one (by choice) stay-at-home mom with twin
toddlers (the hardest job of all). With the winter blahs setting in, we were all
ripe and ready for adventure.
We flew into St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, to meet
the boat, which was docked at the new Yacht Haven Grande marina. Captain Philip
"Blurge" Brown (we never did get to the bottom of that nickname) and his wife,
first mate Daniela Sartorio, helped us settle in while our stewardess poured us
fresh-squeezed juice and offered us a welcome platter of fruit kebabs.
From the aft cockpit we glanced over at the swank new marina
village. A stone’s throw away were high-end shops such as those found on Fifth
Avenue in New York City or at Florida’s Bal Harbour Shops: Louis Vuitton, BCBG
Max Azria, Gucci, Coach, Ferragamo and such. The half-off winter sale signs
attracted the female shopping gene in us all. We walked down the dock for a
quick fix, itching for a rush of retail therapy.
After we settled back on board for wine and dinner on the aft
deck, Kelly Sea’s ever-cheerful Kiwi chef Heather "Miss Mei" Meihana
served up succulent rack of lamb to nourish us before we went imbibing at
Duffy’s Love Shack in Red Hook on the east end of the island. An unprepossessing
strip mall housing a chiropractor’s office, maternity shop and pharmacy seemed
an unlikely locale for this lively scrap of a bar that is long on reputation.
South Beach’s Shore Club it was not, but it was every bit as much fun, with
energetic music and divas drinking, dancing and carrying on. Ever witness an
upside down margarita? Duffy’s accommodating bartender—who has seen it all—pours
triple sec and tequila simultaneously into your mouth as you limbo over the bar
top.
Top: A rainbow over Kelly Sea at Yacht Haven Grande, St. Thomas, at the start of the
trip. Bottom: Seddy, owner of One Love Bar and Grill on Jost Van Dyke, performs a magic trick. (Click images to enlarge)
Very capable first mate Daniela was the designated person to
get us safely back from Duffy’s to the boat. In fact, our crew was constantly
game and helpful throughout the trip. It’s nice to be taken care of. We women
are so often the caretakers.
Day Two we pulled out of St. Thomas, leaving behind Larry
Ellison’s 450-foot Rising Sun and John Williams’ beautiful modern J-Class
Ranger, among others, and headed for Jost Van Dyke in the British
Virgins, about 15 miles away. The intermittently sunny and rainy weather had us
vacillating between the outside bridge deck and the pilothouse.
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