Elaine

Who hasn't dreamed of escaping to a deserted island? A palm tree drenched spit of sand surrounded by gleaming "too blue" to be real water and absolutely no one else around. I'm sure you probably have. But unlike Tom Hanks in Castaway you don't have to get shipwrecked or have your plane crash to find these deserted islands. You just need a few intrepid friends, a great sense of adventure and a bareboat charter.

A bareboat charter is basically the hiring of a boat, in my case a sailboat, where my friends and I would provide the crew and captain. Many island countries of the world have charter companies, which provide sailboats to clients who are certified captains and the rest become the crew. The charter companies stock the galley with a list of provisions of your choosing, including alcohol and you do all of the cooking.

It all started when a sailing friend of mine mentioned she was part a flotilla of 2 sailboats going to the Tongan Islands. I immediately said I wanted to go along. She said all we had to do was to get 6 more people, including one experienced skipper and we could add our boat to the adventure. Well, as luck would have it, a good friend of mine had been a captain for over 20 years, had owned her own sailboats and had her 100-ton license. We were all set, so off we all went to the Tongan Islands.

Tonga is comprised of 170 islands and about 1/3 of them are uninhabited and unless you have a boat or know someone who's got one there's not much chance of getting the experience of being on a real deserted island.

We booked our charter through a company called Moorings, who has bases all around the world where you can rent bareboat sailboats. We picked a 46-foot Beneteau which was quite roomy with 3 berths and 3 heads and a large main galley area. And then with minimal introduction to our new home away from home we packed up our supplies and headed off from the dock to our first uncharted island.

Hiring bareboats has become increasingly common as part time sailors are finding it easier and cheaper to vacation around the world on a rented boat and still get the experience of seeing the place they are visiting from the water. The unhurried pace of our floating hotel and restaurant made it easy to relax, cook, swim, scuba dive and visit with the locals. I found it was a more engaging way to visit a place. We became travelers rather then mere tourists. Wed pull up to their dock or take our dingy to their beach and walk in our bare feet to their huts or cafes nestled in the palm fronds and find places that you cant reach by roads. A girl could get used to this life.

Bareboat chartering offers the ultimate in freedom, independence and a different way of seeing a place. In the Tongan Islands for the most part we enjoyed line of sight cruising with only a few hidden reefs to worry about. Steady breezes, ample sunshine and palm-lined islands with white sand beaches beckoned us wherever we dropped our anchor. I had finally found my deserted islands and also a bareboat yachting paradise.

One morning on our voyage, a silver haired woman with large round sunglasses quietly breast stroked over to the stern of our sailboat where I was sitting writing in the early morning light. As I looked up to see her she called out to me, "Is this the bevy of beauties I've been hearing about?"

We were something of a spectacle and we made a grand entrance into every port we entered, so it seemed our reputation was spreading fast. You see were 3 sailboats of 6 women each all with a woman captain at the helm, and our ages ranged from 31 to 73. We were a sight to behold.

The local Tongans we met were very curious as well & the typical question from them was, "Where are your husbands and children?" They actually laughed along with us when we answered them; " Oh we forgot them at home!"

There is something magical the first time your sails fill with wind and you find yourself gliding through turquoise blue waters. There is nothing more peaceful, relaxing or more empowering than being in charge and at the helm of your very own sailboat.

Deborah Dennis is the author of Adventures of Women, a web site dedicated to making everyday a new adventure. She is also a writer, a travel photographer, a professional web designer and an adventurer.

She has tracked black rhinos, chased lions in the Okavango Delta, rafted down the Zambezi River, hiked up Machu Picchu, sailed a bareboat in Tonga, got lost in a rain forest in Thailand, dove the Great White Wall in Fiji, sea kayaked in Baja, & outrigger canoed in British Columbia to get her photographs and stories.