Monday, October 16, 2006

All the comforts of jail, plus the chance to drown...

The Orange County Register has a very good story running in today's issue detailing the passenger experience aboard a Carribean WindJammer cruise...in this case the esteemed 197-foot Yankee Clipper. For anyone considering a WindJammer trip it's good background chock full of detail about the daily routine, accomodations, passenger idiosyncrasies, etc...but the stand out in my mind was the upfront quote from 18th-century English writer Samuel Johnson, who said going to sea has "all the comforts of jail, plus the chance to drown."

Let's face it - the man had a way with words.

1 comment:

Tillerman said...

Great story and pretty accurate. Never sailed on the Yankee Clipper but have been on the Mandalay (twice) and the Polynesia.

The cabins on those ships are really not as bad as described in the article. Tillerwoman and I always went for the (cheapo) standard cabins - yes they are a bit like cabins on sleeper trains but they are really only used for sleeping and, as the article says, the deck is even better for sleeping on some nights.

Sorry to hear that these three grand old vessels may be phased out in 2010. May have to schedule a few more trips before then.