Marathon Sailboat Rides

The boat has a history most charter sailboats do not. Chao Lay is a Bavaria 50 Cruiser built in Germany by Bavaria Yachtbau in 2006, 50 feet by 16, with four staterooms and three heads below, and under Capt. Mike she has completed a full circumnavigation, fifteen months from January 2019 to March 2020 with the World ARC rally: the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Indian oceans, the Panama Canal, the Galapagos, Tahiti, Bora Bora, Indonesia, Africa and Brazil. Mike holds a Coast Guard 50-ton master near-coastal licence with a sailing endorsement and counts more than fifty years on the water, and the stories are part of what is on offer.

Day sails run year-round, three hours through Boot Key Harbor, out Sister Creek into Hawk Channel and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, with dolphins and manatees a possibility rather than a promise. The three-hour sunset sail looks back at the Seven Mile Bridge, and both trips can be taken as a private charter for one to six guests. Six is the cap in every case. The operator is plain that Chao Lay was built for comfort rather than speed and that he does not sail in rough weather, which is worth knowing when booking a single day in the Keys.