Voyages of the charter vessel Orient, July 24 – 31, 2011
Part 1 – Footloose and the boat
So it all started back in March when Footloose announced a one-day Fat Tuesday sale –– 40% off list price on a couple of boat models. We jumped on that and got an awesome deal on a Footloose 44.3 for July.
Later we became concerned that some of our crew would have a hard time with the summer heat. I called Footloose to find out how much more we’d have to pay for a boat with dockside air conditioning. The rep suggested a Footloose 473, and offered to honor the 40% discount since I was upgrading to a more expensive boat (even though the 473 was not one of the models originally included in the sale). Nice!
Their web site did not list air conditioning among the features of the 473, but the phone rep said he double-checked with a staff member who had extensive knowledge of the fleet. I decided I’d better do my own check, so I called the Footloose base in Tortola, told them I was considering chartering a 473, and asked if they have dockside air. “Yes, they do”, I was told.
Fast forward to our arrival on Tortola. We were directed to our assigned boat, Orient, and I was looking forward to plopping down in a nice cool salon. Well, we stepped aboard and it was HOT. Hmm, we’re plugged into shore power, we’ll just have to figure out how to turn on the air. Wait a second – I don’t see any A/C vents. Something’s not right here…
So it turns out I got bad info, despite the efforts I had made to verify it. The real story is that not every 473 has air, and Orient (the only one available at that time) does not. Crapola!
This led to a frustrating couple of hours of negotiating and decision making. My position was weak because I didn’t have any documentation showing that we were promised dockside air. The base manager, Dolphus, was sympathetic and friendly, but claimed that any possible upgrade offer could only come from the U.S. office, and they were closed for the day (it was Sunday afternoon). Long story short, we reluctantly decided to stick with the boat we had.
While all this was going on, other things went smoothly. Bobby’s delivered our provisions right on time, Last Stop Sports brought our kayak on board and strapped it down, and we rented a phone from Renport. We were also able to cool off in the pool, which helped take some of the edge off.
After dealing with all this, we didn’t particularly feel like traveling to a restaurant, so we had dinner at Charlie’s at the charter base. The food was OK, but the prices were pretty steep –- $35 for a typical entrée. Oh well, yet another annoyance on our first day (things got better!).
Other than the air conditioning fiasco, Orient turned out to be a great boat with only minor problems. The most annoying issue was some fairly nasty smells from the heads, which made it very desirable to keep the hatches open as much as possible. But we recognize that Footloose boats are priced below many others for a reason, and we had no big complaints. Hell, I was happy just to be skippering a 47 foot boat, my biggest to date. Still gotta try a cat one of these days.
This was our second Footloose charter, and the second time that we had an issue with poor information. We've been very happy with them otherwise, but this seems to be a weak spot.
I’ll cover other aspects of the trip in future reports, but just to finish up on our Footloose experience:
Postscript #1 – We wanted to make a quick getaway at the end of the charter, and accidentally left a couple of items behind. I called Dolphus, he found them, and agreed to FedEx them back to us. This involved, among other things, filling out a 5-page customs form, so I was grateful he was willing to take the trouble. The $60 shipping was charged to my credit card.
Postscript #2 – I called Footloose customer service and told them the air conditioning story. After a few days I received a credit certificate worth $450 toward a future charter (within 3 years).
More to come.
Dan <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />
