Charter Logbook: A Week in New England, from Newport to Nantucket, Aboard the Sunseeker 86 TAKE IT EASY

Sixteen logbooks in, and I finally did what clients from Boston and New York have been asking me to do for years: I sailed to where Americans spend their own summer. New England has nothing in common with the Mediterranean, and that is exactly the point. The yacht was M/Y TAKE IT EASY — a 2019 Sunseeker 86, 26.21 metres, eight guests in four cabins (three doubles and a twin), a crew of three, stabilisers at anchor and underway. Big enough never to feel tight, nimble enough to get into places larger yachts cannot — and in New England that matters, because the coves are shallow and the docks are small.

Day 1 — Newport and the First Evening

Embark in Newport → anchorage in the harbour → dinner on the aft deck

We stepped aboard in the afternoon in Newport, on Aquidneck Island, Rhode Island. It is sailing in its purest form: this is where the America's Cup was raced for decades, where the Gilded Age mansions line Bellevue Avenue, and where you see sails from every window. After a short tour of the yacht we anchored in the harbour, and the first evening went the way it should: aft deck, an Aperol Spritz, and watching the harbour switch its lights on while the masts of hundreds of boats swayed against a pink sky. Dinner was served on deck — fresh lobster, clams and corn, all from a local boat, nothing fancy. In New England lobster is not a luxury, it is just lunch, and it tastes like something no one can imitate.

Day 2 — Fog and Block Island

Newport → Block Island, Great Salt Pond

I got up at dawn, took coffee up to the flybridge and saw something the Mediterranean does not do: fog lying on the water like milk, with only the masts sticking out. The sea flat as a lake, silence, no one around. After breakfast the fog lifted within minutes and we ran south, about thirty miles, to Block Island — an island out in the open Atlantic, with clay-and-sand cliffs called the Mohegan Bluffs rising dozens of metres. We anchored close to the beach, and the swim was what a swim should be: lie back and float in the water. I will not pretend this is the Bahamas. In August the water here is around 21 degrees, clean and bracing, and you come back aboard hungry. In the evening we took the tender ashore and cycled around the village, because in New England you unwind differently than on the Adriatic: slower, and in a sweater.

Day 3 — Martha's Vineyard and Edgartown

Block Island → Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard

On day three we ran east, about fifty miles of open water, which the Sunseeker covered calmly in a few hours — the stabilisers genuinely earn their keep here. Edgartown is the prettiest town I have seen on this side of the Atlantic: white wooden houses of former whaling captains, hydrangea gardens, a lighthouse at the harbour entrance and narrow streets you walk simply for the pleasure of walking. We moored on a buoy, as one does here, and crossed to Chappaquiddick on a tiny ferry that holds three cars. Dinner on board: fresh striped bass off the grill, tomatoes from a local farm, a glass of white wine. An evening like that needs nothing else.

Things to think about before booking this route. First: US law — passenger charters between US ports fall under cabotage rules, so the flag and status of a given yacht decide whether a route is legal at all; I check this for the specific yacht, not from a brochure. Second: moorings instead of anchoring — in Edgartown, Nantucket or Newport you often take a mooring, and in July and August they disappear, so the route is arranged well in advance. Third: fog, currents and weather — in Vineyard Sound and near Woods Hole the tidal currents can be strong, so the captain, not I, plans the passage windows. The season runs roughly from June to early October; after that comes hurricane season and cold water.

Day 4 — Menemsha and Aquinnah

Edgartown → Menemsha → Aquinnah cliffs

On day four we went around the island and into Menemsha — a real fishing village where the boats still unload their catch straight onto the dock. Scenes of Jaws were filmed on the island, but people come here for the fish. We spent the afternoon on the water beneath the Aquinnah cliffs, rust, red and grey with clay, and in the evening went back to Menemsha beach. That was our great magic of the trip: dozens of people sitting on the sand with blankets and a bottle of wine, everyone looking the same way, the sun sliding into the sea in total silence. When it touched the water someone on the beach began to clap, and within moments everyone was clapping. You cannot plan that or buy it — you can only be there.

In the Mediterranean you sail to places the whole world knows. In New England you sail to places Americans protect from the rest of the world, and you can feel it.

— Tomasz Wrzesiński, yacht broker, Monaco

Day 5 — Cuttyhunk, the Island with No Cars

Menemsha → Cuttyhunk, Elizabeth Islands

On day five we covered about twelve miles northwest to Cuttyhunk — a tiny island in the Elizabeth Islands chain with a few dozen year-round residents and almost no cars. We moored in the small sheltered harbour and spent the rest of the day with no plan: a walk up the hill with a view across Buzzards Bay, a swim off the yacht, an afternoon nap on the flybridge. For dinner the captain ordered lobster from a local fisherman who pulled up alongside with a full basket. If you asked me which stop on this route is the most underrated, I would say this one.

Day 6 — Nantucket and Ice Cream on the Old Wharf

Cuttyhunk → Nantucket

On day six we ran about forty miles east to Nantucket. The island rises from the ocean flat, almost like a mirage, and then turns into cobblestones, silver-shingled houses and the lighthouse at Brant Point at the harbour entrance. The Saint-Tropez ritual of ice cream by the old port had its counterpart here: ice cream on the wharf, eaten on a bench with a view of the yachts. In the afternoon we walked to the whaling museum, which explains where all this island's wealth came from, and in the evening we returned on board for the last dinner of the trip: grilled scallops from a local boat, corn and a blueberry tart for dessert.

Day 7 — Back to Newport

Nantucket → Newport

The last morning was the same as the first: coffee at dawn on the flybridge, the sea flat, fog drifting off the harbour. No one was in a hurry. We left in the late morning and spent a few hours heading for Newport, with one long swim along the way on empty water, no other yacht in sight. We came back to the same dock we left a week earlier, only now with sand in our pockets and wind-flushed cheeks. I stepped off with the thought I have after every week like this: I did not expect New England to surprise me this much.

What It Costs and What to Know

M/Y TAKE IT EASY — a Sunseeker 86, built 2019, 26.21 metres, eight guests in four cabins, a crew of three, stabilisers — charters in New England from USD 49,500 per week in the low season to USD 55,000 at peak, plus expenses (fuel, provisions, port fees, typically settled through an APA advance, with a full accounting at the end of the cruise).

The route I have described is a proposal: the embarkation port, the order of stops and the length of each passage are agreed with the captain for the specific dates, weather and mooring availability. The yacht carries a Williams SportJet 435 tender, a jet ski, paddleboards, snorkelling and fishing gear, but I will be honest: in New England what I enjoyed most was simply the cruising, the fog and the lobster. You have the map; a guide is still worth having — especially here, where regulations, currents and moorings shape the week more than the sights do.

Want to sail this route for real? TAKE IT EASY cruises New England in the summer season. Tell me when and with whom you are sailing — I will check availability, the yacht's status and shape the week around you. See this charter →