July 20, 2026•6 min read•By Maurits Dierick, Charter Broker & Former Yacht Captain
Leeward Islands Yacht Charter: Antigua to St Maarten
Six islands, two flags, and the pink sand of Barbuda in one week. The Leewards are the Caribbean route with the most range.
This is the Caribbean route with the most range in it.
In one week you go from Antigua's Georgian dockyard to the empty pink sand of Barbuda, up to a volcanic cone on Nevis, into the Swedish grid of St Barths, and out to a driftwood bar on Anguilla, finishing on the shared French-Dutch island of St Maarten. Six islands, two European legacies, and a passage day or two that earn the arrivals.
It runs 173 nautical miles one-way from Antigua to St Maarten, which means you fly into one country and out of another.
Before we dive in, it's worth noting the route below is also available as an interactive map on our Caribbean charter page.
The route
Antigua → Barbuda → Nevis → St Barths → Anguilla → St Maarten.
Eight days, 173 nautical miles, one-way from Antigua to St Maarten. Three proper passage days sit in the middle; the rest are short hops.
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Day 1: Green Island & Nonsuch Bay (Antigua)
Board in Falmouth Harbour around midday, and if the flight allows, walk Nelson's Dockyard first, a Georgian naval yard working since the 1740s and UNESCO-listed since 2016. Then around Antigua's southeast corner into Nonsuch Bay.
Green Island's reef knocks the Atlantic flat, so you get open-ocean colour with lagoon-calm water. The flat water inside the reef is a kitesurfing spot. First dinner on board at anchor, nothing ashore but pelicans.
Passage: 1.5 hours, 9 nm. Mooring: Rickett's Bay (Green Island), Tenpound Bay. Beach: Green Island. Dining: on board.
Day 2: Barbuda (Princess Diana Beach)
An early start north to Barbuda, Antigua's flat, empty sister: eleven miles of pale sand and almost nobody on it. The main beach was renamed for Princess Diana in 2011; she came back repeatedly for the reason you will. Anchor straight off the sand.
In the afternoon a local boatman runs you into Codrington Lagoon, one of the largest magnificent frigatebird colonies in the Caribbean, the males inflating red throat pouches the size of balloons. Dinner is grilled lobster at Uncle Roddy's.
Lay day. Move a couple of miles up to Palmetto Point, where crushed shell turns the sand properly pink: no bars, no loungers, no footprints. This is the day the crew runs a beach barbecue and the paddleboards stay in the water until dark.
If anyone wants to move, a taxi crosses to Two Foot Bay, where limestone caves open onto the windward coast and the Darby sinkhole hides a pocket of rainforest.
Passage: 30 minutes, 3 nm. Mooring: Palmetto Point, Low Bay. Beach: Palmetto Point (pink sand). Dining: ArtCafe (Codrington).
Day 4: Nevis (Pinney's Beach)
The passage day: fifty-two miles southwest, anchor up at first light. Nevis announces itself from miles out, a single volcanic cone rising to 985 metres, usually wearing the cloud cap that reminded Columbus of snow.
Anchor off Pinney's Beach, three miles of palms north of Charlestown, where Alexander Hamilton was born. Sunshine's mixes the Killer Bee, and dinner is up the hill at a restored sugar estate, Montpelier or Golden Rock.
Passage: 7 hours, 52 nm, dawn start. Mooring: Pinney's Beach, Charlestown. Beach: Pinney's Beach. Dining: Sunshine's, Montpelier Plantation, Golden Rock Inn.
Day 5: St Barths (Gustavia)
Forty-seven miles north with St Kitts and Brimstone Hill fortress to starboard. Then Gustavia: Sweden owned St Barths from 1784 to 1878, named the port after its king, and left the tidy grid and red roofs.
Go stern-to in the harbour or take a mooring outside. Shell Beach is a five-minute walk, Le Select has poured on the same corner since 1949, and dinner is at Bonito or L'Isola, booked well ahead in season.
A slow morning: coffee on deck, a last loop of Gustavia, lunch at Shellona or Nikki Beach. Then two miles around the headland to Anse de Colombier, a beach reachable only by boat or footpath and part of the marine reserve.
Green turtles graze the seagrass under the boat, and the estate above the point was built by David Rockefeller in the 1960s. The footpath to Flamands makes a good pre-dinner walk. Night on a reserve mooring: no road, no lights, no noise.
Discover the destinations
From the Cyclades to the Caribbean, see the destinations our fleet covers, summer and winter.
Passage: 30 minutes, 2 nm. Mooring: Anse de Colombier reserve moorings. Beach: Anse de Colombier. Dining: Shellona, Nikki Beach, La Guerite.
Day 7: Anguilla (Rendezvous Bay), via Ile Fourchue
Two miles out lies Ile Fourchue, an uninhabited horseshoe of bare hills in the marine reserve. Pick up a mooring and snorkel the morning; you share it with seabirds and fish.
Then seventeen miles to Anguilla, where the crew handles clearance. Rendezvous Bay is three kilometres of white sand with the Sunshine Shack grilling on it and Bankie Banx's driftwood Dune Preserve at the western end. Stay for sunset, night at anchor.
Passage: 3 hours, 20 nm, including the Ile Fourchue swim stop. Mooring: Rendezvous Bay, Road Bay. Beach: Rendezvous Bay. Dining: Sunshine Shack, Dune Preserve, Blanchards Beach Shack.
Day 8: St Maarten (Simpson Bay)
A short hop across the Anguilla Channel to finish. St Maarten has been split between France and the Netherlands since 1648, which doubles the restaurant count. Into Simpson Bay for the handover, tips and a group photo with the crew. If the flight is an evening one, lunch in Grand Case on the French side outcooks islands ten times its size.
Passage: 1.5 hours, 8 nm. Mooring: Simpson Bay anchorage or marinas. Dining: SkipJack's, Talk of the Town (Grand Case).
Who this suits
Broker observation rather than route description.
Groups who want variety and don't mind a passage to earn it. This route changes register every day: Georgian Antigua, empty Barbuda, volcanic Nevis, chic St Barths, laid-back Anguilla. It suits people who have done the BVI and want something with more distance and more contrast.
Three passage days, two of them around six or seven hours, sit at days 4 and 5. If your group wants short hops only, the BVI is the better week. The one-way structure also needs planning: you fly into Antigua and out of St Maarten, and the yacht doesn't return.
Practical notes
The season runs December to April. St Barths at Christmas and New Year is booked far ahead and priced accordingly.
One-way from Antigua (ANU) to St Maarten (SXM), two airports and a repositioning question for the boat, which affects pricing. Most crewed catamarans run CYBA Caribbean Terms Inclusive (crew, meals, bar, fuel and toys included, small advance allowance for extras); larger yachts often run MYBA with an APA. We confirm per yacht.
