Yacht Charter in the Marshall Islands

Anytime I see the words “island nation,” I wonder if there is a yacht charter with my name on it. Unfortunately, in the case of the Marshall Islands, the answer has long been "no." These twenty-nine atolls and five islands, all part of greater Micronesia, are more than 2,000 miles to the northeast of Australia. Basically, if you look at a map of the Pacific Ocean and squint just north of the equator, you might be able to make them out.

I recently took a newfound interest in the Marshall Islands when Nicholson Yachts  announced that one of the boats in its charter fleet was going to base there. The 80-foot Radford Ke Ama II (read 80 Foot Sailing Yacht Joins Respected Charter Fleet) is calling the Marshalls home, occasionally venturing farther afield to destinations such as Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, taking six guests at a weekly base rate of $25,000. Nicholsons tells me that Ke Ama II plans to return regularly to the Marshalls, which means they are now officially a destination where international-caliber crewed yacht charter exists.
Heck yes, sign me up—especially now that I’ve learned more about all that the Marshalls have to offer.
They’re officially known as a constitutional republic in free association with the United States, which basically means that American tax dollars pay for a good bit of life on the islands. The United States has “full authority and responsibility for security and defense of the Marshall Islands,” according to the U.S. Department of State, and invests in infrastructure, health, and social programs. The U.S. government also has a deal that’s good through 2066 (with an option to extend through 2086) for use of a U.S. Army missile test range at Kwajalein Atoll. The U.S. dollar is the official currency, and the two official languages in the islands are Marshallese and English.
Now, I’d be remiss if I failed to mention a little trouble in this paradise. A 2011 report on human rights practices said the Marshall Islands are facing challenges, including poor prison conditions, government corruption, violence toward women, child abuse, and lack of worker protections. None of that, of course, sounds good—but similar reports have been written about other far-flung destinations where charter yachts visit, including Fiji in the South Pacific. I've visited Fiji twice in the past 10 years or so, and the charter-yacht captains knew exactly where to cruise to keep me safe and happy, much like captains in the Caribbean know how to avoid the islands there where crime becomes a problem from time to time.

What I take from all of the above is that a yacht like Ke Ama II, run by a crew with extensive local knowledge and backed by a strong American charter company, should be able to offer a pretty awesome charter experience in the Marshall Islands. It’s a remote destination, to be sure, and general safety precautions for travel would apply, but the language is English, the currency is the U.S. dollar, and the U.S. military is keeping the region safe. Those are a lot of check marks that many other island nations can’t even begin to claim.
The Marshall Islands also offer something that you can’t find anywhere else in the world: a more than 770,000-square-mile swath of ocean that is reserved as a shark sanctuary. It’s earth’s biggest, at least on paper. How they patrol it I have no idea, but I love the idea of a remote destination that is eco-friendly in its thinking.
Year-round in the Marshall Islands, the water temperature is 82 degrees Fahrenheit—warmer than a lot of swimming pools. Air temperatures fluctuate between the mid-70s and the low 90s from January straight through December. The dry season is from December through April, and the biggest rainfalls tend to occur between July and October. Typhoons are possible from July through November, though they usually stay to the west of the Marshall Islands region in Micronesia. Climate change is threatening the lowest-lying atolls, so those weather patterns may adjust in the coming years.
We all so often say that we wish we could have visited our favorite destinations before they became crowded or spoiled. Ke Ama II is the first charter yacht I've heard about in the Marshall Islands in recent years, and it may be many more years before a second one comes along. It seems to me like a vacation option well worth considering, a best-of-both-worlds scenario with a professional yacht in a developing region.