The Writers
Chris Doyle
Author
Chris was born in England, but by the time he was finished with college he was also finished with England’s cold, gray weather. So, set sail in an old Colin Archer called Sugar Creek, heading south until the butter melted, turning right and ending up in Grenada, where became a resident, and has been so ever since.
To make ends meet, he built and rented a house, day-chartered, skippered yachts, and undertook deliveries. One of these nearly turned out badly when the rudder shaft sheered some 50 miles west of Saba. They managed to steer the boat for three days by balancing the sails, during which time they constructed a temporary external rudder (read the full story here).
Tired of being bombarded with questions from lost bareboaters, he decided to write a cruising guide, published it himself, and sold advertising to cover the costs. Chris attributes the popularity of his guides to listening to reader’s suggestions, and following through when they make sense. In this way his guides have always been highly innovative, leading the way in color sketch charts, then computerized color sketch charts, GPS waypoints, star charts and finally, this website.
Chris built his dream boat in Trinidad in 2002, a 40 foot catamaran called Ti Kanot (read the full story here). He spends well over half the year aboard, revisiting all the anchorages he has to update. He is well-known in the islands, is a yachting correspondent for Caribbean Compass, and writes for the international yachting press when asked.
During the summer he travels, usually to Vermont where he stays with his life-partner Virginia Barlow.
Lexi Fisher
Author
Lexi is new to the cruising guides but not to the island life. She was born and raised in Grenada and grew up sailing with her father Jeff, one of Chris’s oldest friends. Many family vacations were spent on the ocean or traveling abroad, and she quickly gained a strong affinity for both. She studied Geography and Environmental Studies in Canada before moving back to her island home where she gave guided kayak tours before becoming a scuba instructor in 2016. She had always dreamed of becoming a travel writer, and was eager to begin working with Chris in 2015. She spent the 2016/17 season updating the Leeward Islands book with him, and learning all aspects of the trade. She and her partner bought Incognito, a sister ship to Chris’s Ti Kanot, and she and Chris divide the islands, and all aspects of the work, evenly.
And in the words of others;