Yes, that’s Tropical Storm Fay smothering the state of Florida in a satellite photograph that looks ominous at best. The good news I’m hearing out of the popular Florida Keys charter region, though, is that damage has been minimal, even to the coral reefs trapped beneath the churning seas.

According to the Monroe County Tourism Council, which represents the Keys, tourists actually began returning to the islands yesterday, a day earlier than anticipated, because the region’s infrastructure sustained far less damage than expected. The airports were open yesterday with flights arriving in the Keys as of lunchtime, and most of the on-shore damage was limited to trees, signs, and awnings.

The Council says single-day dive and fishing charter boats are expected to resume operations as early as today in calming seas, with the first cruise ship returning to the port at Key West tomorrow. As best as I can tell based on those and other reports, the marinas that service charter yachts fared well in the storm, too, and the crewed yacht charter business should see no upcoming winter season impact from Fay.

I’ll tell you, that’s really great news–as I have been in places like the Keys and the Bahamas during the late fall, post-hurricane-season months and seen destroyed docks, mangled hotels, brutalized restaurants, and all kinds of other problems that can put many a winter yacht charter vacation at risk. Sometimes, it takes these islands months to rebuild after a powerful storm, so even a mid-August gusher like Fay could have reaped horrible charter industry repercussions well into the Christmas and New Year’s charter season.

The news out of the Florida Keys today is definitely good. Here’s hoping that’s the last storm to wind its way into the popular charter territory during this 2008 hurricane season.

I had a complete systems meltdown here at the home office on Friday morning. All the phones and internet service went down (they’re through the same modem), and I’ve spent the better part of the past three days driving around my woodsy town trying to get cell phone service so that I could report the problem.

Finally, this afternoon, a technician arrived to get everything back up and running–and as he was leaving the house, he stopped short in front of the photo above, which is among those that hang in my living room.

“Where did you get that picture?” he asked. “I just went on a cruise ship to the Caribbean, because the pictures all looked like that in the brochure. But when I got there, they took me to these places that didn’t look like the pictures at all. I might as well have been pulling into the port of Newark, New Jersey.”

Oh, how many times I’ve heard that one. It’s the ol’ photographic bait and switch, with cruise ship companies advertising the kinds of secluded beaches that, well, just don’t exist in places where 3,000 passengers a day get offloaded. I shot that particular photo during a charter in the Exumas section of the Bahamas, which cruise ships can’t access because they simply can’t fit. That’s why the beaches are so pristine, quite frankly. They’re accessed only by locals and charter yacht vacationers.

The poor service technician didn’t know what he was in for making that complaint in my house. I sent him home with a copy of my how-to-charter book Dream Cruises and gave him an earful about all the cruise ship problems that I occasionally highlight here on the CharterWave Editor’s Blog. Based on the stunned look in his saucer-size eyes, I think the next time he heads off in search of a beautiful island, it will be onboard a small charter yacht with his friends instead of aboard a similarly priced, mammoth cruise ship.

Funny how having no ability to connect with the outside world for a few days led me to this opportunity to spread the message of yacht charter. Maybe I’ll disconnect the phones for good. And stare at that picture of the pretty beach. And pretend I’m on charter right now instead of needing to return nearly a hundred phone and e-mail messages…

I received an e-mail yesterday afternoon from CharterWave’s current Captain of the Month, Ken Bracewell. He tells me that his command, the 145-foot motoryacht Curt-C, will be getting a new owner tomorrow and will thereafter be known as Rena.

Bracewell says the new owner is keeping the same crew, including him as captain, and plans to run the same charter program onboard that has made Curt-C such a successful charter yacht the past few seasons. The weekly base rate likely will stay the same, Bracewell says, and odds are the yacht will continue to be part of the Bartram & Brakenhoff fleet (though papers have apparently yet to be signed). The one change Bracewell says the new owner plans to make is adding a 28-foot tender that the yacht will tow in addition to its existing dinghies. I’d call that a welcome improvement for charter.

Curt-C is one of those yachts that I’ve always felt is a good value for your charter dollar. She’s not brand-new, but she is well-kept with a crew that continues to win repeat business. When I wrote this First Impression review last summer, the yacht was fully $30,000 to $50,000 per week less than a lot of other motoryachts for charter in her size range. That spread has actually increased a bit during the past 12 months or so. Curt-C’s highest weekly base rate is now listed as $105,000, while other yachts in the 145-foot range are charging $145,000 to $170,000 per week.

I’m happy to hear that the yacht’s new owner intends to continue the program that Curt-C’s owner began, a program that, under Bracewell’s continued onboard leadership, should make the newly rechristened Rena a popular charter yacht for seasons to come.