Monday, January 28, 2013

St. Barts


We were thinking of heading into the Customs and Immigration dock at Anguilla to get our clear-out-ance for the next day when an IP370 cruised into the harbour and anchored.  In short time, Richard and Jan from Morpheus of London popped by on their way to clear in.  We made a date to have afternoon beers at Johnno's near the C & I dock.

Spent a nice couple of hours talking about our favourite boats… Island Packets… and our individual histories with our boats.  Turns out they have similar cruising plans - so even though we left the next day for St. Barts we expect that we will see more of them down the way.

We had an interesting trip to St. Barts.  Only 32 miles but we thought we would be able to sail more of it.  Wind was variable… so sail/motor/motor-sail for 6 hours.

We arrived in St. Barts with wonderfully charged batteries!
Too cheap to pay rent in the harbour?
Super Yacht "A" designed by Starck.  Hmmmmmm?!
Cruised into the harbour to have a look, fully intending to anchor out - because we are poor/cheap sailors and can't afford St. Barts prices and because we have never done a stern tie and it terrifies us.

The harbour looked fascinating and we were put off by the anchorages.  Boats everywhere.  We would have had to do the French charterer's anchoring technique.  Come right in beside someone, anchor too close and put out bumpers if anyone raised an eyebrow.
BIG
Another toy
Now that's a cool boat... tied stern-to
Pam said a stern, "Non!" to the stern-to but Glen, not understanding the French word for "No" headed back into the harbour to attempt our first stern-to tie.  Well, whoop-de-doo… turns out we are experts.  The wind was blowing the right direction… we dropped the anchor 100 feet out and let the wind drift our stern to the wall.  Like we had done it a million times.  

So, two nights in St. Barts is about $50 per night - includes water (but you have to pay extra for it), showers and all the French speaking you want.  We had showers, walked around the town, took in all the sights.  Pretty nice.  It was VERY quiet on a Sunday.  Most things closed.
Now that's an anchor
Next day we had a morning breakfast walk for croissants et cafe (can't find the accent on this keyboard) and then struck out for Fort Gustav.  Nice walk up… even nicer back down… then into Tom's Grocery for baguette, ham and cheese for our lunch picnique back on Blue Pearl.  Wonderful!!
Cafe and croissants in Gustavia harbour
Blue Pearl - tied stern-to... Fort Gustav off the bow and up to the right
The view from Fort Gustav - Blue Pearl is off the bow from the big yacht leaving the habour
Wonderful baguette, ham, cheese picnique
We topped up our water (at about 8 cents a gallon), did some laundry and then set out on an afternoon walk to Shell Beach.  Once we got there Pam cursed that she hadn't worn her bathing suit… and commented on many of the ladies who weren't wearing most of their bathing suits anyway.  After 15 minutes of cursing she adopted a "what the hell" attitude and went swimming nude… no sorry, that was in a parallel universe... in her shorts and top.  It was wonderful!  We would visit there again.

Anyway, back to the boat to change, get ready for showers, check-out for tomorrow, buy a few supplies and enjoy our evening on the promenade in Saint Bartholemy.  

Wine, octopus, duck pate and other French things we don't recognize but need to try
Tomorrow we head out to Saint Christopher - Saint Kitts.  We will spend a couple of days there… maybe rent a car?  We'll see.

It's my Mom's 82nd birthday tomorrow.  Hope you have a great day tomorrow, Mom!  Happy Birthday from Saint Barts!

8 comments:

  1. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous!

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  2. Great post! Typé an é using Option-e!

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  3. Great photos, fun stories, wild Pam ;-) you guys are having another great year. Enjoy

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    1. There are many adjectives to describe Pam. Wild is not among them.

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  4. What a nice Happy Birthday to your mom. The places you've been to are amazing and leaving you with so many memories. Thanks for the updates so we can travel along vicariously.

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    1. Wouldn't it be cool to be in one of the places their ship stops when they are cruising?

      Thanks for the comments.

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