St Bart

The island of St. Bart’s brings visions of high-end Caribbean lifestyles with a French flair.  I was eager to Med moor and hop off the stern, greeted by a pain au chocolat.  We found something else when we arrived, and I think it was better.  This has not been a season of smooth seas and many anchorages have been infested with annoying swell, which disturbs our slumber. “Swell is the collection of waves moving away from a storm in the ocean. Although the waves will all be of different size and power and heading in slightly different directions we can tend to talk about averages of all these waves as one discreet swell.”

We made landfall in St. Barts at Anse de Colombier , a marine park.   The marine park has mooring balls so that cruisers don’t damage the sea grass with their anchors.  Most cruisers grab the free mooring balls, but some boats insist on anchoring close to the beach.  Fortunately, the upfront anchoring does not ruin the full habitat so there are plenty of sea turtles swimming in the bay.

 

When we first arrived, we took one of the few open balls, but at 4pm a huge boat dance began; Thirty percent of the boats sailed away and another thirty percent, including us, upgraded their positions.  We lost in a stare down competition to a mono hull for our first choice, but we were very happy with our consolation prize ball.

The next day we made our way to the “big city” of Gustavia to check in.  The distance between high tide and the cliff face is narrow so instead of leaving the dingy to float away, we concocted an alternate plan.  I ferried Gail to shore on the dinghy along with the delicate ship’s papers and passports.   I then motored back to Two Fish and raised the dinghy. Next, I dove into the sea for a 15 minute swim to shore.  Gail greeted me with a towel and dry clothes.

 

An asset of this anchorage is that the closest road is reached after a 25 minute hike.  The hike offers beautiful vistas of the windward side of the island with its unforgiving, pounding surf.   We almost never anchor on the western side of an island as it offers the full force of the sea.  At the end of the hike, there is a quaint hotel.  We spoke with the owner as we waited for a cab to arrive.   His family used to own the entire property that we had just hiked, but they sold it to the Rockefellers years ago.  Our cab driver was a graduate of the French school of race car driving but to my surprise did not send us over the cliffs to our deaths or crush one of the many slow moving land based turtles on the roads.

 

Gustavia is full of mega yachts, great dining and high-end shops.   The promised beautiful people are only in town for high season so we rubbed elbows with the moderately attractive stands-ins.  We failed on a true St Barts experience because we did not wake up with a champagne hangover.

 

Anse de Colombier has no beach bar, no shop and no wifi.  You are not alone but it feels more like the magazine ads in Cruising World.  The sea grass revival attracts my favorite marine creatures, the sea turtles.  The bay also has plenty of starfish which to the starfish’s chagrin seems to attract topless French sunbathers, who like to pick them up.  I could hear the starfish screaming – look, do not touch.  The breeze was blowing 20 knots in the anchorage but the waves were small.  We had found paradise and swam a few times a day.   A few mega yachts had left Gustavia and joined us in the marine park.  I noticed that when a mega yacht passenger got out of the water the staff anticipated the swimmer and had the outdoor shower running before the first foot exited the water.   If you visit us, we will try to offer this service on Two Fish.

 

We have recently started a new practice when using mooring balls.  We attach a line via rolling hitch underneath the ball.  This way if the ball or pennant fails we will still be attached.  After instituting the policy we heard of two other Antares that broke free of their balls.  No damage done but it surely has encouraged our new policy. I sleep better on anchor but we use balls to help the turtles.

 

On our second day in the anchorage the breeze had become gusty and several boats were struggling to pick up their mooring balls.  I hopped into One Fish to help them.  My technique is to attach the dinghy to the ball, then grab the pennant in my left hand while catching the line from the boat in my right hand.  The third step is to pass the line through the pennant and hand it back to their crew.   Finally, I detach my dinghy painter and motor away.  I helped an American boat with a 90 year old owner who is still game on.  He has crew to help but still snorkels and does plenty of boat work.   I find it tiring and I am a few years younger.  We also helped a Dutch boat pick up a ball after they failed on the first few attempts.  Later in the day I invited the two boats over for drinks.  Good stories were swapped and the Dutch brought tasty popcorn while the 90 year old brought wine much younger than himself.

 

 

Time passed and a weather window looked to be opening for a passage from St Barts to Antigua.  The wind was forecast to be in thelow 20s and the seas 8 feet. Both on the nose.  Before casting off, we had to make another trip to Gustavia to check out of the country.  If the paperwork seem pointless, you can skip it all together BUT we did see a boat that tried this strategy get boarded by the French Coast Guard.  At the St. Barts prison, they serve day old croissants.  For checking out, we chose to walk the entire trip, about 2 hours.   The up hills encouraged blood circulation but the down hills were hell.   The road narrowed and two cars could barely fit so pedestrians seem destined to become hood ornaments.   We made it alive but vowed to return by cab.

The reward for adversity in St Bart is the key boulangerie that supplies much of the island.  It was high on a hillside near the airport and frequented by the local repairman who immigrated from France.   Clients can be a good culinary indicator (Avoid the shops catering to cruise ships). We bought bread, quiche and of course the Pain au Chocolat I had dreamed of many years ago.

 

We slipped our lines at 6pm and set our sails in the shadow of the island.   I decided on one reef in the main and one reef in the genoa so that we would not arrive before sunrise in Antigua.  Gail went off to bed shortly after we got under way.   We chatted a bit through the cabin hatch as we passed Gustavia.  It had become dark so I had to pay attention to the traffic coming in and out of the port.  Dodge starboard for a tug with side to barge, dodge port for a huge anchored schooner and ease back to starboard to avoid fuel terminal buoys.   Usually, I head straight offshore to avoid other boats but I wanted to enjoy the smooth waves for as long as St Barts offered protection.  An hour later, the breeze peaked at 27 knots and we entered a washing machine that did not stop for the next 12 hours.  The trip was our worst since owning the boat.  Gail was green and despite trying very hard could only spell me for 20 minutes.  After 6 hours of being on the non-amusement park ride I hove to for 15.  The genoa had two reefs and the main one reef.  It did not take long for the boat to find the right balance and she gently drifted downwind.  Slightly refreshed I soldiered on.   To add to the bumpy ride, I was frequently having to check the bilge since I was getting a bilge alarm.  I do not ignore bilge alarms but on the 15^th visit I sure was tired and annoyed.   Hanging upside down in the bilge tasting the water to see if it was fresh or sea is not a bonus.  I will need to extend the anti siphon loop on the bilge as I think water was entering in the gruesome seas.   Gail was a major hero as the short spell gave me the power to finish up the trip.  As we got closer, the sun came over the horizon and hope returned.   We entered Jolly Harbour to see our friends on Zooroopa, an Antares built two hulls after Two Fish.   There was a huge open spot ideal for anchoring right behind them.  The anchor set on the first time in the white sand.

 

Even as I write this, I am forgetting how bad the trip had been.   It is amazing how a sailor has the ability to forget the bad and embrace the good.   St Barts was definitely good bread, good people and good swimming.  The crew of Two Fish are working on 2016 plans and we will announce the plan soon.  Well, as soon as we have decided the plan.

 

PS:  You may notice that the pictures in this post look a little out of focus.  Our camera has died.  We have a back up, so the blog will continue but we are eager to reach a camera shop (aka Amazon).