St Barths
This is the place that
all the rich and beautiful people come. We therefore look quite out of place;
with our high street sun bleached shorts and T shirts rather than our designer
shorts and superyacht crew polo shirts.
The small marina is
filling up with the superyachts coming to town to take place in an annual
regatta called the St Barths Bucket. This was the brainchild of an owner who
suggested a friendly race for a bottle of champagne chilled in an ice bucket.
Five yachts competed in the first race and now 34 yachts have come to play.
They all have their entourage of support vessels, some of which are bigger than
the yachts themselves, which have to be 100 foot.
We arrived on the
Monday and went straight to Anse Columbier and picked up a free mooring buoy.
This is a marine conservation area and they have put the buoys down to
encourage yachts not to anchor and disturb the grass beds where turtles like to
feed. It was 5pm when we
arrived and we decided a swim and check of the mooring gear was required. Ethan
and I spent around 10 minutes following a turtle that was swimming along the
bottom some 4 meters below us. It had 2 fish feeding beneath him. The water was
much clearer than in the Tobago Cays when we had last had the opportunity to
swim with these beautiful creatures. Unfortunately no photos of this, I really
didn’t want to swim back to the boat and miss the opportunity. We stayed for 4
days and never saw a turtle again.
The next day we took a
rather bumpy dinghy ride back down to Gustavia the capital to check in. I am
glad we hadn’t stayed in the anchorage there as it was very rolly and also you
had to pay for the privilege. The anchorage is huge and jam packed with mega
yachts and the wash from the big tenders was not helping with the swells.
Russell battled with
another online entry form and we paid EU 9 to print the piece of paper. We
walked to try and get some gas and decided against it when we were told it
would be EU 35 for the small blue camping gas cylinder. This was 3 times as
much as we would pay to fill our larger propane. We decided we could last to St
Maarten in a few days’ time. The supermarket did not seem to be as expensive as
we anticipated and we stocked up on a few bits.
The next day we had
suggested a BBQ on the beach with Fabiola, Open Blue, Chewsey and Ruffian. In
true tradition we woke up to rain, which continued on and off all day. At 2pm we finally managed to brave it
ashore to go for a walk to collect firewood. It was a little damp but we had an
enjoyable walk along a cliff path towards the beach…. Given the time we didn’t
make it to the beach but it looked to be a lovely walk. Ethan was not keen on
the walk and had a strop about half way. His perseverance was rewarded when we
came across a tortoise which was happy to be fed some nice juicy leaves that he
could not reach. Smiles all around again we headed back to the beach and
collected fire wood. By 4pm
the clouds had broken and the rain had gone and we enjoyed a lovely bbq on the
beach. The kids played in the sea and the adults drank beer. This is what it is
all about.
The next day Chewsey
and Ruffian headed off to St Martin (the French side) and Open Blue and Fabiola
went to Gustavia. We went by dinghy to check out and have an explore. We
purchased Russell a new pair of deck shoes as they seemed to be reasonably
priced at EU 67 and his had literally disintegrated. We got some supplies for a
picnic and headed off in the dinghy to watch the J class yachts racing. There
start was at mid day and there was very little wind but they still looked
impressive. We were able to get quite close as the sea state was quite calm as
we blasted around off shore. The boys loved it and were amazed at the sound as
they eased the sheets. It sounded like a cannon going off. Russell explained to
them that they have to spray the winches with water as the friction of the rope
on the drum can cause the rope to melt and fuse. They really are very powerful
and beautiful yachts even in a meagre 10 knots of breeze.
Maltese Falcon http://www.symaltesefalcon.com/about.php
Below : The J class Yachts heading out to race.
We headed back ashore
and took a walk to the airport. This you might think is strange but the planes
have to fly through a small gap and then it is straight down onto the runway
which ends with a beach. We were not the only plane spotters. We then walked to
the beach for a cool off and more plane spotting. The private jet pilots
obviously liked the idea of trying to take peoples heads off or showing off by
flying very low over the water as they take off.
It was back to the
boat and an unplanned, but very enjoyable evening with Fabiola who had decided
to leave the lumpy Gustavia and head back to Anse Columbier. The kids watched a
film and the adults enjoyed a curry.
The next day Fabiola
kindly returned our hospitality the night before by going out to watch the
superyachts day 1 bucket racing (http://bucketregattas.com/stbarths/results.html)
.
Again the 5 J class
(Velsheda, Ranger, Hanuman, Rainbow and Lionheart) set off at 11am and then a pursuit
race started for the others. The slowest sets off first and the fastest last.
The idea being the cross the finish line at the same time. This created a procession
of superyachts over the next hour. The largest being Maltese Falcon with is
very strange square rig. Not the prettiest boat, but impressive none the less.
|
Race 1
|
Race 2
|
Race 3
|
Race 4
|
Total
|
|||
|
Points
|
Points
|
Points
|
Points
|
Points
|
Rank
|
||
|
HANUMAN
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
1
|
|
|
LIONHEART
|
2
|
2
|
4
|
2
|
10
|
2
|
|
|
VELSHEDA
|
5
|
3
|
2
|
4
|
14
|
3
|
|
|
RANGER
|
4
|
5
|
3
|
3
|
15
|
4
|
|
|
RAINBOW
|
3
|
4
|
6
|
6
|
19
|
5
|
|
We had planned to head
off to the island of IL Foucher but the kids overruled us and wanted to play on
the beach. Keeping them happy is key so we stayed. The wind and the waves
created gave us an evening of rock and roll so we were keen to get away the
next morning. It was grey, wet and windy and we had to dig out the waterproof
jackets. The sail to St Maarten was dank and we only needed to pull out the genoa
to make a good 7 knots. We stopped to watch the J’s go round some small rocks.
They were really pounding along in the 20 knot plus breeze beating into a
sizeable swell. Such a contrast to the day before. It only took a couple of
hours to do the 15 mile trip to the Dutch side of St Maarten and Simpson Bay
Lagoon. We checked in and waited for the bridge open at 17.30.
MORE PHOTO's but they will not upload. Will post sperately....asap.....
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