BVI to St Barts
Catacaos
Graham Shaw
Sun 22 Nov 2009 00:02
been
waiting for when a squall blew up, first one was 30 knots of wind and rain.
Then the second went to 40+ knots, the wind indicator got knocked out by
lightning at 40 knots, then it got a little bit worse. No visibility,
lucky enough no one anchored near to us. Three boats dragged including one
huge container ship which was moored stern-to with anchor out forward. Big
devastation in the town - trees down everywhere, shops flooded, school
closed.
It almost felt like Jersey for a hour, then back to sunny and hot.
We decided to make a stop in Trellis Bay, which was lovely for Lucas as we
could swim him to the beach then he could run up and down the beach for
hours, while I took my first picture of a southern manta ray, which I was so
lucky to have. Because we anchored so close to shore we got eaten alive by
the bugs,
lesson learnt. Next we stopped off at The Dogs, which had beautiful coral -
wish I had dived
this one, a little too deep for snorkeling, plus a few too many jellyfish,
Gray got a few stings, poor love.
The following day we cleared out from Virgin Gorda, spent the afternoon at
The
Baths, took a wander through the caves again. Then off for an overnight
crossing to St Barts. We decided it would be easyier doing it overnight,
as we could leave and arrive in the daylight.
Easy crossing overnight, wind was against us but only 10 knots, so ended
motoring all the way which we knew would happen. Some nasty squalls, one I
woke Gray up to help put another reef in (I did feel guilty) but I gave him
a lie in afterwards.
Oh so lovely to be back in the French islands, such good food and French
cheese. So no excused needed - out for lunch for a lovely Pave de Boeuf
which was huge, the best tasting meat since we were in the lovely Brazilian
restuarant in Barbados. Also the same resturant was celebrating Beaujolais
Nouveau evening. So we just had to go back in the evening to taste this
year's brew. As you can see from the photo Gray looking a little worse for
weather after a few glasses. Lucky for us Lucas fell asleep in the
pushchair,
with all the French music putting him to sleep. A good night had by all.
The following day off to Shell Beach with hang over, after a bacon and egg
roll, of
course. Lovely beach completely covered with shells, very unusual. Had a
walk up to the numerous forts to have a bird's eye view of the island, plus
watch the aeroplanes not crashing into the hillside, very scary landing
strip.
Off to Antigua tomorrow night hopefully, just watching the weather.
