St Barts and the 27,000 euro hammock
Moxie - Beck Family Adventure
Mike, Denise, Asia and Aranya Beck
Sun 2 Feb 2014 11:24
St Barts, named by Christopher columbus after his brother Bartholomew. We don't really see what all the fuss is about, arrived here after a rough passage from Antigua, multiple 30 knot squalls which continued through the night. Fishing was disappointing, we landed and threw back 3 huge barracuda, lost a small tuna and two lures (large barracuda can contain ciguatera, a toxin that accumulates after eating infected reef fish). The anchorage is a bit crowded so we parked way out the back. One of the attractions and success of St Barts is that it's considered a Free Port, there are no taxes here. Nevertheless port authority dues of 20euro per night will see us quickly moving on to St Martin.
So a quick wander around town not bothering to walk into Cartier, Christian Dior bla bla. Most impressive window display was a woven leather hammock in the Louis Vuitton shop, we almost bought two at 27,000 euro each. There are a few super yachts in harbour but that's nothing we haven't seen before. Money evaporates here, our 3 hours ashore has set us back 25 euros per hour.
Just around the corner at Anse Colombier was much nicer and with free mooring buoys to use. Little sea turtles all around, water much clearer than Antigua, And we have caught up again with Silhouette.