Easter at St Barts
NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Mon 13 Apr 2009 22:05
Easter Sunday, St
Barts.
17:55N 62:52W
St Barts, 12th April
2009.
I know that in my last offering I said there would
be no more until we were underway but I also said that I had not written for a
while as nothing of interest had happened. Well this time Easter Sunday
produced a first for us. In fact two things of note happened.
We were up with the first light, about 0545hrs, and
motored the three miles from Anse de Colombier around to the main town of
Gustavia. Dropping our hook we were amazed to see another Swan 47 in front
of us. Then even more amazed to see it was Queen of Hearts. In 1994
she had sailed into the Berthon marina and the broker rang me up and said 'David
a Swan 47 with no teak decks and the centreboard version has sailed in, why do
you not see if the Dutch owner wants to sell?' To cut a long story short
he did not want to sell but we became good friends with John
and Rija and have since sailed with them on Queen of Hearts in
Brazil and have sailed in company with her in the Caribbean on many
occasions. If ill health had not struck she might well have come across
the Pacific with us. We knew she had been sold and now here she was with
her new Dutch owners. Small world.
However this is not the real reason I am bashing
the keyboard. After making contact with Q of H we donned our finest and
went to church. The charming old Anglican church dates back to the middle
of the 19th century and to this day has an Englishman as the vicar and conducts
its services in English. The service, a sung Eucharist, tuned out to be a
very good mix of English tradition and Caribbean fun. It was helped along
by an excellent choir. The church itself was packed and there were many
standing. None of this was out of the ordinary but what happened
afterwards was. Due to the kindness of one of the parishioners it is
tradition that on Easter Sunday after the service the children can hunt the
grounds for the many very big Easter eggs that await their eager eyes and the
adults can and do drink copious amounts of Taittinger champagne. The
bottles being well iced in enormous buckets and served by charming
young parishioners. So if any vicar of a poorly attended church is reading
this here is the answer to how to get the numbers up. Having said that I
must say that the vicar of the church was a delightful man who presided
over a very good and meaningful service.
As you can see there are many surprises in store
for those who tackle the cruising life style.
Happy times
David and Annette
Annette with other yachtie friends enjoys the apres
service.
It never stopped coming.
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