Fw: St Barthelemy ---St Barts
Tioram 4
Tina & Tony
Thu 11 Mar 2010 19:14
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St Barthelemy----St Barts
We left Illes des Saintes ( The Saintes ) on the Ist March
and sailed north along the coast of Guadeloupe. We intended to anchor off
Pigeon Island and the Jacque Cousteau marine park. The wind direction was not
great for a nights anchorage and the water too deep for comfortable snorkeling.
We decided to push north to Deshaises, pronounced Day-ay.
The anchorage on the north west tip of Guadeloupe was
a deep one, 50 m of chain out-- but comfortable for the night. We
set sail at 7am the next day for Antigua --40 N miles north. The sail was great,
one of our best yet--- great beam reach ( 90' to boat ) ---easterly
wind.
As we neared Antigua we saw Falmouth harbour and marveled
that little Tioram had sailed from 'Falmouth to Falmouth' with a few thousand
miles in between.
We arrived in early afternoon on 2nd March and were
lucky to get a great spot to anchor just off the beach at English Harbour. It
realised an ambition for Tony. We had flown to Antigua in Dec 2004 after the
Finish of the ARC in St Lucia. Tony particularly liked
English and Falmouth Harbours, great location and atmosphere with all the
interesting yachts of the world gathering.
As we arrived a fellow ARC yacht 'Dolfijn' called on the
radio as they had seen us arrive----needless to say a few beers were
shared. The next day 3rd March was cloudy for the first time.
Our pleasure of very little rain in St Lucia and through
the islands has been to the detriment of local people. The drought was
becoming quite serious in St Lucia with talk of schools
closing. Antigua has de-salination but
not enough to sustain demand, therefore the light rain overnight was welcome for
the island.
The high light of our second day was a wonder around
Nelsons dockyard built in 1745. It is worth a visit as it was restored in 1947
and is now run as a conserved museum/ working buildings containing shops, cafes,
hotel and the all important customs/ immigration offices .
We had read before arriving in the Caribbean that
immigration and customs were a bit of a pain in the Caribbean --given that some
islands are only a few miles apart but require immigration for different
nations. However, apart from a long winded and relatively unpleasant immigration
experience in St Lucia on ARC arrival; all the others have been interesting,
pleasant experiences.
None can be topped by our immigration in Antigua.
Immigration, customs and port control sound formal and in theory are.
However, the reality is three very pleasant Antiguans in full smart
uniforms at three adjacent counters.
The immigration guy was great to talk to.Everyone has a
story in life if you have time to listen. He had lived in the UK for 26
years until he was sadly divorced and had returned to his roots in
Antigua 12 years ago. All of this chit- chat whilst he checked
our forms----'Where we were from, where we were heading, were we carrying fire
arms!! ' etc , etc.
Picture the scene of chit chat and formality whilst
his two administrative colleagues watched a video of 'Mrs. Doubtfire'
with Robin Williams. The whole proceedings becoming more and more surreal
as we discuss the immigration form to the background words of Robin
Williams--- removing his wig and saying , ' I don't know what to do, I cant live
without her and the children---- do I have to live the rest of my life as Mrs.
Doubtfire?'. -------Oh the joys of the Caribbean----crazy we love
it..................
So we paid our fee, shook their hands and left them to
find out, 'If they all lived happily
after',--------------------------------------
We stayed in Antigua just for 4 nights as we intend
to spend more time there on our return journey. We set sail on 6th March
for Barbuda. The sail was uncharacteristically downwind with a following
Southerly. The cross sea was lumpy and made for an unpleasant sail. The fairly
miserable sail was broken by an amazing sight as we neared Barbuda.
Tony shouted----'Wow,a huge whale just breached and jumped
almost vertically out of the water'--------about half mile off our starboard
beam. It did it again about 5 times as the distance between us grew. The first
times were fantastic, it must have been 50ft, exploded out of the water, with
its large wing fins flopping as it smashed on to the
water.
We are not sure if it was a sperm whales or hump
backed----need to look it up..
We were a little concerned about the wind direction as
Barbuda is very exposed, low level with a few reefs. It is a beautiful Robinson
Crusoe island in an Easterly wind. The forecast predicted the winds to come
around to easterly so we thought we would benefit from a down wind sail and
then enjoy some protection when the wind came around.
Sadly it wasn't, and we anchored for 3 days in a
fairly big swell and moderate wind. We didn't manage to get to shore to the
stunning beach as the surf was breaking ---too much surf for a safe dinghy
landing.
The locals call Barbuda 'heaven' which makes sense when
you look at it and it's 12 mile beach------------what we have learned is it
still rains in heaven !!!
Whilst there we saw 2 turtles again and remarkably a
ray---3ft ish plus long tail---possibly sting ray--, jumped right out of
the water twice near our boat. Swimming for me was sadly off the
agenda!!
On our last evening Velsheda ' a princess of the sailing
world, J class yacht, sailed into Cocoa Bay and anchored alongside
Bystander, the sistership and gentlemen's motor yacht.
We have seen them in Rodney bay, Marigot bay--St Lucia,
then in Falmouth Harbour --Antigua, again Barbuda and now in St Barts. We have
been in honoured company.
We set sail on 9th March from Barbuda with heavy
hearts having not been ashore. The strong winds dropped ---the forecasts
all over the place with very unsettled weather patterns. Our 68 nmile sail
turned into motoring for most of the journey. However we spotted 2 more
huge whales, one breaching. The one some distance away the
other scarily close by which fortunately only took air and dived
again.
We rolled on a cross sea for 12 hours, motoring
passed Nevis, St Kitts, Saba and eventually sailed for the last 2 hours
into St Barts.
We were pleased to have a calm anchorage and a relaxed
night sleep. On 10th March, yesterday we launched the dinghy and went ashore. St
Barts is French and has the best of French West Indies culture. The island has
stunning beaches, chic small hotels and although a small island, it is a free
port----duty free and therefore has attracted the shops for the beautiful
people, Chanel, Chopard, Phillipe Patek, Panerai, etc.
Needless to say the window shopping was interesting. St
Barts has become a play ground for the 'rich and famous' with the most huge
motor yachts. We enjoyed the atmosphere very much, a real contrast to other
Caribbean islands----much more European. Our favourite to date however is still
the Grenadines with it's simple, honest, uncluttered beauty.
We did a lot of people watching and found a bar with a 60
year history called Le Select. It is extremely simple and fairly cheaply priced
--which means lots of crew and travelers hang out there. I took a photo of a
couple of guys sitting at a table. One guy, probably in his 60's dressed with a
fabulous lime green coloured shirt and bandana and bright orange 3/4 cut
off trousers. I couldn't take my eyes of him------where was he from, where
was he going---what story did he have to tell ? He was then joined by a Lord
Snowdon lookalike--interesting. The photo probably doesn't do justice to the
visual feast of the two guys sitting in the bar and an old lime green and
yellow bicycle lying against the wall in front of them.
We enjoyed an interesting day around the town, relaxed in
the knowledge the boat was sitting safely at anchor in the bay. We cleared
immigration again, pleasant, French functional and no Mrs. Doubtfire in
sight.
Towards the late afternoon a large cruise ship anchored in
the bay. I was on walk about and came back to see Tony standing watching the
large tenders come ashore-----oblivious, funnily to the fact that all the
tenders appeared to be full of 'men' only. Lots of interesting guys, mainly in
vest tops,toned bodies, many in pairs.
We chatted to a couple of guys who confirmed the Cruise
ship had 2500 male passengers and in his words,' its a great party'. We could
only imagine what the fancy dress night was like. 'Pricilla Queen of the desert'
meets St Barts. The small town was invaded by most of the 2500 mainly
American guys, all in good spirits, strutting around the designer shops and
restaurants.
We were a little sad to see the cruise ship leave this
morning replaced by a square rigger.
We are intending to go ashore today to find wifi and
update this blog and hopefully post some pictures of-----
Sailing towards Antigua----and in English
Harbour
Barbuda 12 mile beach
St Barts---- Port Gustavia-----Town, interesting people,
Tenders arriving, Velsheda and Bystander.
We are heading for St Martins/St Marten tomorrow. It is
12 n miles away and is half French half Dutch. The regatta has just
finished and we hope to get a good anchorage. We intend to stay a couple of days
before heading north to the BVI's. We are watching the weather for a good safe
window.
Love to all
Tina and Tony x x x x
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