Tuesday 28 Jan - St Barts

True Colours
James Scrimshaw
Fri 31 Jan 2014 00:56

Position 17:09.07N 062:37.88W

So the best laid plans…. Listening to the cruisers net run by Shrimpy at 07.30, he gave a weather forecast that showed 15-20 Kn for today, and then 20-25 Kn for the rest of the week. So we leapt into action. Quick shop at the supermarket (run out of Gordon’s Gin, and the discount drink shop next door was not open at 9.00), back to the boat to find that the bridge opening was at 10.30, not 11.00 as we thought. Pay the marina, leave the berth (marina staff could not have been more helpful , including a rib driver who pushed the bow through the wind as we left) join the queue for the bridge and then through.

We then had to anchor to go back to clear customs – after several attempts we got the anchor to hold, so James set off in the tender leaving Rosemary to mind the boat. We then had to hoist the engine from the tender to the transom mount which proved surprisingly easy, and eventually off we set at 12.00, for the 15 miles upwind leg to St Barts, arriving (with some help from Mr Yanmar) at about 17.00. We picked up a mooring in the marine reserve which was a nice spot (no roads to the beach, only one house, built by the original Mr Rockefeller who owned the bay). Only issue was that the wind whistled through a gap in the hills with variable direction, there was a current which seemed at odds with the wind and as a result the mooring buoy was constantly banging against the hull – we decided to sleep in the saloon to minimise the sound. We weren’t being picked on – all neighbouring boats were following the same dance.

This effect also made picking up the buoy problematical – Rosemary successfully hooked the buoy at first attempt, and then the current swept the boat over the buoy – result one bent boat hook. Thanks to the French couple on the next boat who were passing in their tender and threaded out mooring lines through the buoy.