We left St Kitts on a sunny morning with light breezes from behind.  We had a sweet downwind sail right into the beginning of St Barts harbor, where we motored in, threading our way in between hundreds of boats, anchored in brilliant clear turquoise waters surrounded  by green mountainside, and buildings with red roofs. Not unlike Portugal!!   Only more green on the mountain, and more clear in the water!!

 

We were warned this place was expensive, so it should have been no shock to dinghy in and look way up at shiny mega yachts whose designer colored fenders were bigger than our boat.   But they are Super Mega Giga Yachts after all.  The town is beautiful, extremely quaint, brick palm tree lined  streets, and  the buildings are almost 100% geared to high end shopping. No China stores here!  (like dollar stores in the US, )  Lots of gifty shops and boutiques selling beach clothes  pushing 4 digits in price,  cafes, (the famous “Cheeseburger In Paradise”)   and a gourmet food shop that had food that looked like art, including  little  tiny packs of goat cheese for $12, and a  small, but gourmet chocolate bar for  over $10.  I can live another 2 years with out chocolate!!! 

   Next to another, and  realistically priced grocery store is a Louie Vitton store that had a hammock in the window with a $36,000 price tag on it.  (well, no actual tag, we asked inside)   Thirty Six THOUSAND dollars for a hammock.  That’s gotta be some nap.

Our new crew  Chris, arrived by way of ferry from St Martin, and the next day we all went to the beach by the airport and spend some quality time sunning and swimming before heading out once again.  The beach was very nice, surrounded by cafes, selling expensive drinks and designer sandwiches, but also having some of the coolest café furniture I’ve seen, stuck right into the sand.  There were hoards of tan young people sunning, drinking, some stand up paddling and some wind surfing.  But when a plane was heard coming in for a landing, it became entertainment, with people running along the beach, shielding their eyes looking up at the planes coming down to the landing that was nearly smack on the sand, all trying to capture the right photo-op!!!  Including me, who can’t  read French, and I stood right under the  low flying incoming plane next to a sign that said to” keep out”.   (I found out later)   Obviously I didn’t get hit, but boy it was close!!!

As nice, and clean, and pretty  the town and beaches of St Barts are, it is not me.    The anchorage however was the prettiest of all that we  visited in the Caribbean, considering the amazing color of the water, and the green trees and red roofs, and  the jaw dropping sunsets.  But I find more appeal in the homey peeling paint kind of place!!  And I don’t think I could actually sleep in a $36,000 hammock!