St. Barths and St. Martin
Posh Gustavia, beautiful sailboats and a boat hitchhiker couple.
In the early hours of the morning we set sail towards Saint Martin, where we want to meet ROCINANTE again. Things go well at first, but then the wind almost dies. We decide to go to Saint Barthelemy (Saint Barths) instead, then sail to Saint Martin a few days later with good winds.
We anchor right next to ALEXANDRA in front of Gustavia, this small and rather posh little town. The next day we explore the place where preparations for the ‘bucket regatta’ are underway. We make our way to the well-known landing strip for small aircraft, where the planes have to aim for the runway over a roundabout so steeply that they almost brush against the sculpture on the roundabout and spectators. The cars at the roundabout have to stop for a moment each time and let the planes pass. It is highly entertaining and we wait for another plane, then another and another…
At the roundabout on the hill one can marvel at the planes on perhaps the craziest landing approach in the world.
Between the town and the runway there is a beautiful botanical garden ‘Le Jardin’, where we admire cacti and the red lighthouse. In the crystal clear water off Gustavia we often see turtles. It’s wonderful to see so many beautiful old and new sailing ships. Most of them are doing trials for the regatta. The next day we set off to ‘Île Fourchue’ to pick up a mooring buoy. It is abeautiful bay with very gusty winds and slightly rolly. The regatta takes the boats around Saint Barths and the associated islands. They also go around ‘Île Fourchue’ depending on the race course set and we can see the ships come around the corner well heeled. The gusty wind makes them heel even more and some crews are having trouble to control their overcanvassed ships.
We move to Saint Martin with a beautiful day of sailing in moderate winds. The wind is quite gusty around the western end of Saint Martin. When we almost reach Marigot Bay, we decide against anchoring there. Instead, we anchor in the lee of the island at Simpson Bay in the Dutch part because there are much smaller waves there. The island is divided into two parts. The south is Dutch, dominated by hotels and relatively expensive. The north of the island is French, less posh and super friendly. We like Marigot and the surrounding area. From the Dutch side we set off with the dinghy through Marigot Bay to the French side, where our friends are at anchor, and spend the afternoon together. At sunset, the children of several family boats play on the market square in Marigot and the adults have a beer and discuss boats and boat school. The next day we move to Marigot where we spend time with ROCINANTE and other children’s boats.
And then it’s time to say goodbye to ROCINANTE after lovely weeks of being together. They are on their way home and we won’t see them again until we’re back in Switzerland. We are saying goodbye to some friends’ boats these days as we will sail east again to Antigua and Guadeloupe.
We explore Marigot with the fort and the lagoon and meet ALEXANDRAa again and a Swedish couple who sail on THETYS.
At the dinghy dock in Marigot we meet Aline and Demian, a Swiss couple with some sailing experience. They are are looking for a sailing opportunity. We’re really enjoying our family time at the moment, we’ll have visitors soon and we don’t want any guest on the boat right now.
We meet them again and again and on the third day we discuss, whether they’d be willing to sail with us to Antigua and support us on the boatyard with painting and sanding.
They both agree and so they live in our guest cabin from that evening. We sail to the next bay north ‘Friar’s Bay Beach’ and the next day to ‘Île Tintamarre’ — Color of the Sea — an island on the northeastern tip of Saint Martin. The ‘White Beach’ is beautiful and we decide to stay here for another day before we head off to Antigua.
