St. Martin to St. Bart’s

A beautiful, sunny morning marked the departure from St. Martin for St. Bartholomew’s (or St. Bart’s as is it known). The photo above shows the blue water of Simpson’s Bay with a cruise ship heading toward Philipsburg.  The water was a beautiful shade of turquoise as the boat plied the water toward St. Bart’s which was visible in the distance.

Unfortunately, the lovely day was short lived as a line of squalls appeared on the horizon.  Soon the boat was being lashed with rain and tossed about the water like a cork in a washing machine.  One of the things I pride myself on is that I virtually never get seasick, but the boat was corkscrewing through the waves being flung up over the bow and I felt my stomach start to turn.  Ugh.  On and on it went, and I felt so ill that I was sitting in the cockpit right where the rain and spray from the waves was coming in drenching me.  Soon I was cold, wet and seasick-a very unpleasant combination to say the least, and I finally moved to the other side of the boat where I was out of the rain. Well, duh, why didn’t I do that before I got drenched? Guess I felt too sick to think straight.  I started pleading with Neptune and the gods of the seas to give it a break and let the squalls pass, but I was not in their favor that day so the rolling continued until the boat was nearing the island. I had finally lay down in the cockpit with clenched teeth, eyes squeezed shut, stomach heaving and counting minutes until the storm passed.  I’m afraid I was no help on that passage, but in actuality, the trip was only a few hours, it just seemed like forever to me. The squalls finally quit about the time we were nearing the coast. Once the sea settled down, so did my tummy and I sat up to a view of large sailboats going full out around the top side of the island as this was the week of the Heineken Bucket regatta and sailors from all over had come to participate in the races. We had to anchor near the entrance to Gustavia along with many other boats. Those large rock formations spring up from the sea all over the islands.

The capitol city of St. Bart’s is Gustavia. There isn’t much else on the island as it is a getaway for the rich and famous. Many of the elite set have vacation homes in St. Bart’s where they can relax far away from the hassles of their hectic lives.  I saw and advertisement for a local watering hole featuring photos of some of their clientele and easily recognized Dustin Hoffman, Angelica Houston and other notables, some Hollywood glitterati, some political.

The anchorages were filled with large racing sailboats, luxury motor yachts and smaller craft all come to experience race week. Here is an example of one of the really big sailboats. 

This thing is well over 100 feet long and there were quite a number of them in St. Bart’s for the races. Amazing to think how much money goes into these boats and their crew.

The town of Gustavia was crowded with sailors, race organizers and spectators. Tents had been erected for the events accompanying the race.  These racers are a serious bunch, which you can imagine with all the money that goes into the whole racing circuit, but they party like college kids after the racing is done.  A visit to town the ‘morning after’ showed signs of serious celebrating as I noticed beer bottles lying all over (Heineken of course) along with cocktail glasses, race paraphernalia and other signs of a good time had by all.  The town itself is really very tiny; you could walk all over it in 30 minutes.  No large hotels or tall buildings mar the landscape as much of the town has preserved its historic character.  There is a main harbor in the town with moorings for boats, many of which stay there permanently, making it difficult to find space there. Most people visiting St. Bart’s have to anchor outside this area.  Small bars and restaurants line the harbor along with the preserved buildings built when the town was formed. 

 

There is an old church, still in operation, which sits just off the bulkhead of the town harbor.

 

The island was named in honor of Christopher Columbus’ brother and I found that almost every island in the Caribbean seems to have been ‘discovered’ by Columbus. Signs of his presence are everywhere throughout the islands which he did indeed manage to step foot onshore and proclaim for the crown.  He also managed to install his relatives as governors and other political positions on various islands ensuring full employment for the Columbus clan.

The town of Gustavia is charming and one can well imagine the days when tall, square riggers sat anchored in the harbor and sailors of old walked the streets.

            

 

Some of the buildings have lovely detail, like these fancy balconies with their lacey overhangs and these elephant door pulls:

 

A weekend in St. Bart’s is pretty much enough to see everything and I was ready to leave as the anchorage was quite roll-y and while there I discovered that our refrigeration had quit working. It seemed that there was something broken on the boat on a regular basis.  I found myself wishing, like a friend of mine once said, for ‘a day when nothing breaks.’

Plans were to head to Anguilla from St. Bart’s but a decision was made to go back to St. Martin where the refrigeration could be repaired.  I am also happy to report that the trip back was nothing like the one over!