January 7th, Anguilla
For New Years, in St. Martin, we got three fireworks shows. The one at Orient Beach, where we were at, another one we could see from the other side of the island, and even the one from Anguilla. Orient Beach was fun. We knew it was incredibly touristy, but it's a nice 3 mile long beach with something for everyone. We got free showers at Club Orient, free internet, free laundry (shhhh), met great people, and got chores done. One day we had raw sea urchins (uni) and conch chowder for dinner - they are both abundant there, just under and around the boat.
The wind vane on the top of our mast has been in need of replacement
since we first got the boat. It was one of those projects that we were
going to get around to. We finally did. I hoisted Christine up
the mast riding halyards in the bosun's chair. She was a trooper,
suspended almost 50' off the water, once to take off the part,
and then again to put the new one on.
We explored the nearby islands of Green Cay, and Isle Pinel
.
Then, on the 6th, we set off to Tintamarre island (in the background)
where we had a mud treatment on the beach, and brunch before setting off on
a great wing to wing downwind sail for Anguilla.
Anguilla has been occupied for thousands of years by the Arawaks, who named the island, "Malliouhana": arrow-shaped sea serpent. Columbus sailed by in 1493, but didn't land. In modern times, it was part of a federation with St. Kitts and Nevis, but revolted, separated, and now, for about 40 years, remains a British oversea territory.
Anguilla is expensive. Our guidebook says, "Anguilla has a reputation as an expensive destination because...well, it is." Ha ha. Oh, and they have rules, rules, rules, and fines, fines, fines. Yuck. For instance, if you jet ski anywhere you are fined $5,000 US, spend jail time, and they steal - I mean "confiscate" your jet ski. If you put down something on your form that is not true you are fined $20,000 US and/or spend 2 years in jail. Phweew. The laundry list of things you can't do is oppressive - oops, I mean impressive.
I checked into the friendly Customs and Immigration in Road Bay and was informed of where we can (or rather can't) go - you need permission, a cruising permit, an anchoring permit, and a letter of recommendation from the Pope to move around. Well, maybe the letter can be waived if you kiss up. If you want to see another cove/beach/island/anchorage/anything, it costs $53.00 US per day. Even if you want to take the little dinghy around the corner out of Road Bay it still costs $53 bucks. "The little boat is part of the big boat" I was told. They were all smiles, like when you are raking in a huge pot at the poker table after bluffing and can't believe you got away with it. In relative terms you can feed more than 2 dozen people chicken bbq in St. Martin for that price - each day. So, most boats stay in the harbor. Even the locals go to St. Martin to shop for goods. It used to be different, of course, but sadly, they have hiked fees out of control and overbuilt the hell out of the place. The landscape is blighted by massive development. 3.4 billion dollars was approved last year for even more projects as there is still a few square meters that is not developed. They were trying to add another 4,380 rooms, just piling them on top of each other, apparently. Sadly for their bottom line and the U.S. funding banks, happily for the environment, however you look at it, they went bust, of course, and there will be 4,380 less rooms clogging things up.
What would a place like this do for fun? Looking over the "Official Island Guide" I see January has one event - Police Week! Book your tickets now, folks. It is January 25-31.
That being said, we are exploring the sights by land. No public
transportation, of course, but the Anguillan's are very friendly people and
usually pick you right up. We got a ride today without even asking. If
you squint your eyes, block out the concrete jungle backdrop, you can see
how it once was - quite
pretty. Shoal Bay: 
January 17 St. Barts, French West Indies
Little Bay, Anguilla was our next stop (by
land) and the following day we headed out for it. It is off the beaten
track and takes an effort to get there - just what we like. So we set
off on foot and once on the road, a local business owner picked us up.
We would have been very happy to get dropped off in town a few miles away,
where he was going, but he took us right to Little Bay, even going off-road
over rocky terrain and locating the trailhead for us. We might have
never found it otherwise. Thanks Malcom.
We had a great time.
A fly fisherman (Italian, I think) came in by hired boat and started fishing
(highly illegal). He caught a fish and was pulling in, when BAMM! A
big fish, likely a barracuda, chomped the body off, leaving only the head to
pull in. Later, we walked the six miles back to the boat (although
offered a ride along the way) so we could see the sights along the way,
and get some exercise, as the next day we would be sailing all day.
In all, we like Anguilla because of the friendly people. And if you stay in Road Bay, which is one of the nicest anchorages on the island, you can get free, tasty, desalinated water and showers on the beach, as well as free internet from the boat, if you are close and have a wifi booster.
After visiting the three best spots on the island, we think, and the main town, we headed out the following day. A smooth wing to wing sail to the western end, a motor up Anguilla channel around the east end of St. Martin, and a great sail to Ile Fourchue, a nice, protected island offshore St. Barts.
Here, we spent a day and two nights. We
snorkeled the rocky reefs, and I killed the Chia-pet monster aka Medusa
growing on the underside of Gypsy Cat. Later I explored the island and
hiked to the summits of this Santorini-like, half-sunken volcano.
(That is St. Martin in the background.) St. Barts is only a few miles
south, and I could see the Maltese Falcon sticking out of Gustovia harbor.
Ile Fourchue is privately owned. I wonder if they would like to sell?
The next day, dawn arrived along with rainbows
all over - we counted six in a short time.
It was just a short upwind motor over to St. Barts.
We took up a free mooring in Anse du Grand Colombier, a great anchorage.
.
Soon, megayachts started appearing around us (and having great difficulty
anchoring). The one practically on top of us put out both bow anchors
right next to each other (duh), a few feet abeam of us (duh), without
putting out enough scope (duh), and spent the day swinging left to right in
back of us, then, in the evening, spent another hour (several crew) trying
to reset them. I gave them about a 75% chance of hitting us - even with bow
an stern thrusters racing. (No picture so as to protect the innocent owners and
guests).
Actually, we watched many boats that day, big and small, try to pick up a
mooring and/or anchor and a lot couldn't do it. At least a half dozen
gave up and left. By the way, it took months to understand the enjoyment
watching the anchoring and mooring of neighboring boats. We didn't
understand what was so fascinating, as many or most boaters all watch you
when you come in and anchor. After all this time, I now get it.
It is like a show. Some of the audience refresh their drinks, others stop what they
are doing, cockpits and decks suddenly fill up. If you like to
people-watch, it is the Cirque du Soleil on the water. Some competent
and graceful, most not, but always entertaining. For instance, one
charter came in going for a mooring. (These are hands-down the best show!)
There were several on deck giving unique hand signals and futilely shouting
directions to the helmsman. Once in range, the boat hook guy grabbed
the line. Holding on but not able to pass the line through and
drifting back, he lost the boat hook in the water. All hell broke out,
as the boat blew sideways, another guy jumped overboard for the boat hook,
while the rest were screaming directions. The boat-hook-savior
held on to the mooring ball as he screamed for a line to hook, which, sadly
they were not able to do. They eventually just anchored. Another
boat came in "hot" (fast) tripped the anchor while charging forward, then
drove around for awhile until all his line was out, apparently. He
spent quite awhile retrieving it. This is one reason why I always
anchor upwind of most boats, when possible, and always upwind and away from
a charter.
Snorkeling is good here in Colombier. We counted six different sea turtles at one time, and had a nosy little shark under the boat watching me bottom clean. Very curious, he just kept circling. I would stop what I was doing, and swim after him sometimes, and he would swim away, but always came back to watch.
We hitched a ride to the charming port town of
Gustavia from a friendly French guy, and did the tourist thing (except for
the high-end duty-free shopping, of course).
The name St. Barts is really St. Barthelemy, but aka St. Barts, aka St. Barth, aka St-Barth's, aka St. Bart's, aka St. Barths, etc. but the "h" is always silent. Columbus sighted St. Barts in 1493, and named it after his older brother Bartholomeo (was he a saint?? Hmmm.) The native Caribs killed the first Euro attempt at settling, as they liked to do, but there wasn't much Arawak or Carib presence, apparently, due to the inhospitable landscape and lack of freshwater. Nowadays, it is mostly white Euro population - rare for the West Indies. St. Barts is widely known for being the jet-setting hot spot for the rich and famous and expensive. So, where do we stock up on French wine? Right here!!!!!! And fromage (cheese), yogurt, butter, French Chocolate, etc. Yes, we are even paying sorry US dollars in a full Eurodollar economy with the going exchange rate. Why, you ask?
They sell some, or maybe all French products here cheaply (at about the French mainland price) without the extra taxes, import costs, etc. and it is "duty free". I think it is subsidized - I will have to find out. But you find French "Two-buck-chuck" table wine for 2 Euro and change. And champagne (well, sparkling wine from outside Champagne, but it's French, and not out of a vat) for less than 2 Euro. And the common table wine from France is usually quite tasty. And the yogurt, cheese, butter, pate, chocolate, etc. Yummmmm.
After exploring Gustavia, another friendly
French, this time a lady, gave us a lift to the beach. She was a
boater and once she and her husband landed at St. Barts, many years ago,
they decided to stay. We got out at Baie de St. Jean beach
,
where we hung out before taking a scenic hike around Anse des Flamands
,
back to Colombier.
Next day, I took the dinghy around the corner, in rough conditions, to Gustavia. I arrived completely soaked and picked up French wine, baguettes, pate, ice, etc. We later tasted the cheap French sparkling wine and it was great. Not Moet Chandon good, but much, much better than our $8 US "award winning" "wine of the year" we got in Florida. We still have a case of it left but now will not save it as the French do it so much better. And for less than 2 Euro! And the white wine is delicious too, of course. So, imagine our situation, sitting on our boat in St. Barts near the beach, sipping French "champagne", eating our Nova Scotia lox, cream cheese, tomatoes and onions on baguette, while watching sea turtles swim around us. Just another day in the islands.
Shell Beach is a short walk to Gustavia, the main port town, and I checked it out and found it protected from the wind and sea nicely, so I moved us over to it. It would seemingly be crowded with boats, but it is not. It's likely because the holding is bad for anchoring. While in crowded Gustavia harbor, where 99% of the boats are, you have to pay per day to anchor. For us (our size boat) it would be 11 Euro. But Shell Beach is free, and it is beautiful. The beach sand has tons of shells which are too light for the anchor to hold well, which I found out once we arrived. But the cove is so nice, and convenient, that I worked on getting them held as we wanted to stay for the remainder of time in St. Barts. This is my "job" fixing the situation: First, hop in the dinghy and go near shore at the side of the beach where there is a rocky area and find a spot to drop the Delta anchor in like a wedge. Then, loosen the stern anchor line, and quickly take the bow anchor for a ride in the dinghy taking most of the bow anchor line. Drop it near the spot, jump out of the dinghy and hand set the anchor in the wedge - perfect. Then dinghy back to the boat, pull the bow anchor line in more, moving the boat forward, leaving more scope for the stern anchor. And finally (dive after dive), digging a hole near the Danforth stern anchor, dropping the anchor in the hole, pounding it down with a rock, filling the hole, and bringing a ton of big rocks to make a little mountain on top. Re-adjust lines, and, Presto! No drag. Ideal.
Now, last night, we walked around town, and coming back, as I was holding the dinghy for Christine in the surf zone, a little wave hit and got to the camera in my pocket. So, for awhile, there will not be any pictures here. : ( That was camera number four.
Right now, we are sitting under a gazebo at Gustavia harbor, getting our free internet AND free power (with a French electrical adapter), eating a baguette, pate, and chocolate while watching the harbor. Then, it is off to the beach.
January 26th, St. Barts, French West Indies - (one year ago today we arrived in Florida)
Sadly, we are about to leave St. Barts. But, we must be moving on. I am checking us out after updating the site. We've spent the last week or so hitting the beaches, of course, and touring around the island with friendly people picking us up off the side of the road. Some people drove out of their way to drop us off at our destination. Some would hop out of the car, re-arrange their stuff, apologizing even. Others took us along with them while they went about their business, i.e. one was property management, one was a developer, another picking his kids up. Always smiling - happy, friendly people.
Christine was on a brief "groupie kick" trying to find Jimmy Buffet. He was here and likes to play little venues. His sea plane was parked at the airport here, and he just played at a place. She didn't know who he was until she got a book of his at a book exchange. He is really big in the islands. His song, "Cheese Burger in Paradise" is officially "Le Select" which is THE place to hang out and people watch. So we did one night. Burgers were of the carnival/theme park variety but it's a must-do place and the prices are right compared to the "normal" St. Barts cuisine.
Here are some interesting things about St. Barts:
1) Properties are all millions of Euros each. Everyone's house is a "villa" even if it is a one bedroom shack. The starting rental price is 4-5,000 Euros per week, doubling in the high season. So, just about everyone is a millionaire here. So, what do they drive? Practical, inexpensive cars! No pretentiousness here at all. We did not see one luxury car at all throughout the island - not one! The "nicest" one we saw was just an old Land Rover.
2) There is no fast food or chain restaurants and no mega-resorts! There are also no fat people (oops, I mean...gravitationally challenged). Everyone is slim and trim - all ages! It's remarkable to see an older man or woman walk down the beach, strip down to a monokini and look great, and dive into the surf swimming laps across the bays. Yet, here, it is as common as a baguette.
3) There are no taxes on food, drink, or anything else I could
find. The "champagne" I mentioned earlier is not subsidized like I
thought, but there is just no alcohol tax. After getting our case
discount, our sparkling wine came out to be 1.4 Euros each, that's $2 after
paying with our sorry U.S. dollars! So, we bought out the warehouse,
literally.
(By the way, I am posting crap-resolution photos from my video camera until
I get another good camera).
4) They do not have a high-school or a college on St. Barts. They just ship them off to Nice, Paris, or maybe London or the states.
The only "bad" things, are that there is no propane gas on the island (the French use butane), and there is a Dengue Fever outbreak here now. 42 new cases reported the last week with two of them needing hospitalization. So, we are going to run out of propane in a couple days, and Christine is spraying more Deet on us.
Next stop: Saba, the little, volcanic peak of an island just 28 miles away; 249 degrees magnetic - a nice broad reach.
February 30, St. Eustatius "Statia", West Indies
Our sail from St. Barts to Saba was fun - about 20 knots of wind with 6-8' following seas, so we surfed wing-to-wing about half the way over. When we arrived, we looked for a mooring ball around Fort Bay, the little port on the waterfront, where Customs and Immigration is. There were only mooring balls for the many dive boats there. Anchoring is not advised, as it drops off very deep, very quick. So, we went around the corner to Ladder Bay, and picked up one there. Although on the leeward side, the wind still whips around the north in a normal east wind, so we were only protected from the open swells.
I wanted to take the dinghy over to Fort Bay in the morning and clear customs, but nature laughed and said, "I don't think so". Although the weather forecast was relatively benign for the next week, we got progressively worse weather as the morning hours went on. I was clocking wind speed as it got up to 30...then 40... then gusts were coming in over 50 knots. While watching my anemometer hit 60 knots, I caught a glimpse of a huge object getting launched into the air behind me - it was the dinghy. Launched off a wave, it reached the highest altitude of it's life spinning like a top, reluctantly coming back to earth by it's tether. And the small item that was going into orbit was....my foot pump.
Well, as Saba is so small, Customs sees and knows all and requested our presence on shore (or at least our wallet). We got some gentle coaxing to check in, by way of a wetsuit-clad Marine Patrol. I told him I would check in when the weather was better, and would not risk my life in a dinghy until the conditions eased. Well, he said there were mooring balls in the Fort Bay area for us and that the wind was a bit less, the seas were higher, but we had to check in. So, we took Gypsy Cat around and looked. Jeez, I had to laugh. They put the mooring balls into the frigging open ocean away from "civilization". What the hell? It's bad enough to be on the south side of an island (with normal east trade winds) - and have no protection. But way out there? Well...ok, I guess.
Our guidebook says "Like all good hidden kingdoms, Saba doesn't come easily, and the cruising sailor who wishes to visit must be prepared to pay the price of possible frustration in the face of the elements." This was going through my head, while preparing the dinghy for launch. Tied to the mooring in these conditions was like this: Try standing in your dinghy alongside your boat holding on while doing 4 knots directly into 6' seas in a good head-wind. Sometimes the dinghy and boat go up and down on the same swell, other times you go up 5' while the boat drops 5,' each time splashing spray over you while it slams you into the side of the boat. Fun, right? Then calmly walk the 5 HP outboard motor down the transom steps and load it on the dinghy. After thrashing around and smacking into the boat over and over like an unconscious boxer waiting to fall, yet the blows keep coming, and the vertebrae in your neck pop around like a Pachinko machine, you finish up and are ready to go ashore.
Saba, is a little 5 square mile, almost 3000' peak volcanic island that sits like a little Shangri-la all on it's own. There are no beaches - it rises right out of the ocean. The towns in the interior are very cute and charming - the total island population is about 1500, with a medical school that has about 400 students. Columbus sailed by on his second voyage and just kept going (maybe he couldn't find the mooring balls either). Most people who visit seem to be divers (the diving seems excellent) or day-trippers who take the ferry from St. Martin. Our guidebooks differ on how to pronounce Saba. The local islanders say "say-ba" but it is Dutch so the Dutch pronounce it "saw-ba". It has one of the shortest airport runways in the world being slightly longer than an aircraft carrier.
We spent a couple days enjoying the interior. One of the towns is called, "Hells Gate". That is where you will find the Holy Rosary Church. Don't know if that fact helps attendance or hurts it. It is easy to get around and up and down the steep streets. Everyone picks you up happily if you want. One of our guidebooks says, ""Hitchhiking is so common and necessary that it is illegal not to pick up a hitchhiker." One lady, "Evans" took us on a little tour, to her favorite spot overlooking the ocean, showing us different things in the town, and showing us the organic garden that her social program has. The gardener caretaker, Manuel, from Cuba, was introducing the organic methods and teaching students there. He showed us all around educating us and sampling the crops.
We hiked to the summit, Mt. Scenery, which is the highest point in the
Netherlands territory. This is the view looking down (not my picture)
It was gorgeous, and far removed from the
typical Caribbean feel. The lush cloud forest was very muddy and
sometimes steep, but well
worth the effort. The volcano last erupted about 5,000 years ago.
Well, as much as we liked Saba, the conditions were rough and we wanted to get to a calmer anchorage. Saba was by far the roughest. So, after a few days, we took off for St. Eustatius, or "Statia" as it's normally called. A short but challenging, wet, ride, got us there in about 7 hours. The seas were about 8-10' and we had to beat it into the wind. I found that our motor won't turn to port, and our port rudder just dangles. So, I rigged up a line to manually pull the motor over when I wanted to go to port. And I can sail without steering by balancing the sails, so having one rudder was fine. That got us here.
In the morning, the patrol came out early at 8AM going to all the boats. Uh, oh, bad sign - usually it's an indication that they are gouging visitors with excessive fees. One boat simply left after he came by. Sure enough. In addition to paying customs again even though we did not change countries (Saba and Statia are both Netherland Antilles), everyone also has to pay per-day ($10.00 US) to the marine park. Funny though - seems the money is for the environment, which is very cool. Yet, they claim it is for, in part ..."dive moorings" (but they make you pay dive companies to dive, not letting you go on your own - so why do they not cover this cost?), ..."recreational use and tanker impacts" (there is absolutely no recreational use - all jet skis are banned, and nobody does watersports) and (they have huge incomes from their "oil bunking" business. Oil is transported from the middle east and "bunked" here until a western country comes and picks it up. There are several oil tankers buzzing around. Seems to me that the oil companies should pay for this - not the guys in the sailboats), and lastly, ..."tourism enhancement" (now why would we want to pay for that?) They even want fees to go for a hike!
It is ironic. Statia made tons of money centuries ago, by making it a duty-free island. Everyone got rich and the population was over 20,000. (Now, it is less than 3,000.) It was the largest port at the time and able to handle a couple hundred ships at the docks. Trade was the usual Caribbean trade at the time: slaves, sugar, salt, rum, but also munitions for the colonies in the U.S. It's other claim to fame was that Statia was the first foreign power to officially recognize the new American government by saluting the U.S. vessel Andria Doria, which was even carrying a copy of the Constitution of the U.S. Well, the Brits led by Admiral George Rodney, sadly, found that to be a good reason to bomb Statia and ransack and pillage it.
Statia has a couple of beaches - both dark sand. One sits next to the dump, while the other has a view of oil tankers and sits with industrial shipping containers and machinery. However, it is unspoiled by tourism, off the beaten track, and the people are very friendly. We'll stay a few days exploring everything and provisioning, and then head out to St. Kitts.