On to St Barts

The last time I went ashore in St. Barts was 25 years ago. Ive sailed past it many times since because it is so  crowded to anchor. This time however was the same but different. The sail up wind from St. Martin was all done in 18- 25 knt winds taking 4 tacks to make the beautiful anchorage of Anse Du Colombier. Of course Wild Bird beat us there but only by about 15 minutes. Hogfish does well to weather pointing just as well as this 74" deep Van De Stat design but not fast enough to weather. We carried full sail easily but Wild Bird had a reefed main and Genoa.  I love chasing other boats as it really gets you to try and sail better to weather. We came in under sail and anchored right off the beach.

Rachel giving her best St. Barts pout. Hogfish and Wild Bird behind her.

Hiking to the highest mountain around the next day shows how pretty it is and how many yachts are about in todays world. Being in the Carribean in the summer is different as not to many boats but you have to be ready to take off if I hurricane is coming.

The bay is getting smaller as we go up the trail.

At the top looking to the eastward. We are heading for the beach ahead and then will back track along the shore. All the roads here are poured in concrete with elaborate stone work every where. All the houses are built beautifully and are well built to withstand the storms sea and salt. I like the way they have been very careful in cutting into the hillsides on this island. Very little visible scaring.

Gayle posing along a standard road and rock wall. The grades here are like living in Knob hill in San Fransico. Very steep.

No snow and ice here so who cares!

These tortoises roam freely about the islands down here. Pip and Gem have no idea what this thing is.

Walking back along the shoreline.

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Rachel spent a month a few years ago as a nanny to my old bosses new child on St Barts staying in his new villa. She had a blast and was spoiled rotten by him as he has done very well in life. Needless to say she likes St Barts very much.

These islands have lots of dry cactus areas on the windward sides as the rain tends to be dumped on the leeward side.

Rachel on Shell  beach. I found lots of broken sea glass that Iam sure was from the original Jack Sparrows drinking binges from years gone by on this beach.

Standard photo of the harbor. The intresting thing is so far most basic food items in the grocery stores are not much more than in the states. Resturants are different but still not by much. I think the U.S. Is getting to be very expensive. All the islands so far are better as when you buy a beer they are a buck or two. Try finding that in the states in a chichi place that has topless girls on the beach and its not a national crisis .

Eating lunch with David and Samina at their beach front house. Years ago I built a house for David in Grenada. I will be posting that story soon here. We all used to race on Davids yachts in the regattas down here. 

St. Barts is a very fun place . I could live here. They have a very good tax code. Unfortunately in the hurricane season you have to have a place to put your boat which is not here. The harbor is very crowded with tons of local boats on moorings plus all the charter yachts. You need a very good car here to drive up the inclines. Plus you will have to get used to looking at and being around lots of good looking people. Yes there were lots of topless girls about . Ill be back.

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St Barts to Statia

 Statia island has a wonderful extint or dormant volcano on it that is a good hike up and down into. A 3,000 ft. Climb. Tim and Gayle had hiked ten years before and wanted to do it again.

One of the things you have to get used to sailing down here is that all these islands are little nations and think they are big nations so they take all immigration and customs very seriously. Plus I think its good business for them as it puts locals into a lifetime job. Every place you go to has at least two pages of paper work that has to be filled out at the minimum. Plus they charge you different port fees and so on. The French countries dont charge and are very relaxed which is nice.

I think what I would do is make all the countries have the exact same crew list form. You make 20 copies for all the islands , go in hand them a copy with the cash they want,and they just make you sign a piece of paper that has the rules on it for that country which would all be the same, dont work without a permit,no fishing, dress modestly and so on and if you break the rules you cant come back for awhile. Its like driving in the states and having to clear into each county in each state. So it takes a bit of time but 90% of the local officers are very nice. 

This is the volcano were going to climb.

Rounding the leeward part of the island with this huge white wall of limestone rock that was pushed up from the bottom with the last volcanic eruption about 1,600 years ago.

Anchored in the bay.

The fort. All these places have great forts as everyone back in the day were at war with each other.

Old store house on the shoreline. 

Starting up the climb about half way.

Rachel on one of the lesser rim peaks.

You could see SABA, St. Martin and St Barts that day. 

Going down into the volcano.

Big trees in the bottom of the crater

Almost at the top of the rim looking SE over to St. Kitts. Perfect day for hiking.

Looking back down at our boats at anchor. The last parts of the trail had ropes to aid in getting up the rocks. Was too steep for the dogs.

A selfie at the top.

Statia was a very nice quiet settlement. The island gets a lot of revenue from the oil industry that stores its oil there . For a small population of less than 3,000 people I have never seen so many new cars, and so many hugely obese West Indians. There is very little turisum there but everyone seems to be over fed. The other sad thing we observed was when talking to the young teenagers at the town dock, they were asking about our dog ,none of them knew the names of their neighboring islands. Within 50 miles of this island are 13 other bigger islands and 8 are independent nations. It was like asking an American what that huge island nation is thats 50 miles off the coast of Florida. Ah... Bermuda? Barbuda? Barbados? Bonaire? Oh I know ! Its that communist place with all the terrorists called Cuba. 

Thats why I like being in the Bahamas as most Americans belive it has only one island called Atlantis.

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