St Thomas to St Barthelemy

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After the delivery of our school supplies to Jost Van Dyke Primary School, we had a weather window opening which caused us to depart BVIs after only being there 6 hours! No one goes to the BVIs for 6 hours, but that is what we did. This was very frustrating because it took away time we wanted to spend with the school and Ms. Blyden. But, when calm weather windows open and when you are trying to push east into the tradewinds, you go when they open. So, it was a rush back to St. Thomas to pick up our new Google Fi phones that Jenna shipped to us. We also received the shade fabric, Coolaroo, that we will use to cover the boat in Grenada. Everything arrived on time. Thanks to our great friend at home who manages our mail. Jenna is amazing!

Gale Pacific is the maker of Coolaroo, which is a 90% UV sunblock breathable shade cloth. We cover the boot with this when stored. 6’x100′ and 12′ x 50′ will wrap the entire yacht.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Moto X4 Google Fi phones. We wanted to try these out, and I have to say, these are fantastic phones for $150. Check out Google Fi, it’s amazing!

Off to St. Barth’s

It took about 2 hours on shore side WiFi to get our phones working and as soon as we had them connected to our Google Fi accounts, we lifted anchor and headed to sea around 1700 hours, departing with the cruise ships. We decided to skip St. Maarten since we have been there 4 times and we are trying to push east. So, St. Barth’s was another 15 nm east and that became our target. Look at the sea state, it was like a lake and we had a beautiful night at sea.

The calm ocean between USVI and St. Maarten was like a lake. Lucky us.

St. Barths’s is a very special place

Well known to the rich and famous, many of whom own homes here or send their mega yacht teams to back up the quay here, St. Barthelemy is special. We departed St. Thomas at 1700 and we sailed / motored into St. Barth’s at 1400. We anchored deep into the harbor to try and get away from the roll, but even that did not help. The harbor is very rolly with the boat rolling side to side nonstop. Even in the inner harbor, the mega yachts are rolling side to side and surging fore and aft off the quay and tugging on their anchors set in the middle of the harbor. I can not imagine many will stay long. Remember, this was in calm weather patterns; if a north swell is running this harbor must be really difficult to tolerate.

That said, the town is so lovely with businesses and homes built up the steep hillside. It is a hike up to the shops on the third or fourth street off the harbor. After 4 streets the hill is too steep to develop and that is it. The cars are all tiny, like smart cars and Fiats, the pickup trucks are small and even the concrete trucks are small because the roads are so narrow and very steep.  Here, small cars and scooters are the mode of transportation.  People so calm here. Everyone greets each other first with a hello and how are you? Then they chat a little bit and then deal with business. Very nice to see.

The main street on the waterfront, St. Barths
Scooters are the best mode of transportation
Narrow one lane streets, small cars needed for sure

Here is a photo essay of St. Barthelemy

Typical Sailing club on the harbor
One of the many dinghy docks around the inner harbor
The Anglican Church in St. Barth’s
The beautiful churchyard as seen from the street
The stonework is impressive
Businesses on the first floor, homes on the second floor
We really enjoyed looking at the stonework detail
Notice the lace curtains in the open air windows!
Radeen strikes a pose at a stone wall restoration site
The quay where yachts will back up to and drop an anchor via Med Moor
The main street on the waterfront
Mega Yacht SEVEN SINS on the quay. She is for sale for $30,000,000

After only 2 days, we moved on…

We only stayed two days because we are pushing to get east to Antigua and then sail south down the windward islands to Grenada. So, at 0200, we lifted the anchor and headed out the harbor past this anchored tall ship, Sea Cloud II…

Hello 0200, Tall Ship as we motor out of the harbor under radar and instruments!

Off to Antigua…

The 75 nm run to Antigua was aggressive as the winds came up, but that will be the next blog post. Thank you all for sailing along….

Our planned run to Antigua

Live Tracking Map here

Remember, you can always see where we are via this live Garmin Inreach tracking map. Plus you can zoom into an area and study the routes and times and speeds we have run. We find maps very interesting. Enjoy…

https://share.garmin.com/IslandSpirit

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4 Replies to “St Thomas to St Barthelemy”

  1. St. Barth’s is gorgeous. Looks like our kind of place. Would love to explore it some day. So happy to hear you are having a great trip. Thanks for the ride!

  2. We prefer the anchorage at Colombier to the “downtown” anchorage on St. Barth’s. Quite pretty and a nice hike up the hill there. Dinghy into town. Maybe next season. Also we are in Les Saintes at the south end of Guadeloupe now. Perhaps we’ll see you soon!

  3. $30 Mil for a boat? You two can handle that easy!

    Put down the deposit and we will watch it for you while you were away. Just make sure there is some Astroturf on board for the Doodles.

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