Photo: Lagoon bridge entrance, French side
We were up and away from Five Island Harbour, Antigua by 06:00 and motor sailed 73nm to Anse du Colombier St Barts, saying hi to Blue Heeler on the way as they were anchored in Gustavia, too bouncy for us. The Gustavia anchorage, the main town, had many mooring buoys and a large number of super yachts of all vintages, anchored out. Colombier Bay used to be owned by the Rockefellers and is now part of the National Park. There are mooring buoys to protect the sea grass and turtles, which having paid your 2 euro per person park fee, you can pick up or you can anchor in the middle of the bay. We only planned to stop overnight so we hoisted the yellow quarantine flag and relaxed for the evening. It was interesting seeing the coloured lights boats put on after dark, gone are the plain white or blue underwater lights, the catamaran next to us had blue changing to green underwater lights and purple lights in the cockpit and lighting it’s mast.
Wednesday 22nd March we left Colombier Bay and had a good wing on wing sail in 20 knots to St Martins. St Martins island is half French and half Dutch, the latter being the side where you anchor alongside the runway and get the spectacular photos of the planes in the background. Unfortunately the wind and swell conditions dictated we anchor on the French side in Marigot Bay. Marigot Bay is a large, shallow bay with room for heaps of boats. Once cleared in, either on the French or Dutch side, you are free to move around by dinghy, on foot or transport, it is only if you are moving the boat between the two sides that you need to clear in and out. We took the dinghy under the bridge into the lagoon. The bridge opens 3 times a day to allow yachts and larger boats to enter, there is a lagoon entrance on both the French and Dutch sides. The lagoon is sheltered and would not get any of the swell in the anchorages, however there are many shallow areas as can be seen by the sunken boats. It appears that many of the boats in the lagoon have not moved in a long time. On the Dutch side there are more marinas for boats of all sizes including some large super yachts.
We had been told by friends that a large dinghy and outboard were preferable for anchorages in the Caribbean. How true that statement has proven. Most places we have been, the dinghy ride into the dock has been longish, we may be saving on diesel for the Dol with sailing, but we are needing more petrol for the dinghy outboard.
We found the Port Authority and cleared in, this must have been the most laid back customs official we have met, and we have had a few. From there, we went in search of Wi-Fi, with each island being a separate country, Wi-Fi is difficult. If this was our permanent cruising ground we would probably do something more lasting. We found very good Wi-Fi at Café de Brazil and managed to post our blogs.
St Martins is a duty free island and is known for its shopping and beaches. It is only 7 miles in any direction, like most of the Caribbean islands it is not large. Also like all the islands, they have their own brand of rum, it is often difficult to buy your favourite brand as they market their own. Brian has enjoyed sampling the various brands as we have travelled through the islands. We are not great shoppers, but do normally have a list for the chandleries, this time only small stuff. Brian has also arranged to have his dive compressor serviced here. We did buy a Wi-Fi booster which Brian installed, removing the now defunct weather fax, cable and whip aerial. There are several local supermarkets and we found the Carrefour more than met our needs. We did finally manage to solve the toilet problem, which had developed back pressure. After replacing every possible part, removing and checking all inlet and outlet pipes, we finally found a tiny sea shell inside the pump mechanism which must have been behaving like a valve. Oh the hours of frustration.
Sitting in the anchorage each day we would see a line of about 10 yellow inflatable dinghies blast through the anchorage, around the bay and back into the lagoon. Apparently that is all they did, you hire one and play follow the leader for half an hour and then go back to base.
We checked out on Saturday 25th March and had drinks with Ally and Wayne “Blue Heeler” and another Australian couple Gary and Louise “Taka Moana”.