Sailing to St. Barths

April 5, 2011

We left the marina heading north to Tintmarre in heavy winds. We were having to tack to make headway north. About two hours into the journey we noticed that our dinghy was no longer attached to the boat! We turned around and began searching for it. Luckily we had taken the outboard engine off it before starting out. Amazingly, we were lucky enough to find our dinghy and were able to retrieve it. The bronze connector holding the dinghy bridle to the line had snapped. I guess due to metal fatigue. As were were headed back toward Marigot Bay anyway, we continued back into the bay where we anchored. We ended up spending another night in Marigot Bay. We put the dinghy on top of the boat and secured it. It was a calm evening with cocktails and dinner on board watching the sunset.

April 6, 2011

We began sailing again to St. Barths, his time going south toward Philipsburg, St. Martin. Unfortunately the winds were coming from the exact direction we had to sail so we were tacking. I thought we might end up in Saba. Finally we had to turn the engine on and motor sail to arrive before dark. We arrived about 5 p.m. to the Gustavia area. The anchorage was very packed with boats but we were finally able to find a place to anchor. Due to the depth being 30 feet we had to put out 150 ft of chain. The anchorage was crowded because St. Barths was holding a Regatta April 4-9. We didn't try to go check in due to the time but had cocktails and dinner on board, enjoyed the starry night and pretty lights on some of the big yachts there.

April 7, 2011

After we got the dinghy back into the water and the outboard on it, Charlie took the dinghy into Gustavia Port to check us and the boat in. He came back to pick me up and we went ashore to explore. We are lunch at Le Select a popular bar which has been open since 1949. It has numerous tables under trees in a courtyard. Basically it serves hamburgers, hotdogs and fries. It was packed, mostly with french-speaking patrons. the Regatta had a lay day so many crew members were on shore. After lunch we explored some more,

walking the streets of this quaint town. It is much cleaner than St. Martin. It has lovely but pricey shops. There is a walkway all around the harbor with plantings and benches and gazebos. There are many restaurantsto choose from, too. We had cocktails and dinner on board the boat. The boat in front of us began dragging its anchor early evening. thankfully they caught it and moved and reanchored. The winds were 13-20kts and the depth was 30.

April 8, 2011

We went into Gustavia to go to the grocery store. It was much better than the one in Marigot Bay. We were able to find most of the the items we needed. We finally found sweet pickle relish. They and another upscale provisioning place did not have many types of crackers. So I bought some french bread to go with the lovely pate' I found. Pate' is one thing that they do have! YUM. they did have real milk as well as the unrefrigerated cartons of milk. I finally found some romaine lettuce.

We looked at all the big yachts in the harbor for the Regatta. The biggest ones seem to have their own banners. They began to leave about 10 as the races started at 1100. Once we were back on the boat in the anchorage, we had really good seats to watch the boats race by us. Some of the big ones had 12-19 persons on their rails. There were also boats the size of ours racing as well.

After lunch we went back into Gustavia. I found this wifi area, Charlie got the password for wifi for him on the boat, and he went looking for a rigger. During our first try to sail to St. Barths, the block holding our lazy jacks up on the starboard side broke off the second spreader. Again, this might be due to metal fatigue. We presently have it jury-rigged. During our sail to St. Barths, the third reefing line got wound around our man overboard pole on the back stay. Charlie is trying to figure how to get it untangled, but we might need help with that as well.

Tonight we plan to go to some of the festivities connected to the Regatta. They will have love music tonight and tomorrow night. It is open to the public.

Charlie signed us up for 10 days here in St. Barths, so we will have plenty of time to explore the island and sail, walk, or drive to their beaches. I will try to keep you updated and post more pictures.