Gustavia
We had just checked into Gustavia- the main town in St Barths. St. Barths is well known as the Caribbean playground of the rich and famous. The small port of Gustavia can be chock full of superyachts during the cruising season. The red tiled roofs of houses on the hillsides, surrounding the bay, and the superyachts in the marina give Gustavia its distinct island identity.
Early morning coffee run
However, it was late June- well past the peak season, and the marina was quiet with only a couple superyachts docked alongside the main quay. Our boat was anchored in the bay and we spent a comfortable afternoon walking through town and visiting a local café to catch up on our emails -something that is part of cruising life. The cobbled streets of Gustavia are flanked by expensive boutique shops and restaurants, and one can spend hours on the waterside cafes, boat and people watching.
Night lights in St Barths harbor
We were to stay the night in the bay and move on to L’ Anse de Columbier the following day. It was another quiet evening on the hook and as we were anchored at the far end on the outside row of boats, we could watch the light fade over the open ocean and silhouettes of boats arriving late into the harbor.
Mooring Antics in Columbier
We left for Columbier the next day which was a short hop around the island. Our plan was to moor in Columbier bay for the night. It was blowing 20 knots but as we sailed into the bay, we noted with relief, a sprinkling of available mooring balls some distance away from the other boats. We furled in our solent and slowly motored our way to one mooring. Boat hook in hand I stood on the fore deck beam poised to grab the ball like an angler bringing in a prize catch. As we approached the ball I deftly reached and grabbed the pendant with the hook and pulled up on it. Just as I was beginning to congratulate myself on this graceful and effortless capture, the ball started to pull away from me. It weighed a ton and, to my horror, I felt the boat hook slipping from my hands. I grabbed the hook with both hands alternately waving and yelling to Sunil to come forward and give me a hand.
Sunil could not hear me over the wind and all he saw was my hand pointing to the front. Thinking we were still short of the mooring ball, he pushed forward on the throttles and I watched in dismay, the ball disappear under the foredeck with my boat hook attached. All was not lost as Sunil reversed and brought the boat alongside the ball and I grabbed the iterant boat hook and released the ball. It took another futile attempt from the front of the boat before we decided to give up and try something else.
Our next plan of attack was to try and grab the ball from the aft starboard side. We adjusted the mooring lines in preparation for this new tack. I knelt on the sugar scoop peering out as Sunil slowly approached the ball. As the ball bobbed alongside the boat, I grabbed it with the hook and reached behind me for the free end of the line. It wasn’t there. I had forgotten to bring it across on the outside of the hull. In frustration I watched the mooring ball once more make away with my boat hook.
By now people in the other boats were beginning to gather and watch from their cockpits. I heard some laughter and snickering.
After retrieving the boat hook Sunil and I exchanged some choice words on the others ability to listen to simple instructions. By now we had a sizeable and interested audience, and several had settled down to watch with beer in hand. Sunil put the engine in Neutral and we retreated to opposite ends of the cockpit taking in deep breaths to get back our focus on the task at hand.
Round Four: Reattempt round 3 but with better planning and layout of ropes etc. This time we motored slowly -painfully slowly towards the ball. “Come on Sunil I don’t have all day and my knees hurt” I muttered under my breath. This time I was able to grab the ball, slip the line through the pendant and cleat it back to the aft deck. The boat hook rolled off the deck into the water but I couldn’t care less. The boat was secured to the mooring, albeit a little lopsided. We gave each other a congratulatory high five. It had taken us a full hour, but we had finally done it- Sunil could now go swim for the boat hook.
A Nautitech catamaran has low aft helms. Traditional methods for mooring don’t work well in that configuration. Through trial and error we figured out that the simplest way to moor such a boat is by picking the ball from the sugar scoop and not the bow. We moored several times in different bays in the following days – each time perfectly without a hitch. We also decided to break out our new Sena headsets to communicate through the intercom-they don’t call them marriage savers for nothing.
L’Anse de Columbier is a beautiful secluded bay also part of a marine park. We hiked out to a small overlook that took us to the windward side of the island where masses of seaweed formed a thick carpet over the waves while seagulls floated in the thick looking for a meal.
L’Anse de Colombier Bay
Rockfeller’s Vacation Villa
Colombier Beach is also known as Rockefeller Beach because of David Rockefeller’s vacation villa which still overlooks the entire beach. The property is now in ruins but many visitors will bypass the no trespassing sign to wander through the wide undulating stonewalls which carried the roof structure of this fascinating piece of architecture.
We caught glimpses of wild goats in the distant hillside hidden amidst tall agave plants and cacti. The wind was picking up as we made our way down to the beach and our dinghy that was tied up to a rock on the sand. We pushed off and motored our way back to the boat past a turtle that swam comfortably next to us.
Our final destination before we cleared out of St. Barths was La Fourchue, a small island with a quiet bay that is a popular diving spot. The anchorage is surrounded by hills of a dormant collapsed caldera. The island is fairly rocky with very little vegetation. We snorkeled from our boat alongside the submerged portions of the hillside and were thrilled to see a small nurse shark, a turtle and many colorful fish including, unfortunately, several lionfish which is an invasive species. It was a cool quiet evening on the boat and we could hear quiet chatter from the neighboring boats carried in the wind. Most of the dive boats had left leaving behind only a few anchored for the night This was our last night in St Barths and the next day we were to make our way back to St. Maarten.
Sailing Jajabor 