St. Barths (12/2-12/7)

As per usual, when we get busy having fun, my blog posts suffer delays. Plus, I have to admit that Facebook/Instagram posts often become the “in the moment” sharing tool. But, this is basically my ship’s log, so eventually, I get back to documenting the voyage.

As previously mentioned, this is our “Caribbean Farewell” cruise. We purposely sailed from Bermuda to Antigua, so that our journey from Antigua west via St. Barths, St. Martin, and the BVI’s would be all downwind. (The Caribbean’s famous tradewinds blow East to West.) We need not have worried about that this year as the winds have been very light through December.

Our sail to St. Barths was an easy beam reach in 15 knots of wind. We started early in the morning and arrived at sunset. Perfect timing on a perfect day, other than one really annoying thing.

Apparently, the sound of our approaching boat is enough to drive flying fish into escape mode and as they fly through the air they attract frigate birds which circle our boat waiting to spot their prey. By mid-afternoon, we had 10-20 of these birds flying along with us and they have an annoying habit of getting excited and “pooping” as they begin their assault runs!! Our sails were slowly being covered in poop!!

I tried running around on deck waving my hands, yelling, and honking our horn. It didn’t bother these birds one bit. In fact, they may have started aiming at me!! Debbie of course enjoyed watching me in my useless attempts to clear our airspace!! I think she was laughing at me? 

She wasn’t laughing the next morning as we scrubbed and rinsed our sails!

Anyway, we arrived just in time to enjoy a big pre-Christmas outdoor market down the main street of Gustavia the next day, and generally spent the next week relaxing a bit after all the project work in Antigua. We hit the local bakery for some breakfast treats, walked over to Shell Beach for an afternoon cocktail, purchased some inexpensive French wine, did some Christmas shopping, had dinner at Baz Bar, and spent three lazy days anchored around the corner in Columbier.

Nothing overly exciting, but a nice visit.