St Barts, SXM & the BVIs
We called into St Barthélémy (St Barts), population 10,994, on our way up to Saint-Martin / Sint Maarten (SXM), and found it quite different from the other islands we had visited. Settled by French peasants in the 1600s, they eked out a living from the barren land, and didn’t import African workers. It was a Swedish colony for nearly 100 years, establishing Gustavia as a free port, before being sold back to France - hence most of the population is of European descent. And it is expensive. Suddenly we were seeing superyachts, the main street full of luxury goods and beautiful clothes, such a polar opposite to Barbuda.
After checking in at a computer in the Capitainerie, we stayed for a couple of days, anchoring off Shell Beach, so named because, unusually for the Caribbean, it is a beach of fine white shells. The snorkelling was electric blue – graceful blue tang, tiny wee blue chromis, and the exquisite yellowtail damselfish – navy blue with turquoise spots and a yellow tail.
Gustavia is an interesting mix of French architecture and Swedish design, stone, and wood, minimal and detailed, and you pay for it - the island takes a nightly tax, €40 near the main port town of Gustavia and €4 elsewhere - we were delighted when the very friendly duty officer Aymeric, only charged us for one night.
The oldest restaurant on the island is Eddys, hidden behind a street wall, in a garden setting with golden lanterns, it is a delight and not expensive if you chose you wine well – we elected for the cheapest on the menu Ch. Barreyre 2019 Bordeaux at €36 rather than the Ch. Petrus 2017 at €4,800. And we never order dessert but were persuaded to partake of the chocolate rolls, they were superb. Parfois j’aime le français.
Saint-Martin and Sint Maarten, French and Dutch, respective populations 32,077 and 44,222, have happily coexisted since 1648, had prosperous sugar plantations until abolition and profitable salt ponds up until the 1950s. Now, like other Caribbean islands, tourism is the main source of income, and the Dutch seem to have grasped it more fully with their international airport, casinos, and cruise ship infrastructure.
We weren’t sure how the two country thing worked so decided to wing it, checking into the northern French side. Anchoring in Baie de Marigot, it was a short dinghy ride into the expansive Simpson Bay Lagoon and small town Marigot, a computer under the stairs at the small Island Water World chandlery. We then spent several days exploring the north coast. Quiet sandy beaches with red-capped Turk’s Head cacti (Melocactus azureus) on the rocky slopes above, and Irma’s fury still apparent - new buildings and dereliction sitting side by side.
French Baie de Grand Case, is a large shallow bay with modest hotels and apartments, and a few bars along the shore. The narrow village road behind has a relaxed selection of bars, restaurants, boutiques, a New World supermarket, and often, night markets. It was a very chilled place to sip a ti punch and watch the sun go down, followed by a delicious jerk chicken at Lolas.
There is limited anchoring on the exposed east coast and in the Saint-Martin Marine Reserve. We did consider staying the night in Île Tintamarre, but the swell was uncomfortable, we couldn’t land TENDER and as we also couldn’t find where to get authorisation, decided it wasn’t worth it. A pity as there are plane wrecks from 1940s and 50s smugglers and the snorkelling would be great when the water is clear. Although having said that I read on Navily that someone had a hammerhead shark circling their boat in the previous month, yikes!
We travelled back and forth between France and the Netherlands, tendering across the expansive lagoon from Marigot to Cole Bay, and sailing NOETA up and down the western coast, anchoring off tall resorts and white sand beaches. We could have taken NOETA into the lagoon, as there are two bridges that open upon request, but were just as happy to anchor outside and tender in. Maho Beach is famous, as it is unusually close to the airport runway and directly underneath the flight path. We had hoped to be able to experience the craziness, but there was too much swell to beach or anchor the dinghy so we watched from afar, onlookers being blown over, sand blasting, hats flying, as aircraft landed and took off. Crazy.
We found, unsurprisingly, that the Dutch side was good for getting stuff done, even with the confusing pricing in euro, USD, and florin. Cole Bay is home to large chandleries set amongst a raft of marine engineering shops, a big Carrefour near the Port de Plaisance Resort, and popular hangout “Lagoonies” for a craft beer. After five years, the clear above the helm had gone milky, making it extremely hard to see the main as she went up, St Maarten Sails & Canvas were able to sew in a new plastic window at a reasonable cost, it took them a couple of days, but we were pleased with the result. And to provision - technically we weren’t allowed to tie up at the resort, but a friendly security guard looked the other way.
Waiting for the repair, we decided to take NOETA further south to the main Dutch town of Philipsburg, and that was when we discovered that we had to check her in and out of each country, we were OK, but she wasn’t, and we had been merrily sailing back and forth along the west coast, between the two countries, oops. A morning visit by the Dutch Coastguard helped us to understand the rules and realise that our safety flares had just expired, five years has gone fast… luckily, they now accept electronic flares and so a fine was averted.
Philipsburg is another huge, shallow bay with a cruise liner terminal and a beachside boardwalk of bars, restaurants, and tourist tents. One street back is clean and sparkly duty free; two streets back is dirty reality. After checking in we stayed for a couple of nights and highly recommend the mojitos at Dirty Sanchez and fish tacos at Greenhouse.
Both countries were dramatically affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria; six years on, the Dutch rebuild is quite apparent as they move mountains and reach for the sky, the French side however is moving at a much slower pace, we liked its shabby chic vibe.
And as so often happens, you find out about good stuff just as you are leaving. In this case VHF Channel 10 – a great resource for visiting sailors with helpful island tips and events broadcast at 0730. But it was time to move on, the BVIs were beckoning.
The British Virgin Islands, population 31,538, is a British Overseas Territory, and a delightful place to visit. The islands are all close, several hours at the most, we had good sailing breezes, there are plenty of lovely anchorages, beautiful beaches, and the snorkelling is excellent. And it wasn’t busy. Could it get any better? You bet because we had good friends to play with. Harry and Lynda from Nova Scotia and Stuart and Lesley from the old Scotland.
We had met Harry and Lynda in 2018 in La Rochelle, their Helia 44 Altair was parked behind us in the marina, and we struck up a friendship as we both launched, they were heading west across the Atlantic to put Altair into charter in the BVIs while we were heading south, down the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean. They had also stayed with us in New Zealand just before COVID changed the world, so it had been three years and quite a bit of water under the keels since then. Not only did they know the BVIs like the back of their hands, but they also had daughter Fi, husband Mark and daughter Lana on board, last time we had seen them they were dating, and Fi was intact.
Stuart and Lesley – Colonel Cameron and my partner in crime had flown down to join us for ten days, working on their tans before their Med season on the Mon. What fun. Harry knew all the best anchorages and snorkelling spots, Lynda gave me the killer painkiller recipe, and Stuart and Lesley kept everyone entertained.
It was a holiday. Our daily challenges of finding a place to spend the night, finding food, finding fuel, managing data, or just understanding how things work in a new country, were easier, and although at night, you are always an alarm away from waking up, the weather forecast was favourable, and we had more hands on hand. Just under a month in the BVIs our holiday points of interest were -
Ψ Virgin Gorda Island west coast with its interesting granite geology, especially the “Baths” - sculptural rock shapes and shadows, catching the light at the end of the day. Not however the resident barracuda who kept following me as I swam to shore.
Ψ Asian fusion dinner at CoCo Maya. Such a pretty garden setting with a beachfront cove, sandy floor, giant jenga, and firepit - the food was delicious, although the drinks were a bit pricey.
Ψ Sailing close to Richard Branson’s islands - Moskito Island, purchased for USD11 million then subdivided into ten sections selling at USD11 million each. And Necker Island with its flourish of flamingos seen from afar and USD107,500 per night accommodation.
Ψ Happy hour, tarpon feeding and supper at Saba Rock, a very cool recent development.
Ψ Guana Island White Bay, a beautiful white sand beach, backed by trees and a morning snorkel at Monkey Point - healthy brain and elkhorn coral, electric blue and pink princess parrotfish, checked red stoplight parrotfish, yellowtail damselfish and blue tang. The island is private, owned by a US medical inventor, but beach access is permitted.
Ψ Another White Bay, this time on Jost Van Dyke, was more popular with several beach bar/cafes, and boats moored and anchored close to the beach, their owners cooling off in the clear shallow blue water with cocktails in hand. So shallow, we anchored in three metres, 225m from the shore, an easy swim to and walk along the beach past the famous Soggy Dollar Bar (Kenny Chesney song), followed by a drink at Ivan’s rustic shack, a fish taco lunch at Hendos and rounded off by an afternoon siesta. At night we looked south across the sea at the brightly US Virgin Islands, and although White Bay was busy, it was peaceful, it strangely didn’t feel crowded, and we felt pleased to be on the British side of things.
Ψ Soper’s Hole on Tortola was perfect for provisioning, once the lair of pirates, the mooring balls are free, and it is a short saunter along the colourfully painted promenade of marine offices and a Pussers bar to a well-stocked Riteway supermarket.
Ψ The Indians, near Pelican Island were great snorkelling - vibrant purple sea fans and other gorgonians (“soft corals”), golden sea rods, whips, and plumes, banded butterflyfish, yellowtail snapper and bar jacks.
Ψ Angelfish Reef at the southern end of Norman Island was a treasure trove of new discoveries - yellow finned schoolmaster, electric blue lined faced queen triggerfish and a nurse shark, over a metre long just cruising past. And in the afternoon at the Caves, the light was magical, saw lots of blue tangs, stoplight parrotfish, cuttlefish and red squirrelfish hiding in a small cave. The light filtering through the sargassum onto rock algae and anemones was beautiful.
Ψ Further around in The Bight Bay it was heartening to see a large vegetable garden behind Pirate’s Bight providing fresh vegetables for the restaurant and composting sargassum weed. Unlike Europe where a vegetable patch appears behind every fence, there seems to be little of this in the Caribbean, it is surprising and a pity, I would have thought the climate would be perfect and would lessen the reliance on imported goods.
Ψ Peter Island’s Deadman’s Bay produced several hawksbill turtles, a cowfish, and a southern sting ray - it would have been at least five metres long, as the long, barbed tail was four times the length of its body, I kept out of its path. And then around the corner in Little Harbour I spied a porcupine fish hiding in rocks adjacent to a coral garden, like the squirrel fish, they are very shy.
The Scots had to leave but new friends appeared – Ken and Pam on Orinoco and Randi and Lindi on One Love and we were able to spend a couple of days catching up with them for sundowners and walks and a last night dinner at Foxy’s on Jost Van Dyke for an all you can eat BBQ USD40 - great atmosphere, great music, great food, and great company. We had met Ken in Croatia, strangers sharing a table in Korčula, we got to talking and he gave us suggestions of where to anchor on the US eastern seaboard. And Randi and Lindi? We had met them while hauled out in Antigua earlier in the year, and we enjoyed chatting to them and their two dogs Cocoa and Louise. And bonus for Skip was that Lindi had been a hairdresser and gave him a very professional cut and style, I took notes.
Checking out on Jost Van Dyke Island we tried to get petrol from the fuel dock, and although the sign says its open on a Sunday, it wasn’t. Luckily, Sherman in his overlooking house came to the rescue; he saw our plight and opened the taps just for us.
We enjoyed the BVIs.