This is how to enjoy sailing.
Category Archives: Caribbean
Chilling in the marina, in the shade
Watching a guy single hand a 47 foot cat off the moorings in a very crowded part of the marina, saw him come in last night too by himself, looks like he has done it many times before as its a rental boat for day charters and huge cruise ship is in port today so even the yellow submarine was getting all docked up to pickup passengers. Its not really a submarine but a fancy glass bottom boat, that takes people out to see the reefs.
Back at the bar, but just borrowing some decent wifi while Christine is in church this morning.
Lots of good people out excecising running down the marina, I’m just sitting here watching them and waiting till its too hot in the afternoon to go do our hiking.
Amazing place. Expensive but amazing.
Our dingy in blue, the family car and how we get ashore
Medium sized boats in the distance
Welcome to St Barths
Everything is bigger in Texas, but not as big as it is in St Barts. Sheesh, we expected lots of boats, but from this is huge, we were lucky to find a spot to anchor, and just then a ball came into sight so we grabbed it, a quick trip to customs as we are legal.
Tuna on board and semi early night. Music started at midnight but wasn’t terriblely loud as far out as we were.
Up early for a walk to Shell Beach and the first beer in St Barts on the shell beach, after a couple of photos before the people started showing up, there are 4 boats anchored just off the bay there, and soon enough the super yachts started to show up. One after another till it was hard to see the ocean past the anchored super yachts. There are plenty here, this year Eclipse will not be making an appearance, or so I learned when checking in. Eclipse is one of the longest privately owned yachts, at one point it was, but as everyone has to out do each other, I think there are longer ones now.
Walked around both sides of the port, and by the time we headed to the chandary to pick up a spark plug for the dingy it was closed, the dingy hasn’t been running its top, only firing on 1 of 2 cylinders, still gets us where we need to go, but with this long trek it takes some time so were trying to address it, the shop is closed till Monday.
Back to the boat for some lunch, since we sorta skipped breakfast with an impromptu 4 mile walk/wander we were pretty hungry at 1pm, wayne made more dingy fuel, I mad lunch… course a couple of beers were had on our hike so we had some more with lunch, so I took the spark plugs out, and looked for gapping tool to check the gap. Found a feeler gauge that worked, took a pair of fingernail clippers and used the file to file the top of the plug and put them back in. Seemed to start easier, took it for a spin and it got up on plane, moved right a long and even held idle better, sometime today I’ll double check that both plugs are getting spark. I won’t tell you how I know the coil is working, lets just say it enough to make my hair stand up.
So we still trying to find something for New Years, Shell Beach is booked, so we figured we’d try Nikki Beach on the other side of the island, so we walked up and over there, watched the planes take off and land mere feet above the traffic at the top of the hill. Walked on Jean beach, where we rented a house a few years ago. Eden rock was busy, lots of folks over there enjoying the water and then we found Nikki Beach, it was ROCKIN. People dancing on tables and bottles of Cristal everywhere, magnums, not the little ones. Christine foudn someone to ask about New Years, and it too was sold out but they were adding more seats in a tent over the water, and if we came back today she would be guranteed a seat, for the mere price of 3000 euro’s each. Needless to say, I think we are going to pass on that one.
Nice hike back, stopped in downtown and split some appetizers at Le Gustav over a couple of drinks, and then looked for a real dinner as they didn’t have anything but appetizers, so we wandered to the main downtown and found a rockin place, with an outdoor patio that had burgers and fries, we split a burger and a few presidentes, then it started to rain, everyone cowered, we just stayed put it was only drizzle after all
Wayne chatted with a model that just walks the waterfront, changing outfits every 15-20mins for 6 hrs a day. I haven’t a clue how she keeps cool, besides the short skirts, I guess.
One big boat is called “Blue Moon” its flying a Texas flag, so Christine asked about it, the guests onboard are from Dallas. Its BIG BOAT at the dock, but not the biggest in the harbor, but makes me wonder if blue moon brewing is doing better than I thought.
Back to the boat, to chill-lax, after a long 8 mile walk.