St. Barths

From St. Martin we set off for an easy upwind motorsail to St. Barths.  We arrived in Gustavia mid afternoon on March 18. 

We heard the island was "upscale," and before long we saw some of the neighboring boats at anchor and realized it was true.

"Uh, ok. This one has its own waterslide"

"But this one has a nice garage"

However, this weekend, "upscale" became an understatement because the annual "Bucket Regatta" was being held there.  So it was no surprise to see 35 mega-mega yachts gathering, for 3 days of "friendly" racing around the island. 

Nice boats, guys.

The colorful history of this kind of racing dates back to the mid-1980's in Nantucket, where a small group of well known and very rich owners decided to settle a debate about their yachts out on the water.  The event soon moved to Newport and in the mid 1990's spilled over to St. Barths as well.  Needless to say, there was a lot of gawking going on along the docks!


OK, this one I could call home!

Here you can see we really tried to get away from the scene at the docks.  That's Susan at the beach, but, alas, in the background were, yup, more mega-yachts. 



These boats are so big here, there's no room to swim!

We decided to stay for the first day of racing on Friday.  Spectacular scene!  To really appreciate just how big these yachts are, try to pick out crew.

Downwind leg with Spinnakers out

Day 1 winner Rosehearty races toward the line

St. Martin, Part II

We flew back to CT on Feb 10, and Friday, March 6  we closed on the sale of our house. We also made the decision to rent an apartment in Providence RI starting in the late spring when we get back to New England.  Meanwhile, our mailing address a PO Box in Avon!  We jumped in the car to drive to Providence, plunked down the deposit, visited our friends Josh and Tiff, then drove to NJ, visited my mom, drove to LI and visited Susan's parents, dropped off the last car into storage, and on Monday March 9 jumped on a plane with Rachel, who is on spring break, to head back "home" to Simpson Bay Marina and Pratique. 

Its been a week since then and our heads are still spinning.  Just not as fast. We decompressed by visiting Marigot, Grand Case, Orient Beach, Philipsburg, Kimsha Beach, Pelican Bay Beach, and Cupecoy. 

Marigot from Fort St. Louis
 

Susan and Rachel atop the Fort

Canon protecting McDonald's and the Mall

Rachel is served fresh macaroons at Orient Beach

Rachel had to go back to Boston via JFK on Sunday, and as luck would have it the connection was canceled due to, you guessed it, more snow in Boston. In fact, this snowfall pushed Boston over the top for most snow one season!

Now, having been sitting in the Lagoon for a month, we need to get the bottom cleaned.  Then sometime this week we will jump to St. Barth and then Barbuda.