Saint Barts

Saint Barts is a very chichi and very French island, full of designer shops and superyachts – very different to laid-back Saint Kitts and Nevis! Planes fly low over your head to reach the landing strip a short distance across the other side of the island.

We anchored outside the main town, Gustavia, which was Swedish owned for nearly a century from 1784. The three crowns from the Swedish coat of arms are in Saint Barts’ coat of arms, and the street names are still shown in both French and Swedish.

After exploring Gustavia we moved along the coast and took a mooring buoy in Colombier, a much quieter bay in Saint Barts’ nature reserve, with clear water and sea turtles everywhere. Anchoring is restricted to preserve the sea grass for the turtles to feed on. The girls wasted no time in leaping off the side of the boat into the water, one of their favourite pastimes on our trip!

We hiked up to the Colombier viewpoint, from where we could see Valent below and the island of Saint Martin in the distance.

Our friends on fellow ARC/ARC+ boats Epiphany and Gian were also in the same bay, which provided a good opportunity for a get-together on Valent.

Little did we realise that this would be the last time we would see both boats in the Caribbean, as they were both due to head north to Saint Martin, where they would join the ARC Europe rally back across the Atlantic starting on 11th May. Our plan was to go south to Antigua instead to pick up our new crew for our own Atlantic crossing.

We had intended to stay in Saint Barts for at least another day, but as so often with sailing, our plans changed as we reviewed the weather forecast for going south. The wind was due to strengthen and turn in the wrong direction on Tuesday 30th April when we had originally planned to travel, so instead on the Monday we headed back to Gustavia to check out, and then set off on the 75 mile journey to Antigua at 5.30 pm for an overnight passage.

Almost immediately on leaving Saint Barts we were hit with 20+ knots of wind across the boat, an unsettled sea state and large waves crashing over the bow, making the cockpit a damp place to sit. With the boat heeled over and rolling uncomfortably, both girls chose to go to bed at 6.30 pm and three out of four of us decided against dinner. The wind and the motion calmed down overnight, but it was a reminder of how even in the Caribbean the weather can turn against you with no warning.

So we are now safely back in Jolly Harbour, Antigua, in the marina this time, which makes a nice change from the boatyard. The new crew has arrived: Alex, Noah and Sean, and Lucy, Sophie and I (Suzy) will soon fly back to the UK, to be reunited with Will and the crew there in around a month. We are sad to be finishing our Caribbean adventure, and leaving behind all the wonderful people we have met and spent time with, particularly family boats Saltair and Epiphany. We will still live on Valent in the UK for a couple of months over the summer and explore the UK south coast though, so there’s still time for more adventures!

We’ll write another blog entry when Valent is ready to set off from Antigua, including a reminder of how to follow their progress while they are at sea.