St Barts – Vive La France!

Vive La France, where the women sunbathe topless and the men wear their hair in ponytails.

We escaped “the Pond”, as we liked to call it, not a moment too soon.  Bored from too many days stuck on the boat, our finances exhausted from buying boat equipment, and my mysterious illness fixed up after a quick trip to the doctor, specialist, the hospital for a minor procedure – we were on our way!

As we exited the Pond, my spirits soared.  The water was once again crystal clear, turquoise and alive with fish.  We headed straight out of the harbour, onto the high seas once again towards St Barts.  The trip from St Martin to St Barts is not far, a mere 3 hour journey, and only moderately uncomfortable.  We saw two massive leatherback turtles on our voyage, but the main highlights had to be Gary catching three fish – two mackerel and one barracuda.   

We checked in at Port de Gustavia, then headed to a more sheltered anchorage – Anse du Colombier.  I awoke the next morning to paradise.  Turtles surfacing wherever you seemed to look, clear water, and a beautiful white sand beach.  We made our way early to the beach and bathed in the warm water and sunned ourselves on the white sand.  

The bay was once owned by the Rockerfellers.  Their beach house is still the only house in the bay.

The next day we donned our walking shoes, well our walking jandals, and conquered the walk from Anse du Colombier to Anse des Flamandes.  The walk is moderately challenging, but well worth it.  Along the beach at Anse des Flamandes each house is more breathtaking than the last.  The wealth here is unimaginable.  The junk piled at a street corner, included a Charles Eames dining chair.  We had planned to have lunch at Anse des Flamandes, but the only places to eat were the extremely fancy ones on the beach, too fancy to even ask to see the menu.  We made our way back to the boat happy but hungry.