St Barts

Tue Dec 30th 2008 St Barts 11:13 am We left Marigot Saturday morning with a weather forcast of the winds dropping under 15 knots for the 1st time since Joyce came home. Our intention was to sail around the island to Orient Bay (nudie Beach) to dive on the bottom and check the bow thruster seal leak. As we cleared the breakwater we were hit with 25-30 with gusts over 35. Damn....we motor-sailed.... till we made the turn at the north of the island and sailed into the bay. Waves of 10-12ft were breaking on the reef on both sides of the entrance...way too bumpy at both anchorages so we set sail for El Fourche an extinct volcano where you can anchor in the cone, the front protecting you from the wind and waves. This is now a nature park, they have moorings down, but all were taken so we sailed on to Colombier Bay on St Bart. We motored in past the moored boats close to the beach where the roll was minimal. Monday morning we equalized the batteries a little and did 2 loads of laundry. After lunch we motored around the point toward the entrance to the harbor of Gustavia. To my surprise there were a hundred or so boats many mega yachts both power and sail.Seems St Barts is famous for its New Years Eve Regatta...and I thought Jost van Dyke in the BVI's was the place to be on New Years. All the rich and famous must be here... Here is one ship with 2 helos..bow and stern...Check out this schooner...a tri.Have never seen something like this.We call this the Russian Spy ship. We dinked in after 2pm......$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ everywhere. We dodged a few rain squalls, checked out the town , bought dinner...french baguette, brie, salami and wine and went back to the boat. Once the sun went down, on came the anchor light and spreader lights on the big sailboats. Seems when your mast is X feet tall, one must display a red light rather than white....so the airplanes don't hit you. I think we counted 7 or 8 red mast lights on one side alone, one with 6 spreaders. The St Barts race takes place tomorrow morning. It's for boats over 100 feet. The record time around the island is just over 1 1/2 hrs. That is moving....hopefully we will get some pics. There is no internet out here in the anchorage so we will have to go in and find an internet cafe...Happy New Year.