The time finally arrived in October when we decided that hurricane season had to be nearly over and it was TIME TO LEAVE ANTIGUA! So on the evening of October 9, we left Jolly Harbour Marina where we were making our preparations for departure and headed out to anchor in Mosquito Cove at the mouth of Jolly Harbor. We were planning on having dinner and then resting until it was time to sail out at 1:00 AM. but we were too tired to really sleep. When it got dark we couldn't believe the sight that awaited us as were greeted by tons of jelly fish in all sizes glowing from the phosphorescence as they circled our boat. It was amazing to watch small fish swimming towards the jelly fish and then getting caught by them. You could see the fish swimming inside of them! So cool.
We left the cove at 1:00 AM as planned and headed towards St. Barths. It was beautiful as we sailed out, the sky bright with nearly a full moon. We were told it would take 12 hours to get to St. Maarten, so we figured we had time to get to St. Barths (an hour south of St. Maarten) by afternoon the next day. As we sailed north the wind died down to nearly nothing and we realized we could not make it by dark the next day without motoring, so we had to motor-sail the entire way…….Yuck! The seas were rough and without wind it made for a tough night and day of sailing. To add to the difficulty, when it got light we realized we were sailing through fishing grounds and we had to maneuver constantly to miss the nets.
We finally made it to St. Barths at 4:30 the next afternoon. We knew we were going to love this place when we were escorted into our anchorage by hundreds of yellow butterflies fluttering around our boat as we anchored in the most gorgeous water I have ever seen. Ahhhh........
St. Barths became a favorite of ours very quickly. We anchored outside of the harbor in a little bay called Anse de Corrosol (pictured above) in blue raspberry colored water. It looked so yummy I just wanted to drink it! The island is what I describe as the “ooh la la” island because this is where the rich and famous hang out. They even have the over-the-top stores there like Hermes. Since it was off season when we arrived, the ritzy stores were closed, so we had the great fortune of hanging out with the locals and not the rich and famous. I say good fortune, because boat people don’t really own clothes nice enough to rub elbows with the rich and famous, besides our sea-crusty elbows wouldn’t appeal to them!
The people of St. Barths were unbelievably nice even though they all spoke French and we didn’t. We found a French bakery where we had coffee and croissants every day – yum – and after spending all summer in Antigua we didn’t care how many pounds we were putting on by indulging. For the Jimmy Buffett fans out there, St. Barths is also the island where he wrote his song “Cheeseburger in Paradise”. After Jimmy sailed to St. Barths and found a little bar/hamburger place called Le Select he wrote the song and the place is now world famous. Of course we had to have a cheeseburger and a beer at Le Select!
After spending nearly a week anchored in Anse de Corrosol, we decided to move up the coast to Anse de Colombier. We had no idea we were about to discove a treasure. Oh my gosh, what an incredible place. It is a tiny bay protected as a Marine Park and filled with sea turtles and crystal clear water. We spent our days watching the turtles and snorkeling right off our boat. We could hardly tear ourselves away from there, but after four days we knew we needed to get to St. Maarten since our water and food supplies were getting low and we had things we wanted to do there as well. As we sailed out of St. Barths we promised ourselves we would definitely be back……….SOON!
St. Barths became a favorite of ours very quickly. We anchored outside of the harbor in a little bay called Anse de Corrosol (pictured above) in blue raspberry colored water. It looked so yummy I just wanted to drink it! The island is what I describe as the “ooh la la” island because this is where the rich and famous hang out. They even have the over-the-top stores there like Hermes. Since it was off season when we arrived, the ritzy stores were closed, so we had the great fortune of hanging out with the locals and not the rich and famous. I say good fortune, because boat people don’t really own clothes nice enough to rub elbows with the rich and famous, besides our sea-crusty elbows wouldn’t appeal to them!
The people of St. Barths were unbelievably nice even though they all spoke French and we didn’t. We found a French bakery where we had coffee and croissants every day – yum – and after spending all summer in Antigua we didn’t care how many pounds we were putting on by indulging. For the Jimmy Buffett fans out there, St. Barths is also the island where he wrote his song “Cheeseburger in Paradise”. After Jimmy sailed to St. Barths and found a little bar/hamburger place called Le Select he wrote the song and the place is now world famous. Of course we had to have a cheeseburger and a beer at Le Select!
After spending nearly a week anchored in Anse de Corrosol, we decided to move up the coast to Anse de Colombier. We had no idea we were about to discove a treasure. Oh my gosh, what an incredible place. It is a tiny bay protected as a Marine Park and filled with sea turtles and crystal clear water. We spent our days watching the turtles and snorkeling right off our boat. We could hardly tear ourselves away from there, but after four days we knew we needed to get to St. Maarten since our water and food supplies were getting low and we had things we wanted to do there as well. As we sailed out of St. Barths we promised ourselves we would definitely be back……….SOON!
