Friday 5th
January 2018
We spent a little tine wandering around Gustavia on our day
of arrival, but we were both pretty tired. One notable success was finding the
French bakery, where we bought croissants, baguette and flan! Gustavia does
seem like a lovely town with lots of
upscale shops and a dozen or more restaurants. We decided that if we are going
to spend money on dinner out then we would wait until we felt less exhausted
and.
Friday 5th
arrived after a good night’s sleep in a very bouncy anchorage. We came
to shore, rented a 125cc motor scooter and took off on a tour of the
island. Saint Barthelemy (St Barth)
reminded us a lot of Cornwall or the Channel Islands (Jersey). It’s very hill
and has spectacular beaches all around. It was more than a little nerve
wracking to drive the scooter, but it mostly went well. When problems struck we
weren’t around, as we’ll describe later. Our first stop was to take a hike
along a peninsula on the north side of the Island. It was truly beautiful,
great views and we saw tortoises on the path also white tailed tropic-birds off
the shore. About half way along a couple of big squalls came through and we had
to take refuge in a large cave, which added to the atmosphere. When we came
back from the hike we were getting ready to drive off when we realized the
passenger foot-rest had broken off. This seemed really strange until we also
noticed there were also scratches down the right hand side. Clearly the scooter
had fallen over and been picked up. Perhaps it was blown over by the wind
during the squalls, but the wind wasn’t that strong and the front mudguard was
also damaged. I suspect that a car inadvertently backed into the scooter
knocking it over, and then picked it up. This put a bit of a damper on the day
knowing this was likely to end up being a very expensive rental.
Anyway we did enjoy touring the island and by late afternoon
we were tired and headed back to the boat. We cooked some dinner – pork fillet,
Spanish rice and broccoli – then collapsed into bed. I suspect we were both
still tired from the overnight passage.
Mike
Gustavia - looking northwards. We are anchored behind the castle.
The hike along the peninsula to the west of Petite Anse - you can see the first squall approaching
Another couple sheltering from the rain
Tortoise
You couldn't plan better color coordination - T shirt, helmet and backpack !
How do you capture how bouncy the anchorage is?
How do you capture how bouncy the anchorage is?
Beautiful flowers abound - against the backdrop of painted stucco wall
Beautiful flowers abound - against the backdrop of painted stucco wall
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