Sailing Log of a Mahe 36: Rade de Gustavia, Saint Barthélémy

Thursday morning the first job was for me to go and check us in with customs, dispose of some rubbish and get some fresh supplies at the supermarket. We were just literally lowering the dingy when the harbourmasters rib came out to ask us if we had check in, this being only 9.30am we explained we were literally just leaving to do so. We were surprised at their enthusiasm as this is a French dependency our English passports are not even stamped.

I dingied round the busy bay into the harbour which was an amazing sight, to the south there were half a dozen super motor yachts all moored stern to the docks and to the north there was 8-10 super sailing yachts moored stern to. This rather disguises the size of these boats, having no normal comparison in the photos, but I assure you from our little dingy they were very impressive.

Super motoryachts at St. Barts

St. Bart's Bucket competitors lined up on the dock

I managed to find a spot in the dingy dock despite the 1-2m swell and the abundance of dingies which I had to muscle through and went straight to the Capitainerie to check in. There were several skippers in there already apparently from the superyachts taking part in the Bucket and there check in was quite straight forward. When the harbour master took my mine he insisted that he did not agree with the beam measurement of our catamaran and because this is not a field on the UK SSR (Small Ships Registration) papers he insisted on me bringing further papers when I checked out. The other skippers were supportive of me but he was insistent, I could not work out why as we were only anchoring until he told me that we were to be charged to anchor in the bay by our area (in square metres). I don’t begrudge paying to anchor in a marine reserve or harbour where there is a cost associated with upkeep or a benefit is being derived but having had little sleep listening to chain on rocks in the only area left just outside the bay this seemed a little excessive, especially when this has never been queried in marinas where our beam does actually affect their ability to moor another boat alongside.

I had a wander round the town which is beautiful, well kept and with more designer shops in such a small area than I have seen anywhere, I could not believe the difference from Dominica just a few miles south of us. The other people walking around seemed to be in uniform of belted khaki shorts and polo shirt with boat shoes (men) or designer outfits for the women. I felt a little out of place in my usual vest top and shorts and decided to return to the boat after the supermarket.

Beautiful streets and exclusive shops of St Barts

In the afternoon we both went for a snorkel off the boat in the lovely clear water, Kevin saw a Turtle, school of Tarpon and Crevalle jacks which I just missed on all occasions, but there were lots of little reef fish too. We didn’t stay in too long though as we were on the path of several superyacht tenders (inboard diesel engines, uniformed crew, leather-look seating) which were delivering guest back and forth all afternoon. We were both rather tired and settle down with a book and had an early night