LORD'S PRAYER LOG, Part 29:
Saturday, March 04, 2000
0830 We all go ashore after a cup of morning coffee and head for the yachtsmen's
showers. A fresh water shower ashore can be one of the world's great treats
after a few days living aboard a small boat. Afterward we find a nice cafe and
treat ourselves to a breakfast of French coffee, baguettes, croissants, fresh
squeezed orange juice, etc. Wow! What good food! We visit a local chandlery to
buy shear pins for the outboard motor. There are lots of rental vehicles
available on the island ranging from motor scooters to autos but very few
taxies. We rent a Suzuki Side Kick from the local Budget Rental agent and tour
the island with it. There are lots of fine beaches all around the island; we
check most of them out and take a swim at several as we do our tour. Topless
sunbathing is popular here. As I walk onto the first beach and discover this, I
do my level best to behave as though this is nothing out of the ordinary and I
especially try not being impolite by staring at anyone. Just as I am
congratulating my self for pulling it off, Bob advises me that I am grinning
like I'm in a Colgate toothpaste ad. I am not much good at poker either! St.
Barts is quite hilly, so there are a lot of roads that have some pretty steep
grades. Most of them are hard-surfaced with concrete and they are easily
traveled. There are many beautiful homes here; most are relatively small
compared to middle-class US homes but almost all have a breathtaking view of the
water and the surrounding countryside and islands. There are also many lovely
gardens around a large number of the homes. St. Barts has brisk economy that,
like Cape Cod or Nantucket, is based largely on tourism. It is an up-scale place
and it is popular with the relatively well to do. It is a yachting center and
some of the yachts are of the mega-yacht category. One of the most interesting
yachts currently in the harbor is the old "Endeavor" - an Americas Cup
J-boat; she has been beautifully restored and she is just breathtaking to
behold. What a treat it must be to take her for a sail. This beautiful island of
Saint Barthelemy, because of its rugged terrain, did not have an
agriculture-based economy. As a result, unlike many islands in the West Indies,
there were not a lot of slaves brought here. For many of the
Caribbean islands that had large numbers of slaves, as much as 99 percent of the
current populations are descended from slavery. Where this is the case,
essentially the entire population is struggling upward from the oppression of
the slave years and from that early post-slavery period when the absence of
personal wealth within the populations prevented investment of needed capital in
new businesses or in existing ones to make those businesses grow, and in turn
make the local economies grow. To a certain extent, that problem still exists
today in the form of capital shortages. Unlike more affluent communities, where
some wealth routinely passes between generations, the early populations of many
former slave-islands had very little to pass on. Clearly that condition is
improving and a good
education system in the islands has been an important factor in the process. But
progress is slow - especially on the islands where the infusion of outside
capital has been minimal. St. Barts has a small airport that stays quite busy
moving people on and off the island. This airport is unique. The largest planes
that use it are on the order of a 12-passenger turboprop type machine. Because
of a rather high hill immediately at the west end of its single east-west
runway, airplanes must make a diving approach to land in the easterly direction
(into the trade winds). The noses of the airplanes typically are so low on these
approaches that an observer on the ground near the approach end can see the tops
of the aircraft fuselages and wings until late in the approach when the pilot
rotates the nose upward and flares it out enough to slow the descent and make a
safe landing. Once on the ground the pilot must slow the aircraft rapidly as the
runway is quite short and it ends abruptly at a beach and a bay. Taking off can
only be done in an easterly direction as few aircraft would be capable of
climbing above the hill at the west end of the runway. But the normal easterly
departure is not an easy one either; as at the other side of the bay (at the
east end of the field) the land is high and all departing aircraft must climb
aggressively to clear that obstruction.
Sunday, March 05, 2000
0627 Sunrise
0830 We have coffee aboard then go ashore to clear out of St Barts and have a
French breakfast. We find that the Port Office has a piece of paper on the door
that says "fermi exceptional -Dimanche 5/3/2000", which means
"unplanned closing - Sunday 5 March". This is a problem because this
is where we are supposed to clear out. We go get our coffee, baguettes and fresh
squeezed orange juice. It is wonderful. We decide that Bob and Dawn will take
the car back to the rental agency and I will see if I can find an alternative
way of clearing out. I go back aboard Lord's Prayer to review the guidebook for
any helpful information. There is nothing about clearing out when the Port
Office is not manned but there is an indication that if calling on the VHF 16
"Sapeurs Pompiers" will answer up when the Port Office is not manned.
I give a call and I am answered. I am told that the only other place to clear
out is with immigration at the airport. So I head back ashore in the dinghy. On
the pier I chance to meet a man and his wife from NY who are renting a villa
here for a month; they offer to take me over to the airport and back. The
immigration official at the airport does not seem to know much about boat
clearance procedures and he does not have clearance papers available but he
stamps our passports showing we are departing St Barts today. I do not receive
clearance papers for the boat and I do not know if that will be a problem in our
next port. Hopefully the folks in Philipsburg won't give us any grief over that.
1240 Lord's Prayer is underway for the Island of Fourchue for a swim and thence
to Philipsburg, Sint Maarten (the Netherlands side of the island. Saint Martin
is the French side).
1335 Lord's Prayer is anchored the in the bight at the Island of Fourchue. We go
ashore in the dinghy with snorkel gear and swim about the reef areas. We see
lots of colorful fish, coral fans, sponges etc. The island has practically no
foliage. There are some goats here and they are busy finding what foliage is
here. The island is very rocky and appears to be of volcanic origin. From its
appearance one might think that it is a piece of a desert.
1430 we return aboard and have a bit of French bread and water before hoisting
the anchor.
1500 Lord's Prayer is underway for Philipsburg. Enroute we sight a square rigged
schooner under full sail - hull down on the horizon. It is a beautiful sight.
There are lots of other sailboats out participating in an around the island
race.
1703 Lord's Prayer is anchored at Philipsburg. Position: 18-10N 063-03W. At
anchor in the harbor here there are four 12-meter racing yachts. They have
been purchased and brought here for the purpose of providing (for a fee of
course) an opportunity for visiting yachtsmen to experience being in the crew of
a former Americas Cup boat during short match races.
1750 After a trip ashore I am unsuccessful in clearing in. The guidebook had
indicated that it could be done at the police station, but that is not the case.
I will try again in the morning during normal working hours.
1819 Sunset
Monday, March 06, 2000
0627 Sunrise
0745 I go ashore to find customs and Immigration. My instructions are to go to
the end of the road at Point Blanche. It turns out to be a walk of about
three-quarters of a mile to reach the customs facility. The official asks for
the papers clearing me out of St. Barts. I explain about the Port Office in St.
Barts being closed unexpectedly yesterday and how I went to the airport to get
the passports stamped but that they did not have clearance forms there. That
seemed to satisfy her so I clear in to Sint Maarten. In the same visit I succeed
in clearing out as well with papers for the British Virgins. Departure time is
tomorrow morning early. The fee is $11.00 (US).
0915 We all go ashore for breakfast and investigate the procedures for getting a
longside for fuel and water. Bob confirms his and Dawn's airline schedule for
tomorrow morning.
1130 Dawn & Bob cruise the local shops, while I return aboard and bring the
boat in to the pier. I top the fuel and water tanks. Before I have finished,
Dawn & Bob are back. With the hose, I squirt some of the salt off the deck
and superstructure of the boat before securing the hose.
1230 We are underway enroute to Simpson Bay, which is over by the airport. The
wind is flat calm and the sea is rolling just a bit in long smooth waves. The
water is crystal clear and we can see the sunlight shimmering on the sand bottom
some 40 feet beneath the surface.
1400 As we round Pelican Point, Simpson Bay comes into view and we see that
there are a lot of yachts anchored in the Bay. This is the aftermath of Sint
Maarten's three-day Heineken Regatta. One of the boats here is
"Endeavor" - the Americas Cup J-boat that was in St. Barts. What a
beautiful sight she is lying at her anchor. I think she is the prettiest
sailboat I have ever seen.
1430 We anchor at position: 18-02N 063-06W. We all have a swim. Bob and I scrub
harbor grime from the waterline of Lord's Prayer and the dinghy.
1530 Bob and I go exploring in the dinghy to find a suitable place for Dawn and
him to catch a cab to the airport in the morning. There is a bridge that opens
to let boats in and out of a lagoon four times a day. We go under the bridge
into the lagoon and find a place where lots of dinghies are tied. Bob goes
ashore there and finds a suitable spot to catch a cab and he calls a cab company
for a pickup at 0630 in the morning.
1820 Sunset
1900 We all go ashore for a last dinner together at the Rancho Argentinian
Grill. We find ourselves looking in awe at a row of mega yachts med-moored with
their sterns to the bulkhead in front of the restaurant. It continues to
astonish us that there is so much money out there available for so many boats
such as these.
END OF LORD'S PRAYER LOG, Part 29
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