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8th March – 19th March 2005
growth on the hull from the brackish lagoon), we had a leisurely afternoon sail towards the
nearby French island of St.Barts. Set around an old natural harbour, the main town is lovely and
picturesque, with the clearest water we found in the Caribbean, but has become up-market and
expensive, catering in recent years to the growing influx of super-yachts. Nonetheless it had a
charming atmosphere, perhaps like somewhere on the French Riviera 50 years ago, and we
enjoyed our overnight stay. Massive motor yachts are now moored along the quayside in the
harbour, and tons of high-fashion boutiques: Gucci, Hermes etc line the main walk. Needless to
say, we didn’t venture into any of these, but rather made for “Le Select” Bar for a modest
cheeseburger and beer. This bar was once part owned by Jimmy Buffet and is where his
“Cheeseburger in Paradise” song originated…apparently he comes back a few times a year,
and we just missed a free impromptu concert he gave at the bar a few nights before. After a few
beers, a stroll around town took in an artist painting oils of island scenes, a local band’s jamming
session in their waterfront studio, and the finery of the assembled super-yachts.
The next morning we set sail at dawn for another new country, heading back southwards
towards St. Kitts & Nevis. We both liked St Kitts – it had an easy laid-back atmosphere, in
refreshing contrast to Sint Maarten! The capital Basseterre had a low-key charm with shadows
of its British & French colonial past still evident in the architecture. It was refreshing to be back in
the ‘genuine’ Caribbean again, and we enjoyed checking out the local scene – dinner and
cocktails at Stonewalls (listed it as one of the top bars in the world in ‘96 by Newsweek), roti
lunch with the locals, provisioning in the Saturday market etc. We had a taxi-driver who had just
run for government(!) and filled us in on local politics while taking us to visit the best-preserved
and most dramatic fort in the Caribbean, built by the British at the impressive Brimstone Hill: lots
in interesting history & a great vista from atop a natural lava cone hill… Queen Elizabeth formally
opened it post-restoration in 1985. Meanwhile, Mark's friend Adrian Dollard decided to come out
for a spur of the moment visit, and flew in last minute from San Francisco to join us in St Kitts.
We then had a couple of chilled days down on the pretty south peninsula (snorkelling and
catching fish at White House Bay, Ballast Bay, Bug’s Hole and Major’s Bay). Before we left we
spent a couple of hours diving on the hull to clean off the 3 inches of barnacles and slime from the
brackish waters of Simpson Bay Lagoon in Sint Maarten - there was virtually an entire
ecosystem hanging to the bottom, and we sped up by nearly 2 knots after we’d finished! Yikes!!
So, after final errands ashore (which earned Adrian the nickname of "Quartermaster" for
stocking up with enough drinks mixers to last us until Australia!), the three of us left St Kitts on the
overnight sail to the BVI's. It was very calm and mellow, but absolutely stunning: there wasn’t
much wind so we put the spinnaker up for the first time since the ARC, and kept it up for 22 hours
straight! We had a gorgeous sunset, with the island of Saba in the distance, and enjoyed one of
those 'special moments' as we watched the sun slowly sinking into a rare blood-red sea, offset
against the sound of Pink Floyd playing in the background.
The next morning on approach to the British Virgin Islands (known universally as the BVI's) We
were inspired to launch the dinghy from the deck 'in transit' (ie while doing 5 knots under
spinnaker!), we manhandled the outboard on, and Quintin become mobile photographer,
snapping 90 shots of Skardu under chute and blue skies while zipping all about in the dinghy!!!
Got a bit close to the bow for one shot, but great fun, and it was worth it - we finally have a couple
more good sailing shots for the website!
That evening we duly made our rendezvous with our next set of guests at the Pusser's Pub (of
Navy Rum fame, hence a suitable starting point...!) in Road Town, Tortola: Jim Sciutto, hot from
covering world news in the Middle East, his girlfriend Gloria Riviera from New York City... and
(unexpectedly!) Q’s brother Tristan. This reunion had been planned for some months, with not
one but FOUR birthdays to celebrate in March… Jim was suitably stunned to see his old High
School friend Adrian so out of context, and all were welcomed aboard with the requisite rum
punches!
Well, Tristan certainly is impressive. When Q called home the previous day from Basseterre,
Tristan unexpectedly answered, and asked simply "Where are you, and where are you
headed?" Then on hearing the answer, said spontaneously "Great, I'll see you tomorrow". And
he did!! He had just finished his latest 3 month mission with the army, got online, booked his ticket
at 2am, and was on his way to the airport from London at 6am. Never fails to go the extra mile! It
was excellent to see him again so suddenly.
It's clear why the BVI's are such a yacht charter destination - protected waters, calm seas, easy
day-sailing between beautiful anchorages, white sandy beaches and turquoise seas, good
snorkelling, and a sprinkling of fun beach bars to unwind in. It's definitely a place we'll return to in
future years for a charter sailing holiday with a bunch of friends.
It was great to see old friends again, and with such a good crowd onboard we had a lot of fun
sailing between islands, mixing potent rum punches and Brunito’s (Mark’s version of a mojito,
the Cuban rum cocktail with mint), cooking up dinners onboard, then heading ashore to explore
the local beach bar... With birthday’s to celebrate we somehow managed to devastate our rum
supply (amply stockpiled, we thought, for the months ahead in the Pacific) during a series of
lively evenings (inevitably followed by suitably fresh hang-overs!). One on particularly
entertaining evening at the legendary ‘Foxy’s Bar’ on Joost Van Dyke Island, we rather took
over the place, and Gloria nicknamed the Skardu crew “The Storm-Troopers of Lurve” in
honour of our efforts…
Along the way we also bumped into "Pink Lady", "Mr Blue" and "Satika" – all friendly yachts
from the ARC, and had a few drinks with all. We even managed to ‘misplace’ our dinghy for a
couple of hours rather late one evening while aboard “Mr Blue”, eventually finding it gently
lapping upon the adjacent shore, some way from our anchorage!
Only one mishap that week - on the Tuesday we went to explore "The Baths" on Virgin Gorda –
an infamously picturesque spot. Arriving by early light before the hordes of other yachts, we
swam ashore to one cove, then tried to climb around the rocks to the next bay. The Baths are
known for their giant granite boulders (once suspended in now-eroded lava) and we ended up
on a rather challenging bouldering expedition! Probably not the most sensible, given there was
no path or route to follow, but we pressed on anyway, foolishly sending Tristan out front to blaze
the trail... long story short it became a little more hazardous, involving some rather large jumps:
first Jim cut his knee open on landing, then Q took one giant leap too far and twisted his ankle
over. Bad news, as he was atop a high boulder with no easy way down! With assistance Q
slowly made it to flat ground, but was subsequently handicapped by a hop-along injury for some
weeks: not the best preparation for a long offshore passage! When we finally got to the next
beach there was a sign saying "No access from this beach (via rocks)"!!! We know why!
Undaunted, the team went exploring further afield, finding gorgeous isolated rocks pools set
amongst the huge boulders, and then playing a spot of ‘coconut’ rugby on the powder-white
sandy beach. After a bit of icing, Q even joined in for some American football with the airborne
coconut! Great days in a great place.
Sadly, those with jobs amongst us had to return to them all too soon: we dropped Adrian off at the
airport Wednesday, and Jim & Gloria departed Thursday for a couple of days alone on a nearby
island. It was such fun to have old friends onboard, but it didn’t seem long enough. Tristan on the
other hand had a one-week return flight to London booked, but the pressure was building to
kidnap him and set off for Columbia…
