Author: kerrizane

March 26th – 31st, 2014 (-4 on UTC) (Same as New York on Daylight Savings time)

Dear F&F,
After sailing by our \”competition\” from St. Kitt\’s, arriving at the French island of St. Barth\’s was wild and entertaining. We saw several \”mega yachts\” sailing around looking like they were practicing for a race. Indeed they were! The outer anchorages were packed, no moorings available and the inside of the main harbor at Gustavia was about as close to off limits as it could have been except for dinghies. We did manage to find a spot to drop the hook between five privately moored boats in Anse de Corossol. Calm and close enough to be able to dinghy into the harbor. The dinghy docks were well past capacity and Nikki and I found a secret spot by one of the waterfront cafe\’s which we used on all our trips ashore.

Unbeknownst to us, we had arrived just before the start of the three day \”St. Barth\’s Bucket Regatta\”.
To see some really cool short video of these boats under sail and learn more about what a \”Bucket Regatta\” is.

Sailing Video link: http://vimeo.com/91319608
St. Barth\’s Bucket Regatta link: http://www.bucketregattas.com/index.html

The video of the boats under sail is absolutely worth the few minutes.

The \”Bucket\” as it\’s known locally is a three day extravaganza for the most elite sailing vessels on the planet! There were 38 boats (invitation only!) ranging from about 90 feet to 220 feet! The \”gold plater\’s\” were at the low end around 6++ million USD and the high end around 50++ million USD! I estimated the fleet\’s worth at about half a billion USD! These yachts are incredibly fast and incredibly powerful. If things go wrong aboard, stuff breaks, it\’s a real problem. The crews ranged from around 15-25 on each boat. It takes that many people to just move things around (like sails) on these boats. We met a young guy from Boston who told us, \”I\’m paid to ask no questions and move heavy objects\”. That about summed it up for the need of most of the crew.

Imagine boats where if a smudge appears, someone is there within a few minutes to make it disappear. This is the Rockerfeller & Vanderbilt\’s of old – \’type financing\’. The co-founder of Netscape – Jim Clark was aboard his gold plater as were many of the owners. Most of the crews don\’t know who the owners are but if they do, they\’re sworn to secrecy. The security that follows this group is just another part of the spectacle.

We rented a Quad ATV and drove up to the overlook to watch the start of the first day\’s racing. The boats are started in a reversed staggered order by their sailing handicaps. This prevents 200,000 pound boats smashing into each other on a crowded start line. The courses were varied and mostly used the small islets around St. Barth\’s as marks of the course. A few years ago, the largest boat in the fleet (218 feet), \”Hetairos\” hit one of these islets and it\’s 20,000 pound break away keel feel to the bottom. They were lucky the boat didn\’t capsize! This year would not be an exception either. \”Seahawk\”, the 197 foot Peri Navi brushed a rock while apparently trying to take a tight corner – or so we heard. Apparently, no major disasters which is a really good thing.

As these races go, the concept is to show them off, but not necessarily make a big deal out of who wins….yeah right! These guys have former America\’s Cup sailors as hired guns to go as fast as possible. Paul Cayard of America\’s Cup fame was aboard \”Hetairos\” this year.

Our Quad ATV was fun too and we enjoyed doing a self tour of the island; chasing many of the \”gold platers\” around and watching them bunch up as they got closer to the finish line.

We ran into old friends Richard Spindler and Dona de Mallorca of sailing magazine \”Latitude 38\” out of San Francisco. We knew they were in the area, but they saw us and dinghied by. We went to a modern art photography gallery event with them and Richard told us that Jimmy Buffet was in town for the regatta and would do a free concert on the wharf. For those of you who don\’t know the musician, author and general troubadour to sailor\’s and adventurer\’s everywhere – Jimmy Buffet is an American Icon. Jimmy is and has been for the last 25+ years, consistently in the top 15 grossing concert artists in the USA. He finally got a number one hit a few years ago, \”It\’s 5 O\’Clock Somewhere\” with Alan Jackson. Well Nikki and I thought that was really a cool thing that he was going to play and we went early. He did indeed appear and did a 45 minute set with a local band. I\’m not sure he ever played with this band before, but they seemed to breeze along through Jimmy\’s greatest hits without much difficulty.

Cindy and I always wondered if we\’d ever come across Jimmy Buffet while sailing vast distances across the world with the Caribbean (his stomping grounds being the most likely place). Here he was, the man himself in St. Barth\’s. Nikki and I enjoyed the brief concert and drank a toast to Cindy\’s spirit – that she could see him too. Jimmy apparently has a house here overlooking the harbor and was rumored to be on one of the big boats on the race.

We had a lovely meal at \”Maya\’s\” just outside the harbor. Maya, a local gal from Martinique and her American ex-pat husband Randy own it. Very nice, very pricey! St. Barth\’s seems to be all about the privilege of spending more money than the next guy….) It\’s the most expensive (of the expensive) places we\’ve yet been too in the Caribbean.

I will say, the people\’s attitudes with only one exception (stay away from the bakery near the post office!) was better than all the previous French Islands of the Caribbean. Very high end stores are here like Cartier, La Perla, Louis Vutton and more. Though the prices were very high, the food and service were very good. The mega yachts were paying between 500-800 USD per night for the privilege of dropping an anchor and tying up to the dock at their sterns. This did not include the diving services they had to help set and move their anchors. This was exciting to watch and if you were around; quickly shooed off. At least we only had to pay 30 USD/night to anchor outside the harbor. This was a first – paying to anchor OUTSIDE the harbor.

Despite the costs – the sights, the spectacle, the town of Gustavia and the ambience made this perhaps our favorite stop of the season to date.

KIT,
Scott and Nikki (Currently in Puerto Rico!)

March 20th March 23rd 2014 (-4 on UTC)

Dear F&F,
The sail from Jolly Harbour, Antigua to the north end of Montserrat was remarkable. With full main and genoa set, we averaged 9.3 knots, it took less than 2 1/2 hours.

Antigua and Montserrat were geologically linked in their distant past as the water depth between the islands was only 100 ft. most of the way. This made the sea swell pretty steep and choppy. Moreover, cooking poached eggs on toast was a bit sloppy in the galley for Nikki. We could see Soufriere Hills Volcano (yet ANOTHER Soufriere) still smoking from it\’s last major eruptions in 2008 and 2010. From Antigua, on any clear day, you could see the steam on top of the volcano quite clearly. As we sailed by, we saw the site of the original airport on the southeast coast which is now under 20 feet of volcanic ash having been completely buried in the 1997 eruption.

We dropped the mainsail at the north tip of the island, rounding the headland and entered Little Bay, the now new capitol and main port of Montserrat. This is one of the few places anchoring is allowed as the southern 2/3rds of the island is an exclusion zone. We didn\’t know why people were excluded as the volcano has not erupted in 4 years, but we found out the reason on our tour. The sulfuric acid rain that falls from the smoke can be hazardous to your health. But I\’m jumping ahead!

The entrance to Little Bay reminded us of the approach to the scenic bay (James Bay),at St. Helena when we crossed the Southern Atlantic Ocean last season. Like St. Helena, this island too is a British Overseas Territory. We had a bit of the anchoring blues as it took awhile to find the ideal spot away from the offshore reefs and out of the ferry channel – which was unmarked. There were between 4 and 15 boats here during our three day stay. We dinghied in to the wharf; the check in proved fairly painless (once we found an island official). We then went off to explore on foot the newly constructed Polynesian style huts overlooking the bay. We found reasonable internet and a decent Sauvingon Blanc at Monty\’s Bar. The government is trying to build a marina and set up a tourist industry here as quickly as feasible to lure back the cruise ships that once frequently visited Plymouth.

Monty is a British ex-pat who after sailing most of the seven seas courtesy of the Royal Navy, decided to settle into \”civy life\” and buy a beach bar somewhere. He had originally looked at Asia for his business but got lured back here by the friendliness of the locals and what he said was very low crime as well (but more on this later). He wanted to get in on the ground floor and the chance to buy something new and build up it\’s reputation. He had a marvelous oil painting of an old Thames dock master on his wall. I wonder if Captain John Prentice (long deceased) ever knew his portrait would end up looking over the lovely Caribbean turquoise ocean, I think he would of liked that! While we were admiring the deco and local artefact\’s, Scott was doing his get to know the locals\’ pitch and I found him later negotiating a deal for a tour of the now defunct main town (Plymouth) by way of a recommendation by a local ex-pat Canadian girl who had a house further south of the bay.

Our guide wouldn\’t be available for two days so we decided to do a dive at the bay just north of Little Bay – Rendezvous Bay – where there was a mooring on a nice dive site. The dinghy ride was short and it was calm and easy diving. We saw a coral banded shrimp, a box fish, a puffer fish and an invasive species – a Lion Fish. These were inadvertently introduced by either an aquarium that was destroyed in a hurricane in the Caribbean or released by a bored private aquarium owner. Stories abound!

The next morning we came ashore and were promptly met by Winston, our recommended tour guide for the day. It turned out Winston was the former Vice Commander of the Montserrat police force and knew almost everyone and everything about the Island and it\’s unfortunate recent history. He was quite educated and very well spoken. He kept us enthralled with tales from the cruelty of the old slavery days to the recent volcanic eruption stories. Winston, as Vice Commander, was instrumental in advising and overseeing the complete evacuation of the southern part of the island. These eruptions started in 1995 and in 1997, 19 people were killed when they were lulled into returning to their homes against advice. During that eruption, the airport had to be abandoned as it received it\’s first coating of lava in a pyroclastic flow eruption. This is where the ash and gasses travel at over 100 miles/hour down the path of the eruption. Anything even near in the way, is literally – toast!

As part of his tour we got special day passes from the police station to go into the daytime exclusion zone. This started off with an overview of the old airport at Jack Boy Hill. Winston then took us through a grey lava valley which resembled a moon scape where previously the area had provided most of the fertile soil for local agriculture. Once self sufficient, sadly most of the fruits and vegetables are now imported to the island from Dominica. All local agriculture collapsed after the last major eruption. Sulphur from the aftermath of the eruption makes the soil subject to acid rain and intolerable for many years to cultivation of any kind.

Standing at the former, Montserrat Spring Hotel (which is destroyed), we could see the valley of lava, ash and mud that flowed down the southwest side of the volcano burying the once picturesque seaside capitol of Plymouth. It\’s estimated that the depth of the lava and ash is 20-40 feet in most places. An eerie site is the port\’s pier still standing, looking as if a big ship could tie up any moment; but to the reception of no one. The beach is now \”black sand\”, but very calm. We could smell the heavy scent of sulfur in the air which is why, at least to this point, entering Plymouth is not allowed. In the near hit zone of the eruption, houses and businesses stand in various states of decay. A notable feature is the heavy corrosion of anything iron from the mild sulfuric acid in the air. As this has been constant for almost 20 years, it has taken quite a toll on the structures that remain in the area.

Plymouth once had 8,000 residents, (12,000 on the island). Now the entire island has only between 3,500 and 5,000 people depending on whose opinion you get. After our viewing of Plymouth, we went to another former luxury resort where the \”lahore\” (volcanic mud flows) added several hundred yards of land and filled in Old Road Bay. We next went up to the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (closed on the weekend when we were there) where scientists from all over the world come to view and study the volcano. The type of lava \”andestic\”, from the volcano is a heavy mass type that is more destructive than other types of lava. To see more on this volcano and it\’s recent eruptions go to: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soufriere_Hills.

Another point of interest on Montserrat is that it is the winter vacation residence of Sir George Martin, former producer for the Beatles. Sir George set up a state of the art recording studio – The Air Montserrat Studios adjacent to his home – Olveston House. It was very active in the 1970\’s – 1989. Artists came from all over the world for the scenic beauty, the isolation and the complete absents of \”paparazzi\”. It was destroyed in 1989 by Hurricane Hugo (poor Montserrat)! The insurance policy wouldn\’t pay for it\’s restoration and Sir George decided not to rebuild it. A veritable list of who\’s who in the Music world recorded here. A partial list is: Sting, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Sheena Easton, America and of course….Jimmy Buffet! Jimmy Buffet actually recorded his album \”Volcano\” here with the title song being prescient. A few years later, the volcano blew!

The one major artist from Montserrat was \”Arrow\”. He recorded his one and only hit – \”Hot, Hot, Hot\” at the Air Montserrat Studio. Arrow passed away a few years ago after a battle with cancer, but he is THE national hero of Montserrat. We visited Sir George\’s estate which is used as a restaurant when he\’s not in residence. It was a lovely plantation style, not over the top in anyway and quite authentic to the early days of the Caribbean.

After our tour, we went back to Monty\’s Bar where we discovered Monty was not in today as he was mugged the night before! Monty had told us one of the reasons he finally settled on this island was there was almost no crime!….Welcome to Paradise.

Next…Nevis and St. Kitt\’s then on to St. Barth\’s!
KIT,
Scott and Nikki