Friday, May 14, 2010
The winds howled through the bay in the morning and when we departed for Gustavia we felt the heavy Atlantic swell. At Gustavia we wanted to get rid of our garbage and get some provisions (cheeses and bread) for the crossing to Antigua and arrange the trip so that we were to arrive in English Harbour after dark. It took us a lot longer to get going than I expected and I read in the day’s weather report at the Capitainerie that today was Beaufort 5-6 and tomorrow would be 4-5 so we decided to spend one more day in St. Barths before hopping across the 100+ mile leg to Antigua.
On the way in we noticed two more TRANSAT boats coming around the headland and as they had an entourage we assumed (correctly) that they were the last entries coming in. They were incredibly fast and we were barely at the anchorage at Gustavia in time to greet them as they entered. The French certainly treat their sailors as heroes and they had a fitting welcome home. On the down side of the race, we put out a long scope on our dinghy at the dinghy dock and our engine cowling put marks on the hull of the race boat next to it and we found a sign on our engine, the red safety key removed and an somewhat irate sailor upon our return. He wanted us to clean up the damage and we headed out to Zanshin I to get our implements of cleaning (Acetone, denatured alcohol, rubbing compound, gel coat wax) and made short order of our clean-up.
Upon return to Colombier we went snorkelling and I was finally able to work up the courage to take my ostensibly waterproof new camera into the water. Fortunately, it was a waterproof as the manufacturer’s claims and I’ve attached some pictures of the underwater creatures we saw to prove it. Björn saw a shark on the excursion but by the time he was able to draw my attention to it the shark had departed for parts unknown.
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