St Barts / NYE.

While we were in St Maarten we were at a bit of a loss on where to
spend NYE. Without doubt the locals we spoke to and other yachties
all
said that St Bart was not to be missed. Such was the draw here that
we were told that the harbour in St Bart was FULL!, and some boats
were anchored almost a mile out!

Bugger it, we went anyway!

It had been blowing quite hard for a good week ( they call them the
Christmas winds!) so when we made a run for St Barts we had a good
25 knots on the nose and big lumpy seas, in all it was quite a lousy
sail but we got there in one piece, and nothing broke.

Next challenge was finding somewhere to anchor!, Arriving it felt
like there were boats anchored in the middle of the Caribbean sea
they were so far out. BUT this was all the Super / Mega / Ultra
yachts. Little small Reverie would be able to squeeze in much
further to find a spot.

Well this was a little harder than we planned. There are areas in
the Harbour which are NO Anchoring as it is the commercial ships
"road" into the Harbour. Everywhere within the Port was locked with
boats. We did notice that there were a lot of boats anchored in the
"No Anchoring " area so we thought we will move if they ask us to
and dropped the hook on the edge of the channel in a not too obvious
spot. Seemed to work ok as no one said anything!

On the way in we passed lots of HUGE boats. James Packer's boat
"Artic" no oil painting, but big all the same. Larry Ellison's
430ft Rising Sun was also there. In total there were 430 boats in
the Harbour, there would have been over 100 over 100ft, and maybe 50
over 200ft. Many of these were in the Med and also in St Maarten
only a few days before, where they all left and came over to St
Bart.

One boat is so big it has a 90ft Tender ( Dinghy - our's is 10ft)
and the Tender has a tender! Mad!. Many of the big sailing yachts
there were fully crewed for the NYE's "Around St Bart" Regatta so
there was a real boating buzz around town. Drinking wine in the many
cafes, strutting around in the latest fashion and looking nautical
was the go.

With all this commotion, boats, bands, celebrities and stars in
town, the
businesses had a field day. We thought that it would be great to
have some Sushi on NYE. There are some fab restaurants in town most
were booked out. One we went to were having the standard NYE set
menu. We walked up the hill where it was located.

Reverie: Do you have any vacancy for dinner this evening?

Sushi Restaurant: Yes we have two tables remaining, we have a set
menu for the night which is 430 Euros per person.

Reverie: Great, thanks..

and moving right along and out the door....

At that point we re-thought our plans and settled for a gourmet meal
on the boat where we would actually have a much better view of the
town and the fireworks.

It ended up being a perfect night. The fireworks were in front of
us
upwards at about 45 degrees so we have a great view, and the harbour
was a spectacular sight being lit up with the lights from all the
big boats.

Over the next few days we watched the slow departure of many of the
boats as they headed out, back to cruising or to their base in St
Maarten. We stayed for 5 days, walked a lot, shopped too much, swam
in the crystal clear water before heading back to St Maarten to
continue our provisioning and Reverie "make it right" projects.

The trip back to St Maarten was a nice smooth downwind sail with a
few small squalls.

J&J