Champagne & Skinny Bridges: St. Barths and St. Maarten
There is no place like St. Barths. It is the sand-kissed, sun-bleached European capital of the Caribbean: jeroboams of champagne, crepes and croissants, luxury shopping, mega-yachts with helicopter landing pads.
When we anchored, the superyacht next to us, (which happens to be owned by Jan Khoum, founder of WhatsApp), called us to say they thought we were a little close. We weren’t, so we kindly stayed put. At 4am, they called us again and said they had “spent all night using their bow thrusters to stay away from us.” Hmmm, this didn’t ring true, but not wanting to cause any trouble, we picked up our anchor and moved a bit further away. Later in the day, another sailboat came and anchored where we were. Again, the superyacht called them and asked them to move. We couldn’t figure it out until the next day when matching tenders (launched from the support vessel to the superyacht) created a boundary by circling the area; then, the helicopter showed up to land on the bow. Under normal circumstances, none of us were too close, but when the helicopter comes and goes, they don’t want our masts nearby. Duh - we just weren’t thinking in superyacht terms!
For one week we enjoyed all the delicious food, some snorkeling and free-diving, trying out a Sea-Bob, beach days, shopping for matching mom and daughter outfits and even a few date nights.
Getting to St. Maarten, another hub of yachts, kid boats and European groceries and culture, was an easy day sail. While there, we did some major fixes on the boat (an air conditioning unit, a watermaker, new freezer, rigging…it’s never ending).
The only thing about St. Maarten is that to get into the marina, you have to go through a tiny drawbridge. It looks like we won’t fit and it was beyond nerve wracking. Hannah stood on port bow, Russ on Starboard bow and Gus at the widest part of the beam. They all called distances as I steered the boat through the bridge. It was a skinny fit, with only 3 meters of space on either side of us, and even that sounds like waaaay more than it felt or looked.
The most stressful part is lining up and waiting for the bridge to open. As with most dockings, in the moment I am concentrating so hard I don’t have time to think about what could go wrong. It’s before and after that I replay it over in my head and can feel my heartrate rise every time; my palms are sweaty as I write this. But we made it through, and in fact, because we needed to do a sea trial for some new rigging, we went through the drawbridge another three times during our stay. There was nothing like that first time, with the spectators eating and drinking at the St. Maarten Yacht Club right at foot of the bridge, and hearing their cheers for me and Girl Power as I drove through.
Once at the marina, I celebrated our entrance while celebrating Kirke’s 40th birthday with some other sailing moms at the Red Piano. We were in St. Maarten several weeks and overlapped with our friends Lisa and Rich from Annapolis, who were there for vacation. We enjoyed drinks and several meals with them and they even helped us shift to a new marina slip.
The kids went ziplining, we had happy hour at Buccaneers on the beach with the boat families, watched the planes land overhead so close they blow sand into your face, and Rosie hosted an epic girls’ sleepover with all five of them somehow fitting into the guest room for a sleep-less night! Also in St. Maarten was our friend Maciek’s birthday and his lovely, Italian wife Christina made millefeuille. The kids played or swam or both every day and we even attended an outdoor cruiser’s church service one Sunday morning led by the family on SV Koinonia (some of you may get that coincidental name).
Overall, between the fancy times in St. Barths and the repairs in St. Maarten, these were some very expensive weeks! It was fun while it lasted but it’s time to get back to anchor in the British Virgin Islands where we can swim and explore for “free”.
