As you enter the well-marked harbor of Gustavia, there are boats anchored on both sides leaving the large channel clear in the middle towards the commercial docks and splitting off to the right towards downtown. A pretty beach is on the port side and as we entered a group of small sailboats were out for a class…with many tipping over in the heavy wind. Hearty souls going out in that kind of wind in little boats! The anchorages on each side were very packed -many boats at anchor - some with two anchors out and some on moorings (private and municipal). We tried to find a spot closer to town on the starboard side of the channel - and tried one spot dropping our anchor - but with the breeze and heavy seas, we didn't feel comfortable as we were quite close to another boat and couldn't put out enough rode. So we pulled up the anchor and went to the port side of the port to see if there was anything there. We found a spot but quite far from town and it was very roll-ey. Boats were rocking and pitching with waves coming from all directions. We dropped the anchor and learned another lesson - as we let out more chain, we got to the rope sooner than we expected. So we let out all our chain and a fair amount of string (rope). We were sitting in 30 feet of water, it was really windy and we had seas, so that was a good thing.
We loaded the dinghy and headed to shore (unfortunately forgot the camera). We went by the mooring field close to town (looked like a boat parking lot with the boats neatly lined up very close together), the docks (actual sea walls) with the huge vessels tied stern to the sea wall and bow on a mooring ball. There was one very large, sleek navy blue sailboat on the wall. Its British flag was larger than our entire boat! It's a very busy, packed harbor - but the conditions were not very smooth on this day.
We went to Capitainerie to check in. All the guide books say that this place has "casual" check-in and that's putting it mildly. We filled out the paperwork. They never even looked at the passports or boat papers or our clearing out papers from St. Martins. They asked how many nights we would stay in Gustavia and we said none - that we would head back to Colombier. The cost - zero! We loved that. If you stay in the harbor you have to pay a fee for each night. Of course, we got no paperwork back saying we checked in - so things are quite lax.
We roamed around the town a bit. Gustavia, originally called Carenage, was re-named after the King of Sweden Gustav III, The tiny streets are filled with clothing stores, boutiques, jewelry stores, perfumeries etc. All catering to well moneyed folk. A few bars and restaurants were around. We found a boulangerie and picked up some chocolate croissants and salads for lunch (we'd take them back to the boat.) We headed back and got on board Astarte, pulled up the miles of anchor rode and chain and sailed out of Gustavia. We have to come back to clear out, and may stay a night if the weather calms.
We got back to Colombier and re-tied to a mooring - this time closer to shore. This anchorage filled up last night - mostly catamarans - seven cats and four monohulls. It was quite entertaining watching the boats come in and pick up the moorings. One charter boat would toss the line down on the mooring, trying to lasso it - a new technique that had a large failure rate!
It was a very windy and rainy night - we had to keep getting up to close hatches and re-open them. This tropical wave has made it quite humid - so the boat is warm. Today (Wednesday), we'll take another hike on shore.
WoW - waiting on weather!
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