Arrived in Gustavia capital of St Barts (Barthélemy)

I took over from Rowan just after 4am and watched a brilliant sunrise. Passing so many islands in the distance, just twinkling lights. St Barts appeared in the distance, it is a tiny island, only 25square kms and population less than 10 thousand. Rowan was back up at 7am and I went for another quick snooze. It wasn’t long before we had arrived at Gustavia the capital of St Barts. Rowan had luckily registered PolePole in Holland as well, perfectly legit, we just needed to take down the Union Jack and put the Dutch flag up. St Barts is currently open to EU boats and as Captain Rowan is on an EU (Irish ) passport we could enter! We were a little anxious about my British passport but it all worked out and they didn’t question a thing. Rowan hadn’t filled out a form for me which drew even more attention to my passport but it was obviously fine. Most of the Custom houses only allow the Captain in to check in, which is lucky as I’m sure I would be looking suspiciously anxious.

Our anchorage out in the bay.

The place is full of boats, so crowded and sophisticated compared to what we have experienced in the last few months. Bizarrely we have only seen white faces, not a local to be seen. It is very upmarket shopping with all the high end designer shops on the street. We found a lovely cafe overlooking the harbour and sat down and watched the world go by, while eating the most delicious poached eggs on avocado brown bread. Mainly French people around, all looking extremely glamorous in their Sunday best.

Heading into Customs and town.

Back in the land of gin palaces.

Our breakfast spot where we spent a couple of hours.

Lovely streets with a few old buildings, very upmarket compared to anywhere we have been so far.

The colour of the water is wonderful, and we have seen quite a few turtles already.

We finally found the supermarket but it was closed. We really only needed bread and fortuitously we found a bakery open who had delicious bread and croissants. We returned to PolePole at our anchorage far away from the crowds, very happy to be here but tired. It was a lazy afternoon reading the Sunday papers, with me desperately trying to catch up on the blog. We are back on our EU phone package.

Early to bed after Rowan cooking up a storm on the BBQ. The freezer needs defrosting so we decided to have a clear out.