Our airport hotel was about as good as we could expect, a bit gloomy, but our room was clean and the bed enormous. Our flight back was at 10am, our little charter company had a lounge for us and 20 mins before departure we were escorted to the plane - what bliss to be swept through security. This time we were the only two on the plane. We flew in straight over PolePole, a relief to see her bobbing happily down on the water. A dramatic landing over the biggest traffic junction on the island. All very smooth and customs delighted to see us back, and no questions about our compelling reason to be back in France!
Things were going way too smoothly, our taxi was waiting and we were soon back at the harbour masters dock where we had left JeldiJeldi for the night. We had a very good provision shop at the supermarket before heading back to PolePole, some delicious looking French cheeses and cold meats, plus Rowan never misses a chance to stock up on rum these days. Actually one bottle was for the young French lot on their rust bucket who were looking out for PolePole overnight. They were thrilled with their bottle. We reckon staying on their rusty old boat is a cheap way for them to come on holiday here, with no anchorage fees.
We didn’t want to hang about here as the swell was pretty uncomfortable. We decided to head to Ile Fourchue for the night, an uninhabited island belonging to St Barts, before moving on to either Sint Maarten or USVI tomorrow. Poor Rowan had to pop back and check us out with the harbour master, the joys of being the Captain!
It only took us about 20 minutes to get to Ile Fourchue, we had to make water so we didn’t even get the sails up. There were 3 other boats on mooring balls, including another Cat identical to us. Although the island is privately owned it is a marine reserve all the way around. It was good to see the Frenchies all obeying the law for once, all on balls rather than anchoring (unlike at the Tobago Cays - most probably because the balls are free here, in the Tobago Cays where they were $15 a night). They are trying to reestablish the sea grass for the turtles. We were very happy to see plenty of turtles about in the bay.
Getting onto the ball went very well compared to last time thank goodness. We were all settled by 3pm and went for a long snorkel to cool off. Saw a couple of rays, turtles and some bigger fish. The coral was not great but quite a variety of fish. The island was apparently over run with goats who ate everything, finally eating the prickly cactus, until they were starving to death. The last few were rescued a few years ago and the vegetation is beginning to recover. A lovely peaceful, calm night with amazing stars.
Amazing rock formations just sticking out of the sea.
Leaving St Barts and Colombier beach.
Ile Fourchue
Barren land recovering after being savaged by goats.
Our twin Cat and the area we went snorkelling in.
Whew, even I felt tense reading the blog! Hope the plans for BVI go smoothly.