Day Four

After a quick breakfast, Kaylynn, Alyssa, and Jimi took the dinghy ashore for a short hike up the hill. It was hot at first, but cooled down nicely once they climbed over the ridge that surrounds the harbor. There were great views both over to the windward side of the island and back down into the harbor. They took lots of pictures. Jimi had one of the 2-way radios in his pocket. It got wet while beaching the dingy and stopped working – after that we carried them in zip lock bags.

After breakfast we moved the boat down to Gustavia – the capital of St. Barts. It was an easy motor sail down but on arrival there was much confusion over were they wanted us to dock.

We finally tied up to the starboard side of the guest docks near immigration. We cleared immigration and customs into St. Barts and filled our water tanks (but we were not able to hook up to shore power because there was something wrong with their outlets at the docks). The port authority told us we didn't need to switch to stern-to docking. This saved us some work but we did beat up our bumpers all night. It was noisy for sleeping, especially on the starboard side.

There was a nice little grocery store a short walk from the boat and we made a number of trips for various missing items – including Red Bull for Tracy. Patti made very nice tuna steaks for dinner. The adults took the opportunity to go to a local bar for a rum punch. Great fun.

Gustavia was a great port for groceries, restaurants, bars, and just about anything. The shops, however, were expensive – lots of designer clothes, jewelery, watches and the like. It was one of the kid's favorite places though, especially because it had showers.