Our Great Adventure : Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (vs a day in the life of a sailor)

Anse de Columbie

After St.Martin we sailed a few miles over to the island of St. Barthelemy, another French island. We had only intended to spend a couple of days here but when some strong winds moved in we ended up spending closer to a week. We originally came to a small inlet called Anse de Columbie. A serene nature reserve full of sea turtles and with a lovely beach.

Anse de Columbie

After a few days at Columbie we sailed over to the capital of Gustavia. As you pull into the town of Gustavia you are greeted with a mini Champs-Élsées: Prada, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermes, Tiffany's, etc. etc. The town is full of very glamorous people sipping espressos and nibbling expensive treats. Now remember we wear clothing washed by hand, stained with motor oil and marked with sea salt - saying we stuck out like a sore thumb is a massive understatement! There was however, free public showers (maybe they can't stand anyone in their town to be dirty?) and free potable water - hurray! So despite the many looks we returned time and again for a shower and some water. The town even had our favourite grocery store from St. Martin "Super U" so we made the long walk to get some of our new favourites.

View of Gustavia Harbour

On our last visit to the dock in Gustavia we encountered a small problem. We had locked our dingy to the dock with our shiny new rustproof lock and cable we purchased in Puerto Rico. When we returned to the dock with our grocery bags full of food our key got stuck in the lock! Neither of us could get the key in far enough to turn the lock nor get the key out. James thought the best plan was to turn the lock upside down and lean on the key as hard as he could and before I could stop him the key snapped off. It was almost sunset, most shops close in the afternoons, we were WAY to far from the boat to swim back and out of curiosity we had looked online at what hotels were like in the area and there was NO way we were affording a night in a hotel there. Just as I was envisioning us

camping out in our dingy overnight, we both remembered walking past a moped repair shop. We speed walked back and the doors were open! We begged the use of a hand saw from a surly Rasta and came back to the dingy. We cut through the "impenetrable" cable in about 1.5 minutes and no one questioned what we were doing - makes us wonder what's the point locking it to begin with?!? Thank god we found that mechanic otherwise we might still be sleeping on the dock!

We sailed the boat back to the little bay of Anse de Columbie and since we were waiting on weather we decided to explore. We had read about a hike into the next small town of Flamandes. After we clambered to the top of the point overlooking the beach there appeared to be only one path, which we followed. Turns out this was the long way! We spent hours walking up and down very steep hills before reaching the town. The hike was supposed to be less than an hour.

Flamandes beach

Once in Flamandes we found the beach and it was one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen.! The water is crystal clear with every shade of blue and green and the beach is miles of white powder. It was lovely, quiet and unpopulated and for only €800/night you can get the "basic" room at the local hotel. After a nice long swim we began the arduous journey back. We knew there had to be another way - we found some other hikers who pointed us in the right direction. There was a small "path" skirting the edge of the cliff and sure enough within 40mins we were back to our little beach!