There goes the neighborhood
We were sitting on L'ORIENT enjoying a nice sunset here in Gustavia Harbor, St. Barths when our zen was interrupted by of all things, a red signal fare. For those of you who don't sail a lot, pyrotechnics at sunset might sound like good fun.........unless the boat you're on has all sorts of flammable fabrics and fuel on it. To our surprise, the culprit (let's call him yellowbeard to give you a visual) was sailing a zig-zag course through the harbor's paying guests, blowing some kind of plastic horn and yelling incoherently. Let's give him an "A" for multi-tasking and an "F" for sanity.
But in our neighborhood, the bar is pretty high to be noticed. Just ahead of us is "the Rasta". His boat is festooned with streamers (clearly the monks of Nepal were engaged for the exterior design work). It's only about 28 ft and doesn't look seaworthy enough to travel very far. The Rasta plays the drums at all hours of the day and oh, yeah.......doesn't have a bathroom. Ask me how I know. I'll put it delicately by noting that he was doing yoga poses off the stern of his boat. Nice.
Then there's the mysterious SV Skylark. In this case, the "S" stands for "Sinking". We chose our anchoring spot (it's really crowded here) because this old derelict boat looked uninhabited and thus probably wouldn't be moving around too much. To our shock, despite no masts, a smashed in pilothouse, rigging and rope in heaps on the deck and visible patches of rust, barnacles and shoddy repairs to the hull...........yes, you guessed it.........Skylark is inhabited, at least at night. A half-deflated dinghy pulls up after the sun goes down.
So, what's up with Gustavia, you ask ? Has the real estate crash really turned once proud St. Barths into a Caribbean Baltimore ? Not at all. It seems that we've stumbled onto the youth of France's solution to lack of affordable housing in nice places they want to lounge/work/whatever.......they live virtually cost free beside the wealthy on derelict boats and there's little the harbormaster can do. Seagoing Freegans.
Anyway, I personally love that they're here. They add spice to a place that needs some variety. More to come.
But in our neighborhood, the bar is pretty high to be noticed. Just ahead of us is "the Rasta". His boat is festooned with streamers (clearly the monks of Nepal were engaged for the exterior design work). It's only about 28 ft and doesn't look seaworthy enough to travel very far. The Rasta plays the drums at all hours of the day and oh, yeah.......doesn't have a bathroom. Ask me how I know. I'll put it delicately by noting that he was doing yoga poses off the stern of his boat. Nice.
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| HMS Rasta - Visitors, please tie dinghy at the side |
Then there's the mysterious SV Skylark. In this case, the "S" stands for "Sinking". We chose our anchoring spot (it's really crowded here) because this old derelict boat looked uninhabited and thus probably wouldn't be moving around too much. To our shock, despite no masts, a smashed in pilothouse, rigging and rope in heaps on the deck and visible patches of rust, barnacles and shoddy repairs to the hull...........yes, you guessed it.........Skylark is inhabited, at least at night. A half-deflated dinghy pulls up after the sun goes down.
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| S/V Skylark - Affordable 360 water view |
So, what's up with Gustavia, you ask ? Has the real estate crash really turned once proud St. Barths into a Caribbean Baltimore ? Not at all. It seems that we've stumbled onto the youth of France's solution to lack of affordable housing in nice places they want to lounge/work/whatever.......they live virtually cost free beside the wealthy on derelict boats and there's little the harbormaster can do. Seagoing Freegans.
Anyway, I personally love that they're here. They add spice to a place that needs some variety. More to come.