Our Boat Rocks
No, not in the blustery, materialistic way you might think. Our boat literally rocks..........all the time. Here in Port du Gustavia, St. Barths the wind direction and swell are such that the boat is constantly rolling back and forth.........walking, cooking, reading..........everything is effected. You learn to take a shower to the rhythm of the boat movement.........put down the bath gel on the wrong beat and soap-pocalypse.
We've tried to move L'ORIENT several times within the harbor looking for a protected spot. Once, we failed to notice our perfect anchoring spot was near a small orange buoy. Big mistake, as that small buoy held a big mooring for an even bigger trans-island ferry...........which came at night to claim it. An unfortunate wind change put us about 10 feet from each other. Since about half of the sailboats here don't use mast lights and there are unmarked rocks everywhere, we could only wait until morning and get the fenders ready.
Finally, we decided to deal with the roll and move further out, trading roll for not worrying about boat collisions. We've also rented a scooter and spend a lot of time going to all the different beaches. I'm still learning how to negotiate these hairpin turns but overall it's fun. A pretty good trade so far, although the wisdom of having a 2 hp outboard is starting to come into question. Anyway, on to terra firma and our morning pastry.
We've tried to move L'ORIENT several times within the harbor looking for a protected spot. Once, we failed to notice our perfect anchoring spot was near a small orange buoy. Big mistake, as that small buoy held a big mooring for an even bigger trans-island ferry...........which came at night to claim it. An unfortunate wind change put us about 10 feet from each other. Since about half of the sailboats here don't use mast lights and there are unmarked rocks everywhere, we could only wait until morning and get the fenders ready.
Finally, we decided to deal with the roll and move further out, trading roll for not worrying about boat collisions. We've also rented a scooter and spend a lot of time going to all the different beaches. I'm still learning how to negotiate these hairpin turns but overall it's fun. A pretty good trade so far, although the wisdom of having a 2 hp outboard is starting to come into question. Anyway, on to terra firma and our morning pastry.