Eating & drinking in St. Bart’s

On 11/29, we pulled anchor in Barbuda and headed for St. Bart’s following our new Salty Dawg friends on Aladdin. It was an uneventful motor sail. We anchored off Ft. Oscar in Gustavia upon arrival and went ashore to check in. They said they were too busy for us and asked us to return the next day but apparently we were permitted to have a drink at Le Select before returning to the boat. The next day was raining, for the first day in a long time besides brief squalls, but we went to clear in anyway. Had a really nice l’oeufs ala Blanche for brunch at Victoria’s and caught up on the blog for the first time in many days.

Got out the stand up paddle board again and took the dingy by myself for the first time, back into town. It’s not too hard ...you just need to know the process; three slow pulls, give it gas, one quick pull, set back on start, and pull like heck till it starts. We’re down to one pull now (from three or four) for the last stage. I just hope no dinghy thieves are reading my blog since they’ll now know the procedure!

Getting good use of the pressure cooker with one of my latest dishes being pork loin w/ apricots and pepper peach preserves for dinner. However, on Dec. 1st, we were surprised to run out of water and left all the dishes from that meal in the small galley sink. We were not permitted in the bay to refill because of 5-6 foot surges on the docks so we took the dingy into town for the Saturday flea market, where we found some delicious pastries, home made fruit juices and a hand-painted t-shirt for me, by Barbara. Joined up with the Aladdin crew at Shell Beach that afternoon, where we collected beautiful shells of all shapes, colors and sizes and enjoyed a fabulous lunch of fruites de mer and gazpacho at Sheldona. That evening, we had the Aladdin crew over for cocktails, despite the unclean galley, and luxuriated in some very tasty foie gras and mushroom Brie on baguettes.

The next day, we went on an expedition for dinghy fuel. Originally, we were told you needed to take your tank by taxi to the airport to fill it up. When we inquired with a taxi driver, he said he would do it for 50 Euro (more than $50). Not believing there wouldn’t be a better way, we inquired with the Port Authority and they said to go around the corner to the commercial dock and ring the bell on the wall next to the pump. Once at the appropriate dock, we found the only place to land the dinghy was on a cement dock that was lifting boats tied alongside, up and down by 4-5 feet with every wave. Once I managed to climb up on the cement dock, I found there was no way to get to the dock with the fuel tanks, other than walking around a fenced in area that appeared to go on for blocks, so we tried another precarious approach to an even more unforgiving cement dock. Finally, finding the intercom button, we were instructed to fill up our tank and wait for the attendant to pay. I still can’t believe there isn’t a better way!

Later that day, we went in to Gustavia to fill up on water despite the still relatively high surges. As Andrew smoothly brought the boat alongside the dock, it was my job to jump off on the catapulting cement dock again and stop all 21 tons of Billy Ruff’n by securing a line with no help from the shore. In case anyone is wondering how I get my exercise, you may be getting the picture! We got 400 liters of water no problem but leaving the dock wasn’t any easier. That evening, we rewarded ourselves with a fabulous dinner at Black Ginger, a Thai restaurant run by a chef that formerly worked at the hotel Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok. I had a wonderful Thai margarita and mahi mussaman curry while Andrew enjoyed a Mai Thai and Wahoo curry.

As someone commented in response to some of my pictures from this area, there’s nothing like eating, drinking and laying on the beach in St. Bart’s!