8 Feb 2013

[Cruise News] Gustavia, St Barth's

We sailed from Nonsuch Bay to Barbuda yesterday - 6 hours of pleasant conditions to arrive in time for a late lunch.  Along the way we saw our first whale of this season which was a big treat for Jon and Hannah (who was sadly feeling a bit seasick).  Barbuda is a very low island and so we only saw it when we were getting quite close.  Only 1500 people live here in one small town called Codrington, named after the English family who rented the island back in the 1700 and 1800s for the price of a fatted sheep!  Apparently, despite it being in slave times, the family were well liked and very fair so the name of the town hasn't been changed.

Barbuda is famous for its pinky-white beaches (mile after mile of them) and also its Frigate bird colony.  We visited Codrington by water taxi (it lies the other side of a large lagoon) and it found it a very simple and unsophisticated place but very friendly.  Afterwards we went to see the Frigate bird colony - some 20,000 birds all nesting in the mangroves in the lagoon - an incredible sight and pretty noisy too.  Sadly it rained during the visit and despite being in the tropics, we all got very wet and cold, but could see the funny side of it.
After a night at anchor in Low Bay we made an early start this morning for St Barth's.  Not a lot of wind so a fair bit of motoring needed to allow us to get here in reasonable time.