A surprise in Statia

We spent one more comfortable night in well protected Oyster Pond before heading out on Sunday to alleviate our loneliness in the colorful city of Marigot on St. Martin’s north side. We dropped our anchor in Marigot’s beautiful bay (N18 04.035 W63 05.645) and dinghied in to check things out. It was Sunday evening, though, and the city was looking a little more like a ghost town. We visited the ruins of the fort high above the city and found lots of locals there for a perfect sunset view…and once again we had forgotten our camera. Monday morning we scampered back up to the fort to take pictures, window shopped, and checked out of St. Martin before sailing south to St. Bart’s.

It was yet another great sail to St. Barthelemy (better known as St. Barts) and we anchored outside of Gustavia harbor (N17 54.045 W62 51.375) with enough time for a grocery shopping trip before dinner. When we were here with the catamaran, we were moored nicely within the harbor, we were surprised with the amount of rolling going on outside of the harbor, so on Tuesday after a pastry run, we headed a few miles north to the beautiful anchorage at Anse du Columbier and picked up a mooring at (N17 55.520 W62 52.260). It is really neat to be anchored right in the city of Gustavia, but Reinhart and I really prefer the setting of Columbier with its isolated beach and crystal clear dark turquoise water; and with a decent dinghy engine, you can motor into Gustavia anytime you want a more metropolitan existence. There was plenty to do with swimming, snorkeling, and a hiking trail to the town of Flamands on the north side of the island, and we ended up spending two nights moored securely in the bay while the winds kicked-up outside.

We decided to sail south on Thursday, dropped by Gustavia to check out with the friendly harbormaster and turned south to the island of St. Eustatius, better know as Statia. We hadn’t heard too much about Statia, and most folks we knew were passing it by for St. Christopher, better known as St. Kitts and Nevis. It’s a surprise anyone finds their way around the Caribbean with all of the nicknames! Our friends on Aurora had heard we might like the hiking trails on Statia, and that was what steered us in her direction. Statia is quite striking as you sail past with the 2000’ perfectly shaped volcano looming above; however, when we first dropped anchor in Statia’s port of Oranjestad (N17 28.810 W62 59.295) we felt like we had made a mistake. There were just 5 other pleasure craft in the anchorage, the waterfront seemed desolate except for the tugboats at the town jetty, and there were 5 oil tankers anchored way off the island, waiting to visit the refinery and pipeline located a few miles north. We actually found out that most of this “lower” section of town was a simple waterfront park and the stairs to “upper” town were located down the street…already things were looking up as we climbed what seemed like ancient stairs bringing us to the town of Oranjestad, located on a the cliff 150’ above the water. “Downtown” Oranjestad is made up of narrow tightly packed winding lanes surrounded by tiny Victorian cottages and historic ruins with beautiful gardens. Everything is extremely clean and meticulously maintained. I feel like it rivals Gustavia in beauty, although it is pretty in a simpler, sleepier way, or maybe it is just because it is so remarkably clean.

On Friday we donned sneakers and socks (such a strange feeling) for a hike up to the rim of the Volcano and down into the dormant crater. We walked through the not so charming, but far more realistic, side of town to the national park. The hike was fabulous with lots of unusual plant and animal life. The hike from the crater rim up to a high point along the rim was the most challenging hike I’ve been on, and it was quite a balancing act to climb these volcanic rocks to the summit. We hiked down the steep crater from there into a cool damp jungle of strange trees, huge vines, and moss covered rocks; swooping birds and eerie cries accompanying our decent. We hiked back to town, exhausted, but not too tired to find an ice cream shop! We took land-showers using wasteful amounts of water at the park office and headed back to Maia for dinner. We had lots of entertainment in the harbor as many of the town’s commercial boats packed the dock to bring crew members home for the weekend, and we decided that maybe we find Statia so charming because it reminds us of the ports in Alaska. Our Saturday was spent reading and rain collecting in the morning, and snorkeling with the abundant and exquisite tropical fish that reside in the old Oranjestad under our hull. Sunday we will point our bow to Saba (no nickname). We originally had no intention of visiting the tiny island of Saba, but we’ve heard great things about the hiking there and don’t want to pass up such a wonderful opportunity so close by. We’ll be making our way back to St. Martin after that and within the week we’ll be making our 850 nm leap to Bermuda, and cooler weather!