The next leg of our trip took us from Barbuda up to St. Barts, another pretty full day of sailing. Once again, Frisha went into fish-killing mode. This time, however, we hooked a nice big mahi-mahi/dorado/dolphin fish. As WW tried to haul it in, however, the leader broke at the lure and it made its getaway. Nothing daunted, a new lure was attached and the hunt continued.
A little over halfway to St. Barts, another strike! This time, WW took the gaff hook and managed to wrestle a new, even larger dorado aboard.
The one that didn't get away, incoming.
Gaffing dinner aboard.
WW guesstimates this fishy at about 15 pounds.
We spent the night anchored off Gustavia, St. Barts. The fish had been cleaned and cut into enormous pieces that could barely be squashed into the fridge. WW delivered one chunk of fish to a Grenadian Rastaman floating in his nearby boat…and very grateful he was for it. I immediately began the process of turning the enormous head into a fumet. Astonishingly, it was fish for dinner.
A very big fish head for a very big fumet.
On the morrow, we headed in to Gustavia for a little potter about. There is an absolutely fabulous bakery there which we visited and from which we purchased some of the best bread the Caribbean has on offer. Then we returned to Django and went to our favourite mooring place, Ile Fourche, north of St. Barts. Dinner was...fish.
The wind was getting pretty wild by this time. We love this sheltered little bay, but it had a hard time on this occasion with winds gusting up to 30 knots all night long. It moaned and howled and caused poor Django to pull back and forth on her mooring lines.
Next day, we headed off to St. Martin, a short distance north, but decided to go into Tintamarre, a little island off its east coast. A lovely spot with a shallow bay, beautiful small white-sand beach and moorings tucked into its north side.
We dined (on curried chicken, thank heaven) there as we had decided to spend the night. A mistake. The wind continued to howl and moan and built the seas up on the south side of the island, from whence they spread to either end and wrapped around to meet in the middle on the north side…right where we were. Before we hustled away in the morning, Frisha and Whit went out in the kayaks to explore the reef on the west end of the island. While they were away, WW and I watched four sea turtles noodle around our boat.
Once crew and craft were back aboard, we set off along the north coast of St. Martin to Anse Marcel. A narrow sinuous channel leads from the bay into a marina. It is so narrow that boats must sound airhorns to warn boats coming from the other end of their presence. At the marina, we were able to clear in, buy ice and refill our water tanks. Then we moved a few miles along the coast to the epicurean centre of the island: Grand Case.
Sunset at Grand Case.
[Timestamped photos are kindness of Frisha.]
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