Dora has told you about the turtles we met on St Barths – they were truly amazing. We hadn’t originally planned to visit St Barths , not fancying anchorages packed full of super yachts and assuming it wouldn’t be quite our cup of tea, but we met a lovely couple in St Kitts who’d told us of the amazing turtles in Anse du Colombier. So off we went.
Superyacht with real yacht on deck. The yacht she is carrying is probably about our size!
Even before we met the turtles I was actually quite taken with the place, from our 3 hour pit stop in the capital, Gustavia. The port office were delightful and friendly. The supermarket wasn’t too hideously expensive by Caribbean standards – they even sold take away sushi! The showers ashore were clean and plentiful and there’s a great ice creamery. I had to ignore the Gucci, Hermes, Bulgari that line the dock. As does everyone else it seems, to my surprise!
Once checked in and stocked up we headed round the corner to Anse du Colombier where we spent a heavenly three days on a mooring. The turtles feeding feeding patch was about 20m away and we snorkelled above watching them feed and glide up and dive down, waving their little flippers at us. It was just enchanting I have to say and, for me, far more delightful than even the most colourful of fish.
Anse du Colombier from above. I’m sure you’re all v good at spotting us from on high now! That’s Ile Forchue in the background at St Martin in the far distance.
Other activities were limited to scrambles ashore across rocky paths to the nearby villages. There’s a lot of villas and boutique hotels, all exceptionally tasteful and lots of Chemin Privee and Access Interdit signs. The most prominent being at the entrance to a dilapidated 70s house originally built by the Rockerfelllers, but now abandoned. I’d have loved to sneak about but was scared of stumbling into an episode from The Night Manager. Love any further information on that one if you can find it….
No such signs for boats though and we felt very welcome both in Colombier and then in Ile Forchue, where we stopped off on our way out. Both quite reminiscent of Scotland. Or Greece perhaps. Apart from the glossy goats.
Next stop Anguilla
Ps. Thank you to Laura for update on the Rockefeller house. See comment below. She also sent this picture. The weird tower structure has gone and windows all blown out now but otherwise very recognisable.
Cherubino's Atlantic 
I think you should have gone full on ‘Night Manager’… it all sounds rather lovely.
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I’ve looked at photos online. What an amazing group of buildings. Apparently it was sold in 1983 to a developer to build 24 houses but he hasn’t yet got the permissions.
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Brilliant detective work, thank you! There’s planning permission signs up on every other building in Barts. Certainly Marue ‘La’ Peinture had an exceptionally smart van. Construction is booming. But I can see it would be outrageous to allow development on that peninsula. Hope it remains an intriguing movie set!
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I’ve looked up the house online. What an amazing set of buildings! Apparently it was sold in 1983 to a developer who wanted to build 24 houses but he hasn’t got the permissions yet.
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“You can go where Rockefellers walk with sticks or umberellas – putting on the Ritz !”
Wonderful to get news of the sunny south on a cold Sunday morning (NNW and 8C)-quite cheers one up.
xx Oma and Opa
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I read in an old article that the farmer who owned the road from the Rockefellers’ house to the road refused for a few decades to allow them access by car to their house, so despite their eye watering wealth they had to walk to their house, and they needed the farmer’s permission to do even that. Perhaps some of those older turtles that you swam with that might have been alive at the time would approve of having had local neighbours that were so independent minded and could not be bought off by wealthy outsiders.. Robert xx
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Oh how interesting. That would make sense. Thank you so much for all these intriguing details. I must engage you excellent researchers more often! X
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The yacht is called Le Grand Bleu and was owned by Abramovic until his lost it in a bet!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Grand_Bleu_(yacht).
The yacht you can see is in fact 73 ft and the power boat on the other side is 68 ft!
They have installed a new green water system that means that all waste water comes back into circulation.. I don’t want to think too much about that!!
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That’s the one! We got her name from AIS (for those unfamiliar, that’s the tracking system that many yachts including us have fitted. It means you can find out who an interesting looking boat sharing your anchorage is) but on this occasion I didn’t have time to find out more. Thanks to Helen for that and especially the green water system – that’s the kind of thing Tom and I like to discuss and ponder on long ocean passages.
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