St. Barths People, And The Beauty Above And Below The Water

Our vacation here on beautiful St. Barth is winding down now after a quiet and relaxing time spent on this beautiful island. We came back to St. Barth to show our support for the island, which was hit hard by hurricane Irma. It was a quiet week with less tourists than we usually see so I'm glad we returned to a place we love to show our solidarity with the people here. They appreciate our visit and told us so. For me in particular, this is my home away from home. A really nice second scuba dive of the day is the shallows North of Les Gros Islets, just inside the marine park closest to the mouth of Gustavia harbor. The area, which I have heard referred to as "The Aquarium," usually has great visibility and is rich in corals and teeming with life. Schools of tangs regularly swim by as you slowly make your way around the colorful reef. It's a relaxing way to off-gas excess nitrogen after a deeper first dive of the day.

St. Barths Dining Out And Scuba Diving

On Friday morning Emmanuel of Serial Divers took me and two other divers on quite an exhilarating first dive in 2 meter seas to Roche Roubes, a small wave-battered island that barely breaks the surface a good distance off of Morne Rouge and Grand Fond, which are located on the rugged and rocky north east coast of the island. This was the first time I've visited this unique dive site, which features underwater rock overhangs, the presence of sharks and game fish such as Tarpon, and a unique underwater swim-through tunnel. Friday evening we drove to the village of Corossol to have dinner at Au Regal, a French-Creole restaurant with sports decor that is popular with locals.

Enjoying St. Barth's

Well, the problems we had earlier in the week here on St. Barts have been resolved, and the large sailing vessels are beginning to be seen in Gustavia harbor in anticipation of next week's regatta. We've enjoyed several wonderful meals at some of our favorite St. Barts restaurants. We had a knockout meal at Les Banniers one night. The lobster fricassee, Thai shrimp salad, sea bass and desserts were all to die for. We also enjoyed a fine bottle of reasonably priced Malbec from Argentina. Banniers is a treasure. On Thursday we enjoyed lunch at La Langouse in Flammands, one of our all time favorite restaurants here. The airport seems like its getting back with flights arriving over the hill once again, apparently sans the crosswinds that we had when we came in over the bay on Tradewind. I have a video of that approach, really interesting. My diving is most enjoyable, and I've logged five dives so far. Here are a few more land and undersea photos!