Christmas 2014 Trip Report--YACHTS!

We have gone to SXM several times at Heineken Regatta in March, and we THOUGHT at Regatta that there were a lot of yachts around. We were wrong. There were a LOT of yachts around between Christmas and New Year’s. My GOODNESS, there was a lot of money out there in Simpson Bay!!

These two beauties—





were hanging together for most of our 10 days. They would anchor close together, sometimes sail off in the direction of St. Barts for a day or so, and then head back. I think one was called Martha Ann. The other one, I thought was called Envy, but maybe not..



This one, we only saw once and I didn’t have the long lens on my camera and didn’t get a decent shot of it. I would love to know what the name of it is.



This is Athena, supposedly one of the largest sailing yachts in the world





Seeing all these beauties made taking pictures of the regular cruise ships going by kind of old hat.









I never did catch the name of this one, which hung out in Simpson Bay during most of our stay, finally disappearing around December 30, we assumed for St. Barts, with the rest of the beautiful people..





This one is technically a cruise ship, but of a bit of a different color, only holding about 110 passengers, with almost a 1 to 1 ratio of crew to passengers....





Not quite in the class of some of the others, but some of the smaller yachts were pretty neat also. This one I think is made by Azimut and it was just [color:"red"] SWEET!! [/color]




AND these were kind of neat also..

[img]http://www.info-res.com/ehill/ttol/bsvdec2014/cheers46.jpg[/img]


[img]http://www.info-res.com/ehill/ttol/bsvdec2014/telfort.jpg[/img]


In the 'large' cateogry, this one was really jazzy..



[img]http://www.info-res.com/ehill/ttol/bsvdec2014/alfanero.jpg[/img]

I think my favorite though was Solandge, so if I had an extra $1M a week (plus expenses!! ) <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />, I’d charter her, if I were you.

[img]http://www.info-res.com/ehill/ttol/bsvdec2014/solandge1.jpg[/img]

This one was called Seawolf… .

[img]http://www.info-res.com/ehill/ttol/bsvdec2014/seawolf.jpg[/img]


I was amazed at how it looked like they always anchored so close together, but I expect they were much further apart than they looked to me..


[img]http://www.info-res.com/ehill/ttol/bsvdec2014/seawolfsolandgeandalfanero.jpg[/img]
Seawolf, Solandge and Alfa Nero

I would have thought that they would have wanted to be further apart from each other, but I guess I probably won’t have the opportunity to try it out myself..


And finally, I don’t have any idea which boat this is, but I liked this picture..

[img]http://www.info-res.com/ehill/ttol/bsvdec2014/cool.jpg[/img]


Happy sailing, folks! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Tikotiko.gif" alt="" />

Gorgeous, Carol.

We saw what I think was the Seawolf when we were there and we laughed. Doesn't everyone have a super yacht to carry their sailboat from place to place?

Thank you so much for sharing these......... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

Wonderful shots Carol! Seawolf, Solange and Alfa Nero are close together because they are partying! They just swim back and forth for drinks! You must have spent lots of time dreaming of owning one of those yachts!
They were all arriving when we were there in early December and were really fun to watch. I imagine many more have arrived since then.

Great photos Carol, but you missed us!

The long and skinny boat was Steve Jobs', now owned by his widow and family. The Venus is a 250+ ft. Feadship, and unlike nearly every other yacht in the world, it is run with Mac products. Very stark design indeed.

The Sea Wolf was a 200 ft. tug and converted to what is known as an Expedition Yacht. Beautiful lines!

Picture 3 is Steve jobs yacht, not sure if they still own it

Very nice photo spread Carol! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" /> I'm snooping around the SXM forum to try to educate myself a bit. We've never been to SXM, considering it for early spring just my wife and I. Keep posting those photo's!!!!

Nice.

Did you leave the TTOL yacht down there for us to use during Regatta?

Yep, she still has it. Along with $12B or so....

Great pics, Carol. Can't you get Eric a part time job taking care of their computers on a couple of those beauties? ...And none of them are your clients? Thanks again for the pics.

Carol, thanks for sharing your pictures. We go to SXM for Christmas and I still cannot ever get enough of looking at all beautiful yachts. Masterpieces.

Gorgeous!

This is another shot we got of the Jobs yacht last year...she came through the drawbridge and was at a berth inside the lagoon.

[img]http://[image]http://i185.photobucket.com/...-A266-148B245909D5_zps5bjeebpq.jpg[/img][/image]

Norm--huhm, there's a good idea! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

I decided the TTOL yacht was Solange.... Just running a BIT short on the rental for Regatta.. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

I was really surprised how many more there were than at Heineken..

Beerman--thanks! Let me know if you have any questions, would be happy to help! For a sailing guy, the time to go would be Heineken Regatta!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

No fair, you told me you were in St. Barts while we were there!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/impatient.gif" alt="" />

OK, thanks for the name of the Venus! I thought that the Seawolf looked like it used to be a tug.

Elizabeth--those people SWIMMING in SALT WATER?? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> Perish the thought!!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Carol we came back in on the 30th for a night to drop off the kids. Mom, dad and crew went back to St. Barth early the next morning. Amazing the docks were empty inside the lagoon.

Here's an action shot of us sailing.

Pretty much everyone was gone out in Simpson Bay by then too!

Nice photos Carol. Yachts in warmth.

SXM??? Wendell

Hey Wendell. It was nice seeing all of them.

Nice pics, Carol. We see many of these same yachts every year at Xmas/New Years. Judge Judy usually has a yacht there this time of year as well I believe.

This is the first time we have been down at this time of year for a LONG time, so they were new to us. What is Judge Judy's boat's name?

I believe it is now "Triumphant Lady". See photo here. http://media.365project.org/1/2681105_anosz34789_l.jpg

Great photos,,,,one of the reasons I love Sxm is all the yachts,,,
Btw there were approx 170 yachts anchored off St.Barts on NYs eve!

Wow. Words fail!!! 170!!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />

Picture of Triumphant Lady picture

Don't think I saw her in SXM..

Great pix's Carol.

Louise--thanks. Got more coming, when I get them done..

It is the best water to swim in Carol. The rich and famous know that. It is so good for the skin! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" />

OK, if you say so. I seriously doubt I will ever be either rich or famous, so will have to take your word for it! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Love seeing the yachts. Great pictures Carol. Can't wait to see more.

Great pictures, Carol! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" /> We too find the super yachts a great show when we're there in April, although they're starting to leave then. Dick has fun identifying them - owner, designer, builder, etc! One year we forgot the binoculars - uh oh! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

The binoculars are a must! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Smile.gif" alt="" /> Although a few of them we didn't identify until we came home and blew the pictures up.

Great shots!

Great pics..we will be there on Sunday and every morning we have bkfst on the deck and see which ships are in and who left during the night. I use a live web site : Marinetraffic.com which gives the names and itinerary of the ship(and pics)...

We also keep a list of all the ships and a lot are repeats from prior years. I'm surprised Sherakhan wasn't there...it's always there for our January visits...

Re: anchored close together...when we look at them from the 5th floor of the SBR upper B bldg. they do look right next to each other.....but when we then go for a walk on Simpson Bay Beach they are not close at all...different angles.

I knew there was a website like that, but didn't bother to go looking for it. We were just trying to figure it out the old fashioned way. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Smile.gif" alt="" /> Although I'm sure with all those boats out there, it would have been interesting to see!

Great pictures. My eyes popped out when I saw the Sea Dream. My wife and I took a 8 day cruise on the Sea Dream several years ago. Spectacular. And we highly recommend. We cruised by Simpson bay on that trip but never stopped...we just waived

Thanks. I would love to take a cruise on her, that's for sure!

I think the Sea Dream is privately owned now and has been converted into a private yacht. We have seen it anchored for days in the waters there.

Sea Dream Yacht Club website

If the Triumphant Lady is owned by Judge Judy then she must have sold Her Honor. That use to be the 168' Lady Sheridan which carried more people. There is a new even bigger Lady Sheridan and has the same captain who I know.

That is correct. According to the internet, Judge Judy bought Her Honor in 2009, so I guess she got tired of that one already-- rough life!

That is what I thought, Georgia. Thanks for the link. It looks interesting.

Just looked at the AIS site - Sherakhan is there now!

Great post, fun pics!

Sherakhan usually docks behind the Palapa center...if I remember I'll look tomorrow to see if she's in

The actual count of boats off of St Barth for New Years was 331. That probably included small sailboats as well as megayachts. From Le Weekly, the St Barth English-language newspaper:

"Then on December 31, for the New Year’s Eve celebrations, no less than 331 boats were moored in the harbor,including a small cruise ship on the buoy used by oil tankers. Plus nine boats at the commercial dock in Public."

Carol, Beautiful collection of yacht photos. Thank you for sharing. I am in search of a quality set of binoculars to purchase and take with me to SXM this year. Do you, or any other or any other TTOL folks have any recommendations?

We were dining at Il Netunno Wednesday, saw a magnificent cat anchored, maybe that site will inform me! Beautiful white curtains billowing in the breeze, very BIG!